Just South of Sunrise

by Grace Palmer

  Still, she couldn’t seem to convince herself of that. Even knowing everything she knew about Angela and Heather’s plans, Liza wanted to believe Ben was innocent. She wanted to forgive him. She wanted to be with him.

  She didn’t realize she was crying until her face grew painfully cold. The wind off the water was drying her tears to her cheeks, and she swiped at them with gloved hands and then buried her face in the circle of her arms.

  Liza didn’t know how long she stayed that way, but when she lifted her head, she wasn’t alone.

  Liza screamed and rolled sideways in surprise, and Stella slapped her hands over her mouth. “Liza, I’m so sorry!”

  A scream died in her throat, and Liza fell back in the sand as her heartbeat returned to normal pace. “You scared the tar out of me, Stella! When did you get here?”

  “Five minutes ago,” she said, smiling guiltily. “I didn’t want to disturb you.”

  “You should have disturbed me. If you had, maybe I wouldn’t have been so scared when I looked up.” Liza shook her head and pressed a hand to her chest. “I almost had a heart attack.”

  “I’m sorry.” Stella chuckled a bit and clapped a hand on Liza’s back. “I didn’t come to scare you. I actually came to check on you.”

  Liza bit her lip, unsure how much to divulge. What did Stella know? Did everyone in Willow Beach know what had happened? Was this plan even more elaborate than Liza had thought?

  “Sam saw you leaving The Roast yesterday, and he said you looked upset. I came by the house last night and this morning, but you didn’t answer. Finally, I thought I’d check the beach, and here we are.”

  “You came to check on me?” Liza didn’t know why she was surprised, but she was.

  “Of course! That’s what friends are for.”

  Liza liked Stella and all the women from the book club, but she kind of assumed it was a one-way street. At least for right now. They were all friends, and had been for a while, whereas Liza was a newcomer, and a temporary one, at that.

  “That’s really nice of you.”

  “It’s lucky I found you, actually,” Stella said. “I was getting pretty close to asking the sheriff to come do a wellness check.”

  “I was…off the grid for a while,” Liza explained.

  “Yeah, I asked Ben if he’d heard from you, but he seemed a little upset too. I thought maybe he might have something to do with why you disappeared.”

  Liza nodded, her lower lip trembling. Then, without warning, she began to cry.

  Really, truly cry.

  Between sobs, the story came out. Liza told Stella about her past with Ben, why she’d come to Willow Beach, and about her niece’s role in the deception. She told Stella how duped she felt, how manipulated and embarrassed. She told her about the nature of her marriage with Cliff, about the last three years she’d spent in her small apartment in Boston, and about how much she loved Willow Beach and had started imagining a future for herself there.

  Liza told Stella more than she’d ever planned or hoped, and when she was done, she felt…relieved. Lighter, somehow.

  She studied Stella, watching for signs that she’d unloaded far too much information on the woman. Instead, however, Liza saw pure empathy written in every line of Stella’s face.

  “Oh, Liza,” Stella said, wrapping her arm around Liza and pulling her close. “I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s okay. It’s what I get for putting myself out there.”

  “No!” Stella barked, the forcefulness of it surprising Liza. “No, that is not ‘what you get.’ Nobody deserves to be hurt for making themselves vulnerable. Plus—and I don’t want to offend you, so take this as it is intended—have you considered that Ben didn’t know about any of this?”

  “I’m not offended. I have considered that, but I’m not sure if it matters. At the end of the day, he and I both thought our reunion was fate, but now it seems it was all arranged.”

  Stella bit her lower lip. “So?”

  “So?” Liza repeated. “So, that means our love isn’t destiny.”

  “Who says? Maybe it was destiny for your meddling niece to get involved in your love life and get you and Ben in the same town again.”

  Liza hadn’t thought of it that way, but she didn’t know if that mattered. “I feel like an idiot. I’m not sure I can look at him the same way without feeling embarrassed. I’m so pathetic my niece had to interfere in my love life.”

