The Sea Glass Cottage

by RaeAnne Thayne

  “Of course, I would be even happier if you decided to stick around. It has been wonderful having you back. I’m sure Juliet agrees.”

  She wasn’t sure of anything in regard to Juliet right now.

  “Is your mother coming?” Rosemary asked.

  “She’ll be here later. A friend is bringing her. I had to come early so I can post a few more times, just to remind people. We might be able to bring in a few people from out of town, too, since it’s for a good cause.”

  “That’s terrific. You’ve thought of everything.” Rosemary beamed. “I don’t know what we would have done without you.”

  Olivia smiled back, but was relieved when someone else came over to the mayor, needing her attention.

  As the mayor left with an apologetic backward glance, Olivia’s gaze unerringly seemed to find Cooper. He was looking at her, she realized. Their gazes met, and for an instant, she was back in his arms that night outside Sea Glass Cottage.

  He smiled and gave a small wave, then turned his attention back to someone who was talking to him.

  Oh, she had it bad. The man only had to look at her and she forgot everything she was doing. With great effort, she drew herself back to the task, and for the next hour as people started to show up and the tables began to fill, she wandered around the fire station, snapping pictures here and there and interviewing people in short snippets of video she posted on social media.

  She was so busy, she forgot to be nervous about the crowd filling up the fire station until a door suddenly slammed shut somewhere in the building. She froze for just an instant, panic spurting through her, then took a deep breath, shoved it back down and returned to her interview with a couple of schoolchildren, who were talking about how the pancakes might be the best they’d ever had.

  After she was done talking to them and the kids returned for another helping of pancakes, Olivia took a moment to reflect. Was it possible she was getting over her anxiety about crowds? It had been at least two weeks since her last panic attack. She wanted to think so but was afraid to hope.

  Finally, as she worked her way through the crowd, she knew she couldn’t avoid the cook stations, where crews were flipping pancakes, stirring hash browns, turning bacon.

  Camera in hand, she finally walked in that direction. As she did, she noticed Caitlin chatting with a group of other teenagers in a corner. She scanned the room but didn’t see Juliet yet. She might have worried but she knew her mother’s friend Stella would be driving her to the breakfast.

  Caitlin laughed at something her friends said. It sounded forced, which didn’t really surprise Olivia. The mood around Sea Glass Cottage had been so strange all week. Caitlin seemed subdued. She had refrained from sniping at Olivia like usual and she stayed mostly in her room. Olivia and Juliet both had tried to talk to her about what might be bothering her, but she had simply said she was busy with homework.

  Juliet, on the other hand, seemed determined to show she hadn’t been affected by the rift between her and Henry. She was over-the-top cheerful, working hard on her exercises, practicing her knitting, writing thank-you notes to everyone who had helped out after her accident.

  Olivia wasn’t fooled. She had come across Juliet more than once looking tearful. Her mother would quickly wipe at her eyes and put on a bright smile, as if she really thought she was fooling anyone.

  Henry was here but she hadn’t had the chance to talk to him yet. It would be interesting to see how they reacted to being in the same room together, once Juliet arrived. As far as she knew, this would be the first time they had seen each other since that night he had brought her home.

  She glanced at Caitlin again, tempted to approach her niece and her friends and ask to take their picture for the social media campaign, but she still wasn’t quite sure where she stood with Caitlin and didn’t want to risk an explosion of snark.

  Her mom finally arrived a short time later. Olivia couldn’t resist finding Henry, just in time to see his expression turn even more stoic, if possible, as he nodded at something his friend said.

  What was the real reason her mother didn’t want a romantic relationship with Henry? Olivia was convinced the conflict couldn’t simply be about the age difference. Her mother wasn’t that vain and shallow that she cared what others thought at the expense of her own happiness, was she?

  She had a job to do here, Olivia reminded herself. One that didn’t involve meddling in her mother’s love life.

  Still, when Henry passed her on the way back from throwing away his plate a short time later, she couldn’t resist stopping his progress. “Hi, Henry.”

  If Juliet acted almost maniacally happy right now, Henry Cragun seemed the opposite. He had deep circles under his eyes and more lines around his mouth. He looked as if he hadn’t slept in days.

  Impulsively, she reached out to give him a quick hug. “How are you? I’ve been meaning to ask how the landscaping project went at Hidden Creek.”

  “Good. It turned out better than I’d hoped. You ought to drive down the coast to take a look for yourself.”

  “I really should take Melody for an outing, since she did all the hard work of helping you find the right plants. I’m sure she would love to see them in the ground.”

  “Definitely.”

  Maybe she could get away on Monday, since business at the garden center was slower that day. It would be good to take pictures of the landscaping work for the Harper Hill social media properties.

  “The hotel doesn’t officially open for another two weeks but there are people coming and going all the time. You should be able to get through the gates, but if you have trouble, send me a text and I can give you the access code.”

  “Thank you. I’ll do that.” She looked around to make sure no one else was within earshot. Then she touched his arm. “How are you?”

