Page 73 of Summer Longing
“Sounds great. Well, I’m just going to…” She pointed awkwardly at the stairs. As she walked away he said, “Ruth, thanks for having me here. At the house, I mean.”
She turned around and forced herself to smile. “No problem.”
Lowering his voice, Ben said, “I’ve been concerned about Olivia and this made the trip a lot easier.”
“Concerned about her?”
“She just sounded bad on the phone. Losing the job was a blow, and I imagine it’s complicated for her emotionally to be spending time with you.”
Ruth crossed her arms. “It’s not complicated. I’m her mother. The fact that we’re spending time together is a positive thing, not something you have to rescue her from.”
The door to Olivia’s bedroom clicked open, announcing her appearance. She seemed surprised to see Ruth—or perhaps just surprised to see Ruth talking to Ben. “Oh, hey, Mother. I didn’t realize you were home.”
“I just got here. Dad tells me you two are on your way to dinner.”
“Yeah,” Olivia said, glancing at Ben.
“You’re welcome to join us,” Ben said.
She hesitated, certain he was just being polite but at the same time wanting to pretend the invitation was genuine, that the three of them could go out and have a friendly meal together. Or maybe, on some level, she wanted to continue the conversation with Ben. About parenting. About life. About everything that had been left unsaid during that phone call a year and a half ago.
“Oh, no, no. You two have fun,” Ruth said, waving them off.
She walked quickly to the stairs, forcing herself not to look back, not to say another word. She told herself the only way to get through the next few days was to just be casual.
But she didn’t feel casual. The day had started with a boat ride with a new man and ended with her face to face with her ex-husband. And she couldn’t deny that she felt a stronger pull toward her past than her present.
After processing the weirdness of seeing her parents together, Olivia needed a drink. Specifically, she needed the frozen rosé served at the Canteen’s waterfront bar. Her father, more interested in food, ordered lobster rolls.
They sat opposite each other at the end of one of the communal tables. The sun was still strong and Ben angled the table’s striped umbrella so the light wasn’t directly in their faces. “This is a great place,” he said.
Olivia put the small placard with their order number in front of her so the waiter would be able to locate them when their lobster rolls were ready. “I love it. I eat here all the time. It’s like my cafeteria,” she said. “Sometimes the house gets a little crowded.”
“So who are those other people again?”
“Elise and Fern own the house. They rented to Mom but then they moved back in because of the baby.”
“So she’s renting a house, but the owners had a baby and then changed their mind about renting it out? I don’t understand. Why didn’t your mother just find a new house?”
“No, it’s…first of all, I don’t think it’s easy to find available places. Look at the trouble you had just looking for a hotel room. And the baby was unexpected.”
“How ‘unexpected’ can a baby be?”
Olivia looked at him. “If I tell you something, don’t repeat it to anyone. Promise?”
“Who would I repeat it to? I don’t know anyone in town aside from you and your mother.”
“Okay, well—it’s not their baby. She just appeared on the doorstep. She was abandoned.”
Her father looked at her incredulously. “Abandoned?”
Olivia nodded.
“Was this reported? I mean, that’s a serious thing.”
“I think Elise and Fern are trying to adopt her. I don’t know—they clearly love the baby. I guess it takes time.”
“This seems like an unusual living situation for your mother.”
