Spring in Cranberry Harbor (Cranberry Harbor #2)
Chapter 1
CHAPTER 1
In the year since Lizzie had partnered with her father, becoming co-editor and co-owner of the Cranberry Harbor Gazette, the subscription base had tripled, and their followers on social media, which hadn’t existed before she came on board, had hit 50,000 followers. Not bad for one year. However, getting followers on Facebook, X and Instagram was one thing, getting Peter Martin to actually post on them was another.
“Dad, you can reach so many people right at the moment when you’re sitting at Town Meeting or while you’re on-site at a new project, by sending out a tweet or posting a photo on Instagram, it’s super easy!” was a daily refrain heard across their partner’s desk.
“I know, I know,” Peter would always say, “I just get caught up in the moment, taking my notes, and I don’t think. I’m old school, yo,” he joked. Lizzie shoots him a curious look. Yo? She shakes her head and laughs.
She could never get really upset with her dad; he was the most endearing and wonderful man in the world. She just wanted the paper, which thanks to their angel investors was on solid financial ground, to be all it could be. There was a lot happening in Cranberry Harbor these days, and the rest of the country, actually the world, was taking notice.
Lizzie yawns and stretches, “I’m supposed to meet Jack, Sean, and Ben at Sea Coast for a late afternoon tea, you good if I skip out a little early?” It was a question that didn’t really require an answer, but out of respect, she wanted to ask.
“Of course not, honey, you go on ahead, I’m just tweaking a story about those two young women who took over the old five and dime with an artist’s co-op,” he says, a little distracted.
Lizzie laughs, “Dad, it hasn’t been the ‘five and dime’ since before I was born, it was last an appliance store.” She slips her coat on. It may be nearing spring, but the Cape is notorious for seducing you into thinking it’s already here, then watch out - some heavy snow squalls knock any hope of spring right out of you. March was the cruelest of months. A total tease.
“Uh-huh,” he says, distractedly, “whatever you say.”
“I’ll see you later. Everything is all set to go on my end, as soon as you send that in we’re good for this week’s edition.” She’s aware he’s not really paying attention. “Snuffleupagus!” she calls, as she heads out the door, just to see if he is listening at all.
“Yup, you too!” he calls back, and Lizzie laughs as she heads out the door to the coffee shop.
The days were starting to get a little bit longer, but Lizzie pulled her coat around herself a little tighter, bracing herself against the stinging, damp cold, because... Cape Cod spring. There were small signs of hope; the witch hazel tree next to the gazebo, always the first to flower, was in full bloom, a wonderful harbinger of yellow blooms, but other than that, everything was still looking pretty…brown.
“There you are!” Jack jumps up and gives her a kiss. He helps her off with her coat and places it on the back of her chair. “Sean texted me that they are running late. Baby issues. What would you like, sweetie? Cocoa? Chai? Decaf?”
“I am still officially in my post-Christmas cocoa detox. I swear between the cookies and cocoa around here at Christmas it’s like living at Santa’s Workshop!” She looks over at the tea menu board, even though she sees it every day, and notices it’s been newly updated and beautifully illustrated by one of the new baristas. “Hmm, maybe a decaf green tea with one squeeze of honey, please?” She smiles up at him, and he leans in and kisses her again.
“For you? Anything. Be right back.”
Even after having been back together for a year, her heart still catches sometimes at how this almost didn’t happen. There but for the grace of lots of circumstances, and some good old-fashioned Cranberry Harbor Christmas magic, they could have stayed apart forever. He could have stayed in California having his big tech career, and well, she’s not sure where she would have gone. After having been laid off by the Boston Sentinel, chances are she’d be here, alone. She always made sure to never take the serendipity that brought them back together for granted because she knew things could have turned out very differently. Being back with Jack, and being back home were not where she’d seen herself ending up, but as she sits back, taking in for the millionth time, the coziness and warmth of this place, the familiar faces, the well-worn path to the counter, all the local art, she feels happy.
Just as Jack arrives at the table with Lizzie’s tea, Sean and Ben, along with baby Ollie, come in, carrying enough baby paraphernalia to stay for a week. They place the car seat holding the sleeping baby on the floor between their seats, along with a red, hand-woven bag of toys, bottles, and diapers, and then they both collapse in their chairs. They both have circles under their eyes, and look completely exhausted.
