OLIVIA: Hey girl! Jen said you moved Andrea out of NYC today. Give me a call when you get the chance.
AMELIA: Hey, honey. I saw Jonathon at the work site today. He looked ... Rough. I just wanted to let you know. He isn’t doing so hot without you.
MILA: Hey babe! I just wanted to pass on some love to my other single girlfriend. The others don’t know how hard it is out here! But remember, men aren’t everything. That’s why we have each other.
Chapter Four
Camilla left the hospital the following morning at ten. She stepped into the blissful light of a glorious spring morning and lifted her cheeks to the horizon. In time, there would be beautiful days again; in time, she would know the sweeping waves of the ocean and the feel of the warm sand beneath her toes and the laughter of her dearest friends as they welcomed their favorite season. All things in time.
Camilla drove slowly back toward Edgartown. She was bleary-eyed, exhausted, and she wanted nothing to do with any kind of car accident, which would only make her life messier. Only a couple of months before, Amelia had gotten into a little accident — Amelia Taylor, of all people! The accident had resulted in a one-night stand and a subsequent pregnancy. How exciting. Camilla didn’t need excitement. Not anymore.
Camilla stopped at the Frosted Delights bakery en route back to Katama Rd. There, behind the counter, she found Jennifer Conrad. Her apron was stained with coffee grounds and donut frosting and crumbs from baked pies, but her face was luminescent and her smile was spectacular. She rushed around the counter and hugged Camilla warmly.
“You look like you just got back from war,” she commented, giving her girlfriend a once-over.
“I feel like I did,” Camilla admitted.
“Let me grab you a donut. No. Two donuts,” Jennifer said. “And some coffee?”
“No coffee. I need to sleep.”
“You promise me you’ll put yourself right to bed when you get home?” Jennifer asked as she slipped several donuts into a brown bag and adjusted them.
“If I can sleep, I will.”
“That isn’t good enough,” Jennifer said.
When Camilla returned to Katama Rd, she found Andrea and Olivia’s daughter, Chelsea, in the backyard. They sat beneath the sun in sundresses as their hair wafted in the springtime breeze. As Camilla stepped out from the back door, Chelsea and Andrea burst into laughter; the kind shared between intimate friends. Camilla and Olivia had always loved that their daughters were so close, although it often made them much too curious about what they spoke about without their mothers around. “That’s the way we were, you know? We kept things from our moms. It’s like, we created them, but they have this whole other world without us,” Olivia had said once, a thought that constantly rolled around Camilla’s brain.
“Hey girls,” Camilla said as she placed the bag of donuts on the table between them.
“Mom, hi. How was your shift?”
“Blah. I don’t want to talk about it.”
“I’m so glad to have Andy home!” Chelsea said brightly as she opened the bag of donuts and peered inside. “So glad Isaac let me have the day with you.”
“I know that I have a limited amount of time with you,” Andrea offered. “You and Xavier are headed off on an adventure, and I’ll be stuck here.”
Camilla’s stomach twisted. Andrea’s eyes flashed up toward her mother as she grimaced. “Although, of course, it’s really good to be home with Mom.”
Silence fell for a moment. Camilla hated this; she felt like some kind of sick child, someone everyone had to speak delicately around and about.
“Chelsea! You got your cast off,” Camilla finally said, grateful she thought of something beyond herself.
“Oh, yeah.” Chelsea rapped the side of her leg and grinned. “Xavier and I had a pretty good routine worked out at the diner, and we got loads of tips because of it. He suggested that I keep pretending to need the crutches so we can keep it up, but I got so tired of those things.”
“You took a really bad fall,” Andrea said, her eyes wide.
“Tell me about it. But honestly, it all worked out for the best. I don’t think me and Xav would have ever gotten together if he hadn’t done his Knight in Shining Armor thing. Saved me, nursed me back to health. All that jazz.” Chelsea chuckled as she tore off a bit of maple donut.
Camilla collapsed on the outdoor couch alongside Andrea. She grabbed her own donut but felt she was too tired to eat.
