The Shore House: An emotional and uplifting page turner (Dewberry Beach Book 1)

by Heidi Hostetter

  When Ryan was a boy, his mother had taught him that it was never a good idea to respond in anger, and it was all he could do to follow her advice now. They’d pledged—Ryan, Jeff, and Sean; all three of them had pledged—to never let the money change their friendship. At their core, they were three nerdy friends who wrote a computer program because it seemed like fun, and they’d vowed that moving forward, they would make decisions together. Now, it seemed that Sean had gone back on his word.

  “So what d’ya say?” Todd brayed. “The partner bonus if we make this happen could fund a nice summer vacation. Paris, maybe. I bet Sharon would love to see the Eiffel Tower.”

  “Stacy.”

  “What?”

  “Stacy,” Ryan repeated. “My wife’s name is Stacy and she spent a year studying in Paris, so she’s seen the tower.”

  Todd continued as if it didn’t matter. “Yes, well, I’ll share the spreadsheet with the new dates so you can see what we’re talking about. You can adjust your team’s workload accordingly.”

  “Nope. I don’t think so, Todd.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You already changed our schedule back in March, adding nearly impossible deadlines. But we met all of them and I promised my team some much-needed time off. Now you want me to go back and tell them they can’t have it?”

  “We can talk about specifics later. Right now, what I need is a basic agreement about an accelerated schedule.”

  “Talk to Sean. He can do it,” Ryan said. “I promised my team time off. They have families, and summer plans, and they deserve a rest. What you’re asking of them is too much.”

  “If that’s your decision, fine.” Todd sighed. “I’ll take another look at the UMD company and see where we stand. Maybe there’s a compromise somewhere. If I can find one, will you at least look at whatever new schedule we come up with?”

  He wanted to refuse. It was on the tip of his tongue to remind Todd of the deal he offered back in March, that if they met the new schedule, he wouldn’t change anything else. Todd should honor his word.

  But then he remembered the twenty-nine people in his department who were counting on him to protect their paychecks, their jobs, their careers. Shutting this down would be personally satisfying, but it would be detrimental to his team.

  “Sure. I’ll look at it.” The words were bitter in his mouth.

  As he hung up the phone, he felt the weight of his responsibilities press against his shoulders. Before he and Stacy were married, they’d agreed to having a big family. Stacy had done her part. She’d quit a job she loved to take care of the kids. The least he could do was make sure there was money to feed them all.

  He pushed himself up from the couch and headed for his office, remembering the days when he worked on projects just because they were fun.

  The stoplight changed from red to green and the line of cars rolled forward, a snarl of red brake lights in a ribbon of traffic. The automatic windshield wipers in Stacy’s car flicked on. She leaned against the headrest, watching the blades clear a path across the glass. Sophie was napping in the back seat and the soccer game had been called off because of rain, so Melissa had treated the boys to a movie after all.

  As Stacy slowed to a halt again to wait through another cycle of the stoplight, her cell phone rang. Without giving it much thought, she poked the console screen with one finger and returned her hand to the wheel.

  “Hello?”

  “Stacy, it’s your mother.” Her mother’s voice was clipped, purposeful. Kaye Holloway Bennett always had a reason for calling. “I’m calling to confirm our summer plans at the shore.”

  “We’re coming to visit the first two weeks of August. I’ve marked it on the calendar.”

  “Yes, well that’s why I’m calling. Your father has asked me to arrange for a longer visit.”

  “Longer?”

  “Yes.”

  “Two weeks is a long visit, Mom.”

  “Your father has asked that you come for longer than two weeks.”

  “You mean like for a month?”

  “I mean for the whole summer. Memorial Day to Labor Day.”

  “But Memorial Day is next weekend.”

  “The children’s last day of school is Friday, isn’t it? That’s almost a full week away. You can drive down on Saturday morning if you need an extra day.”

