Page 6 of The Mistakes I've Made
He looked a bit taken aback, and I felt bad for the harshness of my tone, but I wouldn’t apologize for my lifestyle.
Not when he’d traveled the same path only a few years earlier.
“Okay,” he finally agreed.
“Good. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to prep for an early morning tour—”
I was cut off by the bell on the office door.
Turning around, I saw our mother flying through it, her eyes wide and full of panic like she was being chased here by a wild animal.
It wasn’t an impossibility, I guessed, given the town we lived in.
“You’ll never guess what I just heard!”
Oh great, town gossip.
Just what I needed to hear at the ass crack of dawn on Thursday morning.
“I’d better put on another pot of coffee,” Dean groaned.
“Make it a strong one.”
As a rule, news of any kind spread like wildfire in our small town.
You could get in an argument with your spouse in the morning on one side of the island, and by noon, it was old news, having already reached the other side and back again by the time everyone finished their second cup of coffee.
So, it was no surprise that something as big as this had caused a flurry of activity; so much so that an emergency meeting had been called that very night to try to help calm everyone’s nerves.
Mine included.
Being low season, we met at By the Bay, a popular inn owned by none other than Molly Jameson, one of Dean’s best friends and ex-fiancée. They were both married now—to other people. Molly was married to her high school sweetheart, Jake, the town doctor, and Dean had just recently married Cora, the town nurse.
Honestly, it kind of made me ill, how well-adjusted and happy they all were.
I watched as they all took seats next to each other, the girls complimenting each other on outfit choices while crooning over baby Ruby as the guys joked.
Not a single bit of animosity or latent jealousy floating about.
Talk about weird.
“Hey.”
I looked up to see Millie McIntyre, Molly’s younger sister and my former classmate from high school, although now she was Millie Fisher, since she’d recently been married herself.
“Hey yourself,” I said as she helped guide her husband, Aiden, to a seat beside her.
Although I didn’t know the British artist well, I did know Millie, having gotten the chance to reacquaint myself with my good friend since her move back home just over a year ago. She’d come back to help out Molly during her maternity leave and ended up falling in love with Aiden, who was internationally recognized for his stone sculptures and the fact that he did them almost completely blind.
“Do you know what’s going on?” she asked. “All I know is that something was sold and it’s a big freaking deal because my mom said, ‘Get your ass to that meeting, Millie. All the other business owners will be there, and you’ll look stupid if you’re not.’ So, here I am.”
I laughed. “There’s no way your mom said the wordass.”
She shrugged as Aiden chuckled. The dark glasses he wore to help enhance what little sight he had left made it hard to see his full expression.
“Okay, so I might be paraphrasing, but she did say it was important.”
“You know that dive of a hotel along the marina?”
