“I’ll get it.” Ever helpful, Grace sailed to the front door before Rachel could remind her that they didn’t always have to answer the door every time it rang.
Great. Just what she needed. Someone to witness what a disaster she was making of her life.
Silas continued to fight so that he could be free to eat sugarcoated broken glass while Ava sat on the floor sobbing quietly, though Rachel couldn’t tell whether she was crying because of what she and her younger brother had done or because of the cookies she could no longer eat.
She almost forgot the doorbell had rung until she heard a whoop of excitement out of Grace. A moment later, the last person she expected to see that day walked into the kitchen.
Jess, her older sister. Jess, who lived a rambling life and was usually on the other side of the country.
Jess, who hadn’t given her one single whiff of warning that she might be coming to Cape Sanctuary.
Her sister surveyed the chaos of broken cookies and upset children with the impassive expression she always seemed to wear whenever she was around Rachel and her family.
“Looks like I’ve come at a bad time.”
“Aunt Jess!” Ava exclaimed. Her tears miraculously dried as she launched herself at her aunt, who hugged her with a little laugh.
Rachel couldn’t seem to stop staring.
Jess was as stunning as ever, her sun-streaked hair shorter than Rachel remembered. She wore hardly any makeup but was still beautiful. Lean, fit, with a flat belly that had obviously never had anything to do with giving birth to three children.
Her sister lived almost the length of the state away and rarely even came for a scheduled visit, let alone an unexpected one.
“Jess. What are you doing here? Why didn’t you call and let me know you were coming?”
“Surprise.” Her older sister smiled, though it seemed forced. “I picked up a job in this area so that I can spend time with you and the kids.”
“A job?”
She knew Jess helped people, usually senior citizens, clear out their houses before moving. Rachel considered it a strange occupation but her sister seemed to thrive on it.
“Yes. I’ll be here for a few weeks cleaning out a place over near Sunshine Cove.”
Rachel knew a handful of people who lived in that area of Seaview Road but didn’t have time to figure out who might have enlisted her sister’s help. She was too busy trying to figure out what her sister was really doing there.
And also trying to face the fact that her relationship with Jess was yet one more area of Rachel’s life where she was failing. Their bond had been broken for a long time and at this point she didn’t know how to repair it.
“That’s great,” she said now. “So great.”
Did her voice sound as hollow to her sister as it did to Rachel? Could Jess tell her presence was a shock on par with a UFO landing in the backyard?
“I haven’t spent nearly enough time with the kids. A few phone calls and visits here and there during the holidays. I’m looking forward to spending more time with them.”
“Wow. They’ll love that.” Rachel tried to infuse her voice with warmth and delight but it took every iota of her limited acting skills.
How could she pretend to be overflowing with joy when her insides felt as hollow as her words?
She was tired, frustrated, afraid for her marriage, worried about her son’s future and upset about her book club cookies. She didn’t know if she had time to deal with all the guilt and pain inextricably tangled with her sister.
“I wish you had told me you were coming. I could have planned dinner for you or something. I was just about to make some macaroni and cheese for the girls. I can cook extra, if you would like.”
“Not necessary,” Jess said with that same blasted smile that Rachel couldn’t read. “Thank you, but I just went grocery shopping and have plenty of food back at my trailer. I can help you clean up that mess, though. Looks like we had a cookie accident.”
“Eat,” Silas demanded, his voice more urgent.
“You can’t eat those,” Rachel said again. “They have glass on them. Yucky. Owie.”
“Eat!” Silas said, more loudly and forcefully. He had temporarily stopped wriggling in light of their surprise visitor but continued his efforts now to be free.
“You deal with him. I’ll clean this up. Point me to your broom and dustpan,” Jess said.
Rachel didn’t want to accept her help, which she knew was stupid. Her sister was only being kind. There was just so much painful history between them, so many unresolved issues that hung in the air like their father’s cigar smoke.
The truth was, she did need help. Silas was gearing up for a full-on meltdown if she didn’t head it off first.
“In the closet off the mudroom.”
With her chin, Rachel pointed vaguely in the direction she meant.
“I can show you,” Grace said, ever helpful.
Jess followed her. Rachel gave in and found the tin containing all the less-than-perfect cookies she had saved for the kids and Cody. She pulled one out for Silas, and two more for Grace and Ava, then pulled another for her sister.
While Jess cleaned up the mess, Rachel held her son at the table while he enjoyed his cookie as Grace and Ava regaled her sister with a play-by-play of what had transpired a few minutes earlier.
“These look like delicious cookies,” was Jess’s only comment. “Were they for some kind of special event?”
“I was supposed to have book club tonight. But I guess it’s fine that they’re ruined. Cody has to work late so I can’t go anyway.”
She tried for that same cheerful tone that she was far from feeling. As she might have suspected, Jess wasn’t fooled. Her sister gave her a careful look that Rachel met with an impassive smile of her own. She refused to let her sister see the cracks in the foundation of her marriage.
