by Nicole Ellis
Cassie sniffled a little and leaned forward to give Celia a huge hug. “Thank you,” she whispered into the older woman’s ear. “Thank you so much for believing in me.” She straightened. Now, it was time for Cassie to believe in herself.
6
Libby
The luggage and camping supplies piled high in their driveway was making Libby’s head spin. How had they accumulated so much stuff, and more importantly, how were they going to get it all in their minivan without leaving one of the kids at home?
“Mommy! Can I bring Olaf?” her older daughter, Beth, asked, holding up her stuffed snowman.
Libby shook her head. “Uh-uh. You already chose a stuffie to bring with you. If we take anything else with us, your brother is going to need to stay home.”
Beth grinned. “Really? Camping might be more fun without him.”
Libby sighed. “No. Not really. Now go put Olaf in your room and come back here to help me with packing.”
Beth cocked her head to the side. “Why can’t Daddy help you?”
Libby gritted her teeth. “I don’t know where Daddy is.” Gabe had been out late again last night and then disappeared earlier that morning. They were supposed to leave an hour ago, but without the help of another adult, she’d fallen behind on the schedule. Her head pounded, both from lack of sleep and from the stress of wrangling the belongings of six people for a weekend of camping.
“I’ll go find him.” Beth skipped away before Libby could tell her that Gabe’s car was gone, leaving her Olaf doll in the driveway.
Libby picked him up and set him on the bench on the front porch before returning to the car. Gabe was much better at packing the van than she was, but at this point she didn’t really have a choice but to start on the job. She picked up the heavy, eight-person tent she’d purchased that week and slid it onto the floor of the back seat, along with the blow-up mattresses and everyone’s sleeping bags. The kids in the back row were just going to have to deal with having stuff under their feet.
The other supplies looked more manageable now, but something was missing. She groaned. The ice chest. She’d forgotten to bring out the massive white cooler from the kitchen. That was going to take up half of the trunk.
After lugging the ice chest outside and stowing it away, she shoved the rest of their stuff into the minivan, barely fitting the last item in under the ceiling. She checked her watch. It had taken her an hour, and Gabe still wasn’t home.
She plucked her cell phone out of her pocket and dialed her husband. It rang once and went to voicemail. She stared at it. He’d sent her directly to voicemail. What was going on? Lately, Gabe had been increasingly distant with her and the kids, but she’d hoped a family vacation would remind him how lucky they were to be a family.
A minute later, he returned her call with a text: Be home in ten minutes.
And that was it. No excuse, no reason why he wasn’t home to help. Libby slammed the liftgate down and leaned against the car, tears brimming in her eyes. This wasn’t how life was supposed to be. She and Gabe had both wanted a big family, and they’d made the decision together to have her stay home with the kids. In more recent years, she’d gone back to work part-time with her mother in their catering business. But still, she hadn’t signed on to be alone all the time with the kids.
When Gabe pulled into the driveway ten minutes later, Libby had corralled three of the four kids in the entry hall and was having them each use the bathroom, then put on their shoes. She saw Gabe walking up the sidewalk, his phone glued to his ear, and she fought hard to stay calm.
He nodded as he rushed past her and up the stairs to their bedroom. She counted to five, then ushered the kids out to the minivan and shouted at her oldest child, William, that it was time to go. William came thundering down the stairs.
“Are we ready to go?” he asked. “Dad’s still upstairs.”
“I know.” She forced a smile. “He’ll be down in a minute. Get out to the minivan, and try to keep your siblings from killing each other.”
William rolled his eyes at her. “Like they listen to me.”
“Do your best,” she said firmly.
William went outside, and she heard him shouting to his brothers and sisters like a drill sergeant. She left the mess behind and went upstairs, where Gabe was pacing the floor of their bedroom, talking rapidly to someone. She stood there, not speaking, and he held up a finger to let her know he was busy. Libby went into the bathroom and splashed some water on her sweaty face, then came back into the room. Gabe was grabbing his cell phone cord and a few other things and tossing them into a small bag.
“I don’t know that cell phones are even going to work out there,” she said.
His eyes bugged out. “Seriously? Are we going to the middle of nowhere?”
She shrugged. “It’s a state park. The cell service is supposed to be spotty.”
He huffed and zipped the bag with an exaggerated movement. “This is going to be a long weekend.” He clopped down the stairs and out the door.
Libby took a moment to compose herself, catching her reflection in the floor-length mirror next to the dresser. Her face was flushed with the exertion of packing the car and getting the kids ready, and her long dark hair hung in sweaty tendrils. She bit her lip, trying to hold back tears. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed a hair tie off the dresser and wound her hair up into a messy bun. For her kids’ sake, she wanted this camping trip to go well. With school, work, and extra-curricular obligations, the family rarely had time to spend together. The kids were getting older faster than she’d like, and she wanted to make some special memories with them while they were young.
The kids were in various stages of getting their seatbelts on, and Gabe had the car running when she slid into the passenger’s seat.
“So where is this place?” Gabe asked.
“It’s in the Cascades.” Libby entered the name of the state park into her phone and turned on the GPS navigation system.
