Lighthouse Beach

by Shelley Noble

  “Does she need to keep the bandage on?” This came from the third woman, blondish-brown hair, tanned, looked like the outdoorsy type. “We plan on spending some time on the beach. Can she get it wet?”

  They were planning on swimming. Right. They probably had their in-ground pools set to sauna degrees.

  “Sure. Stop by the pharmacy and get a second bandage to alternate with it. Just have Lillo rewrap it when need be.”

  “Thank you, Doctor.” Jess shook his hand.

  “My pleasure.” He walked them to the door. “Where is she, by the way?”

  “Lillo? She dropped us off.”

  “I see.”

  “She had some errands to do.”

  “I bet she did.” He hadn’t meant to say that aloud. Lack of sleep, lack of food, lack of a second pair of hands.

  The brunette was watching him too closely for his peace of mind.

  “She’s a busy girl—woman.” He walked them down the hallway and nudged them through the waiting room door.

  The brunette paused in the opening. “We’ll tell Lillo you said hello.”

  “I didn’t.”

  “What?”

  “Say hello.”

  “Ah, I see. Good day, Doctor.”

  And good riddance. He smiled, nodded, turned to find Agnes standing beside him. “I’ll just send out for some lunch.” She handed him the next folder.

  “Mrs. Olsen, the doctor will see you now.”

  Lillo sat across the street from the clinic wondering if she should go inside to check on the progress of Operation Sprained Wrist or just sit in the van without a book or even a car radio.

  She should have thought to get everyone’s cell numbers, then remembered they probably shouldn’t be using their phones. Having houseguests was turning out to be more complicated than she thought. She’d stood in the local market trying to remember the last time she’d stocked her kitchen or made dinner for more than herself, or Mac and her. It hadn’t been that long, but she just couldn’t remember. So her cart resembled something from a teenager’s slumber party. Fortunately, the grocery was only a five-minute walk from the cottage. They wouldn’t starve. But they might complain about her choices.

  She hadn’t really resigned herself to having a girls’ weekend away. She used to enjoy them back in her other life.

  For some reason she couldn’t leap over the concrete wall of her epic fail to the time before. The time when the future was exciting and she was self-assured—too self-assured as it turned out—convinced that she was about to take the world by storm.

  Now what was she? Someone who had kidnapped a bride from her destination wedding. Trundled three women out of a hotel and into a van, drove them to an unknown location. It was a terrible, reckless thing to do and yet there had been times when she caught herself smiling. Laughing at the bistro before the great reveal. Jess and the lug wrench were priceless. Fortunately, she didn’t think the wrist was broken. Diana asking her about bikinis on the beach. For an instant here and there she’d felt like a … a … girl again. Carefree. Optimistic.

  But the feeling was gone now. Sitting out here in front of the clinic when she could have been inside.

  She pushed that idea away. Instead she thought about the sound of the waves, the shadow of the lighthouse, the wind whipping through the trees in the woods. Her breathing slowed, her heart returned to a steady beat, and three women walked down the front steps of the clinic.

  “Go okay?” she asked as they climbed inside. She started up the van.

  “Did you know the doctor was the car mechanic on the Harley from last night?” Diana asked.

  “Yes. That’s how I knew the clinic would be open today. They were on their way to Lighthouse Beach.”

  “You could have warned us,” Jess said. “I felt like such a fool.”

  “Oh, stop it,” Lillo said. “No self-esteem issues are allowed on girls’ weekend away. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t think about it. That’s all. My bad.”

  She pulled onto the street.

  “I picked up lunch stuff—sandwich meats, chips, and things like that. I didn’t know how Jess would feel.”

  “And dip?”

  They all turned to look at Jess, even Lillo, though she used the rearview mirror.

  “Just wondering.”

  “We can certainly stop somewhere on our way back to Lillo’s,” Diana said, settling back in her seat. She looked across at Lillo.

  Lillo winced. “Onion soup and sour cream?”

