by Natalie Ann
“Right on the first try. I know you won’t say much, right?” Her parents and brothers were going to be thrilled, but they’d also start to jump in and give advice and suggestions on when or where she should move. She wanted to do this all on her own.
“My lips are sealed. When will it be public knowledge?” Emily asked.
“A few weeks or less. It gives me time to find a place of my own and start letting my patients know.”
“Those on the island will be thrilled,” Emily said.
“They will. Many still don’t like giving birth here, but I’m really pushing hard to get more advanced equipment. It’s better than it used to be, but we will never be equipped for any major emergency.”
“Which is no different than any other small town in the state. I look at it this way. There are plenty air lifted out of smaller rural locations in this state besides the island.”
“Exactly,” Ava said. “Anyway, so that is my news. Oh, I’m sure you heard another one bit the dust over Valentine’s Day.” That was two now in their family engaged of her generation. The green monster was starting to grow a little knowing Emily was getting some action too.
“Drew and Amanda?” Emily asked. “I did hear that. Helena has been burning up the hotlines. Amanda seems like a great person. Drew looks happy.”
“Drew is always happy,” she said. “So...will you be next?”
“Don’t even go there.”
“Ah, but you want birth control.”
“Which means I’m having sex.”
“Lots of sex?” Ava asked. “Come on. I’m in a dry spell and we are off the clock. You’re dressed again.”
Emily laughed. “More than I’ve had before, but it doesn’t seem to be enough either.”
“The best kind there is. So give me the scoop on him.” She needed something at this point to squash the urge to go home alone and watch another Hallmark movie with a tub of ice cream.
“Not much to say. You know how we met.”
“But you knew him before the fundraiser?” Ava asked.
“I did,” Emily said. “He delivers my mail. Everyone knows and I’m sure it’s the big talk of the family outside of Drew’s engagement and Hunter’s soon-to-be son arriving.”
“Don’t forget about Mac dating someone now too.” Just dating didn’t bother her as much as her cousins settling down and her wondering when she might have a shot at it. Being in Plymouth, she thought she’d have a better chance at meeting men and found that wasn’t the case.
“Is he really?” Emily asked. “Is it Kayla’s other roommate? Sidney?”
“That’s what I heard. That he’s been seen at the bar while she is working.”
“And he must hate it if people are talking about it,” Emily said.
“I’m sure, but Mac has no problem putting people in their place. Kind of like you.”
“Speaking of that. And me. What have you heard about me and Crew?” Emily asked.
“Not much. Just that you seem happy too. You know the family. That’s all anyone really cares about.” Many outside the Bond family thought they were all stuck-up, but the truth was, not many were. They were all caring and truly wanted each other happy.
“No one is making a comment about his career?”
Crew Ackley was a mailman. “I’m sure there are plenty that love to gossip that might. It’s no different than people commenting on Kayla and Amanda trying to land a wealthy man. Anyone that knows you knows you wouldn’t put up with it. You had no problem dropping Simon.”
Simon was Emily’s ex-fiancé that rumor had it only wanted the family name and money and part of the hotel Emily and her sister, Penelope, were building.
“No. No problem there, nor would I put up with it. So, back to my question. Birth control options.”
Ava rolled her chair over and pulled some brochures off the wall, knowing that their conversation was coming to an end, but it was fun while it lasted. She missed this with other women and found there wasn’t much of it in Plymouth.
The other doctors at the practice were older than her. The office staff and nurses didn’t really want to mingle with the doctors. Or maybe she didn’t want to mingle with them. She’d always had a hard rule about keeping friendships out of the office. It was just easier that way.
“The usual pill, a shot in the arm every three months, an IUD. Lots of information to read.”
“How soon could I get the shot in the arm?” Emily asked, looking at the brochure quickly. “I’ve read a bit on it already.”
“Today if you want?” Ava said, laughing.
“Give it to me.”
“Your wish, my command,” she said, standing up. “I’ll be back in a few.”
She’d given Emily her Depo shot, updated her notes in her computer, then went to the temporary office she used here. It was more like a coat closet and the next person that filled in once a week would get it once she moved over to the bigger office next door.
“Have a safe trip home,” Anne, her nurse for the day, said to her when she was walking out the door.
“Thanks,” she said, knowing it wouldn’t be much longer and she’d be home right here on the island.
2
Security and Stability
“Daddy!”
Seth let out a big sigh when he heard his daughter, Adele, yell his name from the top of the stairs off the kitchen. “What?” he yelled back. They’d just finished dinner and he was cleaning up and loading the dishwasher. At the oddest of times he had memories and the yelling to him while he was bent over the dishwasher hit him like a tidal wave of sadness.
“I can’t find my book for my project.”
The first grade project that the two of them had been working on for days. Find a book to read with a parent and then make a collage out of it. Which meant homework for the parent too.
