Page 35 of Sunsets at the Beach House

She went out to the kitchen and found Trina already there, getting the garbage bags down from the pantry shelf. “I don’t know what else to put my stuff in. We should have gotten boxes.”

Roxie nodded. “I had the same thought looking at all of your grandmother’s clothes.”

Trina held out the roll. “Take whatever you need.”

Roxie grabbed three. “These’ll do to start with.”

Trina lifted the roll overhead as she went back to her room. “Let the packing begin!”

Roxie chuckled and returned to her mom’s room. She started with her jewelry box, closing and making sure the latch was shut before putting it on the bed beside the framed photos. Both could go in the back seat. They’d be safe there.

Then she got to work on the clothes that were hanging in the closet. She took them section by section, pulling a garbage bag up over eight or ten hangers’ worth of stuff, then tying the bag’s drawstring handles around the hangers like a bundle.

As soon as she had two bundles, she carried them out to her car. No point in piling them up on the bed. Plus, this way, she’d know when she’d reached the car’s limit. They still needed room for their own stuff, too.

She worked for a solid half an hour, leaving behind the clothes at the very ends of the closet that probably hadn’t been worn in years anyway. She bagged up a few of her mom’s shoes, specifically the strappy silver sandals she wanted to wear with her wedding dress, then carried that bag, the photo collage, and the jewelry box to the car as well.

With that done, she went to her own bedroom. The smell of Bryan’s cologne hit her as she walked in, right at the same time that she saw their wedding picture on his dresser.

She stood there, paralyzed by memories and feelings. Things had certainly changed since the last time she’d been in this house. She shook her head, coming back to the present, but her gaze stayed on his face. “I can’t believe what you did to us.”

She could almost hear his voice in her head, telling her it wasn’t that bad and to remember all the good times they’d had together.

She walked closer to the picture, staring at him. “You told Paulina we were divorced. How could you?”

Frowning as fresh anger curled through her belly, she turned the photo face down. That would not be accompanying her back to the beach house. At least not on this trip.

Impulsively, she opened his top drawer a few inches. She’d been in Bryan’s dresser a thousand times to put his laundry away, but never his top drawer. That had always been his private space. He hid presents in there, she knew that much. But mostly it was sort of a catchall. A junk drawer, except the stuff in here wasn’t really junk. Just a collection of random bits and pieces.

She stared at the contents. An old wallet. Keys that probably no longer went to anything. Papers. Expired driver’s licenses. A little pile of coins, not all of them minted in the U.S. A few folded two-dollar bills, something he’d always said were good luck.

She pulled the drawer out a little further, revealing a tattered pack of playing cards, his passport, a couple of rubber bands, a stack of folded handkerchiefs, a pen, an old pocket watch with a broken chain, and some business cards.

Just as she was about to shut the drawer, she noticed something behind the pack of playing cards. A small velvet box almost the same size as the cards.

She pulled the drawer open all the way and took the box out. Could he have already bought her birthday present and tucked it away in here for safe-keeping?

She sat on the bed and opened it.

The contents felt like a punch to the stomach. A delicate gold chain bore a diamond-crusted initial. The letter P.

This wasn’t for her. It was for Paulina. Maybe a present to celebrate the birth of his one and only son?

Roxie snapped the box shut. She felt like throwing it against the wall, but the necklace looked real, which meant it was worth something.

She sat there, stewing in anger, trying to decide what to do with it.

“Ma, I think I’m just about done. What can I—hey, are you okay?” Trina came in and stopped at the end of the bed.

Roxie couldn’t look at her. If she did, she’d cry. “No.” She held out the box.

Trina took it and opened it. She didn’t say anything. Just closed the box again and sat beside Roxie. “That sucks, huh?”

Roxie nodded. “I don’t know what to do with it.”

“You could always give it to her.”

Roxie gave a slight shake of her head. “She and Nico already have half of the insurance money.”

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