Chapter 8
If Muriel had to pick one spot in Maine that epitomizes the state, it would be Billy’s Tavern. Set on the end of the harbor along the docks, the old fish shed had been converted into a tavern and looked more like someone’s uncle’s lodge. Maybe it was the plaid wallpaper along the one wall, or the wood clapboard ceiling and wooden posts throughout that made it adorable. Maybe it was the cute little tables and chairs that reminded Muriel of the Friends coffee shop rather than a tavern. Or maybe it was the fact that the same people sat in the same spots as last time she’d come in, giving it a real Cheers atmosphere.
Because literally everyone knew her name. Well, sort of…
“It’s Jacob O’Neill’s granddaughters!” called out Billy, the tavern’s owner as the sisters made their way to the bar as their mother and Quinn headed home. “How was dinner, girls?”
Cora, Muriel’s older and not-so-much wiser sister, smiled at the owner and set her purse on the copper bar top. “Everything was great.”
“You ladies staying for a drink?” Billy asked.
“We are,” Cora said. “Got a wine list?”
Billy handed over a plastic sheet to Cora. “How long are you in town for?”
“Just until the end of the weekend,” Cora told him.
Muriel missed her sister. If it were up to her, she would convince Cora to move to Portsmouth with her. All she was doing was bartending. She could design her fabrics anywhere.
“Glad you’re here,” Billy said. “You coming back for the Blueberry Festival, though?”
Everyone in Blueberry Bay seemed to know about their mother who was Jacob O’Neill’s daughter, who had stolen the local hero’s heart and saved the town’s blueberries.
Blueberries, Muriel thought in her head. Everything seemed to be about the blueberries. If they weren’t working in the fields, they were talking about the fruit, or cooking or baking something with it, or eating it. Blueberry products and things with blueberries seemed to be everywhere in the house.
“I’m going to try,” Cora said, but Muriel knew not to hold her breath on that answer.
Billy nodded his chin at Muriel’s cast. “How’s the arm?”
Muriel felt her heartbeat pound. “It’s okay.”
Billy laughed at that. “How about another drink?”
“I’d love a chilled rosé,” Muriel said to Billy.
“Make that two,” Cora said, holding up her fingers.
“Two chilled rosés, coming right up,” Billy said. Then his gaze shifted over them and beyond. “You going to buy these women their drinks considering you almost broke one of them?”
Muriel’s face flushed as she turned around to see Oliver and someone else standing behind him.
“Hello, again,” Oliver said to Muriel.
“Mr. Abbott.” Muriel nodded at him. “I didn’t tell him you broke my arm.”
This made the man who she assumed was a family relation snicker.
Oliver smiled, ignoring his look-alike, and said, “Please, call me Oliver.” He patted the man that stood with him with the back of his hand. “This is my baby brother, Jules.”
The look-alike reached out his hand. “Nice to meet you both.”
Cora held onto Jules’ hand a bit longer than necessary. “Nice to meet you, too.”
The two brothers took the two seats next to her and Cora at the bar.
“Billy, let me take care of these ladies’ drinks,” Oliver said, throwing a card onto the bar.
What kind of teacher could afford a luxury SUV, a black platinum card, and a very expensive watch hanging on his wrist?
“No, that’s okay,” Muriel said.
“It’s the least I can do,” he said to her.
She held up her arm. “It’s really fine.”
“I didn’t seem to catch your names,” said Jules.
“Muriel,” she said. She wished her mother had picked more modern-sounding names from ancient sea goddesses. “And this is Cora, my sister.”
Cora would not appreciate her calling her the older sister, even if it was only two years.
“Like the mermaid,” Jules said.
“Not exactly. That’s Ariel,” Muriel corrected the brother.
“The mermaid with Sebastian?” he questioned her. As if a girl whose whole family had a strange obsession with mermaids wouldn’t know the name of her favorite cartoon character of all time.
“You remember the crab’s name but not the leading character?” Muriel asked.
“He was the best character,” Jules said.
Billy placed two glasses down in front of the women and said, “Enjoy, girls.”
“Thanks.” Muriel lifted her glass at Oliver and turned to her sister, facing her back to the brothers.
“He’s cute,” Cora whispered, hiding behind Muriel’s shoulder. “Why aren’t we talking to them?”
“He’s got a girlfriend,” Muriel said.
“And the brother?” Cora asked, checking him out.
Muriel shrugged, peeking over her shoulder and instantly wishing she hadn’t.
“Would you ladies like to grab a table so we can talk a little easier?” Jules asked as soon as she made eye contact.
“Um…” Muriel turned to Cora.
“Sure,” Cora said, confidently jumping off the stool. “We can take that table over there.”
Cora didn’t wait for their response; she set out after a clear table before any of the other patrons could nab it.
