This Reminds Me of Us

by Julia Gabriel

  I didn’t remember taking yoga classes. Or what my usual order here was. She tried to shut down the thought that was barreling toward her like a runaway train, but it was no use. Maybe she did have an affair with Ben? It was hard to imagine, but … maybe I was a different person back then. She sipped her coffee and let the doubts swirl in her mind.

  No. It was impossible. She loved Ollie. She gave up her trust fund, her fledgling career, her family in order to move to St. Caroline and marry him. And she regretted none of that. Where did Matt get off telling Oliver she’d had coffee with Ben? When would that have happened anyway? Ben was a teacher. It’s not like he could sneak out of the classroom in the middle of the day to go have coffee!

  She waited to hear that voice in her head ... waited to hear it agree with her. Waited to hear it say, “You absolutely did not have an affair with your best friend’s husband.” But the voice was silent.

  Chapter 23

  Serena peered through the large front window of Quilt Therapy. The shop always had some sort of charity quilt stretched out on a big quilting frame near the front. She could be wrong, but it seemed like some customers came just to work on the quilt and then left without buying anything.

  Today, only Cassidy Trevor was seated there, one hand beneath the layers of fabric, the other working a tiny needle on top. That was a good sign, she thought, as she quietly opened the shop’s door. It meant Cassidy was recovering from her injuries. But what wasn’t a good sign was the way Cassidy looked up and eyed her warily.

  Did Ollie… Serena wanted to believe that her husband hadn’t blabbed about the letter or his suspicions to other people, much less his brothers. From the expression on Cassidy’s face though, her faith in Oliver might be misplaced.

  “Hi there, Cassidy!” She wasn’t going to act guilty. “How are you doing?” She also wouldn’t let on what she knew about Cassidy and Matt’s relationship. According to Oliver, they weren’t supposed to be dating, but secretly were. The Trevor family was prioritizing Jack and Becca’s relationship, which made sense on the one hand. There was a child involved.

  On the other hand, she felt for Cassidy. She had walked a mile in those pinching, blister-inducing shoes. She knew what it was like to have your family disapprove of a relationship, to try and tell you whom you could and couldn’t love. Granted, it might be for the best in Cassidy’s case. Matt was no Oliver. Unless his personality had done a one-eighty at some point and Serena just couldn’t remember it, her brother-in-law wasn’t exactly the type to settle down.

  “I’m fine,” Cassidy replied.

  “Is your mom here?”

  Cassidy nodded. “Mom!” she called out. “Serena Wolfe’s here!” Her eyes never left Serena’s face. “Sorry, I’d go get her but I’m supposed to stay off my leg.”

  Serena nodded. “I understand.” A pair of crutches leaned against the wall.

  Michelle appeared from the back hallway. “Hi there. What can I do for you? Don’t tell me you’ve used up all of Angie’s stash already.”

  Was it her imagination or was Michelle’s demeanor also cool? But she smiled. Not everything is about me, she reminded herself. Michelle certainly had her own sources of stress—a business to run, two daughters in love, an unexpected grandchild.

  “No, not yet.” Serena looked around the empty shop. “I wanted to invite you and—” She looked over at the quilting frame. “—Cassidy and Becca and Natalie to a tea that Lucy and I are hosting for Ashley Wardman.”

  Lucy probably wouldn’t mind if Serena gave her co-hosting status. An invitation from Lucy carried a little more weight around town.

  “Oh, that’s a lovely idea,” Michelle exclaimed. “When are you thinking?”

  “March 4th.” She lowered her voice, even though no one else was in the shop yet. “It’s her wedding anniversary. We don’t want her to be alone and dwelling on it that day.”

  Michelle pressed her hands together. “Excellent idea. Ashley doesn’t seem to be doing well. She looked better over the holidays.”

  “She had a lot of support over Christmas. But she feels like everyone has moved on now.”

  “Oh dear. That’s not good. Well, I should get moving on the support group.”

  “What support group?” Cassidy re-entered the conversation.

  “I want to start a combination grief support-quilting group for women in town.”