For the next few hours, Libby and Gabe barely spoke as she played referee between the kids in the back of the van. By the time they’d reached their campground, her nerves were frazzled, and she was already wondering why she’d thought camping with four kids and a grouchy husband was a good idea.
After checking in and getting their tent set up at the campsite, she released the kids to go play on the playground. “William, make sure you watch Kaya. Don’t let her out of your sight.”
“Aye-aye, captain.” He saluted her and ambled off with the other kids in the direction of the playground.
Libby sat down at the picnic table to rest. “I need some caffeine after that.”
Gabe retrieved his phone from the car and slammed the driver’s side door shut. “You’re the one who wanted to do this.”
She flinched. “I thought you wanted to take a family vacation too. This seemed like the perfect time, right after school was out and before all of the kids’ summer activities start.”
He stared at his phone screen and swore. “I missed a call.”
She took a shuddering breath and fixed her eyes on him. “Doesn’t work know you’re on vacation?”
He sighed. “I work in sales. I’m never on vacation. Besides, how do you think we’re paying for this trip? I can’t just ignore my customers.”
Libby caught a note of worry in his voice. Was this why he’d been so standoffish lately? She badly wanted to believe that he was acting like this because of work, and not because there was another woman in the picture. “Is there something going on at work? Anything I should know about?”
He slid his finger along the phone’s screen and looked up at her. “No. Everything is fine.”
She’d believe that when her kids became perfect little angels. Something was up, but whatever it was, he didn’t have any intention of sharing it with her. “Do you want to take a walk along the lake with me?” she asked. It had been so long since they’d spent any quality time together, just the two of them.
“No.” He held his phone up in the air, assessing the cellular signal strength. “I need to get to a location with better cell phone reception so I can call this guy back.”
“Can it wait until tomorrow?”
“No, Libby, it can’t. I have to make money for our family when I can.” He looked over at their new tent and then back at her. “You’re always spending money so irresponsibly. Like this tent you bought without even talking to me about it first.” A vein on his neck twitched and his fingernails were white against the black plastic of his cell phone case.
She reared her head back as though she’d been burned. In all their years of marriage, they’d rarely fought about money, and she was well-known in her family for her thrifty nature. She’d spent days researching tents and comparing prices in stores and online. The tent she’d selected should last them a long time, and she’d even purchased it at a huge discount sale. “We needed a tent that could fit all of us. There was no way we could squeeze all of our sleeping bags into the one we used years ago.” He had to know she wouldn’t have bought the tent unless it was absolutely necessary. Where was this reaction coming from?
He moved away from her and gazed up at the blue sky to gather his thoughts, then turned back around. “I don’t want to fight about this right now. I need to take this call, and maybe when I come back we can go on that walk, okay?”
He stalked off toward the entrance to the campground, waving his phone slowly in the air like a divining rod as he searched for bars of service. Libby got up from the table and walked behind their campsite to a thicket of trees, then sat down on a log to think. Growing up, she and her sisters had spent a lot of time in nature, and it always helped her to get away from everything to work through whatever was bothering her.
She idly ran her fingers over a patch of fuzzy green moss and let her heart rate settle. Gabe had been acting oddly for months, but he wouldn’t admit to anything being amiss. They’d always been a team, and it stabbed her heart every time he shot down her efforts to communicate. She’d never have imagined her husband having an affair, but did anyone really expect that kind of thing? Was he planning on leaving her?
She gazed up at the leafy branches high above her and focused on a squirrel jumping from tree to tree. She really wanted to talk to one of her sisters, but they’d both been so busy lately.
Normally, Libby would confide in her youngest sister, Samantha, but she’d been distant for a while. Libby had chalked it up to it being the end of the school year and Samantha having a lot to do as she transitioned from being a teacher into her summer jobs. Libby had recently worked through her relationship issues with her other sister, Meg, and although they were now on good terms, Meg was overwhelmed with work and her responsibilities at the Inn at Willa Bay. But, sheesh, Libby really missed talking to them. And worries about her husband being unfaithful definitely wasn’t something she wanted to share with her mother.
Even with seeing family all the time and constantly having her kids around, Libby felt more alone now than she’d ever been in her life. Part of her was scared to find out what was going on with her husband, but she needed to know the truth, whether it be good or bad. After over a decade of marriage, he owed her that much.
7
Meg
Meg sat back in her seat at the Wedding Belles Café and kicked her feet up on the chair opposite her. She sipped her almond-flavored latté and gazed out the window at the river flowing below the deck. At this time of year the water lapped high against the riverbank, teeming with snow runoff from the mountains. By August, the water levels would be considerably lower, although still navigable by boat in the dredged channel.
She rotated her ankles and wiggled her feet, trying to keep them from freezing up. She’d helped Shawn paint the walls and ceiling of the main stairwell at the Inn that morning, and had stood at an awkward angle for most of that time. But he and Zoe had been so excited to show her the progress in the kitchen, so it had been worth going out there before work.
