Still chuckling, Duncan made his way with everyone down the side of the house toward an old wooden arbor heavy with roses, Lena and Evelyn leading the way.
Clancy turned toward Duncan. “How’s it going? Is she a keeper?”
Duncan lowered his chin and scowled at him.
“Ondine,” Clancy clarified. “The dog.”
“Ah.” Duncan’s neck muscles unknotted. “For now. It was kind of funny how she just waltzed into Lena’s studio and made herself at home. Maybe they were meant for each other or something.”
“Stranger things have happened.”
“What did you decide about the Mermaid Ball?”
Clancy shook his head. “The festival committee absolutely hates holding it indoors—they say it ruins the magic. I told them forty-mile-an-hour winds could ruin more than magic.”
Duncan chuckled. “So what did you decide?”
“I’ve looked at all the models. I called the National Weather Service on the mainland. Nobody knows the trajectory for sure, so I went ahead and cleared the event for outdoors.” Clancy rubbed his face nervously. “I had to make the call because it takes forty-eight hours to set up. God, I hope I didn’t screw the pooch.”
As soon as their little group passed beneath the arbor, Duncan saw his mother had gone all out for the event, as usual. The large old table was covered with a white cloth and decorated with strategically placed seashells and glass jars of wildflowers. In a new twist, a drape of fishing net hung from the old sycamore above, loaded down with its catch of the day: construction-paper fish, corals, and mermaids.
“Christina worked on those all afternoon,” Evie told Lena. “It kept her busy while we cooked.”
Duncan saw Lena stiffen just before she gasped, “I forgot to bring something!”
“No worries.” Evie leaned in close. “Your date dropped off his specialty earlier today.”
Lena whipped her head around. “You have a specialty?”
“Yep. I got the keg.”
Rowan, Annie, and Serena greeted everyone at the arbor gate. Nat and Ash shouted their hellos from the far end of the yard, where they were building the bonfire. Even while Duncan received hugs from his sister and her best friend, a sick feeling had begun to settle in the pit of his stomach. He glanced at Clancy.
It was obvious his brother was thinking the same thing.
Last year at this event, right in front of the bonfire and the entire family, the brothers had nearly come to blows. Duncan had confessed that he’d kept Evie and Clancy apart when they were teenagers, that he’d thrown away a love letter she’d mailed to Clancy after Evie had returned home from festival week. Because of Duncan’s actions, it had taken the couple eighteen years to find each other again.
The words exchanged that night had been ugly. Clancy had called Duncan a “jealous son of a bitch” and said that being a Navy SEAL didn’t give him dibs on courage. How had his little brother put it? Being strong enough to love someone, strong enough to risk everything by loving someone—that is manning up, bro.
Looking in his brother’s eyes right then, Duncan was slammed by so much regret that it left him speechless. He had been cruel to Lena. He had been cruel to Clancy and Evie.
He wondered if that was the real reason he preferred to keep his distance from Bayberry Island—his own shame.
“Duncan.” Clancy looked him square in the eye. “It’s water under the bridge, man. All is forgiven. Seriously.” With that, Clancy gave him a firm, steady hug and slapped him on the back. “Now, you need to tap the keg. I get one beer before I go back on duty, and I think right now’s a good time to drink it.”
The gathering descended into chaos soon after. Christina and “John Dean” zigzagged through the grass. Serena had a meltdown. Evie dropped her famous quinoa and fresh mint salad onto the lawn. “I can run home and make another,” she offered.
A unanimous “no” assured her it wasn’t necessary. While Duncan helped Evie clean up the mess, Ondine stopped by for a sniff. She turned up her nose at the side dish and wandered off.
Eventually, Mona lit the candles and asked everyone to take their seats around an outrageous display of food. A big old soup tureen overflowed with a homemade bouillabaisse of clams, prawns, mussels, and fresh cod. There was freshly baked bread, cranberry relish, roasted leg of lamb, lobster, spinach salad, and crispy new potatoes with rosemary. The only thing missing from the table was Da.
