Chapter Seventeen
The morning forecast warned about the storm coming in and the potential for lightning and damaging windows, but so you know, Dolly was seen meowing on Edna’s porch until she was let in. It’s going to be a bad one, folks. Secure your garbage bin lids.
—Wayward Harbor Online Community Group
Storms were a lot more fun when Lucy was a child.
When she was a kid, thunderstorms and wind buffeting the house were exciting, like an adventure she was caught up in. As an adult who owned things, understood the potential for damage, and knew dealing with insurance companies wasn’t a fun way to pass the time, she wasn’t a fan.
And yet, there was something hypnotic about watching a storm over the ocean. It was gorgeous and terrifying, and she wanted nothing more than to be curled up on the porch next to Nick, watching the lightning strikes in the distance.
Unfortunately, the winds were driving the rain almost sideways, and everything on the porch was soaked. And Nick didn’t live there anymore.
Lucy missed him so much. She’d known it would be a little sad when the temporary little life they’d built was over, but she hadn’t anticipated feeling the lack of him in the cottage so deeply.
“I can hear you sighing over the wind,” Gran said from her seat at the kitchen table. She’d decided to take the stormy day to sort through the mail that had accumulated while she was away, which mostly meant flipping through the magazines she subscribed to.
And Lucy was taking the day to do nothing after Billy had told her not to bother coming in because nobody else would. She moved away from the window, sighing again. “I was thinking about how storms are fun when you’re a kid, but not as fun when you’re adult.”
“That’s a fact.” She closed her magazine, giving Lucy one of those face-searching looks mothers and grandmothers did so well. “They don’t sound like nostalgia sighs, though.”
What Lucy did not want to do was confess she was feeling down because Gran had come home, and she was thrilled to see her, but it meant she didn’t have Nick around anymore.
“Just thinking about how daunting it will be to get in my car and just drive to Miami without much of a plan.”
Gran laughed. “You’ve driven farther than that without a plan.”
“That’s valid,” Lucy admitted, pulling out the chair across from Helen’s and dropping into it. “But this was a visit—like a time-out. Going to Miami is starting my actual life over. It’s what I’ve wanted for a while, but it feels…huge.”
“It is huge. Chasing a dream is no small thing, and it shouldn’t be.”
“What if it doesn’t work out?”
“Then you’ll come back here and figure out a new plan.”
Lucy smiled sadly. “I can’t keep running back to you every time life gets hard.”
Gran laughed. “Of course you can. You come back here, you get a hug and lots of love, and you regroup.”
“Thank you, Gran.”
“Life is like a house, honey. You have to build the life you want the same way you build a house—with a solid foundation—before you can live in it.” Gran reached across the table to cover her hand.
“This home and I are your foundation, Lucy. We’re not going anywhere.
We won’t shift with the tides. No matter where you go or what you do, we’re right here if you need us. ”
For what was possibly the first time in her life, Lucy felt as though, if she fell, there was somebody there to catch her. To soothe her and help her get back on her feet. She could feel that unconditional love in Gran. She heard it in Nick’s voice when he talked about his brothers.
“I’m sorry I didn’t come visit,” Lucy said softly.
“And I’m sorry I didn’t encourage you to.” Helen closed her magazine. “It wasn’t easy for me to tell Iris I didn’t want to see her anymore. She’s my only child and I do love her, but…”
“Was it Jack?”
“No, not specifically. I never knew for sure if those rumors were true, or any of them, really. Because there were a lot. She’d disappear, but then she’d come back when she needed money.
And while she was here, she’d stir things up again.
She always wanted more—more excitement, more attention, more money.
And she was beautiful, so men liked to give her those things—even the ones who weren’t single.
She left a trail of heartbreak and anger every time she came through Wayward Harbor. ”
“I’m sorry, Gran. She still…she still looks for men to take care of her.”
“I hoped she’d grow up and change—especially after she had you.
But when your grandfather passed, when you were just a baby, she got worse.
He’d always been tighter with the money, and she thought I’d be more vulnerable.
And I was, for a while. The last summer you were here, the bank called me because she’d tried to use one of my checks to buy a car.
And I told her she could leave and not come back, or I’d press charges.
Losing you about killed me, sweetheart, but I couldn’t do it anymore. ”
Lucy nodded sadly. “When I called to tell her I’d driven all the way here because I felt like she should know where I was, her first thought was for me to convince you to sell this place and move into a retirement home.”
