Inside the superstore, Sarah wandered for miles, it seemed, until she found the pet food. An entire aisle of it. She stood there, feeling lost, until she spotted a can of food that mentioned hairballs. Doing her due diligence, she quickly scanned the label. Protein. Yes, that was good. Salmon, yes, Becker liked fish of all kinds. Chicken, too. Sarah plopped a bunch of cans in her basket, hoping Becker would eat it and that it would actually help him.
It’s true, she thought. I’m actually becoming a crazy cat lady, or at least a lady who cares about cats.
But it was Lucy she really couldn’t stop thinking about, and the encounter that she and Sam had had with his daughter at the bottom of the stairs. Sarah didn’t want to be a bad influence in any way. Lucy was at a difficult age. Duke’s thirteen-year-old son clearly appealed to her, so Lucy was aware of boys and relationships, though Sarah honestly didn’t know how Lucy felt about Sarah being in a relationship—however brief—with her father, despite what she’d said.
That had been her mom talking. Sarah wanted to know how Lucy felt.
It had felt great helping Lucy dig away at her dreams for her future. Caring about her own dreams—that was what Sarah wanted to encourage in the girl. To depend on someone other than yourself was folly. It never worked. A woman needed to be independent in order to get by in this world.
Sarah stopped at the wrapping paper and card aisle on her way to the register. Lucy’s birthday present had already been delivered and was sitting at home in Sarah’s bedroom, but it seemed like a good idea for Sarah to wrap and give it to the girl early. That Richard still hadn’t called them was a bad sign. A very bad sign.
Lucy would take that news horribly when she found out. Maybe receiving a great present would help.
Sarah found a wrapping paper featuring birthday cakes and cats wearing silly hats. Then she found a funny card that would appeal to Lucy’s dry sense of nerd humor.
Sam was the only one left on Sarah’s shopping list—just because she liked him and figured he might need the boost after a potentially difficult talk with Lucy. She got him a bottle of fancy beer, Irish stout this time, and one of those horribly unhealthy pastry-cake things wrapped in cellophane that he seemed to enjoy.
She hauled all her loot over to the self-serve cash register—that way she wouldn’t have to deal with people—and then headed back out to her rental car, where she promptly grabbed her hand sanitizer and freshened up before pointing the car home.
An hour later—the after-beach traffic was just ridiculous today and Sarah was grateful for the car’s upgraded sound system and commercial-free radio service—she was humming along to ABBA, feeling like a Dancing Queen. She pulled into Cassandra’s driveway thinking she was coping just fine with all the challenges in her life.
Just in time to see Cassandra exiting a taxi.
Sarah screamed and slammed on her brakes, inches from hitting her aunt with her vehicle.
CHAPTER TWELVE
SAM WAS IN his kitchen on the phone with the pizza delivery place when he heard tires screeching and then yelling coming from the direction of the cottage next door.
His first thought was that someone had been hurt in a car accident. His heart pounding, he bolted as fast as he could out the sliding back door and sprinted over the sand toward Sarah’s place.
Cassandra was back?
Sam stood in the driveway, dumbfounded. Just then, Sarah stepped out of her rental car and slammed the door. Sam realized she was the one who’d been yelling.
“Cassandra!” Lucy cried out beside him. His daughter ran to the older woman, waving her arms and tumbling into his neighbor’s arms. Cassandra bent to Lucy, kissing his daughter’s cheeks and crying. Lucy and Cassandra embraced in a long, blubbering reunion that seemed to go on and on.
Involuntarily, Sam’s fists curled. This lady had endangered his child. She’d hurt Sarah. And she’d made him look a fool.
From the expression on Sarah’s face, she was thinking along the same lines. It was doubtful she would ever forgive her aunt. Sarah’s arms were crossed, and the superstore bag she held was drooping.
Clenching his jaw, Sam headed over to see his wayward neighbor.
Cassandra’s gaze snapped up to meet his. She didn’t seem contrite, not at all. Instead she seemed unbearably sad.
