Page 48 of The Glass Dolphin

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A couple of weeks later,Kristen set out paper plates while Jean and Clara continued to work in the kitchen. Well, Jean had parked herself in the kitchen, while Clara worked on the opposite of the bar.

“Let’s put six on this plate for Robin,” Kristen said as she stuck a sticky note to the plate. “That’s two each.”

“So six for AJ too,” Jean said.

Kristen wrote the number and AJ’s name on the notepad and stuck it to another plate. “Four for Alice and Arthur,” she mused. “Six for Kelli.” She and her daughter and daughter-in-law were making Valentine’s Day cookies, and the simple act of putting together a dough, baking it and watching it do what it should, cooling the cookies, and then decorating them into something that would make someone else smile had brought more light to Kristen than she’d had all month.

She’d told no one of Theo’s departure from her life, and in all honestly, the only difference now was that she sometimes walked alone in the mornings. Her girls likely assumed she was still seeing him, and Kristen hadn’t corrected them. She already saw the way they looked at her over the issue with the lighthouse, and she didn’t need more pity.

“I’m just going to ask her,” Clara muttered as Kristen went around the end of the table closest to her and Jean.

“I think you should let her bring it up,” Jean hissed back.

Kristen pretended like she didn’t hear them, wrote Laurel’s name on a note, the number six, and stuck it to a plate. “I hope we have enough,” she said loudly.

“There’s enough for everyone, plus your whole community here,” Clara said dryly. “You have a plate for Theo, right?”

Kristen’s heartbeat stuttered, and she finished writing out El’s note before facing the women in the kitchen. “Actually, Theo and I…we’re not seeing each other anymore.”

Jean froze, the piping bag of pink frosting hovering above a heart-shaped cookie. Clara gaped, her eyes blinking rapidly. “You’re not seeing him anymore?” she asked.

“No.” Kristen looked down at the plates. Shewasforgetting someone, but it wasn’t Theo. “Who don’t I have?”

Robin, Alice, El, AJ, Kelli, Laurel, Jean, Clara, Maddy…

“Oh, Julia and Tessa,” she said, immediately going back to her Post-It pad.

“Mom.” Clara left her decorating station and came over to the dining room table. “What happened?”

“Nothing,” Kristen said. “We just…don’t have the same goals.” She glanced at her daughter. “He wants a companion, not another wife. I don’t really see the point of just dating until I die. If I’m going to do that, there are plenty of other men here.”

Clara’s eyebrows shot up. “You don’t want to be monogamous?”

“Of course I do,” Kristen said, wishing this conversation had never happened. “I guess I still believe in marriage, even if you’re as old as I am.” She gave her daughter a smile she hoped would calm her down. “He doesn’t. He’s friendly with everyone, not just me. He just doesn’t want to be alone.”

“He introduced you to his kids,” Jean said. “Is he doing that to everyone?”

“I don’t really know.” Kristen swallowed. “He has a neighbor who’s husband was in the Coalition for sixty years.”

“Mom.” Clara’s voice sounded like she’d pushed it off a cliff. “Did you talk to her?”

“No,” Kristen said. “I have Alice doing everything.”

Clara cleared her throat. “Uh, yeah, Jean and I wanted to talk to you about the lighthouse.”

“Clarawanted to talk to you about the lighthouse,” Jean said quickly. The two women exchanged a glance, and since Kristen had finished labeling the paper plates, she didn’t have much else to distract her.

Clara looked back at her. “Yeah, I want to know what’s going on with it. It’s been weeks, and it feels like we’re no closer to a solution.”

“Alice is working on it,” Kristen said.

“Yeah, but what’s shedoing?” Clara asked. “Because it feels like we’ve buried our heads in the sand, and we’re hoping no one is ever going to raise the issue again.”

“Maybe they won’t,” Kristen said.

“You have no legal documents saying you own the lighthouse, Mom.” Clara put one hand on her hip, which would leave a white flour mark against her black pants.

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