“I meant to ask you about that,” Andrea continued. “I need a job, quick. Is there anything at the diner?”
“Shoot. Unfortunately not. I just got Mandy a job,” Chelsea said. “I guess you probably heard about all of that?”
Andrea furrowed her brow and turned to look at Camilla. “Heard what?”
“Oh, my gosh. So much drama,” Chelsea said. “Mandy is a senior, right? And she found out she was pregnant but kept it a secret from her dad. Obviously, she told one person and one person only.”
“Amelia,” Andrea affirmed.
“Of course, but then, guess who has a one-night-stand and gets herself pregnant, almost immediately after that?” Chelsea continued.
“Also, Amelia?” Andrea asked.
“Exactly,” Chelsea affirmed.
“Mom! Why didn’t you tell me about this? You know that I want to be kept up to speed with all the Vineyard gossip while I’m away,” Andrea teased.
Camilla chuckled. “I wanted to tell you in-person. It all just happened. It’s been a whirlwind.”
“Amelia must be over the moon,” Andrea said. “A baby? At forty-one?”
“And she has a new boyfriend, too,” Chelsea added.
“No! What?”
“Yep. They were mortal enemies, and then they figured out they were just really into each other,” Chelsea continued.
“Oh, they weren’t enemies...” Camilla tried.
“She hated him! But then one night, she brought him into the diner, and I could see it—this spark between them. There was no way they would get through knowing each other without, you know...”
Camilla laughed outright. “Don’t be rude!”
“What? What do you mean? Tell me, Aunt Camilla, where do babies come from?” Chelsea batted her eyelashes and placed her fist beneath her chin, faking contemplation.
“Good grief,” Camilla returned. “You girls grew up way too fast. I remember when Olivia and I hardly had to run to keep up with you because you weren’t so good at walking yet.”
“Ah! Speaking of Mom, she said she wanted to stop by later,” Chelsea said. “Maybe order a pizza?”
Camilla’s heart warmed at the thought. “That sounds wonderful. I think I’ll take a nap. Wake me up when she gets here.”
Camilla removed her scrubs in her bedroom, drew on a large t-shirt, and then slipped herself between the sheets. Her eyes closed almost instantly, after some thirty-six hours of being awake, but the sleep seemed to last no time at all. She opened her eyes to find Andrea over her, her hand on her shoulder as she coaxed her awake.
“Hey! Mom! You told us to wake you up when Olivia got here.”
Camilla fell out of her haze of slumber. She rubbed her eyes and lifted herself up on a pillow and blinked at her daughter, who seemed all the more familiar, not like the worldly Brooklyn-girl she had discovered the day before.
“Are you feeling okay?” Andrea asked finally. “Chelsea mentioned that, um, the girls have been a little bit, um...”
Camilla arched an eyebrow.
“I don’t know. They’ve been worried about you,” Andrea finished.
“I’m totally fine, honey,” Camilla assured her. She cursed Chelsea for saying this. It wasn’t silly that she knew; news of Camilla’s depression assuredly had traveled fast, especially after that one particularly gruesome afternoon, when her sisters had discovered her in a heap in her bed, unable to move or clean or keep herself alive.
“Well, anyway. Olivia is here with pizzas,” Andrea continued. “Maybe we
can eat outside? It’s so beautiful today. I have to admit, I’m a bit happier to be on the Vineyard than I thought I would be. It’s certainly quieter. And this morning, early, Isaac and I went on a long walk along the beach.”
“Sounds romantic,” Camilla said as she slipped out from beneath the covers. From the bedside table, the clock screamed: 3:35 P.M. She’d been out for maybe four and a half hours. She would get more sleep that night.
“I missed him. I missed all of this.” Andrea stepped back as Camilla gathered herself in front of the closet and drew out a black dress, which she changed into without turning around. When she did turn, she grabbed a brush from the top of her cabinet and stretched it through her blonde tresses.
Back outside, Olivia and Chelsea had opened up several boxes of pizza and arranged plates, cups, cokes, and bottles of wine out across the table. Olivia beamed and wrapped her arms around Camilla. “There she is. You’ve been so elusive this week!”