“Dad,” Lucy said, dragging his neighbor over by the arm. “Cassandra is home.”
Sam stopped and slowly exhaled. With a look, he beckoned Sarah to him. She complied without a word. The two of them appeared before Cassandra, a united force.
“You shouldn’t have left us the way you did,” he told Cassandra.
“She had to—Claudio was dying!” Lucy interjected. “And don’t be mad at her for leaving, because I told her to go. Plus, it was my fault you couldn’t find me. I waited at the library and not at our house like you wanted me to.”
“Lucy, please go inside. I want to have a private conversation with Cassandra.” His voice rose in a way that was foreign to him. Lucy’s eyes widened, but she obeyed.
Even Sarah remained silent. He didn’t look directly at her, but he could sense her staring daggers at her aunt.
“What you did was unacceptable to me,” Sam said quietly. “Sarah will speak for herself, I’m sure, but I need you to know that actions have consequences. You endangered Lucy, you scared me half to death, and as a result, it’s going to be a long time before I trust you again.”
Cassandra’s gaze faltered. She had a tissue in her hand and she dabbed at her eyes. “I understand, Sam. I’m truly sorry.”
She looked completely beaten down. Racked with guilt and grief, and that was before he had compounded her misery with his scolding. Sam stepped back. “Did Claudio pass?”
When she nodded mutely, he said, “I’m sorry for your loss.”
“I’m sorry I left notes instead of finding you directly.”
Notes. And suddenly he remembered that Lucy said a note had been taped to his door. He recalled snatching it down later that afternoon, when he’d still been furious with Cassandra, but he’d been too angry to read it just then. In the interim, the note must have been lost in the change and confusion that had been his life these last two weeks.
He needed to find that note.
“Sarah, I am most sorry to you.” Cassandra’s voice was a whisper. “I know how difficult this must have been.”
“No,” Sarah said through clenched teeth. “You really don’t.” She turned to Sam. “May I move in with you for a few days, please?”
Sam hesitated. He wasn’t sure this was the best timing considering Lucy’s recent difficulties. “If not for Lucy, I would say yes. But I’m just not comfortable right now—”
“Of course,” Sarah snapped. “My mistake.” To Cassandra she said, “I’ll be moving into a hotel.”
“No, no, no, I will move into the hotel,” Cassandra insisted. “You stay right where you are.”
Sarah seemed barely able to control herself. Her face was red and she shifted from sandal to sandal. “You’re right. I like sleeping with the cats. They’re loyal to me and they care. You go to the hotel. Sam will drive you there.”
And then Sarah turned and stomped into Cassandra’s cottage, the superstore bag slapping against the back of her leg.
There was a long moment of silence. Cassandra leaned heavily on her purple cane. She looked as if she’d been through hell. She moved to one of the deck chairs and sat heavily.
Sam was starting to feel sorry for her. She seemed too exhausted to say much.
He picked up Cassandra’s small suitcase from the dirt where the taxi driver had deposited it and carried it over to her.
“Thank you, Sam.”
Sam sat in the Adirondack chair beside her on the deck and folded his arms. “Your relationship with Sarah may be irreparably broken.”
“Yes.” Cassandr
a nodded sadly. “I understand that.”
“Why, then?” He leaned forward and gazed at her. “How could it be worth it?”
She looked up at him but said nothing.
“The day that you left, Sarah got caught in a rip current while she was waiting for Natalie to bring her your house keys. I was scared for her.”
Cassandra’s eyes widened. “That’s terrible!”
“She’s recovered. But I’m not sure she’s recovered from you abandoning her once again.”
“It was a difficult decision,” Cassandra said. She appealed to him with her eyes. “How are you doing with Lucy?”
“Fine,” he said. To his mind, Cassandra had forfeited the right to know anything about how he and Lucy were doing.
“May I speak with her before you drive me to the Grand Beachfront Hotel?” Cassandra asked. “Please?”