  “Both,” Diana said. “Now tell us about this Dr. Hartley.”

  This was why she hadn’t told them about Doc. She didn’t want to explain stuff and get tangled up in the history of Ned Hartley in Lighthouse Beach. “Let’s see. He and several other biker types spend the summer going along the coast to the smaller towns that need stuff done; they have a couple of doctors, sometimes a dentist, handymen, mechanics, it’s always different. Whoever is free at the time.”

  “Are they members of some organization?”

  Lillo thought about it. “Not that I know of. I think it’s just something Doc started a few years back. He lived here for a while as a teenager. I guess he came back to visit, saw a need, and filled it. He works at the hospital in Portland part-time and travels around to remote communities under their aegis.”

  “The waiting room was continually packed while we were there, but I don’t think I saw one person pay even a copay. How do they support themselves?”

  “Not a clue. I’ve only been back myself for the last year. I haven’t seen him too much to ask.” In fact, she avoided him at all costs. Last night had been an unfortunate fluke.

  Lillo turned the van onto Main Street. “Do you want to stop for more food? And dip? The local grocery store is on the next block and the liquor store is right next door. I don’t know how good the selection is. I don’t drink that much and usually only local beer.”

  Diana leaned over the back of her seat. “Jess, can you hang on while we make a liquor run?”

  “Definitely.”

  Lillo maneuvered the VW into a parking place right in front of Beach Liquors. She parked and they piled out of the van, except for Jess.

  “Any special requests?” Diana asked.

  “No, but here.” Jess handed over her credit card.

  Diana just looked at it.

  “What?”

  “You threw your phone out the window but you’re going to use your credit card?”

  “Oh, I wasn’t thinking.”

  “No, and it’s okay. This is your time to be nutso. So don’t feel bad. I have cash, and when that runs out we’ll figure it out.” She cut a look to Lillo.

  “Not to worry. I stopped by the bank this morning. So we’re solid.” Lillo had stopped by the bank, where everyone wanted to know why she wasn’t at the wedding. Then she returned the unworn wedding outfit to Barbara Carroll at the consignment store, where Barbara asked even more questions. She explained just enough so that people wouldn’t speculate and wouldn’t answer questions about Jess’s whereabouts to anyone but the police.

  She hadn’t returned the sundress to Sada. She was afraid it had been ruined by the rain.

  “You’ll be okay?” Lillo asked Jess.

  “Yes. I’m sorry to put you in the middle of this.”

  “Hey. You and me, like the good old days.”

  Jess tried for a smile. “They were awful.”

  “Pretty much. But we got through it, didn’t we?”

  Jess hesitated. “Did we?”

  “Yes, now don’t worry.”

  Lillo shut the door and hurried after Diana and Allie. They’d gotten through those days, but what the hell good had it done? Jess on the lam with a murky future, and Lillo with not much of a future at all.

  Diana grabbed a cart and Lillo led them to the back of the store where the wine and better spirits were shelved. It didn’t take Diana long to fill the cart with mixers and vodka and rum and gin. Though she did turn up her nose at
a couple of the labels. Allie’s palate was more discerning, but she did manage to come up with several “drinkable” reds and a “so-so” pinot grigio and two magnums of “acceptable” champagne.

  “We only have to use cash for the next couple of days and then it will be too late to get her back in the most tasteless expensive wedding dress you’ve ever seen.” Diana reached for another mixer that was so pink, Lillo imagined it glowing in the dark.

  Lillo winced. “Insult to injury.”

  “In spades.”

  “You know, if you guys are planning on continuing your road trip, there are better stores with cheaper prices on the highway.”

  “True,” Diana said as she read the label. She looked up suddenly, catching Lillo off guard. “Getting cold feet?”

  “About what?”

  “Having us thrust ourselves on you for the weekend?”

  “I thought we settled that.”

  “We did unless you’re having buyer’s remorse.”

  “I’m not. You’re welcome to stay. Though I have to say, if you want to avoid the Parkers you might be better off staying mobile. They’re probably out looking for Jess now. I mean, they must be worried.”

