“I’m Jules,” she said.
“I’m Chloe.”
“Yeah, I know. Everybody’s saying you have something going with Luke.”
Jules filed Chloe’s thumbnail with deep intention, and didn’t look up when she spoke. Chloe froze. Cripes. Word sure got around in this town. Most likely due to her mother’s wishful thinking.
“So is it true?”
Chloe was surprised—her silence didn’t curb Jules’s curiosity. “No. Just our mothers, wishing and hoping and making trouble.” Chloe saw no reason why she had to tell a complete stranger the truth: that she was in love with Luke and had been almost since they’d met. That it was complicated, and she wasn’t sure where things were going. That Luke probably needed time to trust again and time was the one thing she didn’t have.
“Oh.” Jules laughed. “I heard Luke’s car was parked at Blue Heaven all night.”
Chloe didn’t have a response to that, but Jules didn’t seem to need one.
By the time Jules had finished her manicure, absolutely so gorgeous that Chloe decided she’d book a regular appointment every week in Seattle, Chloe had almost forgotten that most of the women buzzing around in this spa might know more of her business than she found comfortable. Jules led her behind a sheer curtain into a room with white leather chairs, each with a built-in tub of swishing water at their base.
Someone eased Chloe’s feet into the soothing water, handed her a magazine, this month’s Vogue, a magazine Chloe had never in her life read, and asked if she’d like a glass of wine.
Chloe was about to decline when Eva sat down next to her. “I’d say yes. It just intensifies Naomi’s genius.”
“You want a glass too, Ms. Bryman?”
“Sure,” Eva said.
“Naomi?”
“She’s the one who does the fancy footwork, where she presses all your meridian points or whatever they are. Feels fabulous.”
A different woman came with the wine and then sat at a low chair. She put a towel over her thigh and pulled one of Chloe’s feet from the bath. The first person who hadn’t introduced herself or started chatting right away. So restful.
Chloe took a sip of her wine, lowered her lids, slid her eyes toward Eva, who still had both her feet in the bath. After a sip of her wine, Eva asked Chloe about her new job. She didn’t say “in Seattle” and, because she had a woman currently rubbing her feet with a heavenly smelling lotion, Chloe’s gratitude spilled over. Seattle was a piece of news she’d have to deliver to Luke herself, and by the way things spread in this town, she should tell him sooner rather than later. Now she was sorry she’d impulsively told Eva about Seattle her first night in town after a few glasses of wine.
“I feel protective of Luke. We all do.”
Chloe nodded. What had started out as a relaxing day of pampering quickly morphed into something else. “I know. And I’ll talk to him about it.” She felt so confused, the surface of her plan had been ruffled by Luke last night. What she didn’t know is if it would go any deeper.
Naomi finished with Chloe’s feet. “Excuse me for just a minute,” she said, leaving Chloe and Eva alone. Chloe took that opportunity to caution Eva.
“Luke knows I have a new job, but not where. Except for my mom and the boys, you’re the only person I’ve told. I didn’t expect what happened last night, but I’m not sure it changes anything. This is the best opportunity I have for making a good life for my boys. I’m so lucky to have landed this job. I’m not going to give it up because of one night.”
“It’s still a man’s world,” Eva said.
Naomi came back with another young woman. While Naomi gave the reflexology treatment to Eva, the other girl painted Chloe’s toes. She’d never been more pampered in her entire life.
Switching back into less confidential mode, Eva told Chloe about how she came up to Blue Lake after being fired from her advertising agency and how nobody thought she’d make Blue Heaven work. But she had.
“And then you met Daniel.”
“Well, I actually met him the first day I came to town,” Eva said. “He turned me down for a bank loan.”
They both laughed.
“So does he still work at the bank?”
“No. He hated that job. His heart is in restoration. He did all the work on my bungalow. He built that airplane addition. I tell you, if he didn’t love Blue Heaven so much, I’d be tempted to sell it.”