“He’s got so much work right now, it’s crazy. We’re having a construction boom in this area, plus you wouldn’t believe all the people who had storm damage from nasty weather this winter and decided to get entirely new roofs once they received an insurance check.”
“That’s great. It’s good that he’s staying busy.”
“Super busy.”
“These cookies are fantastic,” Jess said. “What did you do differently from usual sugar cookies?”
“To start with, I use the finest quality ingredients and I like almond extract instead of vanilla. But a lot of people do that. The real secret is in the icing. I add powdered culinary lavender to give it an extra pop. Some people add that to the dough but I like the flavor it brings to the icing instead.”
“I never would have thought of adding lavender to cookies. I didn’t know you could even do that. But it’s really delicious.”
Jess looked at the cookies then back at Rachel. “You know, I could probably stay with the kids until Cody gets home so that you don’t have to miss your book group.”
The offer shocked her almost as much as the fact that Jess was sitting here at her kitchen table eating one of her imperfect lavender sugar cookies. She was instantly tempted. Friends, conversation, alcohol. Mostly a few hours away from the unrelenting work involved in trying to stay sane amid the chaos of three children under the age of seven, including one with special needs.
Before she could agree, Silas wriggled off her lap and zeroed straight for his car, flapping his hands as he had started to do.
She couldn’t leave Jess with Silas. Not now, when his behavior was so out of control. She shrugged. “It’s fine. I haven’t read the book anyway.”
“I really don’t mind. As I said, I’ve been looking forward to spending more time with them while I’m here in Cape Sanctuary.”
“No. But thank you,” she said firmly, then changed the subject to avoid further argument. “You said you’re s
taying near Sunshine Cove. Are you helping Eleanor Whitaker?”
Jess made a face. “I try not to talk about my work, for the client’s privacy. But since that’s where my trailer is parked right now, which is easy enough to find, you will eventually figure it out. Yes. I’m helping Eleanor clean out Whitaker House.”
“Oh, I love that place. It’s so gorgeous and dripping with history.”
“Yes.”
“I had no idea Eleanor was cleaning it out. Is she putting it on the market? I have many contacts online who would jump at the chance to buy that house, right on the water with those views and that gorgeous Craftsman architecture.”
“I don’t know her plans. I only know she’s asked me to help her clear out years of accumulated stuff.”
“Is she having an estate sale? Oh wow, the treasures I bet you could find in there.”
“We still have to figure all that out. I don’t know her plans. And I couldn’t share them, even if I knew. My clients trust me not to talk about their business.”
“I totally get it. No problem. I’ll just ask her myself. Eleanor is one of my good friends. In fact, she’s supposed to be going to book club tonight.”
“Except you’re not going to book club because you don’t think I can handle staying with your kids.”
“I never said that,” Rachel protested, though of course that was absolutely what she thought.
“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. I’ll have plenty of other chances to hang out with them.”
“Yay!” Grace exclaimed, already gazing with hero worship at her aunt. “Did you see my coloring page? I only messed up one place. See, on the dog’s head? I wanted both ears to be brown but I forgot and did one ear black. You can’t erase crayons.”
“That is an unfortunate truth,” Jess said. “But I like a dog who has different-colored ears. It gives him a little more personality.”
Grace glowed under the praise, making Rachel painfully aware that she didn’t give her child enough of it.
“Are you sure you won’t stay for dinner?” she asked. “It’s no trouble.”
“That’s very kind of you, especially when I showed up out of the blue, but I should probably head back. Unless Eleanor decides to take off for book group, we’re supposed to be meeting when she returns to town so we can figure out a few things before we start working tomorrow.”
Rachel was ashamed of the relief she felt that she wouldn’t have to continue making awkward conversation with a sister who had become a virtual stranger over the years.
“I wouldn’t want you to keep her waiting, then. Eleanor is pretty special.”
“Do you have to go?” Ava whined, tugging on Jess’s hand. “I haven’t even showed you my new stuffed dog.”
“I’ll be around for a few weeks. I’m sure I’ll get the chance to see it soon.”
“When will you come back?” Ava asked.
“I don’t know for sure. But soon.”
“Tomorrow?” Grace pressed.
“Maybe not tomorrow since I’ll be working that day.”
“What about the day after tomorrow?” Ava asked.
“Girls, give your aunt a break,” Rachel said before Jess could reply. “She’s here to work, not play with you guys.”
“But I’ll find time to play with you while I’m here, I promise,” Jess said. “I would love to spend time with the kids in the evening, when I’m done helping Eleanor. Maybe you and Cody could get out for a night away or something.”
“That would be great,” Rachel said. The only trick would be persuading her husband to leave work for five minutes, a task at which she did not expect she could succeed. That also left the issue of Silas, who didn’t do well with other people.
Still, it was nice of Jess to offer.
Rachel walked her sister to the door, where they exchanged an awkward sort of hug that made her heart hurt.
Once upon a time, Jess had been her best friend. They had been inseparable, united by their shared experiences. Living with a harsh father in the military who moved his family every two or three years had drawn them closer together than typical sisters. Making outside friends had been a challenge in that environment.
