Five
“Do you have five dollars?”
Sheila startled as Patty walked through the back door. “I don’t think I have any cash. Why?”
Patty pulled off her coat and scowled. “I owe Joey five dollars. I already gave him twenty, but technically I offered him twenty-five.”
“For what? Flying you somewhere?”
Patty looked at Sheila like she had two heads. “Where do you think I need to go? The mental hospital?”
“I don’t know. You’re the one begging for five dollars!”
Patty turned the water kettle on. “I asked him for a favor with Eliza.”
Oh dear. Sheila stood from the table. “I didn’t think Eliza had met Joey.”
“She hadn’t, which is why it was perfect,” Patty said with a nod.
“Patty,” Sheila said slowly, “you know how hard it’s been for Eliza. She doesn’t need any –”
“I was helping her,” Patty hissed, spinning around with a box of tea in her hand. “Do you want a cup?”
“Yes, but –”
Patty cut her off. “There was a table of boys trying to harass her, and I don’t know how he did it, but he chased them off.”
Sheila shut her eyes and groaned. “She asked us not to get involved!”
“What good was that doing? She’s stopped eating, the bags under her eyes look like they belong to the mother of a newborn, and she spends all her free time hiding away in her room.”
Sheila took a deep breath. There was no need to argue with Patty. They were on the same side, Eliza’s side, and both helpless to get her out of this slump.
The entire thing was ridiculous. It wasn’t Eliza’s fault she’d walked into the middle of a robbery.
People could be so cruel.
She yanked two teacups out of the cupboard and plopped them onto the counter. “I’m well aware, Patty. Believe me. I don’t think of much else.”
Before the bank robbery, Eliza had been thriving and Sheila was thrilled. It seemed like her sweet, sensitive daughter had finally found something that worked for her, and it was right here on the island.
Selfishly, Sheila liked having Eliza living with them at the cottage. For so many years, she’d had to fret about Eliza from afar. After she left school, she only grew quieter. More closed off. Alone.
Now, she’d come back to life, reviving Patty’s tea shop and running it like a professional. She was home every night, and they got to spend so much time together – eating dinner, watching movies, baking. They even went kayaking once, and even though they didn’t make it far, it was wonderful.
Why did she have to be at the bank on that awful day?
“People are acting like that bank robbery was Eliza’s fault,” Sheila said, shaking her head. “A man stopped me in the grocery store today to tell me Eliza would’ve thwarted the robbery if I’d raised her with any common sense.”
“ Who said that!” Patty boomed, slamming the box of tea down onto the counter and sending her Golden Retriever, Derby, running under the kitchen table.
Sheila knelt down. “It’s okay, Derby. Some people just don’t have manners.”
“You tell me who it was and I will teach him some manners!”
Derby wagged his tail and placed a paw on Sheila’s knee. She stroked it with her hand.
“I don’t know who it was,” she said over her shoulder. “Besides, we’re not going to show up at his house to teach him a lesson.”
“Speak for yourself,” Patty snapped. “When I find out who he was, I’ll make sure he will never set foot on this property. I’ll have Reggie –”
“You will not have Reggie do anything.”
The front door opened and Sheila stopped talking. She mimed zipping her lips and pointed at Patty.
Patty mimicked her, pointing back forcefully.
“Is anyone home?”
Sheila yelled, “We’re in the kitchen!”
Eliza walked in, dropping her coat on a chair. Her cheeks were flushed red, her hair wind-blown. “Were you yelling at each other?”
Sheila and Patty looked at one another and said no at the same time.
“Hm.” Eliza stared at them. “I thought I heard yelling.”
“Your mom was just telling me about the permits with the sea pen,” Patty said, turning around to pour water for the tea.
Eliza groaned and took a seat at the kitchen table. “I thought that was sorted out?”
Sheila wasn’t the best at lying to her children on the fly, but she managed to say, “It is now. It’s nothing to worry about. Did you go for a walk?”
“I did.” She smiled. “When are they supposed to actually start building the sea pen?”
“That’s still up in the air. We have the funding, but—”
“You do?” Eliza’s mouth popped open. “When did this happen? I thought you were still waiting for the money from Russell’s next movie.”