He had no problem doing that with his daughter and never did. It was him or his mother; that was the only family Adele had locally.
When Ellen died three years ago, he hadn’t known how he was going to make things work with his long hours and a young child at home. His mother was retired and living on Amore Island. She’d come to stay with them for a few months until he could figure it all out.
Months later when a promotion was thrown at him to move up to the position of president and oversee the several bank branches on Amore Island, he decided it might be the life and chance he needed. His mother could go back to her place and help him out and he could take his time getting things in order.
“Did you check in your bookbag?” he yelled again. He hated doing that but wanted the kitchen picked up. Some things just stuck in his mind like an automatic routine. Start and finish and move away from it.
Maybe it was because this was the routine he’d had with Ellen for so many years and he couldn’t bring himself to detach from it.
That morning years ago when he’d come home from the hospital, the first thing he did was walk in the kitchen to get a glass of water. He’d seen the dishwasher still open, half the clean glasses put away, the rest of it full just waiting for him.
Life had to go on, even if it was only he and Adele now.
“Found it,” she shouted back.
He fought the urge to roll his eyes. Most things were where he put them or asked her to look. He kept things neat and organized as best as he could because it seemed to be the only way he could function for the longest of times.
He was shutting the dishwasher door and turning it on when he heard his daughter’s small feet pounding on the stairs as she descended the steps. “Slow down,” he said. “You don’t need to trip and fall.”
“I won’t. I’m not clumsy.”
She wasn’t, but she moved too fast too often. His child was energetic and took after her mother. “You’re not,” he said. “Are we ready to work on your project some more?”
“It’s almost done,” Adele said excitedly. “Grandma and I had fun with it today.”
Part of him was
thrilled, the other sad. He did enjoy the time with his daughter, but tonight he was beat and looking forward to relaxing and watching TV until Adele was in bed and then he could enjoy the crime shows he’d never watch in front of her.
“So, what is left to do?” he asked.
“I need to glue on all the pieces that Grandma and I made earlier.”
He walked into the dining room where the project was set up. There were a lot of little trees and bushes, some flowers too. Most were made out of paper, some out of fabric covering Styrofoam. It was much daintier and more feminine than he could accomplish and was forever thankful for the female influence in his daughter’s life.
“Then let’s get to it,” he said. “You tell me where you want them and I’ll apply the glue.”
“But I want to put the glue on too,” she said.
Her long brown hair was hanging over her shoulders and all he could envision was sticky fingers pushing it out of her face and he’d be stuck getting glue out of his daughter’s hair all night.
“Let me get a rubber band and tie your hair back first. Wasn’t it up when I dropped you at Grandma’s this morning?”
“It was, but I took it down at school. I don’t like ponytails all the time. Can you learn to do a braid?”
He knew this day would come when he’d have to figure more out. He selfishly thought maybe his mother could do it. Not that he ever imagined anyone other than Adele’s mother would be doing her hair.
But his mother only had boys and short hair herself. She’d never mastered much along those lines.
“I’ll try to watch some videos and teach myself,” he said, knowing his younger brother, Adam, would bust a gut laughing if he witnessed this.
“Thanks, Daddy. You’re the best.”
And it was words like that that made him never give up or throw in the towel. And there had been plenty of times in life when he thought it would happen.
Two hours later, Adele was in bed, stories read and he was just putting his feet up on the ottoman when his phone rang. He reached over for it and saw his mother calling.
“Hi, Mom.”
“Seth. Is Adele in bed for the night?”
“She is.” Which meant his mother had something she wanted to talk about without Adele around. That was never a good sign.
“Good. I can’t get her tomorrow after school. I mean I could if you can’t, but I was thinking of going off the island shopping. There is a dollhouse Adele mentioned she wanted and it might be easier to see if I can get it in Boston. I’d rather do that than give her a bunch of candy for Easter.”
“Let me check my calendar,” he said, glancing at his phone and pulling it up. “Yeah, I can grab her and leave for the day. Not a problem. Easter is still a few weeks away.”
“It is, but you know how hard it is to order and get things on the island. Not everything is timely. The weather is going to be nice so I figured I’d take advantage of it. While I’m there I’m going to meet up with a few friends for lunch too.”
“That’s great. Have a good day,” he said, wondering how long it’d been since he spent any time with a guy having a beer or talking sports, let alone time with a woman. His mother did so much for him with Adele, he hated to ask her to watch her more so he could go on a date.
Not that he didn’t date, because he did now and again, just not very often.
“Do you need me to get anything for Adele while I’m there?”
“She probably needs spring clothes. But we’ve got time, I suppose. She likes to shop and it could be a trip she and I take.”
“You’re doing a great job with her, Seth.”
“I’m trying. I feel like the fish flopping along on the grassy bank knowing the water is right there but I keep heading in the other direction when I get close enough.”
