The Cliffside Inn

by Jessie Newton

  For a few weeks after she’d returned to Newark, she and Zach had communicated regularly, but their texts and messages had dwindled to only a few each week now, if that. She felt completely alone in a city of hundreds of thousands.

  She spooned herself some of the macaroni and cheese and joined her son at the table, refusing to look at Julian. “What are you doing tonight?” she asked. Since he’d had his assistant over—Tiffany Mullinax—and they’d revealed the fact that yes, they were a couple. They were dating. They were together, Kelli hadn’t been able to think further ahead than five minutes.

  Julian and Tiffany didn’t want Kelli to leave. He wasn’t asking for a divorce. He wanted both of them.

  The word that had come out of his mouth had sent Kelli into a tailspin. She hadn’t even known what it meant.

  Throuple.

  He wanted to have the three of them have an open, emotional, close, and sexual relationship.

  The three of them.

  Julian put his messenger bag on the sideboard and eased past Parker and into the kitchen. Kelli had never minded the small house where they lived—until now. She’d never minded how much Julian worked—until now. She’d never minded how his whole life and what he wanted had dominated her entire existence—until now.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “What are you doing?”

  “I think Parker and I are going to go to the park,” she said.

  “Tiffany wondered if she—” He cut off as Kelli lifted her head and glared him into silence. “Okay.” He lifted his hand in surrender, something she’d literally never seen him do. At least not for her. “You need more time.”

  “You sprung this on me six days ago,” she said, glancing at Parker. He wasn’t a baby, and he listened to every word his parents said. “So yes, Julian, I need more time.” She looked down into her bowl, her appetite gone. She glanced at Parker. “Finish up, bud,” she said. “We’ll go to the park and maybe a movie.”

  If she left the house, then Julian could have his other woman over. She’d suspected he’d been cheating on her since her last trip to Five Island Cove, but he’d been denying it for two months. He denied it when he met her at the airport. He denied it when she’d walked into his office and found “Tiff” leaning over him as they both looked at something on his computer.

  The way she’d been standing, and the look on her husband’s face… Kelli had asked. Julian had denied it.

  Over and over, he’d denied it.

  Until six days ago.

  Kelli was still reeling from the conversation, and it had literally lasted fifteen minutes from beginning to end. She’d left the house immediately afterward, and she hadn’t come back until after midnight. Julian had put Parker to bed himself, and Tiffany hadn’t been in the house. Kelli had stood in the darkness, the light above the stove the only way she could see anything in the room.

  She’d felt outside of her skin, outside of her own reality. She still did.

  “Okay.” Julian put a couple twenty-dollar bills on the table. “Text me if you want us to come.”

  Kelli bristled at the word us, and she took the money and stood up in a fluid motion. She stuffed the bills in her pocket and left her nearly-full bowl of food on the table. “You ready, Parker?”

  “Yeah,” he said. He left his bowl on the table too, and Kelli was glad. Julian’s eyebrows drew down, but Kelli didn’t want to have this conversation right now. Kelli put a protective arm around her son and walked out the door her husband had come in only five minutes ago.

  The stress and tension in her shoulders deflated the moment the door closed behind her, and then the tears came. She wasn’t sad, and she wasn’t nervous, and she wasn’t anxious. Crying was simply her way to release all of the negative emotions she had. Positive ones too.

  She put on a brave face, complete with a smile, and opened the passenger door for her son.

  A few hours later, she reached for the half-empty bucket of popcorn she and Parker had shared, and the weight of the world started to descend on Kelli’s shoulders. Home used to be a place of safety for her, and if she didn’t have that, she didn’t have anything.

  Her lungs quivered, because she really didn’t want to go home. “Want to take this?” she asked her son.

  “Can you make caramel popcorn with it tomorrow?”

  “Sure,” she said. “And we get a refill, so let’s have them fill it up on the way out, and we’ll have lots. We can take some to my friends at the gym, and you can take some to your party.”

  Parker grinned at her. “I forgot about the party.”