  Diana put the pink mixture into the cart, added a second bottle. “I don’t know about ‘worried.’ Maybe once they get over being angry and mortified. And dealing with the caterers, and the hotel and irate guests and—”

  She grinned. “Sorry, but they’re toxic people. And I’m sure once they realize Jess is not in Boston, they’ll send their minions to find her. And quite frankly, I’d like for them to find us so I can confront them in friendly territory.”

  “Whew. All right, then. We’ll prepare the ramparts.”

  “Exactly.”

  Not a very comforting thought for Lillo. She’d withstood the brunt of Jess’s parents more than once over the years. The last year, when they threatened to sue the camp, had been the worst because it had included her parents, who were the most caring people in the world.

  But once again she couldn’t desert her old friend. She didn’t hold out much hope. She’d known Jess longer than Diana and Allie had, and she knew that sooner or later Jess would go back and eat crow and be miserable. Allie and Diana would go back to their lives. And Lillo. Things would go back to normal … whatever the new normal would be.

  They purchased their supplies and Lillo ran into the grocery next door to get the ingredients for dip. When she came out, the van door was open and Jess was striding up the sidewalk looking like murder.

  Lillo hurried over to her. “What’s happened? Where have you been?”

  “Ugh, there was a group of boys acting like little asses.”

  Lillo looked down the sidewalk where a group of four boys was swaggering down the street, pushing each other, making noise. “Oh, Tommy Clayton and his gang. If you can call eleven and under a gang. School is out. They’re unsupervised and all hell breaks loose. It’s the nature of small-town living.”

  “Well, I think it’s awful. The things they were saying about this poor kid. Making fun. I don’t know, it just got to me.”

  “Brought back fond memories?”

  “Ugh. It makes me so angry. Why doesn’t someone do something?”

  “Like you? Were you going to chase them off and beat them with your soft cast?”

  Jess lifted her chin in a way she used to do when she was trying to be brave. “Maybe. Not one person tried to stop them. Two of the kids they were harassing managed to get away, but one didn’t or couldn’t run. They just kept taunting him and pushing him. I guess it all just came flooding back, and somehow I was out of the car and chasing them. Me, of all people. Then the guy from the newsstand came out with his broom. Didn’t faze them.”

  Lillo took Jess’s good arm; Jess actually seemed to have forgotten about her sprained wrist in the adrenaline rush. “Well, until somebody figures out what to do with them all summer, it’s a problem that won’t go away. They’ve never really hurt anyone, physically.”

  “Yet,” Jess said.

  “Yet. Now get in the van. We have onion dip.”

  They were back at Lillo’s cottage by three, but Lillo was already exhausted. As soon as the drinks and food were packed into the fridge, Diana announced she was going to the beach.

  “Who’s up for a swim?”

  Lillo smiled to herself. It was June; the water was really cold.

  “Why don’t you and Allie go ahead. Beach towels are on the bottom shelf of the linen closet and there are chairs on the deck. I’ll get Jess settled on the couch, and then we’ll all have drinks before we go over to Mac’s for dinner.”

  Diana nodded. “You guys have a lot to catch up on.”

  Did they? Whatcha been doing all these years? There was nothing in her life that Lillo wanted to discuss. But she did want to know why Jess hadn’t contacted her in all these years, and then suddenly invited her to her wedding.

  Lillo piled up pillows behind Jess’s back and put another one under her arm for good measure. “Did Doc tell you to keep compression on and then ice?”

  “Yes. He gave Diana instructions. He said I could soak it in the ocean for twenty minutes when we were at the beach but I just wasn’t up to it right now.”

  Lillo wouldn’t be either. The water temperature was worse than an ice pack. “Do you want a drink? Or tea. I usually have a cup of tea about this time of day.”

  “Tea would be great, thanks.”

