Her mother glared at her. “Oh, sure. Be critical of how I run things. What happened with you? What do you mean there isn’t any money from the divorce? There has to be. Neil made a lot of money in his marketing job.”
So they were going to talk about her failure, Carly thought. Might as well get it over with.
“Neil did well,” she admitted. “My job didn’t pay so much.” The office manager position with a single-doctor practice didn’t pull in the big bucks. “We were careful to put money aside for Tiffany’s college, but after that, Neil lost interest. We took all those expensive vacations, then there were the cars.”
Neil had liked to lease a new one every two years. The monthly payment for their last Mercedes had cost more than their food bill. She’d hated that and had protested, but Neil had pointed out that it was important for him to have a car that matched his position in the company. Carly had tried to argue the point with him, but he’d told her she couldn’t possibly understand. That had felt so much like being patted on the head, that she’d yelled at him. Then they’d had a big fight. In the end, he’d gotten the car anyway.
“We put in the new landscaping last year,” she said. “There were other things we bought. In hindsight I should have pushed back more on the budget. The bottom line is, by the time we split everything, I owned half of nothing.”
“But the house,” her mother protested. “That had to be worth a fortune.”
“It was. And we owed nearly as much.”
Carly didn’t know how to explain that it had been easier to give in to Neil than to fight him all the time.
“You were raised better than that,” her mother said.
“Not helpful,” Carly told her.
“Don’t you get alimony?”
“Yes, and no. Neil quit his job. Until he gets a new one, he doesn’t have to pay. He owes child support, although that’s on a sliding scale. Basically if he gets back into marketing at the level he was at, he’s going to be passing about half his salary on to me for alimony and child support. That doesn’t give him much incentive to start looking.”
“I think this is all just wrong,” her mother said as she set the serving trays on the counter. “In my day a man knew his responsibilities. Your father never left me. He wasn’t that kind of man. You should have thought about that when you married Neil. I never liked him, you know.”
“Mmm.” Carly went for the noncommittal response. What was she going to say? That both her parents had adored Neil from the second she’d brought him home? That for the first two years of their marriage she’d joked that if she and Neil split up, her parents would want custody of him?
“You used to have a good job,” her mother said. “What happened to that?”
“The events planning? That was a million years ago.” She tested one of the quiches to see if it had cooled enough, then began sliding them onto a serving plate.
“You should never have given up your career,” her mother said. “If you’d kept up with it, you wouldn’t be in trouble now.”
“Agreed, but it was too difficult to handle big parties and corporate events once I had Tiffany. I wanted to be home more.”
“At least you got that right,” her mother told her. “You needed to be there.”
Carly felt as if she were in a fun house. Could her mother just pick a side and stay on it? Any side. At this point Carly didn’t even care if it was one in which she was the villain.
She handed over the plate of quiche.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Rhonda said as she set the plate on the tray. “I thought you’d be able to put some money into the B and B. But if you can’t…”
She stopped talking and pressed her lips together. Carly watched her. They were family, she thought sadly. Shouldn’t they be able to pull together on this?
Obviously her fantasy of coming home and finding everything in her world put to rights wasn’t going to happen.
“I suppose I could sell,” her mother said as she walked to the cupboard and pulled down several wineglasses. “I still have a lot of equity in this place. We could use it to buy you something in Las Vegas. Or I could sell my town house and we could buy a larger place together.”
Carly figured she would rather be tied naked to a fire-ant hill. She’d known moving back to the B and B would mean sharing relatively close quarters with her mother, but there had been a time limit. In two years, Rhonda would head off to her retirement. Carly would run the B and B and send her mother a monthly check for her share of the business. It wasn’t a perfect solution or one she would have chosen, but it solved so many problems.
However, living with her mother on a permanent basis was something else entirely.
“This house has been in the family for nearly a hundred and fifty years,” Carly said. “You can’t be serious about selling it.”
“I’m not sure there’s a choice.”
“There has to be another way,” she said, not sure what it could be, but determined to find it. “This is a lot of information. I need to think about it all.”
“Be my guest,” her mother said. “I’ve been worrying for seven years.”
Carly refused to translate that into momspeak.
“Of course you and Neil may work everything out and get back together,” Rhonda added.
“Unlikely,” Carly said. “Not only wouldn’t I take him back, but I can’t imagine anything making him want to go back to his old life.”
“I’m so sorry, dear.”
Her mother patted her arm.
Carly frowned. “Sorry about what?”
“That Neil left you for someone else. Is she much younger and prettier?”
Carly didn’t know if she should laugh or cry. “No, Mom. Neil didn’t leave me for anyone. There’s no other woman. He just wanted to go find himself.”
Carly escaped to her room after dinner. Tiffany was going to watch TV with her grandmother and Carly took the opportunity to sneak away.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be with her family, it was that she needed time to think. Nothing had turned out the way she’d thought and that was going to take some getting used to.
At night the ocean was a blanket of darkness. She opened the windows, and although she couldn’t see waves or even whitecaps, the sound of the sea was audible and she could smell the salt air. At least that was as she remembered. But the rest of it—not so much.