“What would you rather do?”
“I keep busy. Between my mother in Florida, my college-age brother-in-law, who is home for the summer, and our new place in Georgia, I’ve got my hands full. Plus I want to have a baby.”
“I wouldn’t trade my time with my babies for anything.” Chloe acknowledged that she wanted that again, wanted to stay home and care for another infant, wanted to be there when her boys came home from school. But she’d chosen another kind of life and now she had to live with it. They only had a few days left here, and there was no way Luke would step up, spring a ring on her finger, and give her everything she wanted. It was way too soon, especially for a gun-shy guy like Luke.
“I can’t wait.” Baby lust ignited Eva’s eyes. “And I don’t know what I’d do without Wanda.”
“It’s tough to find good help.”
“Tell me again about what you do.”
So Chloe explained about how she developed specialized workshops for companies who wanted to upgrade their tech skills.
“Couldn’t you do that anywhere?”
Chloe had thought about being a freelancer. She’d love the flexibility, not to mention all the time she’d be able to spend with her kids. But it wasn’t practical.
She shook her head. “I need health insurance and a 401K. It just isn’t practical for me to freelance.”
Chloe took a big breath of air. Naomi’s lotion, wafting up from where she sat at Eva’s feet, intoxicated her, the smell of oranges and coconut and also that underlying scent of lavender. Swoony, almost too heady. Like Luke, the man always on her mind.
The girl who painted her toe nails carefully inched Chloe’s flip-flops between her toes.
“Enjoy the rest of your day,” Eva said. “I’ll see you later.”
Chloe’s heart beat fast. Freelancing would be the perfect answer if she was with Luke. All the way with him. Married to him. Ideas for her own web-based company rushed into her head, and she walked out into the sunshine in a daze. It wasn’t going to happen. At least not this week. But maybe someday? Maybe Luke would miss her, maybe they could have a long-distance relationship. Maybe if she asked him to, he’d move to Seattle with her and the boys. Maybe someday all those impossible dreams could come true. Maybe if she stayed here, used her savings to get started, then things could develop with Luke at a natural pace. Too many maybes. She shouldn’t drink wine during the day. It always gave her a headache.
She almost smacked herself. She had to get a grip. She wasn’t even close to being as important to Luke as he had become to her. She’d had no indication that he would ever feel the same way she did. Indulgent, wishful, dangerous thinking. She needed to stop spinning dreams and face reality. She was in no position to turn down the best opportunity of her life to start her own business, and Luke was so tied to this town, it would take a miracle to make him leave.
****
“Mom, Mom, Mom!”
The boys ran into the house, Josh clutching an enormous turtle. “Look what we found.”
Chloe wondered where Finn and Luke were, but she didn’t ask. The children had probably worn the big boys out. She knew how easily that could happen. Add sun and water and turtles and, well, she wasn’t surprised they’d dropped the boys off and rushed out of here.
“Should you have that in the house?” she asked. The poor turtle was out of its habitat. “Where’d you find it?”
“In the driveway! It would have got run over if Luke didn’t stop the truck! We saved it! Can we keep it?”
“I don’t think Dumpster would like that.
” Chloe noted the corner of the living room where Dumpster’s cage had been set up when they arrived. The bunny munched on a large carrot and paid absolutely no attention to the turtle.
“He won’t mind, will you, Dumpy?” Tommy said.
“Just like we don’t mind going to live in Seattle,” Josh said. His eyes were large and round and serious, his voice resigned.
Josh had been so upset when she’d first mentioned moving to Seattle. She’d hoped he’d gotten over that one brief burst of grief. Since then, neither boy had shown much interest in moving across the country. Nor did they complain about it.
“Grandma showed us where Seattle is on the atlas,” Tommy said.
“It’s really far,” Josh said.
“Let’s get this turtle back to his natural habitat before we talk about ours,” Chloe said, leading the way firmly out the front door.
