Summer Beach Reads

by Thayer, Nancy

  The party was a crush. Food and drinks were set out in the living room and kitchen and even out on the porch, where some of the die-hard smokers sneaked out and stayed out in the cold to talk. Carley leaned against the dining room buffet, chatting with anyone who squeezed through the crowd to get to the eggnog.

  “Delicious, isn’t it?” Beth Boxer asked. Beth was part of their general mommy group, a humorless woman, but a careful, loving mother. Beth wore a green silk dress completely unsuited for her olive skin, Carley noticed. Beth needed a fashion makeover. Actually, a personality makeover would help, too.

  Carley licked her lips. “Yum. I always drink way too much of it, but it’s the only time of year Lauren makes it.”

  “Don’t drink too much,” Beth cautioned. “If you gain a pound, you won’t be able to fit in that dress anymore.”

  From anyone else, this would be funny, but Carley caught the undertone of bitchiness. Before she could reply, Beth lobster-pinched Carley’s arm.

  “Look! Maud and Toby!” She was squinty-eyed with malicious glee.

  “I think Lauren invited Vanessa, too,” Carley told her.

  “What fun!” Beth snickered. “Maybe we’ll get to watch some fireworks.”

  Carley couldn’t help it. “Beth, if you want a catfight I think you’re going to be disappointed. Maud and Toby are happy, and Vanessa’s happy, too.”

  “Oh?” Beth’s voice was suddenly sweet as sugar. “I’m so glad. So you’ve talked with Vanessa. Tell me, who’s the father of Vanessa’s baby?”

  Carley dropped her head back and laughed. “Truthfully? I have no idea.” She left the eggnog table to greet Maud and Toby.

  “Happy holidays,” she told Maud, kissing her cheek.

  “Carley, what a dress! You look fabulous.”

  “So do you. Come get some eggnog.”

  Maud linked arms with Carley as they headed back to the dining room. Toby joined some men near the bar for a proper drink. More and more people were crowding into the room, so Carley had to shout to be heard and strain to hear what anyone else said. Dreadful Beth had gone into another room. Carley swooped down on a platter of smoked salmon and fixed herself a small plate. She navigated to a corner with a group of feisty older women who’d gone as a group to Europe and regaled her with hysterical anecdotes.

  She felt a touch on her shoulder.

  “Hey.” Vanessa was there in a white dress that spread over her pregnancy, making her look like a sail in a full wind. “You missed our anticlimactic scene.” She wore her grandmother’s pearls. Her dark hair swooped up, showing off heavy pearl earrings and a swan’s neck. As ever, she looked amazing, even at seven months’ pregnant.

  “Tell me.” Carley took Vanessa’s hand and led her to some chairs in the corner.

  “Actually, I phoned Toby and Maud last night,” Vanessa confided. “They each were on a phone, so I told them I wanted to go to this party, and I didn’t want to create a scene or cause Lauren any discomfort, and besides, we all live on the island, so I wanted to be civilized.”

  “Good for you, Vanessa!”

  “Well, not so very good.” Vanessa chuckled. “Toby said fine, he would like to be civilized. Maud went all gooey. ‘Oh, Vanny, I want to be more than civilized, I want to be friends again, blah blah blah.’ I said, ‘Up your ass.’ ”

  Shocked, Carley said, “You didn’t.”

  “I did. It felt so good. Maud went completely silent. Then I said, ‘Anyway, now that I’m pregnant by a man with a penis long enough to get some sperm up inside me’—Toby’s penis was perfectly fine, I just needed to get a dig in—I’m happy and willing to live in peace. So when I see you two at the party, I’m going to be pleasant, okay?” She looked back through the hall to the living room. “I just got here. I stopped and said hello to Toby, who went red when he said hello. I nodded to Maud, who crinkled her eyes up the way she does and kissed my cheek.”

  “Beth Boxer must be so depressed. She was hoping for a catfight.”

  “I’m sure she wasn’t the only one.” Vanessa readjusted her bulk on the chair. “I never can get comfortable these days.”

  “I remember how that was. You’ve always got a little foot sticking up into your rib cage.”