“Me? Elusive? You’re the one trying to remodel an entire mansion.”
“I know. Anthony and I look at each other every day and ask, ‘What are we thinking?’ I mean, we want to open that place soon. But we might go crazy because of it,” Olivia continued as she slipped a slice of cheese onto her plate. “Luckily, school’s almost out, and I’ll be able to commit fully to the remodel.”
“You’re insane, Olivia,” Camilla teased.
“Chelsea reminds me that almost every day,” Olivia returned.
They began to eat. Camilla felt herself grow quiet as Andrea and Chelsea again monopolized the conversation.
“You have to tell me more about this Xavier guy,” Andrea demanded.
Chelsea’s eyes sparkled.
“I don’t know how much she’ll tell you with us around.” Olivia chuckled as she dotted a napkin across her lips.
“As if you ever tell me the gritty details of your time with Anthony,” Chelsea offered.
“You guys act more like roommates these days than mother and daughter,” Andrea said, her voice bright.
“Don’t remind her. She’s acting like a teenager,” Chelsea said as she playfully stuck her mother with her elbow.
After Camilla had forced down an entire slice of pizza, she brought her plate into the kitchen and scrubbed it overly long with piping hot water. The kitchen air was cool and soft and dark, and she was grateful for the reprieve from the sun.
Olivia stepped into the kitchen after her; she had several more slices of pizza on a plate, which she placed on the counter.
“I think you should have another slice,” she said.
Camilla rolled her eyes. “I might later. I just feel a little too tired to eat.”
Olivia lowered her teeth over her lip. After a pause, she said, “Andrea seems like she’s handling the news okay?”
“She was pretty broken up about it yesterday. We hardly talked on the drive back. But she acts so motivated like she can scrounge up the money herself.”
“But that tuition. It’s pretty hefty, isn’t it?” Olivia asked.
“It’s has a crazy price tag.”
“Probably not the kind of thing you can scrape together with a summer job?”
Camilla shook her head sadly.
“How the hell did he lose all that money?” Olivia demanded. “It all happened so quickly. I just can’t understand it.”
“I know. We had a plan,” Camilla whispered. “And even though it wasn’t the same between us the past year, I thought we would stick to the plan.”
“I remember you talked about it. That you guys lost something.”
“We didn’t have sex for almost an entire year,” Camilla whispered as her voice caught in her throat. “God, it’s so embarrassing to say that.”
Olivia placed her hand on Camilla’s shoulder. “It’s just life.”
“Andrea probably thinks I’m so pathetic.”
“Are you kidding me? You’re a nurse in the emergency room. You probably only slept ten hours total the past week. You’re literally a superhero.”
“I should have kept better track of what Jonathon was doing with our money. I should have been able to protect Andrea.”
Olivia heaved a sigh. “You trusted him. I trusted my ex, too. These men, I don’t know what goes on in their minds, but us women, we’re there to pick up the pieces when they go. It’s all we can do. And Camilla, I’m here. Your sisters are here. And Andrea and Chelsea are here too. Lucky for us, Chelsea is always here with an extra dose of sarcasm, too.”
Camilla chuckled in spite of everything. She dropped her chin on Olivia’s shoulder and let herself cry for just a few somber, horrible minutes. When she found release, she stepped back, wiped her face, gripped the crust of one of the pizza slices, and took a hearty bite.
“That’s my girl,” Olivia said. “Pizza can’t solve every problem, but it doesn’t hurt, either.”
Chapter Five
“Okay. This is what I’ve set up so far.” Andrea turned her laptop around on the counter for Camilla to see. “It’s lucky because tourist season means jobs, jobs, jobs. I figure it’s a numbers game. I’ll send out as many applications as I can and I’ll work one hundred hours a week if I have to.”
Camilla held her mug of coffee aloft as she blinked sorrowfully at the computer screen. Sure enough, Andrea had tabbed a number of positions, which ran the gamut of seasonal tourist jobs on Martha’s Vineyard.
