Summer on Cape May

Chapter One - Lu

Chapter One

Lu

T he sun had started to set over Cape May. Crickets chirped their medley in the distance, and waves from the ocean were much gentler now, not like earlier in the day when they’d crashed against the shore more aggressively. Clearly, there was a storm brewing. Weather in late spring on Cape May could be temperamental. Chill bumps danced up and down Lu’s arm as the temperature began to drop and the night air drew in. Muni Long could be heard on the stereo in the house, crooning a familiar tune. Lu relaxed on the veranda, her favorite place to decompress after her day at the inn. She sipped on an oak-aged Pinot Noir, a favorite from her friend Natalia Oliveri’s winery.

Lu noticed Natalia’s husband, Nic, walking the stretch of beach toward her, shoulders slumped, the usual pep in his step nonexistent. She waved hello just as she did every single time when she saw him on his nightly walk. Usually they would exchange a How’s it going? or Beautiful night, isn’t it? that would lead into a more in-depth conversation about what was going on in their lives, but tonight was different.

As he got closer, Lu noticed the look on Nic’s face was as wrong as two left shoes. The wrinkle in his forehead, his pursed lips, his eyebrows raised—all alarming. He plopped down on the stairs of her veranda and rested his back against the railing as he did every night. Tonight, however, he was a mess—a real basket case. She asked if he wanted a cognac because that was what he drank when her fiancé, Zach, entertained him and the two of them hung out until all hours of the night, swapping stories and roaring with laughter.

Lu went inside and poured him that cognac and then returned to the veranda, handing it to him. He didn’t take a sip. Instead, he finished it in a few gulps and then handed the glass back to her.

Nic took a deep breath and then let it all out for Lu to hear. “I don’t know how to deal with Natalia and this desperation she has with wanting a baby. Every week there are doctors’ appointments, treatments. Just tonight she told me that she wants to consider a surrogate, maybe pay someone to come and live with us. That’s something that only happens in movies.”

“I know. It’s all she talks about.” Lu was becoming equally concerned about her friend. “But I know that this is something she desperately wants.”

“I want a child, too, just as much. But I want it to happen naturally. I don’t want us to go through the pain of losing another child.”

“Well, Nic, you must understand, you have a child already—with someone else. She doesn’t. That makes all the difference. She wants her own child.”

“I get it and I can respect that, but lately it seems to be more of an obsession than a desire.”

“She just wants to make things right.”

Had she really said those words aloud? She’d been thinking it, knew the reason for Natalia’s obsession—but it wasn’t her place to interfere in their marriage. Yes , she’d actually said it aloud.

“What do you mean, make things right ?” Nic asked with eyes bulging and eyebrows raised.

She looked away, hoping he wouldn’t press any further. She felt all the discomfort of knowing something that might help him understand her friend, but again , it wasn’t her place to interfere.

“Lu, what are you saying?” he asked. “Or what is it that you’re not saying?”

Lu sighed heavily. Her body tensed up and she trembled a bit. Betraying her friend’s confidence was not okay. But if it was for Natalia’s own good, could it really be considered a betrayal? A myriad of other questions began to tumble in and out of her brain. Questions about whether what she knew would help Nic understand his wife better. Whether or not telling him would be for the good of their marriage or cause its demise. By telling him, he would then understand Natalia’s obsession, go home, hug his wife, and forgive her. Natalia was a good-hearted person. She needed his grace.

Lu’s mind raced. “I don’t know, Nic. Natalia overthinks things. You know that.”

“I honestly don’t know what to do. I don’t know how much more I can take.” His Sicilian accent was more pronounced, the wrinkle in his forehead deeper as he ran his fingers through his dark brown coils.

“I’ve said too much already. I’ve overstepped.”

Lu’s heart ached. She had the power to stop the hurt—to change it all for them. Obviously revealing Natalia’s secret to Nic was risky. It occurred to her that she had the ability to save her friend’s marriage. Natalia might be mad at first, but she would forgive her eventually.

Nic looked at Lu, tears brimming from his eyes. “You must tell me what’s going on with her, Lu. Maybe she needs some space, some time to herself. Maybe she even needs to talk to someone—a therapist. Maybe we need to separate for a while— try to figure things out—because I’m drowning in the uncertainty.”

The words maybe we need to separate for a while struck a chord. Her hair coiled on the nape of her neck. She bit her nails, a habit she’d tried desperately to break. Those nails didn’t stand a chance when she was deeply troubled about something. The last thing she wanted was for him to abandon her friend. She loved Natalia like a sister and felt the need to protect her from being hurt.

