The Guest Cottage

by Nancy Thayer

  Another dazzling smile. “Did you all have a good day?”

  Sophie was wearing shorts and a tank top and nothing else. She was barefoot and very tan. Her skin was as smooth as the skin of a grape. After a moment, Trevor realized he was staring at her without answering. “Um, yeah, we had a good day, but I guess I’m kind of stupefied by so much sun.”

  “Go take a cold shower,” Sophie advised.

  You have no idea how much I could use one right now, Trevor thought. “Leo and Cassidy are playing in the backyard.”

  Sophie moved to the kitchen window to look out. Trevor stood next to her. Leo and Cassidy had run to the end of the yard to inspect Leo’s Lego fort. Trevor wanted to turn and kiss Sophie’s shoulder.

  “Where’s Candace?”

  “Oh. She went into town to get some fresh vegetables.”

  “I thought you were taking your gang out to dinner tonight,” Sophie said.

  “So did I, but Candace really wanted to try some of the local farm vegetables. I guess they’re famous. She insisted on cooking and eating here.”

  “That’s cool,” Sophie replied, but she turned away from Trevor and he had a strong sense that she wasn’t as thrilled about this as she had been when the Manchesters had visited. “We’ll have even more food to serve.”

  Women and food. That was a liaison Trevor wasn’t even going to try to understand.

  “I’m going to go take that cold shower,” he said and left the kitchen.

  The shower did revive him. He combed his hair, then put on clean shorts and a fresh T-shirt. Only as he was walking into the kitchen did he realize the T-shirt read Dear Algebra, stop asking me to find your X. She’s never coming back and don’t ask Y. Oh, man, he was such a toad. He didn’t want to insult Sophie, but here he was in the kitchen and Candace had returned. He couldn’t turn around and leave and come back wearing a different shirt. That would be too weird.

  His ears alerted him to the tones of a woman in distress.

  “A baby lamb? You are actually cooking a baby lamb?” Candace’s voice trembled with horror.

  Sophie’s voice was both amused and testy. “Actually, no, I’m not cooking the entire baby lamb. Just the leg.”

  “Well, I suppose that is your prerogative. If you choose to eat the flesh of animals, I can’t do anything about that. When you are through using the stove, I’m going to make a nice stir-fry of tofu and vegetables for me and Cassidy and Trevor.”

  Hey! Trevor thought. I want some lamb, too.

  “Sure,” Sophie answered easily, “there’s plenty of room on the stove. I’ve made rice and I’m ready to cook the green beans and I’ve made a big salad. We can sit at the dining room table and each person can choose what he wants to eat.”

  Perfect solution, Trevor thought.

  “I would really rather not sit at a table with blood on the plates,” Candace said, sounding sniffy. “Trevor and Cassidy and Leo and I will eat outside on the patio. I’ll wait until your group is all in the dining room before I start cooking.”

  Trevor stood in the doorway. From the primitive part of his man-brain came the thought: ME want meat! But, really, come on, why did Candace get to dictate what he ate?

  “That’s fine,” Sophie agreed pleasantly. “There’s some cheese and crackers if you will want some munchies while you wait. The lamb’s almost ready. Help yourself to a glass of wine.”

  “Not now, thank you. It’s too early for me to drink alcohol. I’ll run up and take a quick shower to get rid of the sand and put on fresh clothes.” Candace noticed Trevor standing there. “Oh, Trev, could you keep an eye on the kiddies while I shower?”

  “Sure,” Trevor said.

  Candace left the room. Sophie turned back to the stove. Trevor dug a beer from the packed refrigerator. He wanted to say something but didn’t know what to say.

  “How long is she staying?” Sophie inquired in a low voice. She sounded more amused than upset.

  “Uh, I’m not sure.” Trevor moved closer to Sophie to be heard.

  “Did you know she was a vegetarian?”

  “I had no idea. I made our Big Mixed-Up Rice for dinner last night and a salad. I intended to take them out to dinner tonight like you and I agreed, but she wanted to cook here.”

  “That’s fine,” said Sophie, draining the green beans. “Dinner’s ready for us now. Sorry you won’t get any lamb. You look like you’ll survive a few days without meat,” she added, frankly looking him up and down and then suddenly, easily, without warning, putting the flat of her hand against his chest.