Sheila smiled. What a wild ride this was turning out to be. The initial plan to raise funding was for Russell to do another movie. He hardly wanted to, but his fans were thrilled. He ran a poll on his website, agreeing to do whatever type of movie they picked. All the profits would go to building the sea pen and the surrounding research site for Lottie.
He was now in preproduction for a historical vampire romance with the working title “Fangs of Waterloo,” where he played the dashing vampire who risked life and reputation to save a damsel in distress during the famous battle.
Sheila swooned just thinking of him in a waistcoat. “We thought we’d have to wait for the money, but a few of Russell’s celebrity friends – actors, directors, even a few musicians – have made some big donations. It’s fully funded.”
“That’s incredible!” Eliza said.
“I just don’t believe he can’t get Idris Elba out here,” Patty said with a sigh. “They have to know each other.”
Sheila had to force herself not to smile. “I’ve told you Russell knows him a little, and while he’s a very nice guy, Russell doesn’t feel comfortable asking him to—”
“Of course he’s a nice guy!” Patty shouted. “I’m sure if Russell sent him a letter with an invitation to see the sea pen, he would at least respond. The worst he can do is say no.”
Eliza met Sheila’s eyes across the table, then they looked away, suppressing laughter. Patty had been campaigning for her celebrity crush – whom she flatly refused to acknowledge as a crush – to come out to Hollywood’s favorite future sea pen for months.
“That’s so exciting, Mom. I can’t believe this is really happening.”
“You and me both.” Sheila shook her head.
“Oh!” Patty came to the table with her cup of tea. “Tell her about Russell and the song.”
Eliza cocked her head to the side. “What song?”
Sheila didn’t need to talk about this right now, but it was the first time Eliza had wanted to talk about anything in weeks. She clasped her hands together. “Russell wants me to write a song for the movie. But I can’t. It feels wrong.”
“What? You have to! That’d be so cool.”
Sheila shook her head. “No, it’d be nepotism, and that would be wrong. It’s not like they would put the song in the movie because it’s good. They’d only include it because I’m Russell’s girlfriend.”
Patty let out a cackling laugh. “If not for nepotism, nobody would do anything! It’s always what you know.” She paused. “No, wait. I meant it’s who you know. That’s what I wanted to say. Who you know, and you know Russell. You know who he knows?”
“Idris Elba,” Sheila said in a flat tone.
“That’s right.” Patty nodded, then paused. “Wait, no. Stop teasing me. It’s who you know. Do you remember how I ended up here? I happened to befriend the guy who owned it, and he agreed to sell it at a deal. That’s what’s important, you know. Friends.”
“Very inspiring story, Patty,” Sheila said, and the three of them burst into laughter.
Derby, out of his hiding spot, jumped and put his paws on Eliza’s lap, tail wagging, as if he were in on the joke.
Once they recovered, Sheila turned to Eliza. “How are you doing, sweetie?”
Eliza shrugged. “Not bad.”
“The cupcakes you made were excellent,” Patty said. “Better than mine, I would say.”
“No.” Eliza smiled. “Though I guess they were pretty good.”
Patty went on. “Russell tells me you and Joey are planning to spend some time together this weekend.”
“Russell told you that? What a gossip,” Eliza said, but she was still smiling.
Patty was about to say something, but Sheila cut her off. “That’s nice! It’s good for you to have friends here who are under the age of fifty.”
“Yes.” Eliza laughed. “I love you all, but you do go to bed really early. Actually, speaking of friends, Cora was just telling me she wanted to come and visit soon. Would that be okay, Granny?”
“My home is your home,” she said. She took a sip of tea and cleared her throat. “But that girl did steal a lot of money from you, and I will never forgive her.”
Eliza snorted into her teacup. “I know. She’s not perfect, but she’s still my best friend.”
Sheila shot Patty a look. “None of us are perfect, are we, Patty?”
Patty pursed her lips. “No, none of you are, except me, but that’s taken years .”
They laughed, Eliza the hardest, and Sheila stood to make some finger sandwiches.
She might not agree with how Patty had handled the Joey situation, but it was the first time she’d heard Eliza laugh in two weeks, so she’d take it.