A Safe Place to Land

by Dee Ernst

  I drank down my beer in a long gulp. “He’s tall like Sam, too. With broad shoulders…I gotta say ladies, it brought back a whole lotta memories.”

  Karen came scurrying through the door and pulled up a chair. “Thanks,” she said, taking a glass from Dee. “What did I miss?”

  “Jenna here has the hots for Sam’s kid,” Terri said.

  “No, I do not,” I shot back. “And he’s not a kid. He’s close to forty. Maybe over forty.”

  “But,” Stella said. “He is hot.”

  I nodded. “Oh, yes. And he has three girls.”

  Marie came in last, sitting down next to Karen and looking up at Dee. “Aren’t you working?” she asked.

  DeeDee shook her head. “”They all can get their own beer. I wanna hear this. Three girls?”

  “Yes. Twins, maybe five or six, who look like…moppets, with big eyes and rosy cheeks and friggin pigtails.” I drained my glass and held it out while DeeDee poured another. “They’re so damn cute all they need is a mop and pail to be in the chorus of Annie.”

  ”So he’s married and hot?” Terri asked.

  I stopped drinking and set my glass down slowly. “I don’t know.”

  “I do,” Marie said. “He told me his wife died last year, and that’s why he was coming here in the first place. He said he needed a fresh start.”

  “He also said he left Chicago in a hurry,” I told them. “And Amanda said her grandpa was after them.”

  “Amanda the moppet?” Stella asked.

  I shook my head. “No, Amanda the tragic teen.”

  “Well, of course she’s tragic,” Karen said. “Her mother died.”

  I pushed aside my beer glass and dropped my head onto the table, my forehead settling right into the wet ring of condensation. “I just want them to go away and leave me alone,” I wailed. “But he’s gorgeous and the twins are too adorable and Amanda is grieving because their mother died.” I lifted my head. “What am I going to do?” I asked them all.

  DeeDee sniffed. “Well, Jenna, you might try to do something with your hair. It’s your best feature, and it’s always tied up in that knot on top of your head.”

  Terri folded her hands together. “You cannot be hateful to little girls.”

  Stella nodded. “That’s right.”

  Karen nodded thoughtfully. “Maybe a haircut? Some layers would do wonders. And you might try a padded bra? If you’re going to be comforting, you should also look soft and roundish, you know?”

  I rolled my eyes. “No. I do not know.”

  Marie sipped her beer delicately. “Jenna, you’ve got a man here who’s going to be running Sam’s on Main, which is a big deal, and he’s good looking and a widow. Every single woman in fifty miles is going to be on Craig Ferris like white on rice, and he’s living in your house. Wear a little lipstick, girl. At least try.”

  “But…oh, God.” I put my head down again. “What if he’s a miserable prick?”

  I heard Stella sigh. “Then you can just pass him on to someone else.”

  I lifted my head. “Can someone drive me?” I asked.

  Terri nodded. “Me and Stella can tag team.”

  “Good,” I said. I looked at DeeDee. “A shot. Tequila. Make it two.”

  Chapter Three

  When I woke up, the sun was barely peeking over the water, and my room was bright. I hadn’t managed to draw the drapes before I got into bed the night before. I was surprised to see I’d managed to take off my shoes.

  All three dogs were in bed with me, and I eased out slowly. Only Chloe woke, lifting her head, sniffing, then going back to sleep. It was too early for them. On my days off, they slept in later than I. Smart dogs.

  I pulled off my clothes from the night before, changed into sweatpants and my prized Star Wars T-shirt, and padded out to the kitchen in my bare feet. I made coffee, then sat at the long, narrow table that was pushed up against the bay window, overlooking my yard and the Bay. I cracked open a window and cool, damp air rushed in. It also let in the sound of the birds quarreling in the trees.

  “You came in late last night?” Craig said behind me.

  He was standing, wearing pajama bottoms of faded gray, snug around his hips, and a black T-shirt. I swear I could see every friggin’ muscle in his chest. I closed my eyes and wondered why I hadn’t at least tried to find a slinky black nightgown to wear to get my morning coffee.