  Her touch set off a Fourth of July array of fireworks in his body. He stared at her, speechless and completely aroused and confused.

  It appeared she had surprised herself, as well. Sophie stared at him, equally speechless, her mouth open, frozen where she stood.

  “Mom.” Jonah trudged into the kitchen. “I’m starving.”

  Sophie took her hand away. She bustled about putting the beans into a bowl, adding a pat of butter to melt over the top. “Call your grandmother and ask her to come in,” she told Jonah. “Wash your hands before you come to the table.”

  By the time Sophie and her family had sat down to dinner in the dining room, Candace had finished showering. She sauntered into the kitchen, tanned and glowing and barefoot, quite the sexy package in a short pink sundress with her long brown hair held up in a ponytail with a shiny pink ribbon. Trevor stayed in the kitchen to help her prepare their dinner—he made a green salad—and they gathered Leo and Cassidy and took their food out to the patio to eat. It was a good decision. He couldn’t smell the lamb quite so much out here.

  Throughout the dinner, Trevor’s mind scrambled to come up with excuses for not having some kind of intimate time alone with Candace after they put the children to bed. Cassidy and Leo were already tired from their day in the sun and fresh air and would go down easily, he knew. Trevor was ready for bed himself, but not with Candace. How many mistakes could one man make with women? Trevor wondered. He genuinely had invited the Halls down for Leo’s sake, but it looked like Candace had misread his intentions.

  The kitchen door opened and a cluster of people spilled out onto the patio.

  “We’re all going down to the apartment to look at the stars,” said Lacey. She was holding a blanket in her arms.

  “Yay!” yelled Leo. “I want to go, too! Can I go, Daddy?”

  Trevor didn’t have to give it a moment’s thought. “Absolutely, dude. Take Cassidy and her mom with you. I’ll clean up the kitchen and be down with you in a minute.”

  “Oh, Trevor, you don’t need to clean the kitchen. I’ll do that,” Candace said, reaching over to put a restraining hand on his arm.

  “No, cleaning the kitchen is my part of the renting deal,” he told her, in a kind of half lie. “Go on down. You’ll be stunned at the spectacular amount of stars you can see. I’ll join you soon.”

  Candace took Cassidy’s hand and followed Leo to the dark end of the lawn where Sophie and the others had already spread out blankets. As Trevor watched, Connor came out of his apartment, said a few words, and turned off his lights.

  Trevor took a long, long time cleaning the kitchen. He even mopped the floor. By the time he got down to the star blanket, the two youngest children were asleep and the adults were yawning. He carried Leo up to bed and slipped into his own room quickly, shutting his bedroom door and not bothering to say good night to anyone or even to brush his teeth.

  Again, around three in the morning, Trevor woke to the clear notes of the piano sounding through the sleeping house. Almost sleepwalking himself, he slipped downstairs.

  Candace was there at the bottom of the stairs, wearing a—Trevor didn’t know what to call it, but it was short, plunging, and completely transparent. He could see she wore no panties.

  “Candace,” Trevor whispered. “Sorry Leo woke you. He’s developed a kind of obsession with the piano. He does this a lot.”

  Candace moved close to Trevor, the tip of one bre
ast touching his arm. “Oh, sweetie, I don’t mind,” she whispered. “Can I do anything to help?”

  “Um, thanks, no. I need to get him back to bed before he wakes the household.”

  “Want to come see me for a while after?” Candace offered enticingly, moving slightly so more of her was visible in the moonlight falling through the windows.

  “Uh, no, thanks, I, um, I’ll take Trevor into bed with me so we don’t wake Cassidy. But thanks, thanks.”

  Trevor hurried into the music room, spoke to Leo, and carried the boy back to bed with him. Maybe Leo was afraid to sleep alone. Maybe Leo should sleep with him in his bed for the rest of the summer. Or would that set a bad precedent?

  Maybe Trevor was afraid to sleep alone. Grinning at himself, Trevor fell asleep.

  —

  The next morning, Sophie was sitting on the patio with her cup of coffee and a fresh crossword puzzle when Candace came out to join her. The morning was warm but fresh and dewy. All the children were still asleep. Jeanette was watching her beloved morning show on television and there was no sign of Trevor.

  “So,” Candace said in a friendly way, “what an odd deal, you and Trevor together in this house when you didn’t even know each other.”

