Page 25 of Sweet Escape at Bayside
“That’s what I intend to find out.” He sipped his drink and said, “Your ginger chai is better.”
“Thanks.”
His eyes found hers again, and he said, “What do you usually do during open mic night?”
“I don’t know. Whatever comes to mind at the moment.”
“Such as…?”
She shrugged noncommittally and glanced around the patio, remembering what he’d said at the gallery about rediscovering each other. It wasn’t fair for her to avoid his questions, but revealing her truths had never been easy. As Rod played another song and a woman got up to sing, Violet mustered the courage to try to at least answer some of them.
“You asked why I haven’t told anyone about this place,” she said softly. “When I first decided to stay here with Desiree, I was pretty much a mess. I was out riding one night and I saw a food truck on the side of the road with a flat tire, and Rowan, the guy Steph mentioned, standing there with a casted arm. I pulled over to help him out, and as I changed the tire we got to talking and ended up here. I don’t know if you noticed the sign above the door? The one that reads COMMONGROUNDS,LEAVE YOURBIASES AT THEDOOR? Well, that spoke to me before I even walked inside. Then Rowan introduced me around, and I sort of fell in love with him, Gabe, Rod, and Elliott. They’re just so warm and welcoming, and their hearts are in the right place.” She looked down at their teacups and said, “They don’t serve alcohol here, which means the people you meet aren’t hiding behind it, and as I got to know their friends—Steph, Cory, Dwayne, and the others—this became my go-to place.”
“They obviously love you, but I still don’t understand why you haven’t brought your other friends here.”
“Do you always have to ask such hard questions?” she said with a smile. “When I’m at the inn, I have all these conflicting emotions. I love it there, and you know I love Desiree, but she’s the reason I came back and the reason I stayed and helped bring the inn to life again, all of which is great. But she and the inn are also a constant reminder about leaving you behind and the hurt I caused both of us. I don’t have that here, and I guess I’ve tried to keep my two worlds separate.”
“I guess I can understand that.”
“Thank you. That makes me feel a little less guilty for doing it. From the moment I walked in here, I felt like I belonged in a way I didn’t at first with Desiree or our friends at Bayside. I justfit.”
“Which you don’t often feel,” he said thoughtfully. He reached for her hand and squeezed it. “I remember that, too.”
“And I remember how you fit in with everyone, no matter what their backgrounds were or how they acted.”
“Because I was groomed for that, Vi. You were left to fend for yourself as the newcomer in foreign lands every few months and had to teach yourself to be resilient and resourceful so you didn’t fall apart like many young girls would have. From what you told me, you were more of an adult at sixteen than I was at twenty-five. It’s one of the things that makes you so special.”
“I think the word you’re looking for isbroken.”
Gabe brought their meals, and Andre kept his eyes on Violet until Gabe walked away. Then he said, “We’re all broken. So what? None of us get through this life without bumps, bruises, and a few shattered dreams. What matters is what we do with the unshattered ones.”
His words had always soothed her roughest spots, but now they stirred the guilt and loneliness she’d been burying for a very long time. “I’m sorry I shattered your dreams for us, and I want to help us both heal from my mistakes. I was an idiot, Andre.”
“Then what does that make me? I’m the fool who proposed to you three months after meeting you.”
Her heart was beating so fast, she needed a distraction before she climbed into his lap and kissed him like she was dying to. She picked up her fish taco and said, “Yeah, you’re right. You are a fool. Not because you proposed, but because ofwhoyou proposedto. Didn’t you know I’d freak out?”
She took a bite as he picked up his sandwich and said, “Of course not. You were the toughest woman I had ever met.”
She arched a brow. “That’s not why you called me Daisy.”
“True,” he said. “That’s the dichotomy of loving you. You are the strongest and the softest, sweetest, most alluring woman I have ever known.”
“Stop it. No sappy stuff.”
“Okay, but we were amazing together, and you know it. I probably knew in the back of my head that you couldn’t fall seamlessly into my Boston lifestyle. But I was crazy in love, and I didn’t think through any of that. All I knew was that I wanted a life with you.”
She took another bite, trying to concentrate on Rod setting down his guitar instead of her sprinting pulse or the way Andre was watching her longingly. Cory stepped up to the mic and said, “I…uh…I wrote a little something for my mom. Many of you know she’s been gone for a long time, and for those who don’t, well, she was the one who taught me to blow glass and to kick butt if anyone got in my way.”
A rumble of low laughter and murmurs rolled through the patio.
“This is for you, Mom,” Cory said. “You sat on the edge of my bed when you thought I was asleep, and that’s when I got to know you best. In those dusky hours, when your voice was craggy and your fingers moved softly over my back or my forehead…”
Cory’s voice blurred in Violet’s head, drowned out by her own thoughts. He had such loving memories of his mother, and Violet could count on one hand the number of similar memories she had of her own. More plentiful were the memories of Andre’s whispered words, his touch as he walked past her in the clinic or the yard in Ghana. The feel of his breath on her cheek as he taught her to sculpt. Her heart was full of memories of lying beneath the stars talking about why he’d gone into pediatrics—To help those who are too little to help themselves—and why he enjoyed sculpting people—Because people are shaped by love, hatred, choices, strengths, and insecurities, and capturing their essence is a beautiful thing.
A round of applause pulled her from her thoughts.
“One day I’d like to see you up there,” Andre said, still holding her hand. “I want to hear what you share with others.”
