Page 31 of The Glass Dolphin

“You could just text her and set up a time to meet,” she told herself, and she pulled out her phone to do that. She adored the big group text, but even she could admit it was hard to keep up with from time to time.

She knew everyone on it and had for a while, and she couldn’t imagine how someone like Maddy or Julia might feel. At the same time, Robin had hearted the picture of Clara, Eloise, and Julia in the kitchen at The Cliffside Inn, where they all worked. They obviously had a close friendship, and Robin didn’t know Clara or Julia as well.

She went to lunch with Laurel and Alice the most, and she definitely talked to Alice the most off the group chat. AJ had posted a picture of her, Jean, and Laurel bundled up and walking with their tiny kids yesterday morning, so smaller off-shoots of the larger group definitely existed.

It wasn’t worth being upset about, and Robin wasn’t upset about it anyway. Her thoughts strayed to Kelli, though, because Kelli wasn’t as loud as some of the others, and she lived on the farthest island.

“So does Maddy,” Robin said, though Rocky Ridge sat in the opposite direction from Pearl.

She sent a quick text to Maddy about bringing the binder, and then she grabbed it and left. It could ride shotgun in the minivan to lunch and back, and no one would be any wiser.

Kristen had called this luncheon, and she’d said she’d gone back and forth about where to have it. A restaurant? There were plenty of places to eat on a Wednesday afternoon that could accommodate twelve people, but Kristen had chosen the cottage at the lighthouse.

Robin could drive to the iconic landmark on the east side of the island with her eyes closed. She’d gone there so often growing up, and she alone had continued to visit Kristen and Joel Shields after everyone else had moved on to college, careers, and life.

The small parking lot only held two cars when she arrived—Eloise’s and Alice’s. She wasn’t sure if that made her third to arrive or not, as everyone else could’ve easily used RideShare and been dropped off.

She paused again, the car stopped and off in the stall. Her phone chimed, and she picked it up from the cupholder. Maddy had texted to say she had all day today to meet,if you want to stay after the luncheon?

Sure, Robin said.I have your binder, but we can go back to my house.She sent the text and looked up and out the windshield. The sky hadn’t been blue for a couple of days now, but an ominous shade of gray. Not dark enough to indicate a storm, but the lighter kind that simply told Robin she’d not be seeing the sun that day.

Since she’d returned from New York City, where she’d welcomed her mother back from her fifteen-day Christmas cruise, Robin had found herself staring a lot. She’d been beating through life to the rhythm of her mother’s drum for her entire life. Almost fifty years now.

She’d hated the sound of it, and she’d tried to find her own beat to march to. In some ways, she had. She and Duke no longer lived in her mother’s rental house. They no longer relied on her for anything.

“And because of her, you no longer have the boat payment.”

Her mother had done exactly what she’d offered—she’d gone with Robin to the credit union, and she’d paid for Duke’s fishing boat, right down to the last penny. She had millions of dollars, and she was trying to figure out how to be a person again.

Someone knocked on her window, and Robin yelped as she startled away from the sharp sound. Laurel opened the door, her smile big but falling fast. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I called to you through the glass a couple of times. I even waved. You didn’t move a muscle.”

“Just thinking.” Robin collected her purse, her news about to spew out of her. She hadn’t wanted to tell it over the group text, and she wasn’t sure why. Perhaps she needed more time for everything to make sense inside her head before she put it down in black and white.

She stood and immediately stepped into Laurel’s arms. “It’s so good to see you.”

Laurel held her back perfectly, and Robin got reminded of how good it was to expand borders. How right it felt to include everyone. How empty her life would be without Laurel in it. She occupied a piece of Robin’s heart that no one else could, and she beamed at the younger woman as she stepped back.

“Are you surviving James’s first tooth? For real?”

“Only by the grace of God,” Laurel said wryly. She didn’t carry her son in her arms as she moved up onto the sidewalk.

“Where is he today?” Robin asked as she followed her. “I assumed you moms would have your kids.”

Laurel gave her the side-eye and pushed her blonde hair off her face as the wind tried to plaster it to her cheek. “You really were out of it. I walked right in front of you with James. He’s in the lighthouse with Reuben and Heidi.”

They didn’t go down the sidewalk that would branch up toward the lighthouse. Robin looked that way, because she’d traversed that path so many times. Happy times. Sad times. Mad times. Kristen and the lighthouse had always been there for her, and she’d tried to repay the favor as much as she could over the years.

Laurel led the way down a different sidewalk, this one leading parallel to the lighthouse and toward a cottage that had been built back behind it. Robin had trod this path many times too, to visit Kristen and Joel, to bring them food when she’d learned of his illness, and to help Kristen finally clean everything out and move on after his death.

It was funny how the same path could exist over time, but every time a person walked over it, they were different.

Neither of them knocked as they reached the cottage; Laurel simply twisted the knob and went right in. The weather basically demanded that, and Robin scurried in after her and pushed the door closed behind her.

They definitely weren’t the first and second to arrive. The cottage held physical warmth, and as Robin shrugged out of her coat, she found at least six women turning toward her and Laurel, smiles on all of their faces.

Jean came forward first as Clara said, “Robin’s here.”

“Finally,” Alice said, a fruity drink—most likely non-alcoholic—in her hand and a knowing smile on her face.

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