  “Or,” Stella said, lifting a finger. “You’re so loved that your niece wanted to help you find an amazing guy.”

  “You should work in politics. You’re very good at spinning this story from negative to positive.”

  Stella shrugged. “It’s a gift.”

  Liza was grateful for Stella’s perspective, and it had made her feel slightly better, but she wasn’t ready to stop wallowing just yet.

  “I totally get the need to wallow, believe me, but I think you should push pause on wallowing at least for tonight and come with me to an art show.”

  For the first time, Liza took in Stella’s appearance, and realized she was wearing a black dress with tights and booties, and her hair was curled and pinned back with a silver clip.

  “Wow. You look amazing.”

  Stella beamed. “Thank you. As the featured artist, I figured it was only appropriate that I look the part.”

  Liza’s eyes widened. “You’re the featured artist? As in, the art show is all of your work?”

  “It sounds fancy, but it’s really not that big of the deal. I just finished a collection of pieces themed around the intersection of light and dark, and I wanted to hold a small showing for family and friends and potential customers. There won’t be too many people there, but there will be food and wine. I think it will be fun.”

  Liza had to admit, it did sound nice. However…

  She looked down at her own appearance and frowned. “I’m a mess.”

  “That is true,” Stella said, laughing when Liza wrinkled her nose at her. “But you have plenty of time to fix it. Run home, get dressed, and meet me at the gallery downtown.”

  Liza knew right away which gallery Stella was talking about. It was only a few spaces down from the rental space Liza had looked at with Angela yesterday.

  Yesterday. Was that really how little time had passed since everything in Liza’s life had imploded? It seemed hard to believe. It felt like she’d been in bed for at least a week. Which was probably the main reason why it was time that Liza got out of bed and rejoined the living.

  “Sure, okay. I’ll come.”

  Stella clapped and threw her arms around Liza. “I’m so glad. I really wanted you to be there.”

  Liza hugged her back. “And I really want to be there.”

  It was true. Liza did want to be there.

  At the art gallery.

  And in Willow Beach.

  She wanted to live here, and nothing would stop her.

  22

  Liza lightly curled her hair, swiped some mascara on her lashes and blush across her cheeks, and pulled on the sweater dress she’d worn on her date with Ben. For a second, her hand hesitated over the dress, wondering if she should wear it or if it would bring up bad memories. Or, really, if it would bring up good memories, which would make her feel bad.

  In the end, though, Liza decided it was high time to let go of the past.

  She wasn’t going to keep herself from enjoying her favorite things—like her beautiful olive- green sweater dress that fit her like a glove—because she was afraid of being hurt or upset. It was time to stop running and, as Stella had suggested that day on the beach several weeks ago, face the pain from her past and work through it.

  It was also time to decide on a path for her future.

  Before she left, Liza pulled out her phone and called Ramon, the landlord for the rental space on Main.

  “Hey, Ramon, it’s Liza Hall from the showing yesterday. I’m calling about renting the space. I love it, and I’d like to set up a lease.” />
  “Oh, Liza, hey.” Ramon sounded off, not nearly as friendly as he had the day before. “I’m so sorry, but the space is actually no longer available.”

  “Oh…” He’d told her she had plenty of time. Liza assumed that meant more than twenty-four hours. She wanted to ask why it wasn’t available. Had someone else rented it? Was he no longer trying to lease it? Had it been destroyed in a fire?

  However, Ramon didn’t seem like he wanted to give out any details, so Liza didn’t feel it was her place to ask. She thanked him for his time and hung up.

  “It’s fine,” she said out loud to herself, lifting her chin and taking a deep breath. “I can still have a good night.”

  She’d been unsure about the kitchen space, anyway. Yes, it was beautiful and well-lit and the perfect place to host tastings with clients, but she could figure something else out. This didn’t mean her dream of living in Willow Beach was dead. It just meant it was different now.

  Liza drove down Main Street and parked in the space in front of the gallery. She could see people milling around inside—Georgia, Sam, Alma and Gwen, Vivienne and her husband—and the space looked amazing. Even from outside, Liza could see some of the canvases hanging on the walls with lights positioned above them, illuminating Stella’s incredible talent.