“Okay. Turtles. Do they like the water or the woods?” She kept one hand on each of her sons’ shoulders.
“We could look it up online,” Josh said. He wasn’t letting go of the turtle.
“I’ll do it,” Tommy said. He went back into the house. He might be just six years old, but he knew the password to Chloe’s laptop.
“Mommy, there’s too many big words,” Tommy said, bringing the laptop out to her.
They sat on the porch and watched the turtle as Josh finally set it down. It didn’t move much.
“It says here that you should put it as close as possible to where you found it, but avoid roads. We’re too close to the main road.” Chloe read on.
“What kind of turtle is this guy?”
Josh came over and flicked through the DNR’s pictures of Michigan turtles. “That’s him.” He pointed to a box turtle.
“Or her,” Chloe said.
Both boys were highly insulted at the idea that “their” turtle could be a girl.
“Okay, so it says lakes and ponds.”
“Mommy, that lake is too big. He needs to be able to live in some weeds.” Josh pointed out another photo.
“Maybe Grandma knows where there’s a pond around here. Or an inlet.”
“What’s an inlet?”
“It’s like that place where we went swimming today.”
“Oh,” Tommy said.
“He doesn’t like the cement,” Josh said, moving himself and the turtle out to the grass.
Chloe closed her notebook and went out on the grass with the boys.
“Should we give him some water? He might be thirsty.”
“Get a pail of water from the lake. I don’t think we’re supposed to give him anything not from his natural…”
“We know, Mom, his hab’tat.”
Her phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket and checked the screen. Luke.
“Hey,” she said. She wondered if he’d got as much teasing about last night as she had endured. “Where can we find a pond or an inlet around here?”
He laughed. “Releasing the turtle back into the wild?”
“Yeah.” Hearing his voice turned her bones soft. How could she leave when every inch of her being willed her to stay?
“Walk on the beach toward town. About halfway in there’s a little stream that goes upriver.”
“Thanks,” she said. She wondered if he’d called for another reason. Or had he simply been doing due diligence on the turtle?
Chapter Thirteen
Luke left his house and went over to Main Street. Right behind the park, steps led to a public access walkway where people jogged or biked along the lake. He wished he had a dog, just for an excuse to be doing this. Or maybe he was past the point of needing excuses to see Chloe.
He wondered if Josh and Tommy would like a dog. He bet they’d love one.
After walking about ten minutes, he saw them up ahead, getting closer to the stream. Josh was probably carrying the turtle in the yellow pail he had in his hand, which was why Tommy kept peeking inside it.
Chloe looked effortlessly gorgeous, as usual. He wanted her with a strength that threatened to force him to break into a run to meet her. He wanted to grab her and hold her and kiss her. He wanted her and her boys in his life.
Luke kept his controlled amble until he got close enough to Chloe. “Just thought I’d make sure you found the stream okay.”
Chloe blushed. Or maybe she had a little sunburn. The boys were all over him, insisting he show them exactly how far up the stream they should release the turtle, who they had named Ninja. The stream cut through town and turned into a river that ran several towns south and then back out to Lake Huron. People liked to take inner tubes and ride the river all day. A place on River Road rented those tubes. The boys would love it.
About to suggest they all go tubing tomorrow, what came out of his mouth instead, just after they let Ninja go into the sand next to some nice green scrub and with a perfect trickle of water leading up or down as the turtle wished to travel? An invitation to dinner in town.
“We’re practically there,” he said.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Chloe said.
“Mom! We’re starving! Say yes.”
“We’ve got a pizza parlor, a taco place, there’s a guy who sells hot dogs from a cart in the park…”
“Hot dog!”
“Taco!”
“They make damn good margaritas,” Luke said to Chloe, still dubious.
“I didn’t bring my purse,” she said.
“My treat. First we’ll stop and get Tommy his hot dog, then we’ll go to Sanchez’s. We can sit on the patio and people watch. Come on. It will be fun.”