Gran snorted. “I wish I could say that shocks me, but I would have expected nothing less from that girl.”
Her phone rang, startling both of them, and Helen laughed as she pressed her hand to her chest. Lucy picked it up, certain it was going to be Nick, checking on them.
He’d already sent a text that morning, warning her to check the weather forecast and reminding her to put the cushions and umbrella way, which she had.
Because him thinking about her gave her all kinds of mushy feelings, she’d sent back a heart.
She’d been overthinking that emoji choice ever since.
But when she looked at the screen, she saw her mother’s name. Frowning, she turned the phone so Gran could see it. “It’s Iris. Did we summon her somehow? Did she feel a disturbance when her daughter was given love and support?”
Sorrow flashed across Helen’s face before she hid it behind her usual loving expression. “You can answer it, sweetheart. It won’t bother me.”
Even though she hated the idea of her mother being in the room with Helen, even over the phone, Iris rarely called her.
Maybe her boyfriend dumped her and she needed Lucy to pay the deposit on a new place to live, but there was a chance something was actually wrong.
After taking a breath, she swiped to accept the call. “Hi, Mom.”
“Hello, Lucy. I haven’t heard from you at all, so I wanted to check and see how things are going there.”
“Everything’s fine. And with you?”
“Same,” Iris said, and Lucy could tell by the way she practically spit the word out that her boyfriend still hadn’t proposed. But at least she didn’t need money for a new apartment yet. “And how is my mother?”
“She’s doing well.” Lucy had no intention of offering more than that.
“Oh, that’s good.” Sure, that sounded totally sincere. “I’ve been looking into property values in the Wayward Harbor area, and it really would be foolish for her not to sell and move into a retirement condo somewhere. She’d have a very tidy nest egg.”
Lucy watched her grandmother moving around the kitchen—a woman who was kind and generous and loving—and felt a surge of protective outrage. There was one woman in Lucy’s life who loved her unconditionally, and it wasn’t her mother.
“Lucy, did you hear me? You need to talk to your grandmother and—”
“Mom, stop.” Years of tangled emotions and resentment fell away until all that remained was clarity and resolve. “Gran’s life is none of your business.”
“Of course it is! She’s my mother.”
“What does that mean to you, though? Because you’re my mother, and when my entire life fell apart, you let your boyfriend throw me out with nowhere to go.”
“He owns the house, Lucy.”
“You’ve always chased men to take care of you. Including Jack Perkins. Do you remember him?” There was silence on the other end. “I met my sister, and she’s wonderful. But I didn’t get a chance to meet my father because he passed away. You’re selfish and you ruin lives.”
“He didn’t want us.”
Lucy closed her eyes briefly. “He was married, and you knew it. You don’t care who you hurt as long as you get what you want.”
“I don’t have to listen to this. I just wanted to see how you were doing and check on my mother.”
“Gran doesn’t need you to check on her. And her property is none of your business. I don’t know what she intends to do with the cottage because it’s also none of my business, but I do know you won’t be inheriting a single dime. There is nothing for you here in Maine.”
“Lucy Macauley, don’t you dare—”
“That includes me. Don’t contact either of us again, Iris.” She disconnected the call and set the phone on the table. Then she exhaled a long, shaky breath.
“I’m sorry, honey.”
Lucy looked up at her grandmother. “I’m sorry, too.”
“Maybe Iris was the trial I had to get through in order to have you.”
“So we could have each other.” Helen nodded, and tears filled Lucy’s eyes. “I’m going to miss you when I go to Miami, Gran.”
“I’ll miss you, too, but we’ll talk all the time. And I’ll come visit you for the holidays, since you might actually freeze to death here with how you are. And you can come in the summer, when the weather’s perfect here, to visit with me and Taylor. I’ll see you twice a year.”
“At least twice. I promise.”
“Good.” Gran slapped her hand on the table. “Now I’m going to make us some tea and we’re going to ride out the rest of the weather with a good jigsaw puzzle.”
Lucy cleared the table while her grandmother brewed the tea. She kept the sorted mail piles intact as she transferred them to the counter, and then did the same with the magazines she’d read and the ones to be read.
What would it be like to visit Wayward Harbor once a year? If she spent a week, it would be so full visiting Gran and Taylor. She’d visit Willow at the Scuttlebutt and stop by the Keel.