  Just as she was about to walk through the gallery doors, though, the artist herself burst through them and grabbed her arm.

  “Can you help me?” Stella asked, seeming slightly frantic.

  “Of course. What’s going on?”

  Stella pulled Liza down the sidewalk wordlessly.

  “Is everything okay?” Liza asked. “Is something wrong with your show? It looked like it was going well from what I could say.”

  “The show is fine. There’s just something else I need your help with.”

  Stella seemed flustered. Her cheeks were red and flushed, and she couldn’t look Liza in the eye.

  Liza followed her for a few more steps before she pulled on Stella’s arm, forcing the woman to face her. “What is going on?”

  “You’ll find out when we get there.”

  “No.” Liza crossed her arms and stared at Stella. “I’m going to find out right now. Where are you taking me?”

  For the first time, Stella looked in Liza’s eyes. She seemed nervous, but sincere. “Liza, do you trust me?”

  Trust.

  That had become a tough word for Liza recently.

  She wasn’t sure she really trusted anyone. She couldn’t trust Angela—at least not as much as she’d thought.

  She couldn’t trust Ben.

  She couldn’t even trust Ramon. Because of him, she’d lost out on the kitchen space, which was actually only one more storefront ahead of where she was currently standing.

  Still, Liza wanted to trust Stella, and she supposed that meant more than anything else.

  “Yes,” she said. “I trust you.”

  Stella gave her a small smile. “Okay. Then please come with me, and try not to be mad. Okay?”

  Well, that was not exactly a comforting sentence, but Liza did her best to shove down her uncertainty. Stella was her friend, and if Liza was ever going to trust anyone again, she had to start somewhere. Why not here?

  Stella pulled Liza down the street and stopped directly in front of the kitchen space she’d looked at the day before. Despite what Ramon had said on the phone, the “for lease” sign was still hanging in the paper-covered windows.

  “What are we doing here?”

  “You said you want to stay in Willow Beach, right?” Stella asked.

  Liza frowned. “This space isn’t available anymore.”

  Stella waved a hand to dismiss Liza’s words. “That isn’t what I asked. You want to stay here, right?”

  “Yes,” Liza said. “I do.”

  “And you trust me, right?”

  Liza took a deep breath and nodded. “Yes, I trust you.”

  “Okay, then trust me when I say that we only had your best interests at heart, okay?”

  “We?”

  Stella ignored that question, pulled open the front door of the vacant space, and pushed Liza inside. Instead of coming in with her, Stella pulled the door closed, leaving Liza inside alone. The room was too dark to make out anything except a few dark smudges, but suddenly, an overhead light flicked on.

  Liza blinked against the sudden brightness, and then heard a familiar, deep laugh. “Sorry about that.”

  She froze, staring straight ahead as her vision cleared and Benjamin Boyd came into view.

  He was standing in the middle of the room, next to a small camping stove. The lid was on it, but smoke was coming out of the top, and Liza could see a small flame sputtering through the grate.

  “What’s going on?” Her voice sounded cold, and Ben flinched.

  He stepped forward and then stopped when he noticed her retreat back a step. “We need to talk.”

  “I don’t want to talk.” It was an echo of what she’d told him a few weeks ago. “That’s why I turned my phone off.”

  “I know,” he said. “I want to respect your wishes, but I also can’t stand the idea that you think I betrayed you.”

  Liza crossed her arms, an old defense mechanism. “But didn’t you?”

  “No,” he said, sounding desperate. “Liza, no, I didn’t. I wouldn’t.”

  “I saw the text messages on Angela’s phone. She and Heather had a plan to get us together. You’re telling me you didn’t know about it? You didn’t know I was going to be here in Willow Beach.”

  He snapped and pointed at her. “Okay, yes. I did know you were going to be the caterer to the wedding, but I found out a day before I arrived in Willow Beach. I didn’t schedule for you to be the caterer or decide to stay in Willow Beach and help with wedding stuff because of that. I agreed to stay in Willow Beach to help Stacy, and then I learned you’d be the caterer. It was a very happy coincidence.”

