“We’ll be fine,” Carley responded stiffly. Her thoughts were in a whirl. She couldn’t tolerate the thought of Wyatt and this perky little elf pitying poor old widowed, downtrodden Carley. “Listen,” she said suddenly, “would you mind the table for just a minute? I’ve got to go to the john.”
“Sure, honey.” Angie settled into the chair.
Carley hurried around to the back door, up the back stairs and into the private bath off her bedroom. She was tired, but jazzed up at the same time. She couldn’t wait to see how much money she’d made. She knew the tag sale was only a short-term solution to her financial problems, but it was a start. It would carry her for a while, and it might be a first step in convincing her in-laws she could take care of herself and her children. Her daughters loved their grandparents so much. Carley didn’t want any sort of dissension between them.
On her way out, she passed the door to the kitchen. Movement caught her eye from the window at the side of the house. She stopped dead, as if she’d run into a brick wall. In a way, she had. What she saw did not make sense.
Maud and Toby—Vanessa’s husband, Toby!—stood close together, quite obviously locked in a private world. They spoke softly—Carley couldn’t hear the words—then Toby leaned forward, and kissed Maud’s neck, right beneath her ear. Carley gawked, astonished, flushing hot with embarrassment. This was no little peck on the cheek. It was a nuzzling, lingering, lover’s kiss. Maud sagged against Toby, closing her eyes in rapture, her expression dreamy. The couple smiled at each other, spoke again, then slowly parted, returning to the front yard and the tag sale.
Carley just stood there with her mouth open, freaked out, even panicked. What should she do? What could she do? After a moment, she took a deep breath and returned to the tag sale.
Angie was still at the table, but standing up. She and Wyatt were talking to an older woman … Annabel.
In her beige suede coat, a silk scarf knotted at her neck, a fur toque warming her elegant head, Annabel radiated refinement.
“There’s Carley!” Angie didn’t try to hide her relief.
“We’ll be off.” Wyatt nodded respectfully to Annabel as Angie tugged his arm.
Angie waggled her cute little fingers at Carley. “Bye-bye.” They strolled away.
Carley was alone with Annabel.
“Hi, Annabel.” Carley kissed her mother-in-law on the cheek. Lightheartedly, she held up a rather ugly perfumed candle. “What do you think? Irresistible?”
“Not really,” Annabel replied smoothly. “The girls tell me it’s been quite a successful event.” Pointedly, she nodded toward the table that once had held Gus’s clothes and paraphernalia.
Frame had gone home, leaving Toby in charge, and there Toby was, talking to an eager customer. Vanessa was in the garage, at the baby table, demonstrating to a young couple how a baby-wipe warmer worked. Maud crouched down by the children’s table, chatting with Cisco and Margaret. Annabel’s voice buzzed at Carley; more people were arriving. In such a jumble, Carley decided, she must have misread what she saw, or thought she saw, going on with Maud and Toby.
“I suppose you were wise to hold this little tag sale,” Annabel was saying. “Especially with the economy in such bad shape. This summer business was at an all-time low on the island and as we all know, the fall marks the start of the quiet season. The restaurants won’t need waiters and the shops won’t need clerks. The market is flooded with people looking for jobs.”
And you have no qualifications was Annabel’s subtext, Carley knew. You and your girls will need to live with us.
“Actually,” Carley announced cheerfully, “Reverend Salter just told me his nephew needs to rent a room while he’s here doing historical research. For perhaps two months. I could fix up the room off the laundry room. It has its own bathroom.”
Annabel stiffened. “Really, Carley, I’d think twice about …” She could almost not say the words. “… renting a room. It seems … wrong, somehow. The house is a home.”
“I think it will be good for us,” Carley retorted, keeping her tone as mild as her mother-in-law’s. “We’ll make a bit of money and have someone young around the house.”
Before Annabel could respond, two young women burst up to the table, excitedly pawing through all the remaining place mats.
“Those will have to be ironed,” Annabel warned.
“Oh, we’re not going to use them for place mats,” the young women giggled.
“I’ll sell them half price,” Carley told them. “Since it’s afternoon.” I’ll pay you to stay here, she thought. The young women squealed with delight and rummaged deep in the pile, accidentally touching Annabel’s elbow.