  “Here at the shop?” Cassidy asked.

  Michelle nodded. “Here and maybe also host a group at the nursing home. We don’t do enough with them, and I think we should.”

  “I volunteer there all the time.” Cassidy stopped quilting for a moment. “Those are good ideas, Mom, but you need to keep me in the loop. Okay?”

  Serena was beginning to think she should quietly make her exit. Clearly, she was in the middle of an ongoing point of contention between Michelle and her daughter.

  “We’ll talk about it later.” Michelle turned to Serena. “So where are you and Lucy thinking about having this tea? At the Inn?”

  “At Evangeline’s.”

  “Oh that will be nice,” Michelle said. “I don’t think I’ve been to tea there since Angie’s bridal shower.” She gave a little laugh. “And that’s been awhile! Count me in. Cassidy?” Michelle turned toward her eldest daughter.

  Cassidy nodded and shrugged at the same time. “Sure.”

  The younger woman wasn’t radiating enthusiasm, exactly, but—mission accomplished in Serena’s mind. She had a venue and guests. Still, as she left the shop, Cassidy’s cool reception had her feeling a little unsettled. Not that she and Cassidy were ever friends—at least I don’t think we were—but for a woman whose sister was marrying Serena’s brother-in-law, her vibe had been rather unfriendly.

  Don’t take it personally. She’s in love with Mattie. Not exactly the easiest person to love.

  There was that voice again. She would try not to take Cassidy’s coolness personally. But things were getting very personal lately. Or, as Mason had taken to saying, “Things are gettin’ real.”

  When she got home, she found Oliver awake and cleaning up the kitchen.

  “Thank you,” she said, nodding toward the sponge in his hand while holding up the paper bag in her own. “I stopped by the Burger Barn.” She set the bag on the kitchen island and began pulling out food. “I got you a double cheeseburger. And fries for the boys when they get home.”

  She was trying to act normal, hoping that Oliver had thought things through a little more clearly while she was gone. “I decided to try their veggie burger.”

  “Why? Are you becoming a vegetarian now?”

  She set down the veggie burger. Based on his tone of voice, things were not back to normal.

  “It sounded good, that’s all.” Oh hell. In for a dime, in for a dollar. I ran into Matt at Two Beans. Did you tell him about the letter?”

  Oliver didn’t say a word as he unwrapped his cheeseburger, pulled out the lone leaf of lettuce, and gingerly set it aside. What? I’ve forgotten that he doesn’t like lettuce on his cheeseburger? She slapped her hand hard on the island’s granite top. “Did you?”

  She would take his silence as a “yes.”

  “Dammit, Ollie! Can’t we keep some things between just us? I suffered a head injury. It’s not my fault that I can’t remember things.”

  “I know that.” His voice didn’t sound that convinced. “You’re not cleared to drive yet.”

  “I know. But I was fine. I have a doctor’s appointment next week. I’ll ask him then if it’s okay. And don’t worry—I won’t drive with the boys in the car until I’m officially cleared.”

  “Please don’t.”

  Hot tears stung her eyes. Their marriage was unraveling. That’s what was happening here, wasn’t it? She could feel it in the pit of her stomach. She didn’t bother unwrapping the veggie burger. Her appetite was completely gone now.

  “You’re accusing me of something I can’t remember. And I can’t believe you don’t see how not fai
r that is to me. What evidence do you have that I cheated on you, Oliver Wolfe? Your brother said he saw me having coffee? Unless we were having sex on the table, that’s not really proof.” The words were barreling out of her mouth now. “And I received a letter mailed to me by his attorney, asking me to do something for his widow. I’m Ashley’s best friend. Who else would he ask? She doesn’t have family in St. Caroline.”

  She forced her lips closed before she could say something she’d regret later. Instead, she took a long deep breath to stem the tears that were threatening to spill over any second.

  “Here’s the thing,” Oliver said. “I don’t remember you socializing that much with Ben. Sure, you hung out with Ashley a lot, but—” He made a back and forth gesture with his hand. “—the four of us never went out together.”