Frasier had dutifully attended every family festival-week cookout since he and Ma separated. Their close proximity was usually a silent one, though a verbal barb or two was sometimes exchanged. Tonight was the first time he hadn’t bothered to show up.
Mona sighed, clearly deciding to move on with the evening, Frasier or no. She raised her wineglass. “I would like to make a toast to all of us, young and old and in between. Our family grows in number and in joy with each passing year, and for that I am deeply grate—”
Mona stopped in midsentence. Duncan had a very bad feeling, and his intuition proved correct when he turned around.
“Granda!” Christina yelled.
“Oh, hell no,” Rowan whispered.
Ondine’s sharp little bark split the air.
There stood Frasier, hands in the pockets of his neatly pressed dress trousers, with Sally at his side.
Clancy jumped up so fast that he knocked over his precious beer. “Da, are you insane?”
A painful silence settled over the group until Nat asked, “More wine, anyone?”
“Wait.” Frasier approached the table the way a man might walk to his execution. Both he and Sally seemed strangely repentant. “There is something everyone needs to hear, so I would appreciate it if you all just sat down”—that was directed toward Clancy—“and hold your comments.” That was for Rowan. “I need three minutes. That’s all I ask of you.”
Lena turned toward Duncan, clearly baffled.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” he whispered.
At that point, Sally stepped forward. She wore an off-white pantsuit that made her look more like Hillary Clinton than Dolly Parton. “Hi, everyone,” she said. “Hello, Mona. This won’t take long.”
Clancy looked sideways at Duncan, who shook his head, silently suggesting his little brother let things unfold.
Frasier cleared his throat. “Yes, well.” He gave Sally a nod.
“I am not here tonight as Frasier’s date.” She was addressing Mona in particular. “I’m here because I want to make amends and do whatever I can to convince you to take your husband back.”
Every woman at the table gasped. Nat poured himself more wine. Duncan checked on his mother, but if she were preparing to strangle the shit out of Sally, it didn’t show. Ma was a class act.
“I was diagnosed with cancer two weeks ago.”
Murmurs of sympathy went around the table. Mona said, “I am truly sorry to hear that, Sally.”
Though she held her back straight and her chin high, it was obvious that Sally struggled to keep her composure. “It’s stage two. The doctors say I have a sixty percent chance of survival, and so I’m going to think on the positive.”
“Oh, Sally.” Mona sighed. “Please let me know if there’s anything we can do.”
Ma’s kindness released Sally’s tears. She nodded. “That’s not what I came to tell you, Mona.”
“All right.”
“See, when something like that happens to you, your perspective changes. I suddenly realized the things I thought were so damn important were just bullshit.”
“Uh-oh,” Christina said.
Sally looked horrified. “I am so sorry,” she said to Clancy and Evie.
Frasier patted Sally’s shoulder in an awkward show of support. Sally took a big breath and continued.
“Mona, I was so jealous of you I couldn’t see straight. I’ve wasted so much of my life trying to one-up you, and the only reason I broke from the mermaids and started the fairies was to cause you grief. I mean, otherwise what’s the poi
nt in a bunch of middle-aged women running around the island dressed in tutus and gauzy wings?”
“Many of us have wondered that very thing,” Nat said.
“Shh!” Annie scowled at him.
“And that whole nasty battle about development on the island . . .” Sally looked at Ash. “The only reason I championed the resort and casino was to get back at Mona. I wanted to see her suffer.”
“Whoa.” Rowan made the only comment.
Christina began picking hunks of bread from the basket and feeding them to Ondine, who was lounging under her chair. Serena hurled her spoon into the bushes. Duncan felt Lena reach for his hand under the table, and he squeezed it in reassurance. Because really, what were the possible outcomes here? This standoff would either resolve calmly or it would break out into a mass riot of hair-pulling and food-throwing, and Duncan had more faith in the Flynns than that.