“I’ll say hello to my granddaughters.” Annabel started to walk away, then stopped. “We need to discuss this more, Carley.”
Carley glanced at Maud’s table. She wasn’t there—she was over chatting away with Vanessa! Carley sighed with relief.
By three o’clock almost everything had sold. The crowd had diminished to an occasional car driving by with people surveying the yard and passing on. Margaret and Cisco, exhausted and bored, went into the house. Toby, Vanessa, and Maud helped fold up the card tables, gather up the trash, and move anything not sold into a cardboard box in the garage.
Vanessa and Toby drove away. Maud drove away. The lawn spread out before her, empty, unchanged, except for little chunks of sod dislodged by people’s shoes.
Carley carried the various cigar boxes of money to Gus’s desk in his office and locked them away in the bottom drawer. All at once, she was completely exhausted. She was even too tired to count the money. Her girls were in their rooms, adding up their gains and giggling with each other.
When the phone rang, she almost didn’t answer.
“Carley? It’s Lauren. Listen, I know how tag sales can wear you out. Want to bring the girls over for dinner tonight? I’ll make spaghetti.”
Framingham Burr’s wife, Lauren, was part of Carley’s extended girl group. A tall, broad, comfortable woman, Lauren lived in jeans and a cotton shirt in the summer, jeans and a turtleneck in the winter. Her husband was a successful real estate developer, and they had a farm with horses, dogs, cats, chickens, a vegetable garden, and an in-ground swimming pool. They had three children, healthy, active individuals who moved through the world with confidence. Cisco was always stunned into silence by the presence of fourteen-year-old Nicholas, while Margaret, dazzled by nine-year-old Rosalind, tried to ignore the childish ploys for attention by five-year-old Will.
“Oh, Lauren, how heavenly! Of course we’ll come. Bless you!” Carley hung up the phone, reinvigorated. What thoughtful friends she had! What would she do without them?
And what did she owe her friends? Should she tell Vanessa she’d seen Toby kissing Maud?
No. No. Carley must have misunderstood a perfectly innocent gesture.
11
• • • • •
Overnight a heavy snow had fallen, unusual for the island, and the girls were eager to get outside and make snowmen. Carley padded around the kitchen in yoga pants and a flannel shirt, yawning, checking the calendar for the week and supervising the girls’ breakfast. It seemed to her that Cisco was only pretending to eat.
“Mom, Delphine’s coming over after school to practice, okay?”
Carley turned on a winning smile. “It’s okay as long as I see you eat three bites of toast.”
“I’m not a baby!”
“I didn’t say you were.”
Cisco tore off a bite and swallowed almost without chewing. “There.”
“That’s one bite.”
“Mom! Stop it!”
“Studies have shown that children are healthier when they’ve had a substantial breakfast, and one bite of toast is not a substantial breakfast. Two. More. Bites.”
Cisco glared and sniffed disdainfully. But she ate two bites, and drank her entire glass of orange juice.
All during the school year, every Tuesday afternoon and Sa
turday morning, Maud dropped Percy and Spenser off at Carley’s house while she went to her yoga class. Maud needed the classes desperately, she said—typing and drawing tied her muscles into knots. It was a friendly arrangement.
Today it was raining, so Margaret and the boys were in the attic when Maud arrived. Even though it was cold out, Maud wore, as usual, a tank top, yoga pants, and fleece-lined clogs. Maud was looking sexier than ever—she’d had her Dutch-boy bob expensively cut and shaped.
“Tea?” Carley offered.
“I’d love some.”
Carley put the kettle on and then, on the spur of the moment, asked Maud, “What’s up with you?”
“What do you mean?” Maud widened her eyes innocently. Carley narrowed her eyes. “What do I mean?” Maud turned red.
“Maud!”
“I’ll just shut the door.” Maud closed the door to the back stairs.
“Maud, the children are in the attic, they can’t hear you.”
“I need to be absolutely sure.” Maud sat at the table and crossed her arms defensively over her chest. “If I tell you, Carley, you’ve got to promise not to tell anyone else.”