  “Ollie, it’s hard to socialize with you! You have weird work hours. You’re at the station for seventy-two hours straight, then you have three days off. You spend a lot of time at the gym. I mean, I know that’s in the nature of your job and …”

  And Ben was always so busy with soccer. It all came back to her in a rush. He coached the high school team in the fall, ran the spring youth soccer league, and spent two weeks every summer running clinics at a soccer academy outside Annapolis. Ashley and I always talked about getting the guys together. But their schedules never synced. Great. Fighting with Oliver is causing me to remember things.

  Just then, they heard the low grumble of the school bus outside.

  “The boys are here,” he said. Which meant this discussion had to be shelved for another time.

  Serena rushed to the front door. The bus driver wasn’t allowed to let kindergartners off the bus unless there was an adult there to meet them. She burst out onto the porch just in time to see Cam’s dark head bobbing down the aisle, Mason waiting for him at the bottom of the bus steps. She waved to the bus driver and smiled.

  “Hey guys,” she said as her sons raced up the stairs to the porch. “I got you fries!”

  The boys were home. Whether Oliver liked it or not, their marriage had to go back to normal until bedtime.

  “We need to sign out, son.”

  Oliver turned away from the elementary school’s wide bank of doors. His father was standing in the doorway of the office. “Right. I forgot.”

  He and his father had spent the morning at the school, conducting refresher CPR training for the custodial and administrative staff. He followed his dad into the brightly lit office. A sign-in log book lay on the counter. His father wrote his name, glanced up at the clock on the wall, and then scribbled the time.

  “Oh look,” he said, pointing to a line in the log book.

  Oliver leaned in to read the name. Serena Wolfe.

  “She volunteers in the boys’ classrooms.” His father held out the ballpoint pen. Oliver took it and hastily signed his name.

  “I bet she’s good at that,” his father added as they pushed open the fireproof front doors.

  Outside, the sun was shining in defiance of Oliver’s current mood. “I guess so.”

  As they walked to the red fire department car, he scanned the visitor parking area. Sure enough, there was the new minivan. She had driven herself to the school. He wished she’d told him she was volunteering today. He and his dad could have swung by the house and picked her up.

  You were kind of a dick to her yesterday.

  She was asserting her independence, that was it. Serena was never the shy, retiring type to begin with. Not a strict follower of rules. That was one of the things that had attracted him to her. She was the type of woman who would strip down and go skinny-dipping the night she met someone. The type of woman who would pick up and move to a small town because she fell in love with a man who lived there.

  Still doesn’t excuse your behavior yesterday.

  He was channeling his mother again.

  “It’s nice that Serena helps out at the school.” His father chuckled. “Your mother never could have done that.”

  “Why not?”

  “Would have been only a matter of time before some salty language slipped out.” Tim chucked him lightly in the arm. “She tried her best around you boys when you were young, but …” Tim shook his head. “Listening to Mattie sometimes, I’m not sure how successful she was.”

  Always figured you’d pick it up somewhere. But I didn’t raise you to be those words.

  Yup. Oliver could hear her saying exactly that.

  Chapter 24

  Evangeline’s looked just as Serena remembered it. Where Skipjack’s was casual and nautical-themed—white-washed wood and crisp navy and white uniforms on the staff— Evangeline’s was elegance all the way. Dark wood floors, a high coffered ceiling, and walls that were the color of champagne. With softly lit glass chandeliers, the room practically glowed. Instead of a bar, bartenders rolled small glass-topped carts from table to table with an assortment of wines and spirits.

  This was where Oliver had proposed to her. He must have spent half his paycheck here. There was the table where they sat, next to a tall velvet-draped window. He had gotten down on one knee, the whole nine yards. Oliver Wolfe was a by-the-book kind of guy.

  “Penny for your thoughts.” Lucy appeared out of nowhere.

  Serena smiled. “Oh, just remembering. This is where Oliver proposed.”

  “Oh how sweet!”

  “Then I got pregnant on our honeymoon. That ended our fine dining days for awhile.”