  “You did?” Kelli stood as the lights started to come up. “I can’t believe that. You’ve been so excited about it.”

  “Yeah.” Parker didn’t say anything else, and Kelli knew he had to be thinking something. She had no idea how to get his thoughts out of his head, and she often got one-word answers from him and not much else.

  She stopped by to get the extra popcorn, and she herded Parker through the teenage crowd loitering in the lobby to the parking lot. Her phone rang, and she juggled the full popcorn bucket and her purse to get her phone out.

  Her mother’s name sat on the screen, and Kelli’s heart sent out a few extra beats.

  She managed to tap the call open and put the phone to her ear while holding onto everything. “Hey, Mom,” she said, nodding for Parker to keep going.

  “Hey,” her mother said, her voice sounding small and very far away. Kelli could never judge the mood her mom was in, because she said everything in about the same, even tone. “What are you up to?”

  “Just leaving a movie,” Kelli said, walking through the twilight. School started in a few weeks, and the days would get shorter and shorter until it would be full dark at this time of night. She mourned the passing of summer already, and she still had more time to enjoy it.

  “Okay,” her mom said.

  Kelli gestured for Parker to come get the keys out of her purse. “Mom?” she asked. “Are you still there?”

  “Yes,” her mom said. “I just—” She cleared her throat. “I have to ask you something, and I’m a little nervous.” She gave an anxious chuckle, and Kelli’s stomach tightened. Her fingers ached as she pinched the very edge of the popcorn bucket.

  “Just say it, Mom,” Kelli said as Parker unlocked the car and got in the front seat.

  “Have you heard from Zach at all this summer?”

  “Yeah, sure,” Kelli said, her voice automatically moving into a false zone. Truthfully, her last few texts to her half-brother had gone unanswered. She missed him, because they’d really connected in Five Island Cove in June, and she’d thought she meant more to him than just a couple of weeks of interaction.

  “He’s been coming by the house,” her mom said.

  Kelli froze. “He has?”

  “Yeah, a few times.” Her mom sounded stressed, and Kelli didn’t like that.

  “Well, what does he want?”

  “Money,” her mom blurted. “He keeps asking me for money, Kelli, and I don’t have anything to give him.” She spoke in a huge rush of words now. “Last time he came, the only reason I didn’t just give him what I had in my purse was because Devon was with me.” She let out a breath that shook over the line.

  Kelli didn’t know what to say or do. Her first instinct was to rush home, pack a bag, and get on the first flight to Five Island Cove. She could comfort her mother and confront Zach about his behavior. Didn’t he know that her mother wouldn’t want to meet him, ever? It would be like looking into the face of her husband’s betrayal.

  In that moment, Kelli knew exactly how her mother felt. Back then, when her husband had cheated on her, and now, as she had to deal with the aftermath of it many years later.

  Kelli did not want to be that woman. She didn’t want to walk through her front door after a morning at the gym and see Tiffany sitting at the table. She didn’t want another woman in her family, in her marriage, in any of it.

  She hadn’t wanted to l
ose Julian, and he claimed to love them both. He wanted them both. He said lots of couples did things like this, because it kept things interesting at a time in their marriage where things sometimes got stale.

  Kelli didn’t understand that. Her life with Julian hadn’t been stale. She’d felt distant from him, because he’d started sharing parts of himself with another woman.

  “I’m coming to the cove,” she said, making up her mind on the spot. She moved toward the car and put the popcorn in the back seat. It would probably spill all over the place by the time she got home, but that wasn’t her primary concern right now.

  “I’ll call him too,” she said. “Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll take care of Zach.”

  “Okay,” her mom said, her voice shaky. “Sorry, Kelli. I know you two are friends.”

  “Yeah,” Kelli said, climbing into the front seat. “Okay, bye, Mom. I’ll keep you updated.” She hung up, her fingers shaking. Friends.

  She didn’t think she and Zach were that close of friends anymore, despite her best efforts. She didn’t want to call him in front of Parker, as her son had really liked Zach.