  Stacy would need more than an extra day. She pictured the family calendar on the kitchen wall, meticulously kept and updated. Oversized and color-coded, it contained every activity for the entire family—business trips, sports games, parent-teacher conferences, holiday parties, birthdays, and field trips—for the whole year. Summers were as tightly scheduled as the months before. Camps for both kids began next week, with additional activities running all the way through August. She’d booked Sophie’s spot in art camp back in January, because even though the camp had been months away, it filled up quickly. Connor was just as busy as his sister, and Stacy found herself resenting the implication that her summer would be carefree.

  “Are you still there?” Kaye asked. Stacy could almost see her mother’s impatience.

  Wasn’t Stacy a little old to be summoned by her mother? It certainly felt that way.

  “Dad asked for this?”

  “Yes.”

  “Seems odd, Mom. Dad doesn’t usually care.”

  “Well, he does this year and I’ve called to confirm. Can we count on you for the summer?”

  “I don’t know, Mom. Can we talk about this later? The traffic light’s about to change and I’m in the car.”

  Kaye hesitated and Stacy assumed they’d been disconnected. She was about to hang up when her mother spoke. “You should know that your father asked specifically for this. It’s important to him that you come, especially after what he’s been through.”

  Stacy’s father never asked for anything. It was her mother who had arranged everything for the family—birthday parties, lessons, school for Stacy and her brother, social engagements for her father. He had always seemed to be happy to go along with whatever she’d decided.

  If he asked for this specifically, something had changed.

  “Is Dad okay?” The car behind her beeped, impatient at the gap between Stacy’s car and the one in front of her. She flicked on her blinker and pulled into a crowded grocery parking lot. “What did the cardiologist say?”

  “Nothing like that, Stacy. The doctors say he’s fully recovered. They’ve encouraged him to rest this summer and he wants his family around him, that’s all.”

  “You can’t scare me like that, Mom.” Stacy let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

  “It’s the first thing he’s asked for in months, Stacy. After what he’s suffered, I think he deserves to get it, don’t you?”

  “Is Brad coming too?”

  “Of course your brother’s coming.”

  “You’ve talked to him? I think he’s still traveling,” Stacy pressed. There was no way she could handle her mother, undiluted, for an entire summer; she needed her brother there too. “I haven’t spoken to him in weeks.”

  The car behind her beeped its horn and Stacy glanced in her side mirror. She waved the driver away when she realized he wanted her parking spot. He went, but he didn’t look happy about it.

  “Three years,” Kaye reported, as if she’d been recording her family’s inattention. “We haven’t been together as a family at the shore house for three summers. We have that chance now and it would mean so much to your father. You know how hard this recovery process has been for him.”

  “I haven’t forgotten about Dad’s heart attack, Mom. I came to the ICU and sat with you, remember?” Stacy winced at the sharpness of her reply. If she and her mother were to spend an entire summer together, they needed to find a way to get along. She drew a breath and tried again. “It’s possible, but I’ll have to check with Ryan to see what his work schedule is. I don’t know how much time off he can take.”

  “You know,
your father worked all week in the city then caught the Friday afternoon train from Grand Central Terminal to spend weekends with us. I’m sure Ryan can do the same.”

  “I won’t ask Ryan to do that.” What her mother proposed meant five days without Connor and Sophie seeing their dad. Stacy’s mother may have thought the arrangement worked well, but Stacy remembered a father who was absent most of the time, and summer wasn’t any different. Even when he was physically present he was distracted. She wanted more than that for her own children.

  “I’m sure you’ll come up with something. I’ve made up the blue room for you and Ryan. You remember, it gets a nice shore breeze? Bunk beds for Sophie and Connor are set up in Brad’s old room.”

  “Mom—I’ll have to let you know.”

  “Your father will be thrilled,” Kaye continued, as if the decision had been made. “Send me a list of what the kids like to eat and I’ll make sure to have it. And if you’re coming on Saturday morning, don’t forget traffic backs up on the inlet bridge. You should leave early.”

  They arrived home just before noon. Sophie first, bleary-eyed and wired from a nap in the car. Stacy followed, dropping her car keys on the table.