Sally grabbed a tissue out of the pocket of her jacket, dabbing at her eyes and nose. “Look. I’m here this evening to tell you that Frasier is a good man. He’s been very decent to me, a true friend. But the truth is—I’m nothing but a catch-and-release thing for him.” Sally inclined her head toward Mona. “Don’t you think for one second that Frasier Flynn has ever loved anyone but you.”
Mona rose from her chair at the far end of the table. She neatly folded her napkin and dropped it in her plate.
Sally went on. “From here on out, I will be focusing all my energy on getting better and spending as much time with my own family as I can.” She glanced at Frasier, as if to assure him she was wrapping up. “Anyway. You are a beautiful family, and I am sorry for any harm I’ve caused. This is where Frasier belongs.” She paused a moment before she turned to go.
Clancy popped up from his seat once more. “Let me drive you back to town.”
Sally shook her head. “I drove myself. I wish all of you the best.”
All eyes were on Sally as she walked through the yard and under the arbor. Mona slowly returned to her seat. Frasier remained where he was, his feet planted so rigidly in the grass that he looked like an oversized garden gnome. No one made a move or said a word. This was Ma’s call and they all knew it.
“Sit down, Frasier,” she said.
Da scrambled to his chair at the opposite end of the table, his eyes wide and hopeful.
Ma said, “We’ll have to see how things go. That’s all I can offer you at the moment.”
“That’s enough,” Da replied.
As always, good food soothed the collective soul of the Flynns, and within minutes everyone was eating, talking, and laughing. Before too long, Frasier even had Mona giggling as he regaled them all with the story of her first official visit to the island as his girlfriend.
“Do you remember? We walked in on my mother and her friends having a Mermaid Society meeting in the dining room. You got a look at their mermaid costumes for the first time, and I thought you were going to pass out.”
“I feel your pain,” Nat said to Mona.
She just giggled some more. In a pensive voice she said, “You know, it’s astounding what a person can learn to consider normal over time.”
The meal went on without additional drama, although Serena was so busy that Rowan hardly got a bite to eat.
“I’ll take her for a while,” Duncan said. He retrieved his niece and returned to his seat. She blinked at him with those big blue eyes.
Frasier cleared his throat. “Well, Lena, it sure is a pleasure having you with us this evening,” Frasier said. “I’m glad Duncan could persuade you to finally make an appearance.”
She smiled politely. “It’s very nice to be here. It’s been lovely.”
“I imagine my boy’s quite good at persuasion,” Frasier added, laughing.
Lena didn’t answer. Duncan sliced his finger across his throat to get his father to stop talking.
Christina cocked her head. “Why did you do that to your neck, Uncle Duncle?”
Duncan helped clear the table before dessert was served and found that popping in and out of the kitchen provided some eye-opening reconnaissance. Though he’d heard a hundred times about Lena’s shyness, she seemed to fit right in with Rowan, Annie, and Evelyn, as they put away leftovers and put serving platters in the sink to soak. In fact, Duncan noticed that Evelyn had taken a special liking to Lena, maybe because Annie and Rowan already came packaged as a pair. Women seemed to be much more attuned to that sort of thing than men.
When he saw his sister pull Lena aside and whisper to her, Duncan pretended not to notice. He caught mention of some kind of meeting the next day, but because of Evie and Annie’s laughter, he couldn’t catch the details. A meeting? What kind of meeting? Did women just get together for no reason except that they were female? Whatever it was, Lena nodded and agreed to attend.
While placing coffee cups and saucers around the table a few moments later, a thought hit Duncan so hard he stood straight and stared at nothing. That kitchen business with Lena was far too cozy. It was almost as if the other women had just crowned Lena as Duncan’s “significant other” and had welcomed her into their clique with that understanding. That was wrong. It made too many assumptions and went way over the line.
Duncan enjoyed the bread pudding with salted caramel sauce as much as anyone, but, unfortunately, he had to fight off a vague sense of confinement the rest of the evening. His mind kept spinning—what was happening with his feelings for Lena? What was he doing to himself by spending time with her? What was he doing to her?
He wondered if he’d already made an irreparable number of errors.