  “More like a big head pressing on my bladder.” Vanessa chuckled, then held up her hand. “Don’t make me laugh.”

  “What are you doing for Christmas?”

  “Diane’s coming down from Boston. She’s never been on the island at Christmas, and she’s alone, too, so we’ll keep each other company and roast a turkey—and hit the sales after the twenty-fifth! Are you going down to your parents’?”

  “Yes. The girls can’t wait.”

  “What about your B&B?”

  “It will close for a few days, then I’ve got it booked for New Year’s Eve.”

  “New Year’s Eve.” Vanessa looked pensive. “Carley, do you ever think about other men?”

  Carley smoothed her dress over her thighs, hiding her face from Vanessa. “Oh, I guess, if I’m truthful—”

  “I need to sit down!” Rosy-cheeked and out of breath, Lauren threw herself into a chair next to Vanessa. “That’s it. No more high heels for me.” She kicked them off and rubbed her foot. “Women are so insane.”

  “This is a fabulous party, Lauren,” Carley told her friend.

  “Thanks. Secretly, I wish some people would leave. It’s too crowded, and it’s almost midnight.”

  Carley looked at her watch. “I had no idea it was so late.” She stood up.

  Lauren clutched her wrist. “Carley, don’t go! I didn’t mean you.”

  “I’ve got to get the girls home. Cisco has riding lessons tomorrow. She’ll be a bear if she doesn’t get eight hours of sleep.” Bending down, she kissed Vanessa and Lauren on the cheek. “Thanks, Lauren. See you.” She waggled her fingers at both her friends before slipping through the crowd toward the basement stairs.

  Cisco was playing Ping-Pong with Delphine. Margaret was on the sofa, watching a video with the other little kids, her eyes drooping.

  “Come on, love bug,” Carley said. “Time to go home.”

  Margaret was drowsy, almost limp. Carley called Cisco, hefted her little girl in her arms, and they went up the stairs and out to the mudroom where Cisco dug through coats and helped Carley get Margaret into her fluffy white fleece jacket and hat.

  At the house, she got Margaret mostly undressed before tucking her into bed. Cisco had climbed into bed with her clothes on and was snoring. Carley went into her own bedroom and stood for a moment looking at herself in the mirror. She really did look great in the dress. She hung it carefully on a padded hanger. She pulled on her comforting flannel pajamas. She brushed her hair and smoothed some moisturizer on her face. She was so tired, she almost didn’t hear the knock on the front door.

  Her heart thudded with alarm. She wiped her face, pulled her robe on over her pajamas, went down the stairs, and opened the door.

  Wyatt. Wearing khakis, a blue button-down shirt, and an old leather bomber jacket with fleece cuffs that made him look so sexy she almost keeled over. His brown hair obviously hadn’t been cut for weeks and curled over his ears and shirt collar. His skin was flushed with a healthy tan from a month outdoors, and his smile blazed.

  “Wyatt! You’re not due back for two days.”

  “I couldn’t wait. I flew back early. I’ve called you four or five times. You never answered your cell.”

  She stared at him, stunned. She couldn’t think. Her cell? She’d turned it off sometime in the afternoon and left it on her desk in her office when she went into party mode with her daughters.

  “Look. Can I come in? It’s cold out here. And I want to kiss you.”

  “Me, too.” Smiling, she held the door open.

  Wyatt stepped inside, shut the door, reached out, and drew Carley against him. He held her tight with both arms, stroking her hair, cupping her hip with one hand and her head with the other. She felt the rise and fall of his strong
chest against her cheek, the warm stir of his breath against the top of her head, the firm muscles of his back beneath her hands. They fit together perfectly.

  He took her face in both hands, tilted her head back, and kissed her for a long time.

  He pulled back, looked at her, and said, “Carley. God, I missed you.”

  She put her hands on his chest to steady herself. “I missed you, too.”

  He said, “Could we go upstairs?”

  She said, “Yes, please.”

  She cried when they made love.

  Wyatt raised himself up on his elbows. “Am I hurting you?”

  “No,” she assured him. “I’m just so happy. This is so … rich.”

  Afterward, she lay on her side, Wyatt against her, his arm curled around her waist, his hand resting on her abdomen.

