Beachside Dreams (Watch Hill Beach Book 1)
Chapter 1
Clara Bennett stood in front of her closet, surrounded by the ghosts of a life she thought would last forever. Until death do us part meant something a little different for her ex-husband. She was slowly working through the stages of grief after he left her. Now, it was time to officially say goodbye to that old life. The task at hand was long overdue. In fact, it was a year overdue. She had procrastinated, unable to get rid of the last reminders of a life that had brought her a lot of joy until it crushed her soul.
The separation had been swift and painful. Twenty years of marriage evaporated like morning mist, leaving Clara alone in a house as a constant reminder that she went from a family of three to a single, forty-five-year-old woman. Her husband, the man she had shared her life with for eighteen years, had packed up and moved on and her only child had moved away from Watch Hill, Rhode Island to pursue her degree in Florida.
Allison”s voice echoed through the room from the speakerphone. “You”re doing great, Clara. Just take it one step at a time. You”ll get through this. Think of it like taking a shower after a long day in the garden. It’s time to get rid of the grime.”
Clara laughed as she tossed a couple of pairs of shorts into the garbage bag. “Are you calling Kyle, dirt?”
“I think that’s one of the nicer things I’ve called him,” Allison replied dryly. “Consider this spring cleaning.”
Clara sighed, her fingers grazing the edge of an old photo album. She had not been able to look at the album since he left. Looking at the memories of her old life was too painful. “I know, Ally. It”s just hard, you know? I thought I would spend the rest of my life with him. I feel like I’ve been plucked out of my life and dropped into this new one that doesn’t feel like mine. I’m adrift. I was thinking I should sell the house and start over somewhere new. A new life deserves a new house, right?”
“Not necessarily. Why not redecorate your bedroom? That should help exorcise the last memories. You’re cleaning out the closet, that’s a big step. We can go up to Providence and spend some of that alimony.”
Laughter bubbled up through the pain. “Maybe. I’ll do some research and find a new color scheme—out with the old.”
“That’s the spirit.”
Allison”s comforting words continued as Clara sifted through clothes, memories, and the debris of a broken marriage. The task was emotionally draining, but she needed closure. She couldn”t let the remnants of the past linger in her closet forever. Every time she opened the closet door, he was there. She offered him the chance to come and clean out the rest of his stuff, but his new life with his new wife apparently required a new wardrobe… a new everything. It was up to her to clean up after him, just like she had done for twenty years.
“Come over for dinner tonight,” Allison said. “We”ll open a bottle of wine and talk about your new decorating schemes.”
Clara smiled, even though her friend couldn”t see it. “Thank you, but no thank you. You two have been working opposite shifts. You guys need to spend time together. I think I”m going to come home after work and do a little reorganizing. I never realized how big this closet was.”
“Fine, but you know you are always welcome.”
“Thank you. You guys have been my rocks. Tell Phil I said hello. I better go. I need to get this stuff to Goodwill, and then I’m off to work. We”ll talk soon.”
She looked around at the mess she”d made trying to purge the last of her ex”s things. She wasn”t going to have time to get it all done before work. Knowing it would all be waiting for her when she got home. It wasn”t a task that would take a single day to get done.
After hours of emotional excavation, Clara walked out of the closet with a smile. Garbage bags of old memories were strewn around the bedroom and more lined the hallway. Some would be donated, and some would go straight to the trash. It felt like a weight had been lifted. Tomorrow, she would take care of getting it all out of the house. For now, she needed to get to work.
She quickly dressed and stopped to look at her reflection in the mirror. Her hazel eyes stared back at her. The first signs of crow’s feet and the laugh lines seemed to be getting more prominent by the day. Her new hairstyle made her feel a little less matronly. She reached for her hair clip and quickly put her shoulder-length brown hair up. The little makeup she wore took off a few years and gave her some self-confidence. Clara put on a little clear gloss and took one last look in the mirror before deciding it was good enough.
The local library had been her favorite place to be since she was a little girl. Getting to work part-time at the library was a dream job when her daughter was in school. It gave her a little spending money and she was able to get out of the house. She loved being surrounded by the written word and helping people find books that would expand their worlds beyond the state lines of Rhode Island. After the divorce, the library became a place of refuge. She was able to move into a full-time position, which had come at a time when she absolutely needed it.
The head librarian greeted her with a smile when she walked into the relatively small library in a building that was over a hundred years old.
“Good morning, Clara,” Mary smiled. “We”ve got quite the task ahead of us. We got a large estate donation. There are a ton of boxes to go through.”
“Really?” Clara asked excitedly.
“You know the Wentworth family, right?”
Clara nodded. “Sweet Victoria.”
“Yes. The estate is finally being handled. She left the vast family library to us. From what I understand, the more expensive first editions and collector”s items were put into an auction, and we got all the extra stuff. I haven”t had a chance to open any, but I believe it”s a lot of older stuff, nothing all that exciting that will appeal to the younger crowd. We need to catalog everything and decide how much we want to keep. The estate authorized a sale of the books with the proceeds going back to the library fund.”
“I”m in,” Clara nodded eagerly. “Let”s see what secrets these boxes hold.”
“I have the monthly librarians meeting. Get to what you can. I”ll be back tomorrow to help.”
“Enjoy your meeting,” Clara called out.
Clara started her usual routine, putting away returned books and helping a few library visitors. Watch Hill was a small town. Libraries were on their way to being extinct in most places, but here, it was a linchpin of the community. A lot of the elderly residents preferred to use the computers at the library than deal with putting one in their homes. And it was those same elderly people who enjoyed browsing the shelves in search of something to read instead of watching TV.
With her daily chores handled, Clara went into the back room to investigate the estate situation. There was a mountain of boxes that was now hers to explore. She felt a thrill at what she might uncover. The Wentworth family had been around for over a hundred years. They were one of the founding families. Clara was hoping to find something exciting she could tell some of her regular customers about.
The first box of books she opened smelled of age and nostalgia. She carefully pulled out each volume, reverently touching the faded covers and checking the general condition. The books ranged from romance novels from the early twentieth century to dramatic tales of espionage during World War II.
She made stacks, knowing Mary would have the final say in which books made it to the shelf and which were put in the next library sale.
There were a couple she put aside for herself to read. No one would mind. While she was opening the second box, she heard the door open. She looked up at the monitor to see if anyone was at the counter. She saw a man looking around and knew it was her cue.
“Hi,” Clara smiled.
He wasn”t a local. The man was very attractive. It felt like it had been forever since she even looked at a man.
“Hello,” he said in a deep voice.
“Can I help you find something?”
She found her heart beating a little faster than usual looking into the man”s light blue eyes. He had a ruggedly handsome face with dark hair. There was a little silver at the temples which gave her a better guess at his age, putting him in his forties or fifties.
He flashed a smile, and her racing heart came to a sudden stop causing her to involuntarily gasp for air. It took only a moment to pull herself together. “Can you help me find books about the history of Watch Hill?”
Clara”s professional demeanor kicked in as she smiled. “Of course. Follow me.”
She walked to the back corner of the library, a section that was rarely visited. Clara had a particular fondness for the area and kept it dust-free and neatly organized. She had moved a small table and a comfortable chair into the space just in case anyone cared to read up on the town”s history.
The area was intimate and felt way too small with the large, imposing man taking up the bulk of the oxygen. She cleared her throat and did her best to control herself.