That was only one of the reasons they had come to depend entirely on each other.
Everything had changed the year Rachel turned thirteen, that horrible summer when the world fell apart.
She didn’t want to think about that time. She preferred to block it out of her mind—the fear, the pain, the shared trauma.
Instead, she preferred to focus on what she had, the life she had rebuilt brick by brick out of the rubble that had been left behind.
“I’m glad you’re here,” she said now to Jess. Her sister gave her a surprised look and for the first time she thought she saw something beneath the careful facade of politeness.
“Same,” Jess said, her voice gruff.
“Eat!” Silas demanded, wriggling again to be free.
“I’ll call you soon and we can get away, the two of us, to catch up.”
“Sounds good,” Jess said, then walked with her purposeful stride out the door and down the walkway to the pickup truck she had parked at the curb, leaving Rachel to wrestle her child and her demons at the same time.
4
Jess
Jess drove back to her trailer and Whitaker House with a strange ache in her chest, an echo of an old injury.
So much for joyful reunions. The interaction with her sister had been awkward, stilted, like bumping into an old friend with whom you now have nothing in common.
What had she expected? That Rachel would drop everything and throw a party for her?
Admittedly, her timing hadn’t been the greatest. Rachel had been in the middle of what looked like a chaotic situation, with Ava howling, Silas throwing a fit, and glass and cookies all over the floor.
Still, she might have hoped her sister could at least pretend she was happy to see Jess. Rachel likely would have been more welcoming to a bat flying into the house. Bats at least ate mosquitos.
That ache in her chest seemed to throb in rhythm to her truck’s tires spinning on the asphalt as she made her way up the hill.
What had she expected? Her relationship with her sister was as broken as that plate she had cleaned up. Was it irreparable? She didn’t know. The chasm between them seemed so wide, as impossible to breach as the Grand Canyon.
The sight of her trailer gleaming in the early-evening sunlight lifted her heart. It wasn’t big, only twenty-four feet long, but the classic curved lines and aluminum skin always made her happy, especially because she knew how far Vera had come.
She had barely turned off her pickup and opened the door when a figure walked down toward her from the terrace of Whitaker House.
Her nerves bumped. Was it Nate again, ready for another confrontation? No. She relaxed when she recognized an older woman, tall and graceful with steel-gray hair cut in a classic pageboy.
She was followed closely by a small dog with curly hair and spaniel features.
This must be her new employer. The woman, anyway. Not the dog. The dog must be Charlie, Eleanor’s Cavapoo.
“Oh, Jess. You’re here at last!” Eleanor exclaimed. The other woman reached out and folded her into a huge embrace.
Jess stiffened, momentarily uncomfortable with the hug before the sheer genuineness of the gesture disarmed her.
Here was the welcome no one else but her nieces had given her in Cape Sanctuary, warm and enthusiastic and kind.
The constriction around her heart after the visit with her sister seemed to ease slightly. “Yes. Here I am.”
“I can’t tell you how happy I am to have you here at long last. I feel like the luckiest of women that you were able to find time for me in your schedule. I’ve heard you can be booked out a year in advance.”
“That’s what happens when all those in my generation get sick and tired of living with all the clutter we always thought was so important.”
“I guess so.”
She smiled, charmed when Eleanor plopped onto one of the two bistro chairs. The small, cute dog collapsed at her feet as if too tired to take another step.
“How was your drive? You came up today from Los Angeles, right?”
“Yes. Mission Hills, actually. Traffic was fine. I got an early start before it could get too bad.” She had actually left at 4 a.m. so she could avoid the heaviest traffic in LA County but had hit more around the Sacramento area.
Towing the Airstream through rush hour crowds could sometimes be a pain.
“I understand you had a run-in with my son. I’m so sorry about that.”
“Apparently he didn’t know I was coming.”
Eleanor winced. “I should have told him. I meant to, it’s just that... Well, he loved his father very much, though their relationship was complicated. I suppose I was afraid he would think I was trying to box away all of our memories of Jack.”
That did nothing to change her impression of Nate Whitaker as a tough, albeit gorgeous, man. He had to be oblivious not to see his mother was clearly conflicted at taking this necessary but painful step.
“I’m sure everything will be fine. I’ve explained to him what’s going on. He shouldn’t give you a hard time now.”
“Good. I’m glad to hear that.”
“That’s why I’m here, actually. Other than to meet you in person, which I’m so happy to do. I’m making lemon shrimp pasta and I’m here to ask if you might be interested in joining us for dinner. I thought it might be a good chance for you to meet my son under better circumstances, as well as his daughter, Sophie.”
For a moment, she was tempted. She liked Eleanor already from their weeks of correspondence and wanted their working relationship to be a smooth, comfortable one. The social lubrication of food and likely wine would ease the conversation and might help her feel less awkward around Nate Whitaker when she saw him next.
The Path to Sunshine Cove Page 3