Carly settled on the window seat and stared into the darkness. At what point had her life taken this unexpected turn? Had there been signs along the way? Had she simply not been paying attention? Sure, things with Neil hadn’t been great for a while, but it hadn’t occurred to her that divorce was an option. They had a child together; there had been vows. She’d chosen to spend her life with him and a few disappointments along the way hadn’t been a reason to change her mind.
So why had he changed his? Had his experience been worse than hers, or had he not believed in the “forever” part of their marriage? Was she a fool for staying so long, or was he a jerk for leaving? Did the truth lie somewhere in the middle?
She wasn’t sure it mattered. After all, they were divorcing now and both starting over. Neil had his dreams and she had…Carly sighed. She had no clue what she had. A teenage daughter who would rather live with her father, a mother who had kept the news of the failing business from her only child, and a future that looked far too uncertain.
Which meant Carly didn’t have a lot of options. Either she stayed and fought for the B and B or she left and started over somewhere else. While she’d been working steadily for the past twenty years, she wasn’t sure her recent job qualified her for much. Sure she’d run an office, but it had been small and the paycheck had matched.
Eighteen years ago things had been different. She’d been a successful events planner and she’d loved the work. In three years she’d risen to the top, with a list of clients that made her competition weep. But then she’d had Tiffany, and the sixty- to sevent
y-hour workweeks and constant late nights had been impossible with a baby.
In an effort to balance her love of event planning with having a husband and a baby, she’d turned to wedding planning. While the hours had been better, Neil had hated her being gone nearly every weekend. In truth, she’d never seen him. So she’d quit that, too, and had found the office manager job.
Could she go back to events planning? Unfortunately she hadn’t kept in touch with many of her old friends from the business. Plus she wouldn’t like the hours anymore now than she had when Tiffany had been a baby. One of the reasons she’d come to the B and B was so that she could be around for her daughter. These last three years before she went off to college were important and Carly didn’t want to miss them.
But she also had a responsibility to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. If events planning wasn’t an option and L.A. was too expensive and she wasn’t staying here, then she would need to look at moving somewhere else. There had to be places with a less crazy cost of living.
If only she had—
A soft knock on her door brought her to her feet. Carly crossed the floor and pulled open the door. Tiffany stood in front of her. The teen wore teddy bear pajamas and carried a tattered stuffed dog in her arms.
“What’s up?” Carly asked.
“Nothing.” Tiffany shrugged as she stepped inside. “My room is great. It’s just…” She shrugged. “You know.”
“It’s a little creepy up there?”
Tiffany dropped her chin. “Maybe a little. I’ll be completely fine,” she added quickly. “I love my room. I just thought, you know, for the first night.”
Carly glanced at the large bed, then closed the door. “Sure, you can sleep with me.”
“Good.”
Tiffany ran and jumped on the bed. “I took the back stairs. It’s really weird because the house is so quiet, but there are all these noises.”
“Old places are known for that.”
“It made me think of the ghost. Not that she’s real.”
Carly stretched out in the bed. Tiffany set her dog on the nightstand, then shimmied under the blankets. She snuggled close and rested her head on Carly’s shoulder.
“Grandma was pretty cool tonight,” the teenager said. “We watched HBO together.”
“Nothing R-rated, right?”
“Oh, Mo-om. You’re so old.”
“Grandma’s older than me.”
“Yeah, but she’s more fun.”
Carly tried not to take the comment personally. As her daughter’s mother, it was her job to be a parent, not a buddy. But just once she would like someone else to be the bad guy for a while. Neil was never willing to take on that task. Of course, he’d never bothered all that much with his daughter, despite the fact that Tiffany adored him.
She stretched up and turned off the light, then settled back on the bed. Tiffany sighed.
“Where do you think Daddy is?” she asked, almost as if she knew her mother had been thinking of Neil.
“I don’t know. I thought he was going to stay in L.A. for a while. Until he bought his boat.”
“Do you think he’s really going to sail to Hawaii?”
“That’s what he said.”
“Wow. It’s so far. And there aren’t any, like, places to stop.”
“I’m sure he’ll take a good map.”
Carly did her best to keep the bitterness out of her voice. Neil got to buy a boat and run off to Hawaii while she was left behind to be the grown-up. Again.
“Do you think…” Tiffany hesitated, then swallowed. “Do you think he misses me?”
“Of course he does. You’re his best girl.”
“I guess. It’s just he never wanted to, you know, spend time with me, and he hasn’t called since he left.”
“He’ll call,” Carly said, then vowed she would find Neil and force him to call his daughter. Damn the man for being such an insensitive bastard, she thought grimly. How could he do this to Tiffany? She could try to forgive a lot of things, but never that.
She wrapped her arms around Tiffany and squeezed. “He’s going through a lot right now. But he’ll settle into his new life and you can be a part of it. That will be fun.”
“Yeah. We can go sailing together.”
“Good idea.”