  He looked startled. Then his mouth tightened. “I suppose you’ve been speaking with your mother.”

  “A little. She hasn’t told me anything, really, only that the two of you are taking a break from your friendship because you want different things.”

  “That’s one way of putting it.”

  Olivia knew she should probably mind her own business. Okay, there was no probably about it. Both of them were hurting, though, and from the outside, the whole thing seemed so pointless.

  “I’m sure it’s no consolation, but she seems pretty miserable right now.”

  Henry glanced over to where Juliet was sitting in her wheelchair, surrounded by friends. She was laughing at something one of them said, her face bright and cheery.

  “I can see that,” he said dryly.

  “Give it a few days. Maybe a week. She’ll come around.”

  His sigh seemed to come from deep inside. “You are far more optimistic than I am.”

  “Juliet can be stubborn but she’s not stupid. Eventually she’ll have to see how perfect you are for each other.”

  His mouth twisted into a caricature of a smile. “I guess the two of us see things that way, but our opinions don’t really matter here, do they? Your mom has made her position clear and I won’t push her.”

  From Olivia’s perspective, Juliet needed just that—a big, hefty shove in the right direction. Too bad Olivia didn’t know how to do that.

  “I think she’s afraid,” she said softly.

  “We’re all afraid, Olivia,” Henry answered, his voice quiet. “You can’t make it through life without it. The trick is figuring out that the thing you need is just on the other side of that fear. The only way you can reach it is by going right through the center of it.”

  “For what it’s worth, I’m rooting for you.”

  His smile was filled with an ocean of sadness and very little hope. “Thanks,” he said, then waved and headed back to his friends.

  As she found a corner where she could log in to the fire department’s
account and upload some of the pictures, Henry’s words seemed to echo in her head.

  We’re all afraid. The trick is figuring out that the thing you need is just on the other side of that fear. The only way you can reach it is by going right through the center of it.

  She was doing that. Letting fear stand between her and the life she wanted. It was controlling so many aspects of her life, from the restaurants where she ate to the relationships she created.

  She was living in fear.

  Right now, she seemed to be handling her anxiety about crowds. She no longer jumped and wanted to hide in the corner if she heard a loud noise. But she was still running away emotionally, afraid to trust. She had been running a long time, long before that attack. Throwing herself into her business so she didn’t have to think about how alone she felt.

  She was tired of running. She wanted a deep, loving relationship like her parents had shared, like her mother could have with Henry Cragun.

  Look at Pete Gallegos and his wife. The previous fire chief had Parkinson’s disease and couldn’t even shake hands at the event without severe trembling, yet his wife, Sheila, stood at his side, her hand on his shoulder, looking at him with so much love, everyone around was touched by it.

  Olivia wanted that. She wanted a relationship with someone she knew would be in her corner, no matter what.

  She spotted Cooper, who had stepped away from the grills and was talking to an older couple she didn’t know.

  Was it possible Cooper was the person she had been waiting for all this time? Did she have the strength to find out?

  If she didn’t, if she continued to hide rather than plow through the middle of her fear, as Henry had said, was she really in a place to lecture her mother about taking a chance at love?

  JULIET

  This had been a mistake.

  She should have stayed home, where she could continue to smile and pretend everything was okay. She could manage that for a small audience. Caitlin. Olivia. Her physical therapist.

  Now that she was here among hundreds of her closest friends, keeping up the facade was proving to be more exhausting than she could handle.

  “This is a great crowd, isn’t it? How wonderful, that everyone is coming together to help Pete and Sheila.” Stella Davenport Clayton sipped at her orange juice.

  Juliet forced a smile, wondering how long it would take before her cheerful front would crack apart like a fragile robin’s egg. “It’s terrific. I always love when we rally around a common cause.”

  “Yes. Like our Arts and Hearts on the Cape event.”

  Stella organized an arts festival each year, which benefited a charity intended to encourage and help foster families in the area.

  “Pete and Sheila are a big part of the community. Everyone loves them and wants to help them,” Juliet said.

  It was hard for her to see Pete struggle with his disease. He was using a wheelchair more these days, likely because he didn’t have the strength to stand for long periods of time.

  Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis weren’t the same. While both affected the central nervous system and some of the symptoms could be similar, she knew MS impacted the myelin sheaths of the nerves, while with Parkinson’s, cells in part of the brain died off.

  She understood hers was an autoimmune disorder and that, unlike Parkinson’s, people could be in remission for years, as she had been. She still found it painfully difficult to watch the rapid progression of Pete’s disease over the past three or four years.

  “You said you weren’t hungry when we first came in, but I think you need to eat something,” Stella declared. “You stay here. I’ll go get your food and bring it back to you.”

  “You don’t have to do that. You should be the one sitting while you have the chance.”

  Stella had two very active twin babies who were currently home with her husband, who was a doctor in town.

  “Caitlin’s over there. I can have her grab a plate for me,” she protested.