  Ryan rose from his place on the couch to greet them. “Hey, Soph, aren’t you going to say hello?”

  Sophie paused, just for a moment. “’Lo, Daddy,” she said, then continued down the hallway to her room.

  Ryan moved toward his wife. As she dropped her bag and kicked off her shoes, he noticed how tired she looked.

  “Why don’t you go lie down? I’ll order takeout.”

  “No, it’s fine,” she replied, her voice flat.

  Years before—before the job, before the kids—he would have been able to tell what was wrong. Now, he wasn’t sure what was wrong, but something was off.

  “How was ballet?” He followed her to the kitchen.

  “Fine.” She opened the refrigerator and stood before it, scanning the contents. “Sophie needs a brand-new costume for the recital on Thursday, which, coincidentally, the ballet studio happened to have in stock. Lucky me.”

  “Your mother called.”

  “Called here? And you picked up?” Stacy glanced at him.

  “Sure.” Ryan reached into the cabinet for a bag of chips. “We had a nice chat.” He opened the bag, careful to keep his tone neutral. Nothing good ever came from getting between Stacy and her mother. “She mentioned something about the shore house?”

  “She called me too. She said Dad wants us all to come down for the summer.”

  “Aren’t we already planning that?”

  Stacy pointed to the family calendar. “I scheduled two weeks at the end of August. That’s not the whole summer.” Stacy closed the refrigerator door with a sigh. “She swears Dad’s been looking forward to it, but I’m not sure I believe it.”

  “How do you know your father didn’t ask for it? He’s had a rough time of it lately. Maybe he does want to spend time with his family.”

  “That’s what my mother said.” Stacy reached for a glass and filled it with water.

  “And why don’t you believe it?”

  “Because he’s not that kind of father. Never has been. I’m pretty sure he only came to the shore on summer weekends because my mother made him. He worked so much that I don’t think he would have noticed a summer without us.”

  “So what did you tell her?” Ryan popped a chip into his mouth and crunched.

  “That’s garbage; don’t eat that.” Stacy grabbed the bag from him and rolled it closed. “I told her I had to check with you, just to get off the phone. I’ll call her back later to say you can’t get the time off work and we can only come for the two weeks in August. That’s enough.”

  “Well, let’s think about it first.” He leaned against the counter and folded his arms across his chest. Why shouldn’t he take a break if his wife wanted to spend the summer with her family? Sean clearly had no trouble clearing his calendar and they hadn’t heard from Jeff in weeks. “It might be good to get away. Spend some time by the ocean.”

  He thought he saw a flicker of something in his wife’s expression, but it was gone in an instant. The fact remained, though, that if spending the summer with Stacy’s family would allow her rest, he would make it happen.

  Stacy set her glass on the counter and pointed to the calendar. “May I present our family calendar.”

  He squinted at it, unsure of how to respond. That calendar had hung in the same space since Connor was a baby; the only thing that changed was the year or the amount of writing on the pages. He barely noticed it anymore. He glanced from the calendar to his wife. Her expression was expectant, as if she were waiting for something, but he had absolutely no idea what it was. It didn’t seem to be the right time to compliment her organizational skills.

  When he didn’t reply, she tapped the page, her frown deepening. “The end-of-year party for Connor’s class is Thursday afternoon and I’ve been assigned to the task of picking up two dozen cupcakes from a bakery in exactly the opposite direction. Fine. I can do that.” Stacy sliced her hand through the air. “Just this morning, Sophie’s ballet recital was rescheduled from Thursday to Friday, with a mandatory rehearsal beginning at 7 a.m. via email, an ‘oh by the way’ as if I have nothing else to do. That’s not okay.” Her voice rose as she jabbed at the calendar again, this time further down. “Week after next, school lets out and summer camps start. Soccer for Connor, Art for Sophie. The reading tutor I booked for Sophie comes twice a week, leaving room for Connor to enroll in camp with Archie. Only, now, Archie doesn’t want to go, which presents a whole other bucket of scheduling problems because Connor will want to do whatever Archie does.”

