The Summer Cottage: Includes a bonus story

by Annie Rains

  Lucy pulled a piece off her baguette and popped it into her mouth, almost sighing at the cottony texture of the bread that practically dissolved when it hit her tongue. She hoped Gil would get his breakfast and move on quickly before Moira arrived. Moira always got a little frustrated with Gil’s attention. He wasn’t flirty or inappropriate in any way. He was just nice. And he was extra nice to Moira.

  Darla, knowing her daughter and probably thinking the same thing, was quick in giving the good mayor his coffee and Danish. As Gil headed out with his breakfast in hand, he waved to Lucy. “See you later.”

  “Bye, Mayor Gil,” she called back.

  A moment later, Moira strolled in with their friend Tess at her side. Tess owned Lakeside Books and led the book club they attended every Thursday night.

  “Thank goodness Gil is gone,” Moira huffed as she laid her purse on the chair across from Lucy’s. She sat down, and Tess took the seat right next to Lucy.

  “I saw Somerset’s friendly mayor come in and waited around the corner to avoid him,” Moira explained.

  Tess rolled her eyes and shook her head. “And I caught her in the act on my way here.”

  Lucy giggled, nearly choking on another bite of her baguette. “Gil is nice. Handsome.” She ticked off the mayor’s positive qualities on her right hand. “He’s smart. Rich. A genuinely good person. What am I missing?”

  “You’re missing the fact that I’m not romantically interested in him.”

  Darla stepped over with Moira’s coffee, bagel, and a kiss on the cheek for her only daughter, leaving a bright pink lipstick print in her wake. She also placed a coffee and bagel in front of Tess. “Morning, Tess. I’m assuming you want your usual?”

  Tess reached for the drink. “Thank you, Darla.”

  “Of course.” Darla looked at Moira. “How was the nightshift?”

  She blew out a breath as her bottom lip poked out. “Awful. I can’t wait for Celia to get back from her honeymoon so I can return to working days.”

  “She’s a newlywed. They should be up all night for entirely different reasons,” Darla said with a snicker.

  Moira reached for her coffee. “Thank you for this, Mom. I need it so much.” She sipped it gratefully.

  “Of course. Let me know if you three ladies need anything else.” Darla turned and headed back to the counter.

  “So…” Moira said. Judging by the grin on her face, she knew what had happened with Lucy’s burglar. “An opossum, huh? Did he steal anything valuable?”

  “Only my pride.” Lucy rolled her eyes and sipped her expresso. “I’m guessing Moira told you what happened this morning?” she asked Tess.

  Tess nodded. “I never knew you were so jumpy.”

  “The opossum was loud, okay? Very loud. And I live alone in a huge house with a ton of things that someone might want to take. How was I supposed to know it was an animal?”

  Moira cackled and bit into her bagel with a loud crunch. “And Miles was the one who responded,” she said after chewing and swallowing. “How did that go?” She waggled her eyebrows.

  Lucy was beginning to regret asking Moira to meet her here. “He saved the creature and left.”

  Tess looked disappointed. “That’s it? I thought there might be something juicier to that story.” Although a widow, Tess was the romantic of the group. All the books she chose for book club always had a happy ending. She wouldn’t hear of it otherwise. Lucy guessed it was because Tess’s own love story hadn’t ended happily.

  “Like what?” Lucy asked.

  “I don’t know.” Tess shrugged. “Like a brush of the hand or better yet a kiss.”

  Lucy’s mouth dropped even though she wasn’t a bit surprised. “I hate to break it to you two, but Miles and I are friends.”

  “Boring.” Moira took another bite of her bagel, hazel eyes rolling upward.

  “If you want exciting, find a book in Tess’s store,” Lucy muttered.

  After a quiet minute of eating, the conversation moved to other things.

  “So, any leads on renting out your garage apartment?” Tess asked.

  Lucy shook her head. “I’ve had that sign for renting my garage apartment out in the yard forever. Not one person has inquired. I was hoping the extra money would help me pay the last of my mother’s bills.”