Suspiciously, Carley narrowed her eyes. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”
“I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. It looks like you’ve already guessed.” Maud trembled with nerves. “I need to talk to someone, Carley. But you have to swear to keep it secret. Swear on your children’s lives.”
“Maud! What’s wrong with you? I’d never do that.”
“All right, all right. Listen. Just swear you won’t tell anyone else.”
Carley hesitated. “Okay.”
“Oh, Carley—” Maud lifted her huge blue eyes to Carley, and they were shining. “I’m in love.”
“You’re in love?” Carley echoed. She felt sick at her stomach.
“With Toby Hutchinson.”
Carley sat down hard in her chair.
“Do you hate me?” Maud clutched Carley’s hands.
Carley pulled her hands away. “Maud, of course I don’t hate you,” though for a moment she thought maybe she did. She had not misinterpreted what she saw, Toby’s mouth on Maud’s neck. “But dear God, what about Vanessa?”
“Carley! I wouldn’t even have told you if I’d thought you were going to get all self-righteous on me. I haven’t told anyone, I need to talk to someone about this. Can’t you be on my side?”
“That’s a complicated question, Maud.” The teakettle whistled. Carley took a moment to catch her breath as she poured water into the pot and set out the teacups and saucers.
Maud jumped up and grasped Carley’s shoulders. “Oh, Carley! Oh, Carley, we tried to stop ourselves. We tried to resist one another, but we couldn’t. I’ve always liked Toby. He’s the boys’ pediatrician.”
“Yes, he’s our pediatrician, too.” Carley edged out of Maud’s grasp, picking up the teapot, setting things on the table.
Maud sat down again and took a deep breath. “Okay, so you’re aware that he’s wise and kind and gentle. I’ve always been fond of him for that. The boys adore him. He’s always seemed to give us extra time, he hasn’t minded if I’ve asked silly questions, and he takes us in right away whenever we have an emergency. I suspected he had a little crush on me. And at the autism benefit gala at the new yacht club last summer, Toby asked me to dance, and it was a slow dance … Stop it, Carley! Don’t look at me that way. You’ve talked about lusting after other men sometimes!”
“That’s true. But, well—have you slept with him?”
Maud turned bright red. Carley had her answer.
“Oh, Maud!” Carley’s heart twisted with worry for Vanessa.
Maud leaned forward, eager, earnest. “Carley, it was paradise! It was ecstasy! It was the same for him.”
Maud’s passion astonished Carley. “But Maud, I mean, come on, that’s more than a flirtation, that’s taking it into infidelity, adultery—”
“Stop being so judgmental!” Maud sat back down and burst into tears.
“I’m not judging you, Maud. But, come on, Vanessa—”
“Mommy!” The back stairs door flew open and Margaret flew into the room, followed by Percy and Spenser. “We’re hungry!” She stopped, and her dark eyes grew wide.
“It’s all right, Margaret. Maud has something in her eye.” As she talked, Carley hurriedly stuffed a box of cookies, a thermos of apple juice, and three paper cups into a small paper bag. “Here’s a picnic, you can eat it in the attic, but not the second floor, okay?” It would mean crumbs in the attic, but Carley wanted the children as far away as possible.
Actually, she wanted everyone far away, just for a minute, so she could think.
Maud and Toby Hutchinson? Sexually passionate? Maud had discovered paradise with Toby Hutchinson?
Paradise. What was that like?
The children hurtled back up the stairs. Carley shut the door.
“Don’t you want me to be happy?” Maud asked, almost begging.
“Of course I do. But … what about Vanessa? My gosh, Las Tres Enchiladas!”
“I can’t even think about her, Carley. When Toby and I are together, it’s as if we’re on a different plane, in a different reality. It’s all so new and fresh. It’s so intense. In a way, it doesn’t even seem like adultery—no one else knows, we’re not hurting anyone, and it’s only happening in our own little world, the world inhabited by just the two of us.”
“Where do you meet?” Carley had asked the right question. Maud beamed, eager to talk.