  Stacy glared at the calendar, and then at him. “My whole summer is a delicate spider web of commitments—move any one of them and it affects everything else. Do you have any idea how many phone calls it will take to cancel their camps? How much deposit money we’ll lose if I cancel at the last minute?”

  Ryan swallowed but said nothing. He put the bag of chips carefully on the counter.

  Years ago, when they were first married and Stacy was expecting Connor, Ryan made the mistake of telling her to “calm down.” Stacy’s reaction was different than he’d hoped and he learned never to do it again. Instead, he paused a moment to see his wife, the woman he loved more than anything, standing before him, breathless with frustration and jabbing at a page on the wall. He saw how pale her face had become, that the dark smudges under her eyes weren’t a result of smeared make-up as he’d first thought. Stacy looked utterly exhausted, as if strength of will was the only thing that held her upright. And at that moment, the only thing that mattered to him was getting her the rest she needed.

  “Cancel anyway.”

  Stacy blinked.

  “I mean it. Cancel everything.” He pulled out a chair for her and guided her to it. “A whole summer at your parents’ shore house sounds like a great idea. Family time. Just the break we all need.”

  “But…” Stacy sank into the chair and rubbed her forehead with her palm. “I think my mother’s orchestrating this, using my father’s recovery as an excuse to get us to come.”

  “Maybe so, but consider this: your mother’s had a difficult few years. She’s managing your father’s appointments and taken care of him herself, even though we’ve suggested she hire help. Now that it’s over, should we begrudge her a summer with her family?”

  Stacy sagged against the back of the chair “My mother is expecting us to just drop everything and drive down when school’s over. That’s next week.”

  Something in Stacy’s expression advised Ryan to treaded carefully, so he did. He shrugged. “It’s your call. We’ll do whatever makes you happy. Just don’t refuse right away. Think about it first.”

  “What about your work? Can you really spend the whole summer away from your office?”

  Ryan remembered what Todd had said about Sean’s big plans for that afternoon: car shopping. They hadn’t
heard from Jeff in a while—for all Ryan knew, Jeff could be out doing the same thing, spending the partner bonus that would come with the new round of funding. Maybe it was time for Ryan to get away too.

  “Mommy!” Sophie called from her bedroom.

  “In the kitchen, Sophie,” Stacy answered as she rose from her chair. “She’s probably hungry. I should get lunch started.”

  Little feet pounded down the hallway and Sophie appeared at the door, wearing an eye patch, her pirate tunic from last year’s Halloween costume, Stacy’s bathrobe, and a long feather boa. Their daughter leaned forward, planted her fists firmly on her waist. “Arrrrgh.”

  Stacy blinked. “That’s quite a costume, Soph.”

  “I found it in the box in your closet, Mommy. There’s so many nice things in your closet.”

  Stacy sighed and dropped back to her chair.

  “Okay.” Ryan stepped forward to grab his car keys from the hook. “We’re going out for lunch so Mommy can nap.”

  “Can I be a pirate?” Sophie looked at him and waited.

  Ryan glanced at Stacy, who offered no help at all, though she seemed to be holding back a smile and that made him happy—to see a blush of color returning to her cheeks.

  “’Course you can.” He shrugged. “Not every day I get to have pizza with a feather-boa’d pirate.”

  “Can I bring my new purple rainboots?”

  “They’re in the hall closet. I’ll get them.” Stacy rose from her chair.

  “I can find them,” Ryan offered.

  “Not in that closet, you can’t.” Stacy smiled, her mood improved. “Seriously, it’s enough that you’re taking her to lunch. Make it a long lunch and bring me something back. Nothing would make me happier.”

  “We should go to the shore for the summer,” Ryan said impulsively. If a little thing like taking Sophie to lunch made his wife happy, he would spend the whole summer doing just that. Stacy paused at the doorway, so he continued. “As long as I have my laptop and a good internet connection, I can work from anywhere.”