Page 1 of The Cottage on Blueberry Bay

CHAPTER1

Meredith stared at the sun’s fading reflection rippling in the pool.

“I think I’m going to stay in the city for the summer,” her son, Ryan, said over the phone.

“The whole summer?” Meredith’s voice rose as her heart plummeted like an anchor falling. She felt slightly sick as she stared at the sparkling clean water. She’d spent most of her monthly earnings of piano lessons getting it professionally cleaned. She had hoped the lure of the pool would drag her youngest back home for the summer. “I thought you said you wanted to take it easy this summer before your last year in college.”

“Yeah, I did. But Dad introduced me to a friend of his who offered me this amazing opportunity right downtown in Washington,” Ryan explained.

Meredith did all the righthmms, andohhs, andahhsto sound as though she was listening, but her legs felt heavy, and she stepped down into the water on the stairs, sat on the edge of the pool she couldn’t afford, and held back the tears.

“Have you been talking to Dad a lot?” she asked, immediately wishing she hadn’t.

“Not a lot since the baby was born,” Ryan said.

That’s when she felt it. The heavy pain that fell on her chest at the mere mention of Phillip. She tried swallowing down the lump growing in her throat.

“You know you could intern here in Boston and live at home.” Her voice squeaked, giving her emotions away. “Grandpa could help you out.”

Would her father, a retired doctor, know someone in law?

“This is DC,” Ryan said. “Besides, we live in Andover. It would take me an hour to even get into the city.”

“It doesn’t take that long.” But she knew it could very well take commuters over an hour some days. “I just thought you wanted to come home for the summer.”

“I did, but this is an opportunity I can’t pass up.”

Meredith knew her son was right, that it would be selfish to make him follow through on his promise to come home, and a mother shouldn’t hold her son back for her own needs.

How could Phillip take this last summer away? Her last child, while he sits in his new home with his new child and new wife.

“I was just looking forward to you coming home,” she said, making her voice peppy. “Can you come up for the Fourth at least?”

“I’ll come up for a weekend,” he said.

The vagueness made Meredith’s stomach twist. “Sure, Ry. That would be great.”

She squeezed her eyes shut, and tears fell down her face. She didn’t want to lose it on the phone with Ryan. It wasn’t fair to make him feel bad. This was a natural stage in his life, and he should be excited for this opportunity, not worried about whether his mother would be able to handle it.

Her baby would be leaving college and going who knew where. Her daughters had moved out a few years ago. Cora lived in the North End and worked as a waitress, and Muriel lived among the trees in New Hampshire, where she was a teacher. Meredith would officially be an empty nester.

She would have to sell the house.

Silence fell between them, until Ryan said, “Mom?”

“Yeah?” She almost tagged on her pet name for him but stopped herself. Her “pumpkin” was turning twenty-two this year. He no longer wanted to be referred to as a fruit.

“I love you,” he said. “I’ll make sure to come back for the Fourth.”

But she could almost guarantee he wouldn’t. A more important engagement would come up that he would justhaveto attend, and could she blame him? Why would her son want to come back home to just his mom and a pool?

“I love you, too, pump—” She took a deep breath. “Ryan. I love you, too.”

“I’ll be back, I promise,” he said.

She hummed out anmm-hmmbecause she was about to lose it. “Oh, Ry, I’ve gotta go. There’s a delivery. Love you! Good luck with finals.”

And she hung up.

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