He blinked. She seemed so resigned to bearing the pushback. She’d never seemed so humble before.
“All right,” he said. Lucy would be angry with him if he didn’t let her see the woman she considered her friend. “She’s upstairs in the front bedroom. Walk over to see her, and when you’re ready to leave, I’ll meet you out front in my truck. Your suitcase will be in the back.”
“Thank you, Sam.” Cassandra lifted her cane, and he helped her get up by holding out his arm.
But he didn’t help her walk to his house. And he didn’t remain to watch her get there safely, either.
Instead, he opened the cottage door and went inside to see Sarah. She had to be hurting.
He found her in her bedroom. She was on the unmade bed, up near the pillows, sitting cross-legged, with one cat on the pillow beside her and the other cat at the end of the bed, standing guard. Sarah appeared to be crying. She was also using tape to gift wrap what looked to be Lucy’s birthday present. The wrapping paper was green and it had cats on it, too.
Smiling to himself, Sam headed over to the side of the bed where there wasn’t a cat, and joined Sarah up near the pillow. She sniffled, and he put his arm around her.
“I’m just so angry at her,” Sarah said.
“I know.” He hugged her tighter and they both slid down a bit under the covers. The window was open, and it wasn’t that hot outside, so it felt nice to be cocooned with Sarah in the sea-breezy room.
“What are you doing?” he asked her.
She turned on her side and put her arm around him. “I’m wrapping your daughter’s gift. It’s way too big and expensive, but please don’t get upset with me, because I have the money, and Lucy needs the present.”
“Is it electronics?” he asked.
“Yes. Lucy is a smart girl going into seventh grade. She’ll be writing papers and reports next year, so it’s time she has a decent laptop.”
A laptop. Sarah had bought his daughter a laptop, and an expensive one. Sam had planned on giving her an old one of his, but it was clunky and slow. The new ones were much lighter and faster.
“Lucy will be a lucky girl, getting a phone from me and a laptop from you.”
“You’re not mad about it, are you?” Sarah asked.
“No,” he said. “I think it’s incredibly generous, and I know you care about her.” And then he moved a strand of hair from her forehead. “I care about you, too.”
Tears glittered in her eyes, and she wiped them away. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I need somebody to care about me.”
“Well, you’ve got me. And I’m not going anywhere.”
Sarah sniffled and nodded. She seemed more emotional than Sam had ever seen her before.
“All I can think of is what gall Cassandra has,” Sarah said. “Did you know she left me alone at my parents’ funeral? I was there without a single member of my family, extended or not. Crowds of neighbors and friends came...everybody in the community showed up. They all loved my parents! But I was the only family there. The funeral director honestly didn’t know how to deal with me. One of the church deacons handled the details. Cassandra never even showed up.”
“That’s horrible,” he murmured. He’d been so angry at his parents, but this...this was far worse. He clasped Sarah tighter, put her head against his chest. She was hot with emotion, this normally cool shark of a lady. They lay together, in each other’s arms, in the little bed in Cassandra’s cottage with both cats keeping watch over them.
“At first, everyone wanted to help me,” Sarah said in a sarcastic, bitter voice. “One of my friend’s parents offered to let me stay with them—until it became too inconvenient. Or maybe I was too difficult. I’m outspoken, you see. My parents didn’t raise me to suffer or be meek, and some people don’t like that. They thought I should be more grateful, I suppose. Then there were some financial and legal tie-ups with my parents’ estates. The money—what little there was—just wasn’t available for me right away. So the family told the State to take me from them. One day I came home, and my bags were packed and set on the curb.”
He closed his eyes. He could see her, young Sarah, at Lucy’s age. Stubborn, prideful, angry and hurt. It was a volatile combination, and it could be difficult to understand or to live with. He kissed Sarah on the cheek.
“The State couldn’t find someone who wanted to take me—everybody is so busy. But then finally...”