“Parenting isn’t easy. You know that with your father.”
He snorted. The father that was never around when they were kids. The one that put his career above Seth and his brother and was on the road more than home. Then cheated on his mother and decided the West Coast was a better place to be.
His parents had divorced when he was a freshman in high school. He’d gone to see his dad over the summers each year for a few weeks and then got gifts for birthdays and holidays shipped. Phone calls were few and far between.
If there was anything he or Adam needed financially, they got that without question. In his father’s mind, that was his only obligation.
He supposed he should be happy his college had been paid for but then felt in his mind it was the least his absentee cheating father could do for the boys he pretty much wiped from his life.
“I do,” he said. “Adam will never settle down because of it.”
Adam was three years younger at just thirty-three, but he was having too much fun dating and going out with different women all the time. Seth had been different. He wanted the security and stability he never felt he had at home.
But he didn’t think he’d be doing it alone now either.
“He will when the time is right,” his mother said. “Just like you did once and you will again. You aren’t meant to be alone. Some people can handle it, others can’t.”
“Like you could,” he said to his independent mother. She knew what she wanted in life and wasn’t letting any man hold her back. She’d kicked Peter Young out faster than the chubby kid could slip away from a bully that wanted his lunch money.
“I don’t need anyone to take care of me,” his mother said. “I raised you two boys on my own when I was married. Having him gone and just sending money was more peaceful.”
“You never wanted his money either,” he said, laughing. His mother worked for the State and had a good paying job and a great pension. She retired the minute she hit fifty-five and moved into the house that she and his father bought on Amore Island when he was a kid.
A nice summer home they could visit on the weekends. His father hated it, his mother got her way. During the divorce, she got the house in Boston, the house on Amore Island and a ton of child support. His father didn’t have a leg to stand on having been caught red-handed and Seth suspected the divorce was uncontested so that his father could move on to bigger and better things.
His kids weren’t going to hold him back.
“Nope. I got the home I wanted right here. I made a killing on the sale of our home in Boston and it was invested well and the interest is bonus.”
He laughed. “You were always good at making lemonade out of lemons.”
“It’s all about your perspective in life, Seth. You used to do the same thing and you will again when the time is right.”
“If it’s ever right. I don’t know anymore,” he said. Did he have it in him to try and possibly be hurt again? Maybe. There were just too many maybes in his life.
“You do know. Give it time. It will happen when you least expect it.”
“If you say so.”
“I do. And we know I’m always right.”
He laughed. She’d told the boys when their father was moving out that it’d be just fine and she was right. It was fine. Better than fine. Life calmed down and wasn’t as stressful. At least for him. Adam still wanted their father’s affection, but Seth had moved on. He’d always thought he was good at moving on.
Until he wasn’t.
3
Hanging Over Their Heads
“What do you mean my loan was denied?” Ava asked a month later. She’d been looking at some houses online having decided to not reach out to Drew yet. It still hadn’t been announced that she’d be transferring to the island so she was holding off on that front.
She had told her parents and brothers. They wouldn’t say anything to anyone else, but they were thrilled to know she’d be here permanently.
Or so she hoped because right now it sounded like her dream to move here might not come true and there was no way she wanted to stay in her condo and take the ferry over daily.
“I’m sorry, Dr. Mil
ls,” the bank president was telling her. Seth, he said his name was, and she was shocked when she got the call from him and not the loan officer to come into the bank and talk about her application. For the life of her she didn’t know what the problem could be but didn’t expect this. “Your credit score is lower than I’ve seen in a long time.”
“Not possible,” she said, practically getting out of the chair she sat in facing the broad desk. “I bought a new car about ten months ago. It was over eight hundred then.” Her mind was spinning. “There has to be some kind of mistake. The only debt I have is that car.”
She rented her condo. Her parents paid for her first six years of college, just like they did for her brothers, and since they were all doctors that was a huge ask. But the three of them got good scholarships too. The rest of the education came out of the trust funds so that none of them had that debt hanging over their heads.
She could have used her trust fund for the purchase of a house on Amore Island, but that would be depleting it almost down to nothing at this point with what it cost to buy property on the island. Since she had a darn good job and no debt, getting a mortgage with the low interest rates seemed like the smart choice.
And she always made smart choices.
“Right now I see over forty thousand dollars in credit card debt on multiple cards and no payments made,” he said.
“No,” she said. She opened her purse and pulled her only two credit cards out and slapped them on his desk. “Can you find these on your report? Those are the only two I’ve got. They have no balance on them. I pay them in full each month.”
He clicked around on a few screens and pulled the cards close. “Hmm. This isn’t good.”
“What?” she asked. “It’s a mistake, right?”
“No, it’s not. But it looks like your credit was great a year ago and in the past six months this has been happening. These two cards are exactly as you say. But there are five more cards outstanding. All started four to six months ago.”