Until a few months ago they had been fostering a brother and sister, who were three and five, throughout much of the last year, but they had recently gone back to live with their mother. They’d been in the beginning stages of adopting Mia and Matt and had been devastated when it fell through. They were of course happy the kids were reunited with their mom who had turned her life around, but they had truly loved them and had planned to be a forever family. They’d been scared to foster again not wanting that disappointment, but Ollie came along, and he was available for adoption, so they decided to take a leap of faith. Jack and Lizzie were his godparents and they adored him.
“Hey! The boys have arrived!” Jack says putting Lizzie’s tea on the table. “What do you guys want - I’m up already, let me grab it.”
“Coffee!” they both say at the same time. They all laugh. “We are so exhausted, just bring us the whole carafe,” Ben says. Jack goes back to the counter to get their order.
“I’m so sorry, guys, short night?” Lizzie asks, looking at their tired faces and uncombed hair.
“We try to take shifts,” Sean says, “but just the act of getting up, getting him out of his bassinet and everything wakes the other one up, so we’re just all up through the night.”
Lizzie knew nothing about babies really. She’d taken care of her niece, Sophie, here and there, but she’d been a baby when Lizzie was living in Boston, so she was pretty unfamiliar with being kept up all night by an infant.
Jack was back in no time, “Cream no sugar, for you, Ben, and milk with two sugars for you, Sean? I think I got that right.”
“You can certainly tell we’ve spent a lot of time together here,” Sean laughs. And then switches the coffees between the two of them.
“Ah! So close!” Jack laughs. “So, short night, huh?”
Ben yawns and leans back in his chair. “I don’t think I’ve ever existed on so little sleep in my life. I thought our hours in the summer with the inn were crazy, but boy, this little guy,” he looks down at Ollie in his fleece overalls, and green knit cap and smiles, “it’s a whole other level of sleep deprivation, and yet somehow we don’t really mind.”
“I just keep wondering how we’re going to do this in the summer season, that’s what freaks me out,” adds Sean.
“Can you hire a nanny for the summer?” asks Jack. “Someone who can live in and be flexible? I’m betting there’s someone who’d love to get to live at the Marshview and work with you.”
“Well, it just so happens that Sean’s cousin is getting her Master’s in early childhood education and we’re talking to her about coming to Cranberry Harbor for the summer, so finger’s crossed that works out,” says Ben.
“I feel so lazy listening to you two,” Lizzie says.
“What? You work all the time,” Jack says, incredulous. “You almost never take a day off. You bring work home, work weekends…”
“Yeah, seriously, Lizzie, you are the hardest working person I know, well, except for that guy,” Sean points to Jack. “Between the two of you, it is all work all the time. Do you ever get out and have fun? Could you, please? For us to live vicariously through you?” Sean teases.
“It has been a minute, that is for sure,” Lizzie says. “My dad’s been after me to take a vacation, or at least a weekend away. The last time we went to Boston was to pack up my apartment, so that wasn’t exactly relaxing,” she looks at Jack, “We definitely need to take a weekend away someplace.”
“Okay, we will try to make that happen,” he winces. “Though I do have three zoning board meetings to prepare for, meetings with the wastewater team and applications to get to for people applying for spots to live or farm in the neighborhood, which still does not have a name by the way.” He rubs his forehead. “I don’t want to be, but I’m really worried about the final approvals coming through. There are a couple of tough folks on the planning board that I’m worried could go either way.”
“You haven’t said that before,” Lizzie says, concerned. “My dad’s been going to all the meetings and he hasn’t said anything.”
“This is all under the radar, don’t say anything,” Jack says looking at everyone. “The idea for the project is really popular–an eco-friendly, off-the-grid community, a blending artists and farmers–so those who aren’t for it are scared to say anything publicly, but there are a couple of hard-core, old-timers who don’t ever want anything to change in Cranberry Harbor. Those who think, ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.’”
“But so much isn’t working,” interjects Ben. “Housing, jobs? How can they not see it? There’s a lot that’s broken.”