“I guess we’re going to sit over there,” Muriel said as she was left behind with Oliver.
“Right,” he said, slowly getting off his stool from the bar and grabbing his beer.
“I’m so sorry about this afternoon,” she said, lifting up her arm.
“I’m the one who should be sorry.” He pulled out a chair and held out his hand.
She almost wanted to bring up the time they’d run into each other in Concord, but with Cora and Jules, she didn’t dare bring that up in conversation. Oliver must think she was a complete mess.
“Thanks,” she said, sitting down. “Should we get a chair for Natasha?”
Jules chuckled as he waited for Oliver to answer.
“No,” Oliver said, but he looked directly at Jules. “She ended up going back to the city.”
Muriel thought back to dinner with everyone. The beautiful Natasha had been dressed to go out for the night. She’d had on an expensive strapless black dress and gorgeous high heels, with her hair blown out. If Muriel had to guess, the night was meant to be special. One that called for a fancy basket full of wine and cheese, yet, she left?
“So, do you live here in Blueberry Bay?” Cora asked Jules.
He shook his head. “No, just here for a quick visit and then it’s back to the grind for me.”
Oliver snickered and Jules shot a side-eye at his brother. But their interaction was clearly playful.
Jules turned back to Cora. “You?”
Cora shook her head. “I live in Boston. I’m just here visiting.”
“I live in Boston, too,” Jules said, leaning closer and giving his undivided attention to her. “I have a place in the North End.”
“You’re kidding me!” Cora’s eyes widened in delight, and she lightly slapped his arm with her hand. “I live in the North End, on Wiget.”
“That’s crazy.” Jules laughed, shaking his head. “I’m right off Battery.”
Cora leaned back in her chair, holding her glass. “Wow, that’s right there on the water. That’s a beautiful area.”
Jules nodded. “You should come by and check out the view sometime. It’s one of the best in the city”
“Maybe.” Cora tilted her head, taking a sip of the wine. She placed her drink down, then crossed her leg and folded her hands over her knee. “How did you get a place on Battery? It’s nearly impossible to find any kind of real estate over there.”
This made Jules smile wider, his fascination with Cora growing by the second as they continued to interact. Her sister never seemed flustered when talking to the opposite sex, whereas Muriel never seemed to know what to say.
Jules turned his attention to Muriel. “My brother told me he did that to you.”
He pointed to her broken hand, which thumped in its cast. Muriel had hoped the wine would ease the pain a bit, but now she wished she had taken something before coming to the bar with Cora.
“I didn’t say that.” Oliver rolled his eyes. He held out his hand to Cora.
“If you come surfing with me, girls, I promise you won’t get hurt,” Jules said, then he winked at Cora.
“You all surf in Blueberry Bay?” Cora asked.
“Some of us better than others,” Jules said.
This made Oliver laugh.
Jules leaned closer to Cora and whispered, “I won’t break you.”
“I didn’t break her!” Oliver said.
Jules made a face at Muriel like he didn’t believe his brother.
“He was actually really helpful,” Muriel said as a flashback of choking on seawater went through her mind. “I really took a hard fall.”
“What were you thinking?” Cora said. “You’ve only swam in pools. Not in the ocean.”
“I didn’t think there was that much of a difference.” Muriel shrugged. The Atlantic waters were nothing like her old pool. “Good thing I didn’t take Sadie down with me.”
“She would’ve been just fine,” Oliver said. “She’s better than me.”
That surprised Muriel. She moved her arm to rest her elbow on the table to hold it upright. “Really?”
Oliver nodded. “Really good.”
Muriel thought back to the day at the beach. Sadie had been with her the whole time, sitting on her own board, trying to teach Muriel how to stand up, but since Muriel had failed miserably, Sadie had never surfed. Muriel wondered how much he knew about Sadie’s situation. Teachers usually knew all the dirt on the families, especially ones that had social services involved.
“My grandfather bought probably half a dozen paintings at the auction,” Oliver said.
Muriel’s eyebrows lifted at that. Some of her grandfather’s paintings went for thousands of dollars. Now she understood where the platinum card had come from—definitely not his teacher’s salary.
Jules leaned even closer to Cora. “He has some of them hanging up in his house on Blueberry Bay.”
“You want us to check out that view, too?” Cora said, putting on a playful smile.
“You really should come by,” Oliver said to Muriel. “They’re different from the mural at the market. You can bring your mom.”
“That’s nice of you.” Muriel nodded. “Yeah, that mural is really different than his other stuff.”
Jules grinned at his brother. “Well, that didn’t take long.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Oliver asked his brother, not as playful as before.
Jules shook his head, still grinning, not deterred by Oliver’s slight change in tone. “I just like putting puzzles together.”
Oliver grabbed his beer and turned back to Muriel. “Are you headed back to Concord soon?”