  “Bummer,” Moira said. “I’ve heard of inheriting valuables after a loved one passes, but never their debt too.”

  In Lucy’s case, the bills were all related to the house. It was so unlike her mom to be irresponsible with finances. Her entire life, Lucy’s mom had been frugal. In her last few years though, she’d hired several contractors before she’d gotten sick and had failed to pay half of them. Funny, they’d all come collecting when Lucy was still grieving this time last year.

  There was a roofer. A plumber. A painter who’d painted the entire house in a fresh shade of pink. There were so many unpaid bills for Lucy to take care of along with that of her mother’s funeral.

  Lucy had promised herself that she’d wipe them all out by the New Year, which by her calculation was only six weeks away. And for the most part, she had. There was only one outstanding bill left on Lucy’s radar. “I really should sell the house. That would give me plenty of money to pay off the last debt my mom owes. But…” She trailed off for a moment. “Giving up the house feels like I’d be saying goodbye to my mom completely. And there’s Bella. That’s her house.”

  “Bella is a dog,” Moira pointed out, eyes rolling again. “She’d adjust to a change of scenery just fine.”

  There was also the fact that Lucy loved living in the pink house. Even as a little girl, being there felt like having her own, life-sized doll house. It had felt magical to her, and in some ways, it still did. Every corner of the house was special in some way, from the abalone shell backsplash of the downstairs sink to the antique oak stair baluster that to the expansive upper level. Even the attic felt special with its stained glass windows that let streamed in jewel-colored light on stored away things.

  “It’s too bad no one’s biting on the garage apartment,” Tess said. “The passive income would be great.”

  Lucy leaned back in her chair and folded her arms in front of her. “And a couple months’ rent would take care of the hot tub bill that my mom left me.” She’d never even seen her mom use a hot tub. When Lucy had come home to be a nurse to her ailing mother, she’d just assumed it was paid for. Like everything else. Her mother’s health had gone from bad to worse so quickly that there’d been no time to talk about frivolous things like bills and finances. Lucy’s mom had barely been able to talk at all as the throat cancer metastasized through her body. One month her mom had been bustling with the energy of a dozen five-year-olds. The next, she’d struggled to open her eyes.

  “Just be careful who you do decide to rent to.” Moira popped the last of her breakfast in her mouth and chewed. “Getting a terrible tenant could make your life miserable. They might blare music at all hours, have parties, or have a dog that poops all over your property.”

  Lucy felt her eyebrows raise.

  Moira dabbed her mouth with a crisp white napkin. “Trust me, I’ve heard it all on the dispatch.”

  “I’m sure you have,” Lucy said, sharing a look with Tess.

  “You could ask Reva to spread the word about the rental,” Tess suggested. Reva Dawson ran a blog online about the town. She spread all the news she could get her hands on, which was why everyone in Somerset Lake read it as faithfully as they would any newspaper.

  “That’s not a bad idea,” Lucy said. Geesh. I must really be desperate to consider spreading the word on Reva’s blog. “Now that it’s the holidays, it might be hard to find someone. People don’t usually make big life changes this time of year.”

  Moira looked at her seriously. “It’s a hard time of year for some people. The call center gets more calls than usual.”

  Lucy narrowed her eyes. “I know where this is coming from, and you don’t need to worry abou
t me. I’m fine.”

  “Great.” As if to prove a point, Moira asked, “So what are you doing for Thanksgiving next week then?”

  Lucy hugged her arms around herself even tighter. “Bella and I are, um, planning to stay home for a quiet day of reading. I have a huge stack of books that I’ve been meaning to get to.”

  “As much as I promote reading, doing so while home alone on Thanksgiving isn’t the best idea,” Tess said.

  “Not home alone. I have Bella.” Lucy understood that her argument was weak.

  Moira gave her a serious look. “Just know that my offer for you to come to my family’s home still stands. My mom owns a bakery. There’ll be lots of breaded things.”

  “You can also feel free to join me at my parents’ home,” Tess offered. “I’m the only single person there so bringing an ally would be a good thing.”

