Page 8 of The Glass Dolphin

“It’s cold for a beach day,” Eloise said.

“Not when you’re eighteen,” Alice said wryly. She glanced at Robin. “Remember when we used to escape to the beach whenever we could? It didn’t matter if the wind whipped our clothes off our bodies, we still went.”

Robin smiled at the memories. So many of them marched through her mind, many of them with both Alice and Eloise in them. “I remember,” she said. “I definitely feel the cold differently now.”

“No kidding.” Alice looked back at her menu. “Do you remember if we met up after going off to college?”

Robin startled at the question, because Alice didn’t usually spend too much time in the past. She’d itched to leave Five Island Cove and go to her fancy law school in the city. She’d done just that too. She’d married a lawyer, and they’d had a big, beautiful home in the Hamptons. Right up until a handful of years ago, when she’d left the mainland, left her husband, and returned to her roots.

Robin cleared her throat. “I remember you didn’t come home for the holidays,” she said as casually as possible. She let her eyes roam the menu, but she wasn’t reading any of the items. “At all. And then summer came, and you still didn’t come back.”

Alice met her eye, and Robin simply gazed back. “I remember missing you,” Robin said next, her voice soft. “And then I met Duke, and I got sort of wrapped up in him.” She offered Alice a small smile, and her friend reached over and gave Robin a side-squeeze.

That was all she needed to do, because Robin knew why Alice hadn’t wanted to return to the cove. Even after she’d gotten married and had her twins, she’d rarely returned to Rocky Ridge, the northernmost island in the cove, where she’d grown up.

“I think I came back,” Eloise said, drawing both Alice’s and Robin’s attention. “But I don’t remember much.”

Before Robin could answer, her phone zinged out the text notification that meant her mother had messaged. “That’s my mom,” she said with a sigh. They hadn’t been on the best of terms for a while now, but Robin was tired of dealing with the tumultuous emotions that came with her mother. “Let’s see what Jennifer has to say.”

“Probably something about howperfectStu’s turkey was and howbeautifulAnna-Maria is.” Alice gave Robin an encouraging smile, which caused a flash of love and friendship to bolt through Robin.

“Probably,” she murmured as she fished through her oversized purse to find her device. “I don’t know, actually. There’s been some tension between them.”

“Fascinating,” Eloise said.

Robin found her phone and swiped to see her mother’s message. Her heartbeat throbbed up into her throat for a moment, and then the organ deflated and sank to her toes.

Thanksgiving was wonderful here. I hope yours was too. I think I’m going to go on another cruise for Christmas, so we’ll have to find a time to celebrate together.

A soft “pfft” came out of Robin’s mouth, a noise she hadn’t even realized she’d made until it had escaped.

“What?” Alice asked.

Robin simply handed her the phone and smoothed back her hair. In the drier winter, it didn’t frizz much, and she’d just gotten it cut and the color fixed up last week. “How are Clara and Julia doing at the inn?” she asked Eloise.

But Alice handed the phone to Eloise, and she read the message. She looked up, worry in her pretty brown eyes. “You’ll be happier without having to entertain her for the holidays,” she said. She turned over the phone and set it in front of Robin.

“Yeah.” Robin looked at her device, wishing working out her relationship with her mother came with a manual. She’d read it cover to cover and do exactly as it said if she could. She drew in a deep breath and shook herself out of what-ifs and worries. “It’s fine. I like having my small family celebrations.”

“We’ll have our Friendship Feast at the inn,” Eloise offered. “I’ve already told AJ and Jean about it, and Kristen said she tried a few new cookie recipes on Theo’s family yesterday, and some of them were a big hit.” She gave them a big smile, and it reached right into Robin and plucked out her unhappiness.

“We can never go wrong with Kristen’s cookies.” She glanced over to Alice’s menu. “What are you getting?” That was her way of saying she was done talking about this, and Alice and Eloise graciously allowed her exit from the conversation.

“I think I’m going to go for the pumpkin gnocchi.” Alice tipped her menu toward Robin. “You?”

“I can’t pass up the roasted beet salad,” she said.

“I’m going to get the lobster mac and cheese,” Eloise said, folding her menu and setting it on the edge of the table. She put her arms on the table and leaned into them, her smile faltering. “Aaron and I…” She cleared her throat, and Robin set aside her menu too, sensing something worth hearing was coming.

Eloise waited for a waitress to walk by behind them. Then their waitress appeared, wanting to know drink orders. Both Alice and Eloise lifted their eyes at Robin’s order of red wine, but she shook her hair over her shoulders and said, “I’m home alone tonight and into tomorrow. I got a ride here, so I’m not driving. I can have wine for lunch.”

Alice laughed lightly, but she had not ordered anything alcoholic. She’d had a bit of an issue with drinking right after her divorce, and Robin hadn’t seen her drink much since. Likewise, Eloise bypassed the margaritas and mojitos in favor of a soft drink. She’d never been much of a drinker anyway.

The waitress said she’d back with their drinks to take their orders, and Robin leaned into the table too. She wanted to prompt Eloise, but she’d learned a lot over the past few years of raising teenagers and mending bridges with her friends.

They’d been through so much together, Robin couldn’t imagine something could come between them at this point.

Relief painted through her when Alice said, “You had something to tell us, El?”

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