Page 13 of Sweet Escape at Bayside
“I’m not surprised. You were in first and second grade,” she said kindly. “You would wander out of the school. Or rather, you wouldschemeand then wander away from the school. I’d find you in a tree or surrounded by bushes, playing in the dirt, drawing, making flower necklaces for Desiree. You could never be tied down, Violet. You have too much of me in you. I imagined what would happen when you became a teenager, and I wasn’t going to lose my girl to drugs or thievery.”
“A lot of faith you had in your daughter, huh?” Violet turned on her, unable to keep the rage inside. “Most mothers see the good in their children. But not you. You saw me as a delinquent when I was seven!”
“No, darling,” Lizza said with a thoughtful smile, which only angered Violet even more. “I saw everything about you—who you wanted to be and what struggles you’d have in that environment. When we traveled, you blossomed into a creative, well-rounded woman.”
“Is that what you think of me? That I’mwell rounded?”
“Violet, you learned from different cultures, picking up skills from every village. You loved working with your hands, and you found your niche doing it. You made your own patterns, made clothing and gorgeous batiks. Why, at eight you learned to make glue and used that instead of wax for the batiks. You are a bright, resourceful woman.”
Tears burned in Violet’s eyes. “I might have found my way, but it was because I had no one else to do it for me.”
“Sweetheart, staying in a small town with rules and expectations would have stifled you. Look at your hands; look all around you. You learned how to do pottery all on your own, and it has been good for you.”
Violet remembered when she’d first learned to do pottery, and heck yes, she’d learned it on her own. What other choice did she have? She’d seen an elderly potter working at her wheel in one of the villages, and she’d watched her for weeks from afar, hiding behind shrubs beside the woman’s hut. One day, when she ducked into her hiding place, she’d found a lump of clay wrapped in cloth and a bowl of water.
“I might have done things unconventionally,” Lizza said, “but I’ve always supported your creative endeavors.”
Violet had always thought the potter had left that clay for her. But now she wondered if it had been Lizza. And hadn’t it been Lizza who had left her art supplies and pottery equipment in this very studio when she’d tricked Violet and Desiree into coming to the Cape? At that point it had been more than two years since Violet had worked with a potter’s wheel, and she’d been elated to find her mother’s equipment and supplies hidden in the closet, along with paints and canvases, which Desiree used to get back into painting.
“Don’t you see, Violet? The life we lived was what you needed. Life is fluid for people like us, and for Desi, life is structured and habitual.”
“I’m nothing like you,” Violet snapped. “I would never tear a family apart, and I might have done a lot of things in my life that weren’t what other people would callright, but I’d never in a million years pretend to be my daughter’s ex’s lover.”
Confusion rose in Lizza’s eyes. “Yourex’slover…?”
“Don’t pretend you didn’t bring Andre here to upset me.”
“Upset you? Why on earth would I ever want to do that? I love you.” Lizza’s eyes widened in surprise and she said, “Were you and Andrelovers?”
Violet huffed out a breath. “You were in Ghana when we were together.”
“Tsk.My life blurs together sometimes. I can hardly remember yesterday. I had forgotten we were there at the same time. Why, I think I was only passing through back then, wasn’t I? But I don’t recall you saying you had a boyfriend.”
Because I never did.
Uh oh.She’d forgotten about that.
“Honey, I brought Andre here because when I was in Paris visiting a friend I ran into him in a coffee shop. He had gone there for a medical conference and stayed for a few weeks, and he was miserable. I could see it in his eyes. He had some time off between projects for Operation SHINE, and I had reserved the cottage. He said he needed a place to…” Her brow knitted. “Oh! I remember. He said he needed a place todecompress. With the bay right outside your door and you girls and all your lovely friends here, I thought it was the perfect place for him to figure out whatever had him so down. The universe brought us together; whywouldn’tI offer him the luxury you and Desiree had afforded me?”
Violet leaned on one of her worktables, wishing she knew if she could believe Lizza or not. At this point the damage was done. It didn’t really matter, did it?
“Anyway, sweetheart,” Lizza said softly, “I came up to hug you goodbye.”
“You’releaving?” She stormed across the room, stopping inches from her mother, and said, “I amnotgoing to let you crush Desiree’s hopesagain.”
“Desi knows, and she’s okay with it. Emery told me Desi and Rick had changed their honeymoon plans so she could spend time with me over the next month.”
“And now you’re letting her down, like always.”
Lizza reached out and touched Violet’s cheek. Violet leaned away from her touch.
“No, honey. I’m setting Desi free to begin the life she’s always dreamed of. And I have a feeling you need this time without me, too, to find your own answers.”
Chapter Four
LATE SUNDAY NIGHT, long after Lizza had taken off for her next adventure, Andre sat in his cottage finishing a sketch he’d started that morning. He’d been drawing practically as long as he’d been able to hold a pencil. His parents had supported his love of the arts, hiring well-known artists to teach him the intricacies he now taught children when he traveled. In middle school, he’d wanted to create more substantial art, and found that he also enjoyed working with clay. His parents had supported those endeavors, too, hiring an award-winning Czechoslovakian sculptor to teach him over the summers. He never traveled without his art supplies, and they, along with his motorcycle, which he’d stored in a Boston garage while he was traveling, were being delivered tomorrow.
He set the drawing on the coffee table and sighed, unsure if he should cancel the delivery until he figured out if he was staying. He could rent a car, draw rather than sculpt. If Violet had her way, he might be gone before the end of the week.