  These weren’t Lucy’s first invitations. She knew her friends meant well. But it was somehow sadder to sit around everyone else’s dinner table and pretend to be having a good time—when all you really wanted to do is be alone to count your losses, which for Lucy, felt immeasurable in the last year.

  * * *

  Miles had worked all day, starting early at Lucy’s house. Now his shift was over, but instead of going home, he was in the next best place. In his mind, at least.

  He stood at the head of one of three long tables with kids of various ages. The kids were bused from the school to the youth center every afternoon, where they completed homework, played games, and worked on projects that taught them team-building skills while also benefiting the community.

  Right now, they were working hard on making Thanksgiving cards to accompany the food baskets that they’d put together for the holiday delivery that always happened the weekend before the big day.

  Miles walked between two of the tables, commenting on the colorful drawings as he passed through. The children on this side of the room were mostly younger, except for Charlie Bates. Charlie was thirteen, but he liked to help out with the younger kids.

  “Hey, Charlie. How’re you doing?” Miles stepped over to where the boy was seated.

  Charlie looked up, lifting his lanky shoulders to the ears he hadn’t quite grown into yet. “Just hanging out, Deputy Bruno.”

  “Is your sister here?” Miles asked. Charlie’s sister Brittney was fifteen and had the attitude of three teenaged girls.

  “Nah. Mom doesn’t make her ride the bus here anymore. She gets to hang out with her boyfriend,” Charlie said.

  “Boyfriend? Already?” Miles shook his head. “Well, thanks for helping out, bud. It’s appreciated. How’s your mom and dad?”

  Charlie’s eyes dulled. His father had been laid off last month, and from what Miles had heard, they were struggling. Even so, he hadn’t seen the Bates family on the list of homes that would be receiving holiday food baskets this weekend.

  “They’re good,” Charlie said in a less than convincing tone of voice.

  “Glad to hear that. Let me know if I can help, okay? Don’t hesitate to ask for anything you need.”

  “Sure.” Charlie wasn’t looking at him anymore. Instead, he was back to drawing bubble letters on a piece of paper for the little girl beside him.

  Miles patted a hand on his shoulder and kept walking. “Keep working on the cards. We need them to be finished by this weekend,” he said as he walked back down the aisle to join the other adult volunteers, one of whom was Jake Fletcher.

  Miles had gone to school with Jake. They hadn’t exactly been friends, but since Jake had moved back to town this past summer, they had gotten closer. Jake worked as a lawyer in Magnolia Falls, and he also helped his fiancé Trisha Langly run the Somerset Cottages down on the south side of the lake.

  “How’s Charlie?” Jake asked.

  Miles’s gaze moved to the boy sitting at the table with the younger kids. “He seems to be doing okay, considering.”

  “His dad is having a hard time finding work. I spoke to him the other day,” Jake said.

  Miles couldn’t help thinking about his own childhood and father. “I wish the Sheriff’s Department was hiring.”

  “Lack of jobs can be a drawback of such a small town. Hopefully something will turn up soon.”

  Hopefully before the family got into dire straits. When Miles was growing up and his own father had lost his job, it had a domino effect that ended with his father walking out on Miles, his sister, and their mother. After that, hard times had gotten even tougher.

  Miles glanced over at Jake. “So, have you and Trisha set a date for the wedding yet?”

  Jake grinned from one ear to the other. “New Year’s.”

  “This coming one?” Miles raised his eyes. “That’s fast.”

  “When you know, you know,” Jake said. “And Trisha and I don’t need anything big or fancy.”

  Miles listened to Jake go into a few details. He and Lucy had decided the same thing when they were briefly engaged. They didn’t need a big church filled to the brim with people. They’d wanted to do things simply. Lucy had said she wanted to get married at dusk in the backyard of the pink house “with fairy lights everywhere” And she’d wanted to wear a white dress trimmed in lavender ribbon because, at eighteen, that had been her favorite color.

  Miles smiled to himself, wondering for a moment if it still was.

  “I was thinking…”—Jake said, pulling Miles from his memories—“maybe you would agree to be one of my groomsmen.”

  Miles felt his jaw drop. “You hated me in high school.”