  “That’s what babysitters are for.”

  And trust funds. She had spent the past week poring over their bank statements and the college funds—small still—for the boys. She and Oliver were careful with money, that was clear. But why on earth were they trying to live on one income? Sure, they had started a family right away but plenty of mothers worked. Oliver’s mother had.

  Oh, she knew that Oliver preferred that the boys come home after school instead of going to an after-school program. But Mason and Cam might enjoy that, actually.

  She pushed aside that question and focused on Lucy’s smiling face.

  “Are we all set up?” she asked, glancing around the still empty restaurant.

  “We are. Let me show you.” Lucy turned and started walking toward the back of the restaurant. Serena followed. “We reconfigured the private dining room.”

  “Oh wow.”

  In the private dining room, the walls were a deeper shade of amber and the drapes were thrown open to frame the view across the Inn’s back lawn and out over the sparkling water of the inlet. Right in front of the windows sat a grouping of upholstered sofas and low, round tables topped with pink and gold china. A buffet held platters of tea sandwiches—cucumber, strawberry-chicken salad, smoked salmon—ricotta and tomato tartlets, white chocolate-covered strawberries, heart-shaped macarons, and cream scones with blackberry whipped cream.

  Light classical music played softly in the background. Chopin, Nocturne Number. 2, Opus 9. Next would be a Bach prelude, followed by something from Mozart. She thought for a moment. A flute and harp concerto?

  She stopped and closed her eyes. How would she know the order of the music? Or that the scones were topped with blackberry whipped cream? She wasn’t close enough to the table to tell. It could just as easily be raspberry or blueberry. But she knew it was blackberry—because that’s what Evangeline’s always served with high tea.

  Only … I’ve never been here for tea …

  “Are you okay?” Lucy lightly touched her arm.

  She opened her eyes. “I used to work here.” She shook her head in wonderment. “I was a waitress here at Evangeline’s.”

  “You were?” There was confused concern in Lucy’s eyes. “I don’t recall—”

  “It was years ago. Before my boys were born.”

  “Ahh. Before my time.”

  Serena nodded. “Wow. I can’t believe I remembered that. It was the music.” She paused. “See? It went from Chopin to Bach. And the whipped cream on the scones is blackberry.”r />
  “Hmm. How long ago was this?”

  “Seven years ago? Roughly?”

  Lucy gave a tiny frown. “Maybe I should talk to Sterling about a menu refresh. And the music, too.”

  “Oh no! It’s fine the way it is. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Right?”

  “There they are!”

  She and Lucy turned to see Michelle, Becca, Cassidy on her crutches, and Natalie headed their way. Also three women from yoga, the Inn’s wedding planner, and the wedding planner’s assistant. Despite March temperatures outside that were still more winter than spring, everyone had donned lighter attire—flowery dresses, pastel scarves, nude hosiery.

  “We’ll make spring arrive by sheer force of will,” joked Michelle, twirling to show off her skirt.

  Ashley was the last to arrive, and Serena could tell immediately that her friend knew exactly what day it was. Suddenly the idea of distracting Ashley from her wedding anniversary seemed ridiculous. What made Ben ever think Ashley might be fooled into forgetting? Some things required a head injury to forget.

  She hurried over to Ashley, part of her wanting to beg forgiveness for going along with Ben’s idea.

  “I’m underdressed, aren’t I?” were Ashley’s first words.

  “No, you look great. Lovely.”

  Ashley wore a loose tunic printed in a brown and black abstract pattern over black leggings, short brown leather boots on her feet. Of all the guests, she was the only one dressed for the actual weather outside.

  “This is cute.” Ashley tweaked Serena’s sleeve.

  Serena glanced down at her floral-printed dress. “It seems a little big. I half thought it might be one of my maternity dresses. You know, second trimester.” She gave a little laugh.

  Ashley’s pause was just a beat too long.

  “Oh, dear. It is, isn’t it?”

  Ashley shook her head. “You’re still a bit thinner than you were. That’s all.”