Page 72 of Summer Longing
Elise had known that was coming. And really, why was she fighting it? Fern was right; they couldn’t stay at Shell Haven. But something deep inside of her resisted. Yes, they could live with Mira in the one room above the shop. She was so little. Sometimes she just fell asleep in the car seat—preferred the car seat, actually. Elise could park her next to the bed and create a small changing station in the corner. It was not a feasible long-term solution, but they would have the house back in September. Elise supposed that her reticence, her fear, stemmed from the idea that living with Mira above the tea shop would make it seem like she didn’t fit into their lives—literally and figuratively. They would have less help without Ruth and Olivia under their roof. Elise would have to hustle Mira out the door every day. Fern would become even more impatient with the whole situation. But Shell Haven had room for a baby. Shell Haven had been bought with a baby in mind. Elise felt as long as they were in their own house, they had a reminder of the family they had planned.
She couldn’t say any of this, of course. While she searched for some practical reason to defend staying at Shell Haven, Bianca walked in with her dog on a leash. Her hair, with its distinctive white stripe, was pulled back in a tight bun and she wore a black maxi-dress with cap sleeves. With her strong bone structure and the signature big dark eyes of the Barros family, she was really very striking. Sometimes it was easy to overlook that fact when dealing with her personality.
“Bianca, you have to leave the dog outside, please. There’s a water dish at the base of the stairs.”
“I find it interesting that you’re so concerned about every rule—except the rule of common decency,” she said, approaching the counter in a huff.
“What’s the problem now?” Elise said.
Bianca ignored her; she was laser-focused on Fern.
“I’m not going to dance around this any longer,” Bianca said, crossing her arms. “I was blindsided when my daughter sold you the house. I didn’t have the foresight or means to prevent it. But I am done being displaced. I want to buy it back.”
“Bianca,” Fern said, shaking her head. “We aren’t selling Shell Haven.”
“The house is filled with tourists! You have one foot out the door. Who are you kidding? I know you’re negotiating with that Ruth woman, and I can tell you,over my dead body.”
“It’s a summer rental,” Elise said. “It’s temporary.”
“That woman Ruth has her hooks into everything,” Bianca said. “I don’t like people who come to town and just take, take, take.”
And then, from across the room, a sharp cry. Elise tried not to react, to pretend like she hadn’t even heard it.(Crying baby? What crying baby?)The cry escalated to a wail.
Elise walked over to the stroller, picked Mira up, and ascertained that her diaper was warm and heavy. It was time to take her home, but she needed Fern’s help getting the stroller down the stairs.
Bianca walked over to Elise and peered at Mira. Slowly, she shook her head. “I see what’s going on at that house,” she said. “You’ve turned my ancestral home into a circus. You know my mother was born in that house?”
“Enough,” Fern said, stepping out from behind the counter. “Bianca, I’m sorry you’re unhappy with how Pilar handled the sale of the house. But it’s done. It’s our house now, and if we want to rent it out, that’s our prerogative. We are not selling it—to you or anyone else. And the guests that come and go are none of your business. So please, stay out of it.”
Bianca narrowed her eyes. “You two are up to no good,” she said. “I can smell it.”
She tugged on her dog’s leash and walked out the door. When she was gone, Fern wheeled around and marched over to Elise.
“You never should have had the baby in the shop,” she said.
“Fern, I’ve been waiting for you to come back all day so I could leave.”
Fern shook her head. “This isn’t good, Elise. That woman is a ticking time bomb.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Windblown and salty from the boat ride, Ruth walked back to Shell Haven buzzing from Tito’s very flattering attention. Although once she was back on dry land, she’d started second-guessing her impulse to invite him to dinner. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but really, was she moving too fast? Did she want to start dating someone in town? Did she want to date, period?
She stopped by the post office to pick up some packages—ingredients for new products she wanted to make—and this further distracted her, so by the time she walked into the house, she’d all but forgotten about the arrival of her ex-husband.
“Ruth,” Ben said, jumping up from the couch. She didn’t know if she was seeing things through the distorted lens of her own memory, but he looked unchanged—as if it were that first summer in Provincetown all over again. Yes, the hair was silver, but it was still all there. Yes, there were the creases in his face, but it was still handsome in a distinctly boyish way. And of course, the same hazel eyes smiled at her.
“Hi, Ben,” she said as he leaned in and kissed her lightly on the cheek. The contact gave her a small shock, a frisson. A feeling she didn’t quite recognize.
Ruth took a step back. It was not their typical protocol to kiss or hug when they saw each other. Had he felt compelled to do it because he was staying under her roof?
Don’t freak out,she told herself. She felt off balance because of the unusual circumstances—seeing him here, in this town. Context was everything. Plus, she’d just spent hours on a romantic boat ride. Also—and this was a biggie—the town had been needling her with nostalgia for weeks now. Whatever she’d felt a few seconds ago was not real. “How was your trip in?”
“Great,” he said. “I drove to Boston and then took the ferry.”
It was unsettling to look into his hazel eyes, familiar and utterly strange at the same time. They fell into silence, and Ruth struggled to fill it. “Is Olivia here or…”
“She’s in her room changing her clothes,” he said. “We’re going for a walk and then an early dinner.”