  “Um…yeah. Had a few with some friends. They drove me home. Late.” I wanted to mention, just for conversation sake, that my tongue still felt like the bottom of a litter box, but decided against it.

  “Can I have some coffee?”

  I waved my mug. “Sure. Cream is in the fridge. You all get to sleep okay last night?”

  I heard him stirring, the soft clink of a spoon against the sides of the mug. “I couldn’t find any sheets for my bed.”

  “Oh. There’s an extra set in the top of your closet.”

  “The closet is full of boxes.”

  Right. That was where all the old Christmas decorations I didn’t know what else to do with had been stashed. “I’ll empty that out today, and find those sheets.”

  “Thanks.”

  He sat on the other side of the table, and we looked at each other. I was fairly sure he hadn’t slept well. How could he? New place, dogs barking to be let out, girls probably all upset. But I knew that, side-by-side, he’d win hands-down any early morning beauty contest.

  I cleared my throat. “So, tell me why you don’t have any place else to live.” That was, I thought, a relevant question. After all, the answer was why he was in my house in the first place.

  He ran his hands over his face. “My wife and I were in the middle of a pretty ugly divorce when she…died. Car accident. She was impaired.” He paused. “I’d had a bit of a problem with that myself. I’m sober now for eight years, but she tried to use it to get full custody of the girls.”

  “Wait. You’re an alcoholic, and you’re going to be running a bar?”

  He shrugged. “Until I find a buyer, yes. It’s all I’ve got. I spent whatever savings I had on lawyers, and I don’t think the employment opportunities for a web developer are all that great in Cape Edwards.”

  “You could probably find something across the Bay,” I told him.

  “And I’ll look there. Once things have settled down.” He stared down into his mug.

  “So, why don’t you have any other place to live?”

  “Because the house we’d been living in belonged to Deb’s—my wife’s—father. And he’s taken up the fight for custody of the girls. So I had to leave in a hurry. If I hadn’t gotten that call from Ellis Summer, I don’t know what I would have done.” He took a long gulp of coffee, looked at me, and shrugged briefly.

  We sat. “I’m sorry about Sam,” I said at last. “Were you guys close? Ellis said he’d been in contact with you for a while.”

  He shrugged again. “Sam didn’t come into my life until I was an adult. He didn’t even know I was alive until Mom died. But when he found out, boy, he really did try. I mean he wanted to be a father, you know? Christ, the first thing he did when we met was take me to a baseball game. I was almost twenty-five years old, and he wanted to take me to a ball game.” He shook his head. “He was a great guy, he really was. Treated me and my girls like gold.”

  Yes, I imagined that Sam would. He’d wanted to be a father. He used to joke that was why he’d married me, because I was young enough to have a dozen kids for him, and I think there was a grain of truth there.

  I did some quick math in my head. It wasn’t my strongest suit, but even I could subtract. He was twenty-five when Sam came into his life. That was right when Sam left me and went to New York. I was twenty-three. “You’re older than me? Forty-two?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. How old are you?”

  “Forty.” It all made sense now. That was why he went back to New York and filed for divorce. A son. He’d finally gotten what he’d always wanted and putting up with
a crazy girl like me wasn’t worth it any more.

  “He found out about you and filed for divorce,” I muttered.

  “Oh, God, I’m sorry,” Craig said, looking stricken.

  I put my hands up. “No, no, please, Craig, don’t think it was all because of you. Sam and I were pretty much over by then. In fact, the only time we were even civil to each other—” I stopped. What was the protocol for telling a man that the only time a woman was civil to his father was when they were having sex? I dropped my eyes.

  If he wanted to hear the end of that sentence, he hid it well. “What broke you up?”

  “I was young and stupid and he wasn’t,” I said, which was the truth. After working at the bar for two years, I went off to college, and for the first time saw what life was like outside of Cape Edwards. I wanted to go to keg parties and lectures by Carl Sagan. My husband wanted a wife who made him dinner and massaged his back—and front. I didn’t understand what a twenty-plus-year-age gap meant. Maybe I didn’t want to understand. “We became good friends after he came back,” I told him. “But he never told me about you.”