  Liza wanted to believe him desperately, but she wasn’t sure.

  “The night my water pipe burst, you came to help me.”

  “I was being honest about that. I told you I saw you in the parking lot and then came down to help, but I didn’t plan for your pipe to burst or anything. Again, just another happy coincidence.”

  Liza frowned. “What about the coffee shop yesterday? It seemed like Heather told you Angela and I would be there.”

  He shook his head. “No, she didn’t. I told Heather about you as soon as we reconnected. She and I talk about everything, and she encouraged me to go after you. I told you she loves croissants, so of course, she suggested I go to The Roast to buy you a croissant and take it to the cottage as a surprise. I was just as surprised as you were when you and Angela walked into the coffee shop together.”

  Liza was still hesitant. “Okay, that makes sense. Maybe I was a little too quick to blame you given our history.”

  “I know, and I understand that. But I swear, I wouldn’t ever purposefully do anything to hurt you,” Ben said. “As eager as I was to come to Willow Beach and see you again, I wouldn’t have gone behind your back to orchestrate all of this. I want our relationship to be real.”

  “That’s just it,” Liza said. “This isn’t real. It wasn’t orchestrated by you, but it was still orchestrated.”

  He lifted a shoulder in a shrug, his mouth twisted to the side. “Yeah, technically, but just to get us both in the same town. Everything else was you and me. I asked you out on a date, you agreed, we had a great time. Angela and Heather couldn’t have planned that. They couldn’t have manipulated the way we feel when we’re together.”

  He was making a good point, but Liza still wasn’t sure.

  “You said it was fate, but that isn’t fate.”

  Ben tentatively took a step forward and then another. When he was sure Liza wouldn’t bolt away from him, he crossed the room and grabbed her hands in his. “Liza, as far as I’m concerned, you and I will always be fated. Whether it’s all coincidence or planned out by
someone else, I don’t care. Fate, to me, is just about where you end up. We get to pick the way we get there, but the end result is fated, and no one will ever convince me otherwise.”

  Tears burned at the back of Liza’s eyes, and she looked away from Ben, trying to regain control of her emotions.

  That’s when she caught sight of the campfire stove again and the s’mores ingredients scattered next to it on the floor.

  “What’s that for?”

  Ben looked over his shoulder and smiled. “Oh, that. It’s all I could find on short notice. When this place is a real kitchen, you’ll have something a lot nicer, I’m sure.”

  Liza snapped her attention to him. “A real kitchen?”

  He nodded. “This is going to be your Willow Beach headquarters.”

  She blinked. “You rented this place?”

  “No, they did.” Ben tipped his head towards the door, and Liza turned around just as Georgia, Stella, and Angela came inside.

  They were all smiling, though Angela seemed nervous. Her hands were folded behind her back, and she was chewing on her lower lip.

  “I don’t know what’s happening,” Liza said, her throat feeling suddenly tight.

  “I know you’d already decided to stay here in Willow Beach, but we wanted you to know how much we want you to stay,” Stella said.

  “And we wanted you to have an actual working kitchen,” Georgia laughed. “I liked having you at the inn, of course, but it can’t be a permanent solution.”

  Angela stepped forward, her eyes shifting between the floor and Liza’s eyes. “And I wanted to say sorry for…everything.”

  “By buying me a kitchen space?” Liza shook her head. “It’s too much. I can’t ask you all to do that.”

  “You don’t have to,” Stella said. “Besides, we didn’t buy it.”

  “We only paid rent for six months,” Georgia said. “Willow Beach has a grant for new businesses that we signed you up for, and we got donations from a lot of people in town, too.”

  Liza’s vision was blurry, and she swiped at her eyes, probably smearing makeup across her cheek. “You all did that for me?”

  “For you and for the food,” Georgia joked. “I assume you will be repaying us in the form of many free meals.”