Natalia was pretty fragile. She wouldn’t survive if Nic left.

She had to tell him.

Her chest tightened before the words tumbled out of her mouth. “Her last miscarriage wasn’t by chance.”

“What? What are you talking about?” Nic stared at her as if she had uttered the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard.

“She caused it.” She looked away from him and watched as the waves rippled against the shore. The scent of the ocean crept gently across her nose.

“What are you saying, Lu?”

“Natalia had a terrible headache one night and found a bottle of prescription meds that the doctor had prescribed months earlier for pain—something she had in the medicine cabinet. I don’t know exactly what it was that she took, or how much, but it was fatal to the baby. She wasn’t thinking. She just wanted the pain to go away,” she choked out. “That’s what caused her to lose the baby.”

Lu exhaled. She almost felt a sense of relief, having gotten it off her chest, but that feeling was short-lived after she glanced back at Nic. The look of disdain on his face made her instantly regret betraying her friend’s trust. It was too late, though, to take the confession back. Her words floated through the night air, trickling as the ocean breeze had just done moments before. And now she’d have to deal with whatever came next.

He stood up, his stance defensive. “I remember that night very well. She called me in a panic because she was bleeding.”

“I took her to the ER because you were traveling for work,” Lu reminded him.

“She blamed me for not being there!” His voice raised quickly. “She blamed me .”

Seeing the anguish in Nic’s eyes, Lu wished she could take back her words, every single syllable.

He stepped off the porch, nearly stumbling. His imbalance didn’t seem as if it was from the cognac but from anger. He was headed in the direction of their home, much sooner than Lu wanted. She was desperate now. She needed him to put his own feelings aside and consider hers. It might’ve been selfish, but it was what she needed. She nearly tumbled off the veranda to run after him. Sheer panic rushed through her body; it felt as if her legs might give out before she reached him. She desperately needed for him to hear her out. “You can’t tell her that I told you. She will never forgive me. She will hate me for betraying her trust.”

“She killed our baby with prescription drugs and you’re talking to me about betrayal and trust,” he spat out. The tears rolled down his face.

“It wasn’t intentional. You know that Natalia would never hurt anyone intentionally.”

“It’s the reason for all this.” His voice was still raised. “This . . . this obsession with conceiving again. To cover up what she did.”

“She just wants a baby, Nic. She wants to be a mother.”

“She’s unfit to be a mother!” His words stung.

Lu understood his pain, but she had to make him comprehend her position. “Nic, she will come to hate me if she ever finds out that I told you.” The pain in her chest was back, but more intense now. She could feel her heart speeding up, beating rapidly, could hear it in her head. She hurt for Natalia. She hurt for Nic. She hurt for herself. She hoped that Nic had heard her plea and would give her some empathy. She searched for a softening of his stance, a look that said her secret was safe.

Instead, he stormed off, walking briskly back up the stretch of the beach toward the home he shared with his wife. He was angry, and Lu feared what he might do.

“Nic Oliveri, do you hear me?” Lu called to him from the veranda.

He kept walking, his arms swinging back and forth with great intensity.

Lu walked back to the veranda, picked up her wineglass, and tossed the rest of the liquid to the back of her throat. Then she paced from one end to the other, her bare feet making a pitter-patter sound against the wood. Her heart pounded, feeling as if it might explode. Her mind raced as she contemplated calling Natalia, but decided against it. Her eyes veered toward the scarlet pimpernel flowers that grew in her flower bed next to the veranda. One of its petals blew with the wind and landed at her feet. She picked it up, smelled the hoppy, citrusy scent. She was reminded of the old tale named after the flower, The Scarlet Pimpernel , written by Baroness Orczy in the early twentieth century—a story she’d read in college. She kept a copy on a bookshelf in one of the rooms of her inn, Lu’s Seaside Inn. She thought it ironic that the petal blew at her feet now, at this very moment, because at the center of the novel was loyalty—loyalty to one’s country, one’s spouse, and one’s family. Lu examined her own loyalty toward Natalia and found that she’d been anything but. Instead, she had betrayed her friend. As the petal of the red flower, with its winged corners, blew away with the wind, she wondered if her friend would ever forgive her.

“What have I done?” she whispered to herself. She slid her behind back into the chair, pulled her knees into her chest, and wrapped her arms around her legs. Tears burned her cheekbones. She needed Zach there to hold her, to assure her that everything would be all right. He was good at that—rescuing her. She found solace in him. His consolation was exactly what she needed now because she knew with every fiber of her being that if Nic left Natalia over this, it would be her burden to bear. She trembled at the very thought.