  “It is odd,” agreed Sophie. “I suppose if you knew Susie or Ivan Swenson, you’d understand how it all happened. They are sort of hippie-dippies who can’t be bothered with hassles like contracts, and I had already made arrangements for my house in Boston and so had Trevor. It seemed like the only solution.”

  “I hear you’re getting divorced,” Candace said. She had moved her chair closer to Sophie’s and she aimed her eyes at Sophie like a microscope.

  “Probably.” Sophie didn’t want to share with Candace. She didn’t like her much and she didn’t feel like having an intimate girlie moment.

  “Probably you could make that clearer. Because in case you hadn’t noticed, Trevor and I have a relationship.”

  You anorexic long-haired lying vegetarian, you can’t manipulate me, thought Sophie. Shocked at her hostile reaction, she said nothing.

  “It’s as if fate meant for us to meet,” Candace continued in her sweet voice. “After all, Cassidy doesn’t have a father anymore and Leo doesn’t have a mother. The children love each other. They are best friends. Trevor and I could meld into a family and everyone would be so happy.”

  “I hope it works out for you,” Sophie replied, nearly gagging on her words.

  “Thank you so much,” Candace cooed. “I knew you would understand since you’re so much older and all. What are you, forty?”

  All right, that does it, thought Sophie. “I’m thirty-six,” she answered in a perfectly modulated tone. “Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s my time to play the piano.”

  In the music room, she began with a soft Chopin sonata so that she wouldn’t wake any sleeping children. After a few moments, she lost all sense of other people in the house, emotions she was trying to hide from, and fears about her future. She entered the world of her music with all its order and beauty. Each time she played the piano, she had the sense that this was what life had intended for her all along. Not to be the best, not to be a concert pianist, not to make her parents happy, but simply to play. As if music were a loyal, luminous creature that had been waiting patiently for her to return to it.

  Next, a dreamy Debussy fell from her fingertips onto the keyboard. Her entire body surrendered to the music. Everything else fell away—the room, the house full of people, the beautiful island, the complicated, heartbreaking, mysterious world.

  “Sophie,” a small sweet voice said at her side. “Can I play now?”

  Sophie came out of her dream to discover Leo standing there in his baseball pajamas. At some point, Jeanette had come into the room and was sitting on the rose sofa with Lacey snuggled close to her. Cassidy and Candace hovered in the doorway. Cassidy looked curious. Candace looked murderous. Trevor sat with a cup of coffee in an armchair.

  “Of course you can, Leo.” Sophie lifted Leo onto her lap and they began.

  —

  But Candace wasn’t the type to be driven away by something as incidental as piano music. She stayed all that day and the next. The weather was so wonderful, she gushed, she wanted to take her daughter to the beach again. Sophie knew it would be ridiculous to hang around the house being irritated, because after all, she was six years older than Trevor and it truly would be nice for Leo to have Cassidy in the same house. And why was she even thinking about Trevor and Candace anyway?

  “Jeanette? How would you like to go out on a yacht?” she asked.

  —

  They didn’t go out on Hristo’s yacht. Instead, they met him at the yacht club, where he had chosen a sailboat small enough to go through the shoals blocking the inner harbor and large enough for all of them to sit comfortably. No crew was aboard, but Hristo had prepared a lavish picnic lunch that was stowed in the cabin.

  The day was warm and sparkling, with a steady gentle breeze. Hristo handled the sailboat with competence—of course he did—and he won over Jonah’s reluctant favor by asking him to crew and pointing out parts of the boat offhandedly, flattering Jonah by assuming the boy knew it all. Jeanette and Sophie settled in the stern while Lacey and Desi lay on the bow looking like mythological goddesses as the boat skipped over the waves, sending a fine spray up over their bare legs and arms, making them squeal and laugh.

  They dropped anchor in Polpis Harbor. They swam to shore, not needing life vests because the water was shallow here and full of long shoals. After swimming in the cool, clear water, Hristo led them on a hike through a wild and shady forest populated with huge ancient maples that seemed like gentle elephants and silent giants only pretending to be stationary. The path ended on the edge of Coskata Pond, a small pond open to the harbor by a narrow channel. Here on the beach grass, in the serenity of a world without human beings and their buildings, white herons stood on one leg surveying their domain. Hristo studied the water a moment and informed them that the tide was going out.