  She also didn’t want to wait. Her fingers flexed around the wheel, and she forced herself to wait, because the last thing she needed on top of everything else was a citation for using her phone while driving.

  At home, instant annoyance shot through her when she saw Tiffany’s car parked in her driveway. “Go on inside,” she said. “Tell them I have to make a call, okay?”

  “Okay,” Parker said. “You can get the popcorn?”

  “Yep.” Kelli painted a smile on her face and watched her son go through the garage and inside the house. She quickly dialed Zach then and listened to the phone ring and ring.

  He didn’t pick up, and Kelli ended the call. Immediately, she dialed him again, muttering some choice words for him under her breath. When he didn’t answer the second time, she barked into the phone, “Zach, it’s Kelli. How dare you go to my mother’s house and ask her for money? Stay away from her.”

  Her mind raced as fast as her heart. What was she going to do about it from so far away? Zach would likely scoff when he got the message.

  Kelli’s mind cleared, and she zeroed in on one thing: Aaron Sherman.

  “I know the Chief of Police,” she said, much smoother and much quieter. Much more deadly. “If I hear that you’ve even visited Bell Island, I will have you picked up and held in jail until I can get to the cove and figure out what you’re doing and what you want.”

  She was surprised by the vitriol inside her. She hadn’t asked him if the allegations were true or what he needed money for. She knew her mother wouldn’t call her and lie about that, and Kelli didn’t have any money to give Zach anyway.

  “And call me back,” she said. “I’d love to hear a good explanation for why you did this.” She hung up then and almost tossed her phone in the cup holder.

  Another ray of light touched her mind, and Kelli got out of the car before she lost her nerve. It had been sticking around longer and longer, and for that, Kelli was grateful.

  She marched into the house, where the kitchen sat in darkness, as did the living room and dining room. She expected to see Julian and Tiff on the couch, possibly holding hands, while they watched a movie.

  They weren’t there.

  “Parker?” she asked, heading for the stairs. Up she went, and she found her son in his bedroom, already in his pajamas. “Ready for bed?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “I can help with the popcorn in the morning.”

  “Sure,” Kelli said, smoothing back his hair. She’d let it grow long in the front, and she smiled at him. “Maybe we should go get haircuts in the morning.”

  “All right,” Parker said.

  “Then it won’t be too short when school starts.”

  He nodded and climbed into bed. She tucked him in and kissed him goodnight. In the hall, she looked toward the guest bedroom and the bathroom. No sound. The master suite was downstairs, but she was terrified to go inside.

  She knew how Julian made love, and she did not want to see him do it with someone else. Her lungs felt like someone had cast them in plaster when they were empty, and she couldn’t get enough air.

  Her feet simply moved, her muscle memory taking her from tucking in her son to her own bedroom, where she normally changed into her pajamas and went to bed, intending to wait up for Julian, and only making it about half the time.

  She pushed open the door to the bedroom, and sure enough, Tiff and Julian were there. They both lay in bed—her bed—fully clothed, the TV flickering against the lamplight. Both lamps on either side of the bed were lit, and the three of them looked at one another.

  Tiffany was on the edge of Julian’s side of the bed, and he lay closer to the middle. He looked at her, begging her. Kelli could feel it from across the room. “There’s room over here,” he said.

  Kelli could not fathom climbing into that bed with the two of them and giving her permission for this outside relationship to be brought inside. How would she explain it to her friends and co-workers? Her mother? Her son?

  Herself?

  She shook her head, decisions being made left and right in the few moments she stood there. “Tomorrow, Parker has a birthday party. We’re making caramel popcorn for him to take.”

  “Okay,” Julian said. “I can probably give him a ride. Or Tiff can.” He looked at the brunette, and Kelli wondered what he’d seen in her that he hadn’t found in Kelli. Did it really take two women to satisfy a man like Julian?