“At first, the time I think of as ‘our’ first real time, I mean when I knew we were in love, it was just in the Stop & Shop parking lot. He asked me how Spenser’s been, I’ve been worried that he’s hyperactive, and we talked about that for such a long time. I finally said, ‘Oh, excuse me, you’re busy, I mustn’t keep you,’ and he said, ‘I wish you would keep me,’ and wow!” Maud’s face was crimson. “For a while I couldn’t even speak, I just stared at him—”
“Stop.” Carley held up her hand. Suddenly the truth hit her hard. “Have you been ‘seeing’ Toby this whole time when you’re supposed to be at yoga?”
Maud dropped her eyes. “Well, at first I was going to yoga. And sometimes I’m at yoga …”
“Oh, Maud.” Carley collapsed in a chair. She’d helped Maud sleep with Vanessa’s husband! “This is a disaster.”
“No!” Maud protested. “If you’re worried that this will somehow hurt my children, listen, don’t be. I’m much nicer to the kids than I’ve been for months! I like my life more, I have more energy, more creativity, more patience—”
“But in the long run,” Carley interrupted. “You can’t—”
“I don’t care about the long run, I don’t care about the future! This is my own thing, and I want it, Carley! I’m a damned good mother. I work hard. This isn’t hurting anyone, and it’s making me happier than I’ve ever been in my life.”
“But it’s hurting Vanessa,” Carley insisted.
“No, it’s not,” Maud retorted. “She doesn’t know. She’ll never know. Besides, she told me sometimes when she and Toby are at it, she gets so bored she wishes she could prop up a book next to her.”
“Yes, but that’s marriage,” Carley insisted.
“Still, Toby has feelings, too. He has needs.”
Carley almost exploded. “Yes, well, what about Vanessa’s needs?” She was angry enough to hit something. She shoved back her chair and paced the kitchen. “Maud, I can’t do it anymore, I won’t do it. I won’t have your boys here while you’re at ‘yoga class.’ ”
“But sometimes I am at yoga class,” Maud protested sweetly, tilting her head.
“I don’t care. I won’t do it. Oh, Maud!” Carley wanted to throw all the china against the wall. “Maud, how can you do this?”
Maud sat very still. After a long moment of silence, she said, “I’ve never felt this way before, Carley. I loved John, in a sort of friendly way. I never felt this—this undenia
ble desire. Absolute longing. Followed by absolute bliss. Carley, come on. I’m a good person. I’m a good mother, a good wife. I’m not wicked, I’m not evil. We didn’t choose for this to happen.” Clasping her hands together, she pleaded, “Please don’t hate me.”
“I don’t hate you, Maud.” Carley sank back down into a chair. She was torn in two, and thinking furiously. Perhaps this was just sex, just something they both needed, and it wouldn’t last long, so fiery, so hot, it would burn itself out like a supernova. “But I can’t keep the boys for you, Maud. I can’t collude with you.”
Maud snorted. “Collude. You make it sound like a crime.”
Carley let her silence speak.
“You can’t tell Vanessa.”
“No. I won’t.”
“I guess you want me to go.”
“Yes.” Carley looked at the clock. “It’s time for me to start dinner, anyway.”
12
• • • • •
It wasn’t fair of Maud, Carley thought, for her to share her secret with Carley. It made Carley somehow seem to approve of the affair. Carley fretted about this, turning the problem around and around in her mind like a Rubik’s Cube, as she cleaned and made up the bedroom and bathroom off the laundry room.
Reverend Salter’s nephew was just her height, slender but muscular, with spiky brown hair, dreamy blue eyes, and a gorgeous smile.
Best of all, he was happy, and when he arrived in January, in his low-slung, faded jeans, his Aéropostale tee and hoodie, his braid necklace and his tattooed forearm, he brought fresh air into the Winsted household. Cisco and Margaret fell in love with him immediately. Carley’s friends developed mad crushes on him, too, and when they came over to visit, they wore sexy little shirts and more makeup than they usually wore.
They didn’t often get a chance to flirt with Kevin, though. He was almost always out at the historical association, doing research, or running or biking or ice skating, and, after only a matter of days on the island, he developed a wide group of friends, male and female, and spent all his free time with them.
Summer Beach Reads 5-Book Bundle: Beachcombers, Heat Wave, Moon Shell Beach, Summer House, Summer Breeze Page 44