  “That was nice,” he said.

  She laughed deep in her throat. “Nice.”

  “But that’s not all between us.” He tugged the down comforter up over her shoulder.

  “Yes, I know that.”

  “We have fun together doing other things. Things not in bed.” She pressed her back against his chest, loving the warmth. “That’s true.”

  “And I like your daughters.”

  Her heart stopped beating. Here it was, time for a decision. She wasn’t sure she was ready to make it.

  “I did a lot of thinking while I was hiking, Carley. I don’t want to move too fast for you. I don’t want to upset or confuse your daughters, but what would you think if you and I started openly dating?”

  Dating. The word lowered the volume on her anxiety. This would help the girls get used to Wyatt’s presence in their lives gradually.

  “I think it’s a good idea.” Thinking it through aloud, she said, “People in town will gossip. What about Annabel and Russell?”

  “They leave in three days for Guatemala,” Wyatt reminded her. “What do you think?”

  “They’re pretty overwhelmed with getting ready. I think it would kind of pressure them or even panic them to make them deal with this so close to their departure. Let’s wait until they’ve had some time in Guatemala. We can email them.” She cocked her head. “Or does that seem cowardly?”

  “No, it’s good.” Wyatt shifted, turning on his side, pressing against her. “What about Christmas?”

  “Christmas?”

  “I’d like to spend Christmas with you and your girls. I’d like to get your girls really nice presents.”

  “We always go to my parents’ for Christmas, Wyatt. It’s a family thing. We’ve made plans to go this year.”

  He was silent for a long while. He cleared this throat. He shifted on his back. “Okay. Well, a friend has invited me out to Hawaii for Christmas. I wasn’t planning to go. I was hoping to be with you.”

  “We’ll be home before New Year’s Eve,” Carley told him. She swiveled around, so that her head was on his arm, her hand on his chest. It was too soon to invite him to her parents’. Surely he must understand that. “Let’s have a little Christmas for the four of us before we go to my parents and you to Hawaii, okay?” She felt his chest rise and fall as he sighed deeply.

  “Okay.” He took her hand in his. “You know I’d like to sleep with you all night, Carley. I’d like to wake up and have breakfast with you and the girls. I’d like to live with you. But I’ll stick to your timeline.”

  “Oh, Wyatt, thank you for that.” She nuzzled against him, kissing the side of his neck, and soon they forgot all about words and Christmas and plans.

  37

  • • • • •

  In a flurry of lists, packing, good-bye parties, and last-minute visits to the pharmacy, Annabel and Russell left for Guatemala. Carley and the girls drove them to the airport and the small plane that would fly them to Boston for the first leg of the trip. They all kissed and hugged a thousand times. They waved and waved when the Winsteds’ flight taxied down the runway. It was a cloudy, windy day, but Carley and her girls stood outside looking up at the sky, watching the little plane ascend, head to Boston, and disappear.

  “Lexi, can you meet me for lunch?”

  “I’d love to, but I’ve got to keep the store open. Here’s an idea—can you stop by Annye’s and get some salads and sandwiches?”

  “Absolutely!”

  It cheered Carley, thinking of walking into Moon Shell Beach, but when she entered the store with her bags of food, she was surprised to see how stripped down it was.

  Lexi noticed her reaction. “End of season, honey. It’s worth keeping open until Christmas, because some people wander in looking for a present, but after the twenty-fifth, it’s dead here.” As she talked, she cleared a space on her counter for the food and gestured to a stool like the one she sat on.

  Carley hung her coat and shoulder bag on a hook in a changing room. She climbed up onto the stool. “What will you do when you’re closed?”

  “Tris and I are leaving right after Christmas for Bali.”

  “Bali!”

  “I love it there! The sun, the white-sand beaches, and the water is amazing. There are minerals in the sand that swirl, making these gorgeous free-form designs. I relax and get ideas for my shop. The silver work and the textiles—”

  Carley forced a perky look of interest as Lexi raved on, but inside she felt melancholy. When Lexi stopped to catch her breath, she asked, trying to sound casual, “How long will you be gone?”