“It will pass, Jack, you’ve gotten too far for it not to,” Lizzie says, reassuringly putting her hand on Jack’s arm. “And when it goes to the Town Meeting, everyone will vote for it.” Even as she says this she’s not one-hundred percent sure herself. She’s heard the rumblings around town, she knows there are people who look at the town as a Norman Rockwell painting, not as a living and breathing community in need of changing and evolving with the times. “I think we should do another story the week before the Town Meeting about it, and have Stan interview you. Dad and I are too close to the story, but Stan would be able to be more objective. We’ll get all the final approvals.” She smiles that smile that Jack knows so well, the one that says, ‘I’ve got this, don’t worry,’ and she’s almost always right.
Jack feels himself choking up, so clears his throat and changes the subject. “So seriously, you all have to help me come up with a name for this community that has farmers and techies, animals and artists.”
“Eco-Village at Cranberry Harbor?” Sean says, yawning. “Ack, no, that’s sleep deprivation talking, that’s a completely lame name.”
“Well, I wasn’t going to say anything, but yeah, rather than a farming and arts and tech community that sounds like a condo community, though ‘Lame Name’ has sort of a nice ring to it,” Jack says, and they all laugh.
“I am so sorry, my creative brain is permanently gone I fear. Maybe when Ollie is in middle school it will come back. But then it will leave again when I am wracked with worry when he starts driving,” Sean says.
“I think parenthood just forever changes your brain and how you think,” Ben adds. “Seriously, I was in the grocery store in the oral care aisle a couple of days ago and found myself explaining to a young guy, just there buying toothpaste mind you, the importance of flossing. I do not know who I am.”
Lizzie and Jack can’t stop laughing. “You two are a cautionary tale for all we millennials,” Jack says, through tears of laughter. “I used to consider you guys super cool, next up will be dad jeans and dad jokes.”
“I think it’s kind of a rule that when you become parents you are officially no longer cool,” Lizzie teases, “but, and there is a but here, if anyone can undo that perception it’s you two. Give yourselves a break, Ollie is still itty bitty and you’re just getting settled in. No one can be at their best on as little sleep as you’ve been getting. You will rise from the depths of no sleep and will be once again the coolest guys in Cranberry Harbor.”
Sean and Ben look at each other and laugh. “I think that bar is pretty low, Lizzie,” Ben points to Jack.
“Hey!” Jack feigns offense. “I am totally cool!” Even he can’t keep a straight face as he looks down at his brown sweater, khakis and brown loafers. “Fine, I will always be the nerdy tech guy I was in eleventh grade. But, nerds make the cool things cool people use, so that should count for something.”
“Yes, without folks like you I would not have an app to remind me of how I haven’t run in three weeks, thanks!” Ben jokes.
“I know you’re tired and things are hard right now, but I am so grateful that we’re all here, that we’re all living in Cranberry Harbor again and,” Lizzie shakes her head, embarrassed. “I know I’m gushing, but about once a day I still find myself shocked that this is my life. I never, ever wanted to come back here, and now I can’t imagine being anywhere else, with anyone else,” she takes Jack’s hand. “I know, I'm such a sap!” She shakes her head, and sits back with her cup of tea. “Feel free to make fun of me, guys, I totally deserve it.”
“I can’t make fun of you because I cry at least once a day looking at this little guy,” Ben says, pointing to Ollie, still sound asleep in his seat, his hat now jauntily tipped to the left. “I’m so grateful that you two came back, that we’re friends, and I hope we have many, many years together making this town all it can be, and have lots of time hanging out like this.”
“Hear! Hear!” Jack says, raising his cup. He looks over at Lizzie who is checking a text that just came in. “I am all in on making this a forever thing,” he catches himself, thinking how that might land with Lizzie, “with all of us, I mean. To friendship, love and community,” he says. They all touch cups, and Jack leans over and kisses Lizzie on the head. “Yeah,” he says almost inaudibly, “forever has a nice ring to it.
“Huh?” Lizzie asks, distracted by a work issue. “Did you say something?”
“Nope,” he says. “I’m just happy to be here with you, that’s all.”
She looks over at him and smiles, and goes back to work. Still smiling to herself.