  “She looks busy talking to her friends. I don’t mind, honey. It’s my pleasure.”

  Oh, it was so hard to let people do things for her. She hated being dependent on others.

  What would she do when her MS flared and her condition regressed? She would have to start researching care facilities in the area. She refused to let Olivia or Caitlin care for her.

  Her gaze unerringly went to Henry, sitting with a couple of friends, as it had done the moment she walked into the fire station and a hundred times since.

  Oh, how she missed him. She had almost texted or called him a dozen times a day, until she remembered she couldn’t anymore, that she had pushed him away.

  He shifted his gaze from his conversation to meet hers and she caught her breath at the pain there.

  She had done the right thing, she thought, looking away quickly. The only possible thing. Yes, it hurt. She wasn’t sure how she could endure the pain of not having him in her life. But she couldn’t be selfish. She loved him. More than anything, she wanted him to be happy.

  She had to think about what was best for him, even when she knew that could never be her.

  29

  COOPER

  Why, again, had he dreaded moving back to Cape Sanctuary?

  As Cooper moved through the crowd inside the fire station, greeting old friends as well as people he didn’t know, he was aware of a strange, unfamiliar feeling.

  He struggled to place it, until it finally hit him in a rush. He felt like he belonged here.

  How had that happened?

  He had struggled hard with the decision to return to Cape Sanctuary. This was the place where he had never really fit in, where he had always been aware that people saw his mother and her problems when they looked at him. He had suffered great loss here and had never quite understood Melody’s desire to stay and raise her family in their hometown.

  He would come back to visit his sister, but whenever he did, he would be haunted by memories of his mother and the stigma he had felt as a child of the town drunk.

  When he made the decision to come back, Cooper had expected to be unhappy but had told himself he could stand it for the sake of Melody and his nephews.

  How funny, that he had been so very wrong. He was discovering he was happier here than he had been in a long time.

  He had come to appreciate the people here. He enjoyed the casual, relaxed beach vibe. The work was challenging and fulfilling, with something different happening all the time. He hadn’t found it at all staid and boring, as he feared he would after leaving the higher-risk world of military rescues.

  Most of all, he absolutely enjoyed the crews he worked with, both the paid paramedics and the volunteer firefighters who filled in the gaps. They had all embraced and accepted him warmly.

  He had to wonder if his recollections were completely accurate. Had his filter been skewed? Maybe people hadn’t looked down their noses at him and Melody because their mother was a drunk who couldn’t keep a job. Was it possible that all the actions he had perceived as disdain or unwanted charity had actually been driven by compassion and concern?

  He only had to look at how the community had rallied around Pete. The line for people wanting breakfast went out the door and through the parking lot, though it was a half hour past the time they were supposed to be serving, heading into lunchtime.

  At this rate, they would run out of food before they ran out of the people wanting to donate to the cause.

  “This is amazing.” Mike Walker looked astonished at the crowds.

  “It’s Cape Sanctuary,” Roy Little, an old-timer, said simply.

  “All the people aren’t from the Cape,” Cooper said. “I’ve talked to people from as far as Santa Rosa who drove up to support the cause.”

  Olivia’s social media blitz had done its job. Several of her posts about the breakfast had go
ne viral, including some older pictures she must have found in archives of Chief Gallegos as a young firefighter in action.

  She was everywhere during the breakfast. Each time he looked up, he seemed to find her somewhere in the firehouse talking to someone else, looking as pretty as a summer’s day.

  “Good job with the breakfast, Chief.”

  And now she was right in front of him and he had been too busy thinking about her to notice. His heart gave a little kick in his chest, and he managed, barely, to fumble a pancake back to the grill before it could fall to the floor.

  “Hi there.”

  He wanted to kiss her. It was rapidly becoming an obsession. Every time he saw her, he wanted to grab her close and hold her in his arms again. “Thank you for getting the word out. We wouldn’t have had nearly this crowd without your efforts to publicize it for us.”

  “I’m glad to do my part. It’s for a wonderful cause. Hi, Mike. Good to see you again,” she said, smiling at his new hire, whom she had met that day at the hospital.

  “Hi there, Olivia. Good to see you again.”

  “Hey, Roy. How’ve you been?”

  The older man beamed at her and left his bacon station to wrap her into the hug Cooper wanted to be giving. “There’s my little Olivia. My wife said she saw you at the garden center this week. I’ve been meaning to come in and say hello. How long are you in town?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I need to get back to work, but they’ve been good about giving me the time off I need to help my mom.”

  “Your mom.” Roy shook his head. “Sure was scary when we rolled up and found her on the ground like that. I thought Cooper here was like to pass out.”

  He refrained from rolling his eyes as he flipped another pancake. Cooper had been upset to find Juliet injured, but Roy had been the one who had been nearly in tears about it. Nice lady like that. Sure hope it’s not serious, he had said more than once.

  “How is she doing now?” he asked.

  “Good. She’s here, sitting at the table next to the fire truck.”