However, it had been a little disappointing for her. Zoe was consumed by all of her projects at the Inn, and Cassie had surprised everyone by announcing her intention to open her own bakery. Even with her role as part-owner, Meg’s restaurant at the Inn at Willa Bay wouldn’t open for at least a few more months, and that was if all the renovations went according to plan. Meg’s life would resemble a virtual Groundhog Day – going from the Inn to the Lodge and then to sleep, every day the same.
Over her shoulder, a man cleared his throat. “Do you mind if I sit with you?” He held a ceramic mug in one hand while he used the other to gesture to the chair where her feet were resting. “Every other seat in the café is occupied, and it looks so nice and sunny out here.”
“Oh. Sure.” Her face flushed as she whipped her feet off the chair. “Sorry. I was just resting my legs for a minute.”
“No problem.” He set his cup down on the table, pulled the chair out, then settled down in it. He stretched his arm out to her and smiled disarmingly. “I’m Theo.”
She shook his hand. “I’m Meg. Nice to meet you, Theo.” She took a closer look at him. He was about her age, with a cute smile, disheveled sandy-blond hair and a carefree air about him.
He drank from his mug, then set it back down on the table. “Are you from around here?”
She laughed. This was starting to feel like a pick-up, rather than a simple need for an unoccupied chair. “I am local, yes. Are you?”
He grinned. “I’m local for now, but we’ll see where the wind takes me – literally.” He chuckled a little. “I live aboard my sailboat. It’s moored down at the marina right now.”
“Really?” Meg lifted her eyebrows. “You live on your boat?”
“Yep. Been doing it for over three years now. I work in online marketing, so I’m free to go anywhere I can get a signal to get on the Internet.” He looked toward the marina. “I’ve been living in the southern part of Puget Sound for a while, but I decided that it was time to mix it up this summer with a trip up north.”
She nodded, intrigued by his nomadic lifestyle. If she weren’t so close to her family, the idea of working remotely and traveling wherever she felt like would be awfully appealing. “How do you like Willa Bay?”
He shrugged. “I’m not sure yet. I’ve only been here since last night. From what I’ve seen, though, it’s beautiful.” He frowned. “There’s an awful lot of wedding-themed shops and restaurants, though. What’s that about?”
She laughed. “We’re known as the Wedding Capital of the Northwest. Between that and the tulips fields, Willa Bay thrives on tourist traffic.”
“Hmm. I’m not usually big on tourist towns, but I’d love to be proven wrong.” He looked into her eyes, and she squirmed inwardly at his directness. “Would you be interested in showing me around town? Maybe dinner tonight?” He glanced at her left hand. “That is if you’re not a newlywed yourself.”
Meg was in the middle of sipping her latté and snorted a little at his comment, splashing milk onto her face. Theo looked at her with amusement as she dabbed her cheeks with a napkin. When she’d recovered, she said, “No. Definitely not married. Not even dating anyone.” Taylor’s face flashed through her mind, a product of Cassie’s insistence that he was romantically interested in her. She fought the urge to shake her head to rid herself of the thought.
“Then you’re free for dinner?” he asked.
She sighed. “No. I’m actually a chef at one of the restaurants in town, so I only get Mondays and Tuesdays off the dinner shift.”
“Does this Monday work for you?” he asked. “I’d love to try out your favorite place for dinner, especially now that I know you’re a chef. I’m sure you know all of the best places in town.”
Her heart beat faster. She’d just been thinking about how static her life was currently, and then a stranger literally appeared in front of her and asked her out on a date. “Monday would be great.” She smiled at him, hoping he didn’t see her hand shaking as she lifte
d the coffee mug to her lips.
“Then Monday it is.” He flashed her a grin. “I don’t have a car to pick you up, but maybe we could meet at the entrance to the marina at six o’clock and walk somewhere for dinner?”
She nodded. “Sounds good.” She finished the last sip of her coffee and stood. She needed to leave for work, but she found herself reluctant to leave this reprieve from her normal life. The odds were good that this traveler wouldn’t even be in town by Monday, but she’d enjoyed his attention. “I’m sorry, but I really have to get to work. I’ll see you on Monday, okay?”
“I’m looking forward to it.” He stood and shook her hand. “It was nice to meet you, Meg.”
“It was nice meeting you too.” She turned to leave, but hesitated. What exactly was the correct protocol for leaving when you’d just made a dinner date with a stranger? Telling him it was nice to meet him felt a little cold when they’d made plans to get together at a later date. “See you later.”
He smiled and gave her a half wave, then reached for his coffee.
She walked away with a bounce in her step. Maybe this was it, the catalyst for change in her life. She looked back at Theo. His eyes were on the boats sailing past on the river channel – not on her. A touch of irrational sadness hit her. With their fairy-tale meeting, she’d found herself hoping he’d be so enchanted with her that he would want to keep her in sight until she was out of view.
On the sidewalk outside, Meg wove her way between throngs of tourists as she hurried toward Willa Bay Drive and the Lodge. Her phone rang in her purse, and she answered it as soon as she saw who was calling. “Libby? Aren’t you supposed to be camping this weekend?”
“I am. My phone’s actually getting reception at our campsite today.” Libby went quiet on the other end of the line.