Clancy had to go back to work, but everyone else roasted marshmallows around the fire. Duncan noticed his father had maneuvered a lawn chair next to Ma, who pretended not to notice. Ol’ Frasier was still a smooth operator, it seemed.
Duncan sat next to Lena, who had somehow ended up at the bottom of a triple-decker pile. Christina was sprawled out on her lap, and Ondine was sprawled out on Christina’s. That dog was a real piece of work. She had immediately claimed everyone as part of her pack that evening and had traveled from lap to lap, absolutely sure she would be welcomed. She’d been right.
Duncan had been given Serena to hold. It was becoming a pattern. She was obviously sleepy, and her little cheek was pressed to his chest, but she couldn’t manage to conk out. Every once in a while Serena would raise her head and look up, as if checking on him, which made him smile. Granted, Duncan had spent zero time with babies before Serena came on the scene, but he really did think she was something special. It suddenly occurred to him that she probably wouldn’t remember any of this time with him. She’d have no memory of the summer after her uncle was injured and before he went back to active duty.
And how grown-up would this baby girl be the next time Duncan managed to spend more than three days in a row on Bayberry? She’d be ten? Fourteen? He would be a stranger to her. He would probably miss her whole childhood.
The thought of that left a lump of sadness in his chest.
Eventually, the night came to a close. Duncan handed Serena to Rowan and Lena peeled Christina off her lap. Everyone said their good nights, and he drove Lena and Ondine back to Moondance Beach. Duncan knew he was being far too quiet, but he was too distracted for chitchat.
He pulled into Lena’s garage, and though Lena and the dog climbed down from the vehicle, Duncan didn’t move. He just sat there, staring at his hands on the steering wheel, wishing he were anywhere else.
“I’m taking her for a walk. Want to come along?”
This was one of those “interpersonal” moments Duncan sucked at. He had so much boiling over inside him at that moment and no idea how to get it all out without hurting Lena. The only thing he was sure of: he had hurt Lena enough.
“Duncan? Is everything all right?”
Boy, that was a loaded question.
Chapter Twenty-one
The change in Duncan happened so suddenly and so thoroughly that Lena was blindsided. He’d seemed t
o be enjoying himself all evening and then, for no obvious reason, he’d shut down. So far, she hadn’t been able to crack him open again.
They walked along the windy beach with Ondine. What a funny little creature she was, completely self-assured and strutting around like a canine princess. She had none of the nervousness that could be associated with an abused or neglected pet, which made Lena quite curious about her origins. Clancy told her no one had any idea where she was from or how she’d come to the island. “She is a woman of mystery,” he’d said.
Mystery or not, Ondine was Lena’s dog now. There was no doubt about it. The fact that she’d been a gift from Duncan made her all the more special.
Lena didn’t want to push him, so she gave Duncan some space as they walked. She thought the subdued night sky was in sync with Duncan’s mood, whatever that might be. She was only just beginning to learn to interpret his subtle signals, and she suspected there was more going on under his reserved surface. No doubt hiding his emotions was a skill he had perfected as a Navy SEAL, but it had been there when he was a boy, too. It was part of how he was made and part of why Duncan had always posed a challenge to her.
They continued to walk in silence, Lena in no hurry to change that. She wasn’t a fan of talking just to provide noise.
“I have a lot on my mind, Lena. I don’t mean to brood. I hate brooders—I’ve always thought moping around was such a passive-aggressive thing to do.”
She smiled to herself in the dim light of the moon and waited for him to elaborate. He didn’t, so she said, “If you’d ever like to share, I’m here.”
“And if I don’t?”
“I’m still here.” She looked at him over her shoulder. “But, to be honest, I hate brooding, too.”
He touched her shoulder. When she turned to face him, Lena saw the strangest look in Duncan’s eyes. She couldn’t name the precise disturbance, but a storm was definitely coming. Without a word, he pulled her tight to the front of his body, and she hugged him back—hard. Lena wasn’t sure if he needed her or if he knew she needed him, but it didn’t matter. The hug would prevent him from drifting farther away, at least temporarily.
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