  Lillo went into the little kitchen to put on the kettle. It was small and efficient but might not hold four women all making coffee at the same time. Fortunately there was a breakfast bar and pass-through that would keep things from getting too crowded. She rummaged for a selection of tea. “Constant Comment okay? It’s either that or Sleepytime herbal.”

  “Constant Comment is fine.”

  When the tea was steeped, Lillo filled a plate with cheese and crackers, put it all on a tray, and carried it over to the couch.

  Jess was looking out the window at the lighthouse, lost in thought.

  Lillo pulled an end table to where Jess could reach it, deposited the tray on it, and sat in her favorite reading chair.

  Jess took her mug of tea. “Remember when we used to sneak over the jetty to the lighthouse to see Mac? And she’d make us tea and some of those hard cookies she called biscuits?”

  “I do. She still serves them with tea.”

  “She looks older.”

  “So do we all,” Lillo quipped.

  Jess sighed. “They mean well, my parents.”

  “That’s not an excuse. It never was.”

  “I know. I wish you had known me in college.”

  Lillo looked up at that. “Why?”

  “Because you would have liked me then. I think.”

  “I always liked you. I like you now.”

  “No, I mean I was different then. I was good at being a college student. I wasn’t the wreck I was when you knew me and I wasn’t the wreck I am now. That’s where I met Diana and Allie.”

  “Diana said you were good at your job, too.”

  “She did?”

  “Yeah. And are we beginning to see a pattern here?”

  Jess didn’t answer for a few moments. “Because I was away from my parents. I have to believe they do have my best interests at heart. But all their best interests just make me miserable. And when they’re around me I just revert to the jiggling mass of humiliation I was as a kid. I can’t seem to help myself.”

  “Well, at least you recognize it for what it is. So now you can change it.” She might not have any other options. George Parker could be vicious, even to his own family. “So why did you invite me to the wedding?”

  Jess put her mug down. Hugged herself like it was cold outside. It wasn’t.

  “Instinct? I’d like to say I wanted to see you again. That I wanted my best friend for years to celebrate my new life with me.”

  “But?”

  “But that would be a lie. When Mom and Dad pulle
d me out of camp and wouldn’t let me come back, I hated them. But then I went off to college, and things were better. I was merrily working my way up in Manhattan when my parents reared their ugly heads with a fiancé in tow.

  “I’d successfully—I thought—built a wall between me and my past.”

  “And as we all know,” Lillo said, “walls don’t keep anything out for long. But they do keep your weakest parts in.” God, had she really said that? Was that what was happening to her? One more attempt at a platitude and she’d smack herself in the face.

  “Exactly. Mine only kept out the good parts of my past, the parts with you in it; but the bad stuff found a way through.

  “I knew I was trapped, and I knew Diana and Allie would never understand how I got to this point. Diana knows James. She never liked him, but she stuck by me all the way to the yacht club and would have stuck by me all the way down the aisle.

  “And the horrible part is, I don’t even like James. He’s an egotistical, entitled rich boy. I guess I’m entitled and rich, but having those two qualities in common is hardly the grounds for a good marriage.”

  “Then why did you agree to marry him?”

  “I was in it before I knew what was happening. No. That’s a lie, too. I just let it happen to me. It was just like it always was, with my parents coaxing and manipulating, yelling, threatening—God, it was awful, so, like always, I gave in. When I finally came to my senses, I knew you were the only one who would really understand and that if I could just get you there, I might figure out a way to deal with it. And I prayed that you remembered me and would forgive me and come help me one more time.”

  And then what? Lillo wondered. Would Jess drop her again when she was no longer needed? She wasn’t sure she liked being used that way. But it was too late to be angry now. She shrugged it off. “Well, you extricated yourself and you did it without even needing me to intercede.”

  “You’re wrong. I did and do need you. To be a friend, and I want to be a friend back. It was sheer good—humiliating—luck that we caught James at it in the parking lot. I’m sure he did it on purpose, maybe not consciously, but quite frankly he doesn’t like me any better than I like him. Oh God, how did I make such a mess of my life?”