Tiffany sighed. “It’s nice here. I kinda didn’t want to come because I thought it would be way stupid, but I like the house. You’re not going to make me clean rooms, are you?”
“We’ll negotiate a chore list,” Carly said. “The maids make pretty good money.”
“How good?”
“Let’s talk in the morning.”
“Okay. Night.”
“Night, baby. I love you.”
“I love you, too, Mom.”
Carly listened to her daughter’s breathing. It didn’t take very long for it to slow and get very deep. When Tiffany was asleep, Carly tried to memorize everything about this moment—how her daughter clung to her even in sleep, the way her hair smelled, the feel of her thin arms. There wouldn’t be many more nights when Tiffany needed to sleep with her mom to feel safe, and Carly didn’t want to miss a moment of what might be the last one.
“They grow up too fast,” she whispered.
CHAPTER 3
Carly woke up to a morning so beautiful, she couldn’t help but feel optimistic about the day and her future. She left her daughter asleep and went downstairs to fire up her morning with a jumbo mug of coffee. Sunshine, the smell of the ocean and a jolt of caffeine. Did it get any better than that?
She took the back stairs instead of the elevator and enjoyed the play of light on the old paneling. Even the servants had had a view, she thought humorously as she walked across the landing and glanced out at the expanse of gardens below. When she reached the main floor, she headed for the kitchen. If she hadn’t been sure of her destination, the mouthwatering scent of cinnamon and something baking would have drawn her in.
Anticipation quickened her steps. Not just for the yummy stuff, but also to see Maribel. Although they talked regularly by phone, she hadn’t seen her friend in over a year.
“Hey, you,” Carly said as she opened the kitchen door and stepped inside. “You’re up early.”
Maribel pulled something out of the oven, straightened, turned and grinned. “You made it!”
Carly waited until her friend put down the baking sheet, then approached. She opened her arms wide for a hug, only to come to a complete stop and stare.
“You’re…you’re…”
Maribel laughed, then smoothed the front of her white chef’s coat over her belly. “Pregnant. I know.”
“But…You can’t be. You’re…”
Carly didn’t know what to say. “Too old,” came to mind. As she and Maribel were practically the same age, her friend was also within weeks of turning forty.
“You didn’t say anything,” Carly told her instead.
“I know.” Maribel moved close and hugged her. “When I found out about the baby, you and Neil had already started talking about the divorce. I didn’t know if I should share my news or not. Then when you mentioned coming here, I figured I’d tell you in person. Don’t be mad at me. I was seriously torn.”
“I’m not mad. I couldn’t be. I’ll admit to being stunned. A baby. Wow.”
Carly squeezed her, then stepped back. She studied her friend’s bright, happy expression and the blush on her cheeks. Always petite and curvy, Maribel now defined lush. Her new shorter haircut emphasized her pretty features.
“You look amazing. Seriously, you’re doing the glowing thing. But a baby? Are you excited?”
“I am now,” Maribel admitted. “But at first it was a real shock. Only Dani’s still in high school, the other three are in college. Pete and I figured we were finally going to buy that RV and see the world. Or at least the part we can drive to. Then this happened.”
She touched her stomach. “I cried for three days when the doctor told me
I didn’t have the flu. Then I had a dream I wasn’t pregnant and I woke myself up crying because I was so sad. That’s when I figured I really did want the baby.”
Carly nodded, even though she didn’t understand. She and Maribel had gone different ways—Carly had attended college for a couple of years before starting in events planning and Maribel had married right out of high school. She’d had her first child on her twentieth birthday.
“Tiffany’s fifteen,” she said. “I can’t imagine starting over with a newborn now.”
“The kids are still getting over the shock,” Maribel said as she walked to the island and began cutting up strawberries. “I suspect it’s a whole lot more about Mom and Dad having sex than the actual idea of a baby.”
“Pregnant,” Carly said, still trying to take it in. Talk about a life change. “You’re putting my divorce in perspective. When are you due?”
“Four more months.”
Carly eyed her friend’s large stomach. “Really?”
Maribel laughed. “Yeah, I know. I’m huge. I’ve always carried big, but this time I swear it’s part elephant.”
Carly walked over to the baking pan and stared at the cinnamon rolls. “Want me to take these out?”
“That would be great. So, enough about me and my surprise. How are you doing?”
“Okay. It’s weird to be back.”
Maribel dumped the cut strawberries into the fruit bowl. “Have you talked to your mom about anything?” she asked, sounding neutral.
Carly appreciated the sensitivity. “If you’re asking if she’s already mentioned that she wants me to use my divorce settlement to rescue the B and B, then yes. If it’s something else, I’m not sure I could handle it.”
“No, it’s the money thing,” Maribel said. “She’s been really anxious for you to arrive. It’s all she talks about.”
Carly didn’t consider that especially good news. “It’s the week before Easter,” she said. “Shouldn’t we be busier?”
“Things have been slow for a while,” Maribel admitted. “Bookings are dropping off. My food order is about half what it was this time last year.”
There's Always Plan B Page 3