“No,” Muriel said, spinning her glass on the table. “I’m staying here for the summer.”
This made Jules’ attention perk up. “For the whole summer?”
Oliver shifted in his seat, sitting back, almost like he was removing himself from the conversation. Muriel wondered why Natasha had to leave so late in the night to drive all the way back to Boston.
As Cora and Jules carried on about Boston and paintings and Cora’s designs for fabrics and Jules’ travels, Muriel couldn’t think of anything to say.
“Do you like teaching in Blueberry Bay?” she asked.
Oliver took a sip of his beer, then placed it on the table. “Love it, actually.”
His comment took her by surprise. That past school year for her and her team of third grade teachers had been a doozy. The entire class had been out of control, the kind of class teachers warned the upcoming teachers about. Muriel had barely survived. Two of the five from their grade-level team had left the profession all together.
“That’s awesome,” she said, thinking again about that night he’d seen her in front of the wedding dress shop. She looked at Cora and Jules, who were deep in conversation. “So what brought you to Concord that night?”
He jerked his head back, as if he’d forgotten about it. “Just visiting a friend.”
“What about Concord?” Jules said.
“She lives there,” Cora answered for Muriel.
Jules shifted his eyes to Oliver. “Who lives in Concord?”
Oliver looked at Muriel with a plead in his eyes, almost like he wanted to keep the interaction in Concord as quiet as she did.
“I’m a teacher there,” Muriel said.
“You tried to surf and you’re a teacher?” Jules smiled wide, shaking his head. “Now I know why Natasha was mad.”
“Excuse me?” Muriel asked, not sure what Jules meant.
Jules was about to say something when Oliver interrupted him. “You can’t let him eat or drink past a certain time, otherwise he turns into a gremlin.”
“Wasn’t that midnight?” Cora said to Oliver and flashed a smile that immediately captured Oliver and Jules. They were completely enamored with Cora.
Muriel checked out of the conversation. Whether the beautiful Natasha had left Maine or not, the handsome Oliver was taken. Just then, her phone lit up, and Zack’s number flashed across the screen.
“Don’t answer that,” Cora told her, always the bossy sister.
“What if he has an emergency?” Muriel couldn’t think of another reason.
“Then he shouldn’t have broken up with you,” Cora said.
Muriel shot Cora a look. “Thanks, I wanted everyone in Blueberry Bay to know my business.”
“Everyone in this town knows everything about everyone,” Oliver said.
Muriel looked at him to see if he was serious, and that was when it hit her. “Did Sadie tell you about my breakup?”
She could feel her cheeks warming. How much had she revealed to her new cousin working at the market over the past couple of weeks? Enough to make her look pathetic.
“I mean…the coincidence of seeing you in Blueberry Bay after that night in Concord made me ask how you were doing.” He scrunched his face.
“So you were in Concord.” Jules shook his head at Oliver. “No wonder Natasha was fed up with you.”
Muriel and Cora looked at each other upon hearing that detail.
“We just had dinner,” Oliver said.
“You’re a bigger fool than I thought,” Jules said while picking up his beer and taking a long drink, the whole time staring his brother down.
Muriel didn’t know these men very well, if at all, but with the way an awkwardness lingered in the air, she could tell they were holding a lot back. She knew that kind of conversation because she was holding a lot back from Cora.
“You guys should join us for a bonfire,” Cora said, not at all reading the room. “Our mom has this incredible beach.”
“We know it,” Oliver said, ignoring his brother’s stare. “We’re your neighbors.”
Muriel thought for a moment about the surrounding houses. The Cottage by the Sea, as her grandmother named it, or rather, Le g?t en bord de mer, as her grandfather called it, sat at the end of a dead end, with only a few others on the street. Then there was another home further down that couldn’t be seen from the road.
“Our grandfather’s place is the one on the bluffs,” Oliver explained. “We used to use the beach, with your grandfather’s permission, of course.”
Muriel thought back to this morning, seeing him surfing along the water. “You knew our grandfather?”
The two men nodded.
“He used to let us use his beach and surf,” Oliver said. “Best spot in all of Blueberry Bay.”
Muriel couldn’t help but smile at the pure coincidences she’d had with this man. “It really is.”
“We both knew him,” Jules jumped in, telling Cora about the beach when he was a kid.
Muriel had only seen Oliver’s massive colonial farmhouse from the water, though she could hardly call it a farmhouse. It was more of a large mansion, like The White House, perched above the cliffs of the Atlantic Ocean.
“What was he like?” she instantly asked, almost regretting it at the same time. Maybe she should drag Oliver back to the cottage so her mother could also hear about her father she’d never really met.
Oliver tilted his head, an empathy swimming in his eyes, something she’d never seen in Zack’s when it had come to her strange family dynamics. “He was a great man.”