  He looked at me evenly. “He never told me about you, either. He never talked about this place at all, what he did, the people he knew. I stopped pressing. If he wanted his secrets, then fine. He was entitled to secrets.” He took in a deep breath, held it, then let it to out slowly. “Listen, Jenna, my girls and I have had a really tough year. I’m here because I needed a safe place to land, you know? I’ll sell the bar, get a job, and let you buy me out. I just need some quiet, stable time with my girls so we can all feel like a family again. Okay?”

  What choice did I have? Here was this obviously nice man in a crappy position. I could be a total bitch or a decent human being.

  “Okay.” I pushed away from the table. “I need to shower and wash the smell of beer off my skin. When the kids are up, we’ll go into town for breakfast. I’ll show you the Food Lion, where the schools are, and maybe you can take the girls out to the beach for a bit. Supposed to be warm today. Besides, the whole town is dying to get a look at you all.”

  He ran his hand through his hair. “That sounds good. Thanks. But Jenna…I’d appreciate it if you kinda kept the details to yourself. I owe you an honest explanation of what’s going on, but I don’t want the gossip to start before I even clock in my first week.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, I hear you. The jungle drums around here are vicious. Your story is yours to tell, Craig.”

  I brought my coffee mug to the sink and left him quietly sitting, staring as the sun came up over the Chesapeake Bay.

  We had breakfast at Shorty’s.

  During the summer, there was a line pretty much all the time outside Shorty’s. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, after dinner…people were willing to wait. Early May meant only the locals, so although the tables were close to full, we walked in and sat right down at the big table by the window. The conversation didn’t actually stop when we came in, but there was a noticeable lull, then rise. Sam’s family was getting its first official introduction to Cape Edwards.

  “Morning, Elise,” I said as the waitress passed out menus. “This is Craig Ferris, Sam’s son. Craig, Elise runs the front of the house here, so if you want a seat during season, start sending her flowers and chocolates now.”

  Craig looked up. “Pleasure, Elise. Jenna here talked you up all the way over.”

  Elise looked pleased. “Makes sense if she did. She’s one of our favorite customers. Coffee for two? And what do the young ladies want to drink?”

  Amanda sunk down a bit in her seat. “Hot tea?”

  Craig opened his menu. “Milk for the other two, thanks.”

  Elise nodded and trotted off.

  Craig looked carefully at the menu. “What do you think? Jenna seemed to think that waffles are the way to go. Her description was quite…convincing.” He was being kind. I talked about those waffles the whole trip over.

  Maddie nodded as she bounced in her seat. “Yes, please. One really big waffle with lots of bananas and chocolate syrup all over the top.”

  “Ah, no,” Craig said.

  Larissa opened the menu and seemed to look at the items very carefully. “What’s a c-r-e-p-e?”

  “A really thin pancake,” I explained. “And it’s usually rolled up around fruit.”

  She considered. “Does it come with whipped cream?”

  “No,” said Craig. “It doesn’t come with chocolate syrup either. Remember what we said about morning food and snack food?”

  Maddie and Larissa looked at each other, gave identical eye rolls, and sighed.

  “Can I have a crepe? With whipped cream?” Amanda asked.

  Craig stared at her. “Really? Amanda? Can you not even guess the answer?”

  Maddie and Larissa giggled at the exact same time.

  “So…that’s a no?” Amanda asked, perfectly innocent.

  “That’s a no.”

  The twins, to their credit, did not stick out their tongues, make faces, or otherwise attempt to make a statement.

  Elise came back with a tray, distributed her goods, and quickly took orders. Craig ordered eggs and toast. Very boring, considering all the other options. I stuck to my usual order, maple-nut pancakes with homemade sausage. The girls all went for the waffle.

  Amanda spent about three minutes dunking her tea bag in and out of her mug, during which time Maddie and Larissa asked thirty-seven questions about Shorty’s. I had most of the answers. I recognized pretty much all of the people at the other tables and made eye contact or smiled at most of them. No one pulled up a chair to ask Craig what his intentions were, but that may have been because of the kids at the table.