  “I’ll do it,” Kelli said. “On Saturday, I’m going to teach my last class at the gym, and Parker and I are going to Five Island Cove to visit my mother.”

  Julian’s eyebrows shot toward the sky. “Really, Kel? Your mother?”

  “And Eloise needs help with the inn,” Kelli said, refusing to let him mock her and make her second-guess herself. She’d done that for far too long in her life, and she was ready to take the reins and direct the horse where it needed to go.

  She gazed evenly at Julian, her eyes flickering to Tiff for only a second. “I can’t do it, Julian,” she said. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do it.” She started to move toward the master closet, where her luggage was.

  “Parker and I are going to the cove, and we aren’t coming back.”

  Chapter Three

  Robin Grover pulled open the doors at the surf shop and reached up to push her sunglasses on top of her head. She wasn’t there to find a new surfboard or a bathing suit. The very idea of wearing what the twenty-something’s wore to the beach was laughable, though she’d been running this summer like she had a banshee on her tail.

  She turned right almost immediately and headed for the door in the corner, which led to the fish and chips shop on the outdoor patio. She had to go into the shop to get the patio, and the noise increased as she approached the doorway.

  Plenty of people knew about Ron’s Catch of the Day, from locals to tourists. Thankfully, Alice had texted to say she’d mistaken the time, and she’d been here for thirty minutes. Robin stepped up onto her tiptoes to try to find the taller woman past the people blocking the entrance, but it was a fruitless endeavor.

  Settling back onto her feet, she pulled out her phone to check if Alice had said she’d been seated yet. No texts. She was probably plastered against the wall in there, trying to stay out of the way of the press of bodies.

  Robin inched past a man talking to another gentleman. “Excuse me,” she said, and with her petite frame, she managed to slink by a few other people too.

  “Robin,” Alice called from down the long counter, and relief filled Robin as she caught sight of her best friend.

  “Hey,” Robin said when she arrived at Alice’s side. She had to turn sideways to fit between the stool and another man, and she really just wanted to go home. She had plenty of work to do for an upcoming wedding that weekend, and then she and the girls would be entrenched in back-to-school shopping next week.

  Then
school finally started, and Robin had been hoping and praying for some sense of normalcy to return to her life.

  Duke would be home in only ten days.

  Robin’s breath caught in her throat at the thought of that, and she covered her emotion with a smile. “Not seated yet, huh?”

  “He just came by and said I’m next,” Alice said. “Did you see Kristen on the way in?”

  “No.” Robin twisted and looked back through the jungle of people. “When we get a table, and I know where it is, I’ll go out and wait for her. She’ll never survive this.”

  Alice chuckled, but she didn’t argue. Robin was right, and they both knew it.

  “How are the twins?” Robin asked. She wasn’t really curious about Ginny, because Alice’s daughter was practically perfect in every way. It was Charlie who concerned Robin.

  “They’re still alive,” Alice said with a hint of darkness in her tone. “Driving me to drink, as usual. Yours?”

  Robin grinned, though she knew Alice didn’t drink anymore. She nodded and said, “About the same.” She didn’t have twins, but her oldest daughter was more than a handful. Jamie was still a pre-teen, and she didn’t give Robin any trouble—other than Robin couldn’t get her to leave the house. She’d rather sunbathe on the back deck with a book, shower at odd hours, and curl up in front of the TV with Robin than go out with her friends.

  Robin was concerned that Jamie didn’t have friends, and she’d be going into eighth grade, which was a really hard year for girls—especially if they had to eat lunch alone. She’d tried to get her into an acting camp this summer.

  Jamie said no.

  Music? No. Cooking class? No. Seafaring girls? Double no, Mom.

  Robin supposed Jamie could be doing worse things than reading fantasy novels, and she’d let the topic drop after that. Besides, the town of Five Island Cove had cancelled the Seafaring Girls program.

  “Good,” she said. “Jamie is ready for school to start, and Mandie is going to die a slow death if she doesn’t go to school soon.” She put a smile on her face that stretched tightly, and met Alice’s eye.