Her voice cracked. “The first family I was sent to had this horrible father. He never touched me, but he was emotionally abusive. The things he said to me were vile. And no one...no one believed me. I was difficult, you see. A troubled child.”
Sam hugged her tighter. Inside, he burned. He could imagine exactly the scenario she’d described. He taught in the public schools. He saw such people. He interacted with their children. Most were beaten down by it, but some, like Sarah, fought back.
She was a fighter.
“I vowed, Sam. I vowed... I would never be in a position where anybody could do this to me ever again. I wouldn’t let it happen. I would be too rich, too powerful, too influential for them to dare to hurt me.”
“And you did it,” he said softly, kissing her. “You made it happen by the sheer force of your will and the passionate heart you possess.”
She cried harder. He could do nothing but hold her while she sobbed.
“I’m not there yet,” she choked out. “I’m not there. And here is Cassandra waltzing in as if she’s done nothing wrong and I should overlook everything!”
He ached for her. He wanted to know why Sarah had come back to Wallis Point to begin with—what had she possibly expected from Cassandra?
“You could have gone on a retreat and learned to meditate anywhere,” Sam said. “I’m glad you came to Wallis Point, Sarah, don’t get me wrong. It’s the best thing that could have happened to me and Lucy. But...why? I know I asked you this before, but I’m asking again. Why did you come, really?” He let the question hang there. He wanted Sarah to pick it up and think it through for herself.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “Maybe...” She sat up and wiped her eyes. “It’s so juvenile,” she admitted, cringing as she faced him.
“I will never think less of you. I admire your bravery.”
“Well...maybe it was a dumb fantasy. But I’d just been written up by that women-in-business magazine, and maybe I wanted to gloat a little. Maybe hear her say how sorry she was and how impressed by the way I turned my life around for myself.” She laughed ruefully. “It’s so ridiculous, Sam. Cassandra is who she is. I can’t control her actions or reactions to me.”
“I know,” he said, thinking how much it galled him sometimes to see his daughter lionize Cassandra.
“I’m not going to forgive her,” Sarah insisted. “I don’t have to. I don’t want to.”
He just nodded and listened.
She laid back and stared at the ceiling. “She can stay in that hotel for the rest of the summer, for all I care. I’m stay
ing here. I’ve been banished from my job until I learn to chill out, which may never, ever happen.”
He laughed. “I like you just the way you are, you know.” He couldn’t help grinning at her. “And I’m sorry, I should feel bad that you’re banished, but I don’t. How would we have ever met, otherwise? It means I get to have you here with me, and that’s what I really want.”
“Honestly?” Sarah sounded so young and hesitant when she asked him that way. “Honestly, you like having me here?”
“Love it,” he breathed. And then his mouth was on hers. And she was twisting in the bed to meet his body. The huge present on the bed—Lucy’s laptop—he lifted and moved out of the way.
Sam couldn’t stay too long—he had to take Cassandra to the local hotel—but he would be back. And the cats? He wasn’t worried about them. They hopped off the bed and left the room to go take care of themselves, independent creatures that they were.
* * *
TWO DAYS LATER, Sarah hummed as she signed Lucy’s birthday card and taped that to the top of her gift, along with a fancy yellow bow she’d found.
It was evening, and she’d been invited to Lucy’s birthday dinner at Sam’s house. She slipped her feet into her sandals and smoothed some lotion on her skin. Her legs were tanned from walking the beach with Sam every morning on their way to meditate, and getting a bit muscular from all the exercise, too.
She stretched and smiled. Overall, she felt great. The emotions she’d poured out to Sam had come from her heart, and she’d needed to express them. The benefit was that the more she expressed, the more she felt bonded to him. Sam had stopped by several times since. They hadn’t spent the night together—Lucy had been an obstacle to that intent, although not an unwelcome one—and Sarah completely understood. She and Sam were keeping the physical aspect of their relationship private, careful not to touch or show public displays of affection, but emotionally they were close.
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