“Come on, Mom. Pleeeease.”
So Chloe let Luke take them to dinner. In order to get over her feelings that everyone in town watched them and might be taking mental notes for future gossip sessions, she drank her margarita (on the rocks, not frozen, yes, salt please) quickly. It settled her down somewhat, until her mother and Luke’s mom strolled by with Luke’s dad, who she’d never met.
“Well, look here, Wanda,” Ursula said. “Isn’t that your son, Daryl? ’Cause that’s my daughter.”
The trio stopped at the wrought iron railing that separated Sanchez’s from the sidewalk traffic and called over the tables.
“Hi, Grandma!”
“We went fishing with Luke today.”
Chloe ordered another margarita. A jumbo.
“You’re not driving, I hope,” her mother said.
“No. We walked down the beach.”
Her mother moved toward the door of the restaurant, and Daryl and Wanda followed her. Soon, the three appeared on the patio while waiters hustled another table next to Luke and Chloe’s.
“Honey, this is Daryl Anderson, Luke’s daddy. And of course, you know Wanda.”
“Nice to meet you,” Chloe said to an older version of Luke.
They all sat down and took menus from the waiter. Another waiter brought Chloe’s drink, just in time. She tried to sip it slowly, while Wanda introduced the boys to Daryl and Luke took a long pull of his beer.
“Luke helped us release a turtle back into the wild,” Chloe said.
And then the boys had to tell the story of how Luke had rescued the turtle from the driveway and how they’d looked up what to do with him on the Internet.
“I did it,” Tommy said.
“I had to read, though,” Josh said.
“You are my best boys,” Ursula said. Then she got tears in her eyes and batted them away but not before Chloe saw them. What was she doing? Why was she leaving her mother, the woman who had supported her and helped her build her life back up after she’d left Spence? This was the way she paid her mother back? By moving halfway across the country? Well, not halfway. All the way. To the very tip of the end of the line. As west as west could be.
She sighed and sipped her drink. Luke ordered another beer.
Tommy insisted he could still eat a taco even though he’d scarfed down a hot dog only minutes ago. And fries.
By the end of dinner, the boys were v
isibly wilting.
“Grandma, where’s your car?”
“Just down the street, honey. Why? You want to ride back with me?”
Tommy clapped his hands. “Yes!” Josh, lost in thought, nodded agreement.
Chloe still had a good part of her jumbo margarita left, and Luke had half a beer, so her mother said, “You two stay and finish your drinks. I’ll wait with the boys at the bungalow for you. I’ll give them their baths.”
Chloe did not have the heart to say no to her mother. This was the last week she’d be spending with her grandsons in a long time. She couldn’t begrudge her mother time alone with them.
Before they left, Josh hugged Chloe and put his lips to her hair, muffling sound into her ears. “I wish we could stay here forever. I wish we didn’t have to move to Seattle.”
Chloe didn’t think Luke heard what Josh said about Seattle. She hugged her boys and told her mom she’d be back at Blue Heaven soon. This was as good as a time as any to have the Seattle conversation with Luke. Everything depended on how he responded to the news.
Once they were alone, she looked around the patio. Nobody paid any attention to them. She lowered her voice anyway. “Everybody in town is talking about us. They know we spent the night together.”
“Then let’s go back to your place.”
“Not with my boys—” Chloe’s phone rang. Her mom.
“I just thought you’d let me have the boys stay at my place one more night,” her mom said. Chloe heard the boys shouting “please” in the background.
“Okay.” She was not about to begrudge her mom any time with the boys. Also, Luke sat across from her, begging her to take him home. “Let’s go.”
“Your mom? Got the kids?” Luke’s slow, lazy smile rearranged his face from handsome to gorgeous.
“Yep.” He thought this was Mom Plot stuff, but she knew better. Her mom wanted to give her time to tell Luke about Seattle.
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