“Why don’t you try to see if you can be a lifeguard again?” Camilla suggested as she took a sip of her coffee, which was terribly bitter. She’d forgotten to buy milk again.
“My certification ran out last year, unfortunately. That was the best job I ever had. Get paid to sit around in a swimsuit all the time? Will it ever be better than that?”
“I can say for sure, absolutely not,” Camilla said.
Andrea stepped toward the fridge, opened it, and hovered in the doorway. Camilla felt another stab of guilt. Andrea had been home for almost a week, and still, she hadn’t stocked up the fridge with any of Andrea’s favorites. There was enough there for the two of them to remain upright; that was about it.
“Why don’t you run to the store today?” Camilla leafed for her wallet, which lurked in the base of her purse. “I forgot to go yesterday, and I don’t mean for you to live on Fiber One cereal alone.” She splayed two twenties on the counter between them and shrugged. Then, she added a ten. “Maybe buy some wine for us for later?”
“Are you going to take a nap?” Andrea asked after she thanked her mother profusely and slipped the bills into her own wallet. “They kept you a lot later than normal this morning.”
“There was another accident,” Camilla reported. “Two tourist vehicles. Everyone lived, thank God, but it took a round of emergency surgery and a whole lot of blood.”
Andrea wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know how you do it.”
“Somebody has to.” Camilla took another harsh sip of coffee, then added, “But to answer your question, no. I don’t plan on napping. I’ve had close to five hours of sleep. I should be good to go, plus, Oliver is out of town, and Amelia needs someone to take her to the doctor.”
Andrea’s smile was bright as the sun. “Baby check-up!”
“She’s ecstatic. Between all her meetings, all she can do is send the group chat paint samples for the nursery. She nearly lost her mind the other day, though. Mint green? Can you imagine?”
“It’s crazy,” Andrea agreed.
THE GOOP THAT RAINED down on Amelia’s stomach made a funny squelch as it came out of the container. Amelia jumped slightly and said, “Wow, that’s cold,” then giggled to herself. She gave Camilla a nervous smile as the technician pressed the scanner against her stomach and flashed the image of Amelia’s bean-sized baby up on the screen.
“There it is.” Amelia’s eyes were suddenly wet. “I can’t believe it.”
The technician explained that so far, everything looked perfect and healthy. Amelia asked more than once if her age was going to be probl
ematic for the baby, and the technician told her that Amelia was a healthy and vibrant woman in her early forties. “We will closely monitor you, but there’s no reason this baby won’t be as healthy as any other,” she explained.
Needless to say, Amelia buzzed with excitement after the appointment. They walked from the office out toward the docks, where they each ordered soft-serve vanilla ice cream and sat on one of the benches that lined the boardwalk.
“I have to say. I do miss wine.” Amelia giggled as she licked up the dribbling cream from the sides of the cone. “But ice cream and an entire baby to call my own aren’t bad trade-offs.”
Camilla’s laugh was softer than she’d meant it to be. Amelia gave her a hard-edged look, then cleared her throat and said, “You’d tell me if there was something wrong, right?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Would you lie to me?”
Camilla dropped her head back so that her blonde hair swirled down her back.
“You would lie to me, I guess,” Amelia said with a sigh.
“I’m just not sure, especially with Andrea being home and her looking for jobs. I just have to get around to drawing up the divorce paperwork. And then —” She snapped her fingers. “It’s like someone came and cut Jonathon physically out of our lives. Andrea’s destroyed, but she refuses to speak with him. He stopped by and wanted to explain. But what the heck is there to say? He squandered all of Andrea’s money and some of our retirement money. I barely have enough to make the mortgage payments. And beyond that, I don’t even know when I’ll be able to retire now. I might be working till seventy, for god’s sakes. It’s a lot to take in.”
“Damn,” Amelia said, mostly to her ice cream cone. “What an asshole. Seriously.”
Camilla buzzed her lips. “I don’t even know how to feel about him. You know, I loved him. You were around when I met him. Then, we went off to college together, then moved back, and I just really thought he was my forever guy. But how much of forever can you possibly understand when you’re twenty-one years old?”
113 Katama Rd Page 3