  “Come with me, and we’ll lie down in the water and let it carry us along the channel and all the way back to the boat.”

  Jonah, Desi, and Lacey were up for such an unusual adventure, but Jeanette and Sophie opted to walk back through the forest and around to the beach facing Polpis Harbor. By the time they got there, the others had already been floated back out into the deeper water. Hristo and Jonah swam out to the boat, climbed up the ladder, lifted the hampers of food and drink above their heads, and waded in chin, and then chest, and then waist high through the water to the beach.

  As they enjoyed their gourmet lunch, Hristo entertained them with tales of the Native American ghost, Mudturtle, who roamed this area, mourning his Indian princess lover. It was a Romeo and Juliet story that captured everyone’s imagination. As long gray clouds gathered in the afternoon sky, shadowing their small group, Lacey shivered and moved closer to her mother.

  A storm drifted toward them from the west, making the trees sway and whisper. The group was glad to return to the boat and sail back to the normalcy of yachts and launches and buildings.

  Hristo invited Jeanette and Sophie to dinner, but Sophie could tell her children were tired after the long, adventurous day, and she didn’t want to leave them to the dubious mercies of Candace and Trevor. She declined regretfully, and said goodbye.

  “I’m sorry you and I had no time for our own conversation,” Hristo said, adding diplomatically, “but I have enjoyed meeting Jeanette and it was a pleasure to see the children having such fun.”

  He walked them to their car, where he kissed Jeanette’s hand and favored Sophie with a formal, chaste, European kiss on each cheek.

  Sophie was in no mood to deal with Candace and her vegetarian mandate, so she drove her damp and sandy family to Sayle’s Seafood, where they ordered fish and chips, coleslaw, and corn on the cob and sat on the porch eating in the fresh air while they watched boats come and go at the end of the harbor. As th
ey drove back to the guest cottage, they were all stuffed and sandblasted, eager to shower and collapse in front of the television or with a book.

  They arrived at the house to find Trevor’s VW Passat gone. Apparently, Sophie hoped, he had taken his guests out for dinner. After ordering Jonah and Lacey to rinse off in the outdoor shower before entering the house, Sophie and Jeanette went inside.

  Sophie stood for a moment in the front hall, gawking at the living room and the steps to the second floor. Was this the same house she’d just left? Candace had clearly taken possession of it, marking her territory in no uncertain terms. Her sandals, beach bag, and sun hat rested in the front hall, while her books and a couple of Cassidy’s early readers were scattered on the floor and coffee table. A soft pink sweater was thrown over the back of a chair. On the fireplace mantel, flowers picked from the side garden were prettily ensconced in a vase. A few water glasses and some of Candace’s costume jewelry littered the side tables. Cassidy’s sparkling pink sneakers were under the coffee table. Candace had done everything but hang a banner announcing “Candace’s Room.”

  Each step to the second floor held an item that needed to be dealt with—wet, sandy bathing suits and beach towels, a plastic bowl filled with seashells, containers of sunblock, more sandals—how many sandals did Candace wear in one day?

  “She’s a bit messy, isn’t she?” said Jeanette in a low voice, as if someone would overhear her.

  “That’s not the word I’d use,” Sophie answered. “But she’s Trevor’s responsibility.” A low anxiety hummed beneath her words: had Trevor invited Candace to stay longer? Had Candace been right—was there a relationship between Trevor and her? She really was lovely, and Cassidy’s presence made Leo so happy…

  Sophie and Jeanette went to the second floor and hurriedly took warm showers. Outside the sky was turning an ominous shade of gray and while the temperature was still warm, an unsettling sense in the air made Sophie choose to wear her loose gray slacks and a long-sleeved shirt.

  The children had showered and collapsed in front of the television set. Sophie and Jeanette agreed to enjoy a glass of wine on the patio as they watched the storm front roll in. When she poured the wine, Sophie tried to ignore the state of the kitchen. It was chaotic. Several different cheeses had been left out as well as a carton of milk, which she compulsively returned to the refrigerator. Dishes were piled everywhere except in the dishwasher. The jar of peanut butter was open with a knife sticking out of it. This was not Trevor’s style, but Sophie told herself to walk away.