  Craig finally held up a hand to silence the twins. “So, Jenna, first I think we need to get these girls into school, yes?”

  Maddie and Larissa both sighed.

  “School is stupid.”

  “They can never tell us apart.”

  “Will we have to wear name tags?”

  “Maybe I can have blue hair instead of blond like Maddie?”

  He held up a hand again. “Stop. Jenna?”

  “Well, the elementary school is close. Amanda will have to go up to Eastville for middle school. They can all get a bus, but I doubt you’ll get a pickup close to the house. You’ll probably have to take them out to the main road.”

  “That’s not a problem.”

  He was wearing a denim shirt, faded and stretched across his shoulders. He hadn’t shaved, so there was a faint stubble coming in a reddish-gold. He drank some coffee. “That Summer guy gave me keys to the bar, but I didn’t actually go in yesterday.”

  Ah. “I’ll be happy to go with you, introduce you. Glory, the cook, is usually there by ten. We could stop there first, if you like.”

  Maddie started bouncing again. “I wanna see Grandpa’s bar,” she said, rather loudly. If there was any one person in Shorty’s who was wondering who I was having breakfast with, she probably answered the question.

  Craig tilted his head at her. “You know that little girls aren’t supposed to be in bars,” he said.

  Maddie continued bouncing, undeterred. “But it’s our bar,” she said. “I can be there if I want.”

  Olivia Kopecknie materialized so quickly I wondered if she’d been hiding under the floorboards and just rose up at Craig’s side. “Jenna, honey, aren’t you going to introduce me?”

  Olivia and I had hated each other all through elementary school, middle school, high school, and she had not been invited to my wedding. For some reason, she was always competing with me. She liked to tell people she had better grades in high school, got out of college sooner than I did, had a job at a better hospital…would even point out that her Jeep was newer than mine. She was definitely ahead in the husband department, three to my one. She was curvy and quite pretty with bottle-blond hair and lots of mascara. This morning she was dressed in jeans so tight I could almost see the cellulite on her thighs through the denim.

  �
��Olivia, this is Craig Ferris and his daughters, Amanda, Maddie and Larissa.”

  She practically reached over and took Craig’s hand off his coffee cup. “Olivia Wheaton,” she murmured.

  “Oh? Which husband’s name is that again?” I asked.

  She ignored me. “I’m so sad about your father. Sam was a pillar of the community and will be missed.” She managed to say all those words and sound completely sincere while never moving her bright red lips.

  Elise came up behind her. “Olivia, you’ve got to move or pass around these plates,” she said.

  Olivia stepped to the side and Elise served us. As soon as the plates hit the table, Olivia moved in again.

  Craig nodded politely. “Thank you, Olivia.”

  She crouched down next to him. “I heard that you just came down from Chicago,” she purred. “Where are you staying here in Cape Edwards?”

  “He’s staying with me, Olivia. At the house.” I smiled brightly, then bent to smother my pancakes with syrup.

  She cracked a little. “Oh?”

  Craig picked up his fork, but she didn’t take the hint, so he put it back down. “Yes. We’re all camped out there right now. One big, happy family.”

  She glanced around the table. “Oh?”

  Amanda was helping Maddie cut up her waffle, and I turned to help Larissa.

  “Jenna has goats and dogs and a big garden,” Maddie said.

  “And the house is really big,” Larissa said.

  “We’re going to paint our bedroom pink.”

  “And get a new dresser.”

  “There’s a big TV and we have lots of movies.”

  “The bathroom is gross but I saw boats out on the water this morning.”

  I finished with Larissa and went back to my own breakfast. “See, Olivia? One big, happy family.”

  She stood abruptly, and I inwardly sighed. Now, aside from the detailed description of every single thing we all ate for breakfast racing around town, word would be that Craig and I were already shacking up. But the look on Olivia’s face almost made it worthwhile.

  “Well,” she said, “I’ll let you all get on with your breakfast. Nice meeting you.” She laid a hand on Craig’s shoulder. “I hope to see much more of you.”