  “Only three weeks. Back by the end of January. But then we’re taking off again in February, during school vacation. We’re taking Jewel to the Caribbean.”

  “Cool.”

  “Carley.” Lexi put down her salad and straightened on her stool. “This is a shit time for you. You lost your husband and started a new business. You’re raising two young children by yourself. You don’t exactly have the most helpful friends in the world, and I lump myself in with Maud and Vanessa. But we all have times like that. Things will get better.”

  Carley tore off a bit of bread and chewed it thoughtfully. “Annabel and Russell are gone. It’s the first time I’ve ever been on the island without them around.”

  “Do you feel a bit lost?”

  “Not lost, no.” Carley took a moment to consider her words. “But I’m beginning to think that, in a way, I’ve lived my life as if performing for Annabel and Russell. Certainly I kept their opinions in mind whenever I made a decision. Annabel was my role model. She was who I wanted to be.”

  “Annabel is charming.”

  “Yes. But more than that—I’m not sure how to express this. It was their conviction that the meaning of life resides within the home and family. I guess I just feel a bit daunted by this sudden change of theirs, this flight to Guatemala.” She shrugged. “The truth is, it’s kind of turned my world upside down.”

  “Carley, your world is already spinning like a snowball.”

  “Ha! You think?”

  “I think it’s great that your in-laws are gone. Good for them, first of all, and even better for you. This town is enough of a fishbowl without having your relatives watch your every move.”

  “That’s true.” Carley knew a crazy jack-o’-lantern grin was spreading all over her face. “Lexi, I want to tell you something. In fact, you’re the first I’m telling. Wyatt and I are, well, seeing each other.”

  Lexi squealed. “Oh, Carley!” She hugged Carley, jumping up and down like a schoolgirl. “Oh, I was hoping that would happen, I thought that would happen. Wyatt’s a truly good guy. When he looks at you, Carley, well, he seems absolutely smitten.”

  “We’re both smitten,” Carley admitted. “And I’m terrified.”

  “Of course you are. You’ve been on an emotional roller coaster. Don’t look so worried. Enjoy this honeymoon period. It seems we’re always rushing toward the next thing. Women think marriage means the happy ending, and believe me that’s not true.”

  “You’re right,” Carley agreed solemnly. “The thing is, Lexi …” She took a deep breath. “What if I’m
really in love with Wyatt?”

  “Savor every minute of it,” Lexi advised.

  38

  • • • • •

  Carley and the girls were going down to New York to her parents’ for Christmas, but Carley still put up a Christmas tree and decorations, still made sugar cookies shaped like snowmen and bells, still filled the house with the music of choir boys’ angelic voices and the triumph of trumpets. She wrapped the banister to the second floor in fresh greenery tied with red tartan bows and hung mistletoe everywhere. She probably always would, even when she was eighty years old.

  After the Christmas Stroll this weekend, no guests were booked for the B&B until New Year’s Eve, but to her surprise, a number of her summer guests sent her Christmas cards, wishing her happiness and good health and thanking her for making their vacation on the island extra-special. She even received a completely unexpected present from Melody, the woman she’d driven out to rescue in the middle of the night. Too curious to wait, Carley cheated and opened the package—a silver link bracelet from Tiffany’s! As Carley fastened it on her wrist, she thought: I helped that young woman. I provided safety, comfort, and even wise advice. A small sun of pride bloomed in her chest. She allowed herself a moment to feel it there, glowing.

  Several of the guests mentioned in their cards that they’d love to have the recipe for her cranberry muffins or blueberry tarts. I could put together a cookbook to sell, Carley thought. Maud could illustrate it! What a fun project to work on during the winter. By summer she could have it ready!

  The weekend of the Christmas Stroll the B&B was full. Three couples, friends from Connecticut, had come to enjoy the weekend and shop for presents. Carley prepared a delicious egg, cheese, cream, and veggie casserole for breakfast that she served with cinnamon coffee cake shaped like a wreath, decorated with cranberries and homemade green marzipan leaves. She set out bowls of candied walnuts and platters of decorated Christmas cookies—reindeer, Santa Clauses, bells, stars, snowmen, and Christmas trees—in the living room and in the middle of the kitchen table.