  “True. But I like you now.”

  Miles chuckled. “I’d love to stand up there with you, buddy.”

  Jake offered his hand for Miles to shake. “Thanks. I would appreciate it.”

  “Well, I’m honored.” Miles smiled back at his friend, even if something inside his chest felt a little achy.

  Miles had seen a lot of his friends settle down in the last couple years. He didn’t buy into the whole biological clock; all he knew was that he liked the idea of spending his life with someone. But not until he was one hundred percent certain he could support them. He didn’t want to take any chances that he’d let a family down the way his own father had. That’s why he’d hesitated about dating seriously until this point in his life.

  Miles had the stable job and income now. The last thing on his list of criteria was a house that he owned instead of rented. His dad was always delinquent on rent. Miles’s family had been kicked out of three homes before his dad left their family. It was always his mom’s dream to own a house. A place that no one could take from them. Miles had adopted that goal for himself. He’d been saving money for a down payment, and he was gearing up to make it happen. Not today, but maybe next year.

  For the next couple hours, Miles encouraged, played, and joked with the youngest members of his community. At six p.m., when the youth center closed, Miles headed out to his truck. His cell phone rang as he slid behind the steering wheel. He pulled it out of his pocket and read the caller’s name.

  Tony Blake.

  It was so infrequent that Miles’s landlord ever called that he picked it up and answered right away, worried that maybe the older man was sick or needed help. “Hello, Mr. Blake. How are you?”

  “Good. And yourself?” Mr. Blake asked.

  “I can’t complain. I have all my needs met, including a roof over my head.” Miles laughed because it was supposed to be a joke.

  Mr. Blake remained quiet. “About that,” his landlord finally said, clearing his throat, “your lease is up at the end of month.” That wasn’t news to Miles. For the last several years, he’d re-upped his lease every November after Thanksgiving. “The thing is, I’m downsizing my life, and I’ve decided that I won’t be leasing out that house anymore. I’m going to move into it myself.”

  Miles took a moment to process what Mr. Blake was telling him. “I’m being kicked out?”

  “I’m sorry, Miles. You’ve been a great tenant. But I’m afr
aid to say, I need you to move out. As soon as possible.”

  * * *

  The next day, Lucy woke to her alarm clock instead of a frisky opossum with its head in her rainwater jar. She had her coffee first and then showered and dressed for the day. After that, she went to the counter of Sweetie’s Bake Shop for another cup of brew and a bite to eat before sitting alone at a table along the wall and pulling out her laptop.

  She took a huge bite of her bagel as she pulled up Reva Dawson’s blog for the town. Reva liked to use bullet points to list the town’s goings-on. That way you could read it more easily, digesting the gossip in small increments so that you were sure to remember it all and pass it on.

  It wasn’t all gossip, of course. Listed today, for example, was that Lakeside Books was having a sale on children’s titles, Choco-Lovers was having a chocolate tasting on Thanksgiving weekend, and the youth center was helping with the Thanksgiving meal baskets that were handed out every year. And…

  Lucy nearly choked on her bite of bagel. It lodged at the back of her throat before she could swallow effectively. She slapped a hand on her breastbone, helping it along, and reached for her coffee to wash it completely down. The coffee was too hot though, and it burned the roof of her mouth. She supposed that was better than choking.

  When she could breathe again, she read the bullet point with her name again.

  Lucy Hannigan had a break-in on Thursday morning. Deputy Miles Bruno was called to the scene and he handled the little rascal who turned out to be a raccoon.

  “It was an opossum!” Lucy practically yelled at her computer screen.

  Darla set a glass of water in front of Lucy. “Here you go, sweetie. Don’t want you to keel over in my bakery. That’s bad for business.”

  “And then it would make a bullet point in Reva’s blog,” Lucy said sarcastically. “Thank you.” She reached for the glass of water and drank half before setting it down. Darla was still standing there.

  “Can I get you something else?” she asked.

  Lucy checked the time on her phone. “I have a client appointment in fifteen minutes.” Lucy looked at Darla. “Can I get another one of these? For my client.”