Chapter 25
CHAPTER 25
C ora woke to her phone buzzing with text messages.
“Cora, wake up!” Muriel said, pounding on her door. “Look at your phone! Oliver said Madame Dubois wants to talk to you!”
Cora slowly awoke from a deep sleep, trying to piece together what her sister was saying. She grabbed her phone as she rubbed her eyes awake. She had text messages from Julian, Oliver, Muriel, and Julian again. Then she saw the name Madame Dubois.
“Oh. My. Gosh.” Cora went to the door and opened it. “It’s Madame Dubois!”
“Read it!” Muriel started clapping her hands and jumped on the bed. She was still in her bathrobe and pajamas.
Cora opened the text.
“Cora.” She spoke in her fake French accent, exaggerating her vowels like Madame Dubois would do. “It has come to my attention that the incident at the exhibition show was not entirely your fault.” She stopped, expecting more of an apology, but Madame Dubois couldn’t help herself. “I’ve been shown some of your latest designs and would like to include them in my spring collection, with credit of course.”
Muriel started cheering. “That’s wonderful news!”
“How did she see my designs?” She hadn’t shown anyone besides them and Bonnie.
“Julian asked me to send him pictures of your stuff last night,” Muriel explained. “He sent it to one of his mom’s friends, who loved them and called Madame Dubois, who has been trying to get a hold of you!”
Cora stared at the text she had been dreaming about since the night Madame Dubois agreed to take her as an intern. She would be included in her collection, and her name would finally be attached to a designer fabric.
“Not even an apology?” But Cora had more integrity than that. She couldn’t believe the nerve of that woman. “She stole my designs—mine!—and she doesn’t even have enough guts to say something like, oh, I don’t know, ‘Sorry I kicked you out of the show you helped organize and create.’ Ugh!”
“You’re right!” Muriel pounded the bed with her hand. “Wait, so you don’t want to do be part of her collection?”
Cora squeezed her fists. “No, I don’t want to be part of her collection.”
“Don’t you dare take anything less than an apology.” Muriel pointed her index finger at her.
“That’s easy for you to say.” Cora fell backward onto her bed. Should she just take this as a win? Go back to Boston, be part of the world she had worked so hard to be a part of? “You have everything you want right here.”
Muriel shook Cora’s leg. “So do you, silly. Look around you. Every single person in this town wants you to succeed at this. And your friends back in Boston believe in you. I mean, that Brandon guy was all into your linens.” Muriel wiggled her eyebrows at Cora.
“Yeah, Brandon’s great.” Cora felt discouraged. All the excitement and encouragement she felt when he arrived had drained away when he left last night. Now, she had nothing but doubts and worries. “I just need to focus on my own collection. I’m still in the seed stage. I can’t lose focus.”
“Be patient. Seriously, Cora. You’ll get there. Just be patient.”
Cora rose up and leaned on her elbows. “Let’s stop all this fuss about me and make this day about you.” They had a full day of bachelorette party shenanigans ahead of them.
“Your friends from work are going to meet us at the tavern tonight after the spa, right?” Cora asked her sister.
“Yup.” Muriel said, getting up from the bed. “You should invite Bonnie if you want.”
Cora loved Bonnie, but she didn’t think the fifty-year-old would be up for hanging out with twenty-somethings at the bar.
“Mom’s coming with some of the Queen Bees,” Muriel said.
Maybe she would fit right in. “You invited the Bees to your bachelorette?” Cora had a feeling this wasn’t going to be your typical bachelorette.
“Sorry, I’ve not been the best bridesmaid.” Cora had been so wrapped up in herself that she had not given her sister the attention she deserved from her maid of honor.
“You’re the perfect maid of honor,” Muriel said. “I just want you there to celebrate with me. You know me. I know what I want. Let me plan. Besides, teachers are meant to do this kind of planning.”
“You and Oliver make it look nice…different,” Cora said, wishing more than anything she’d find something like it. “Something I hope I get.”
Muriel winked at Cora. “I think that Brandon’s really into you.”
Cora wasn’t so sure now. “I think it’s complicated, and Brandon doesn’t seem to like complicated.”
She wanted to respect Julian and keep his secret, but he was the complication. “He knows about Julian, and I think it’s…”
“Complicated,” Muriel finished, catching on.
Cora checked her phone. “He hasn’t texted me since last night.”
“You could text him,” Muriel reminded her.
“I thought you said I should be patient?” Cora threw back at her.
“Do you ever want to tell me what happened between you and Julian?” Muriel asked, but she wasn’t referring to this past month, but their relationship last summer. “Whatever happened, he seems to really want to make it up to you.”
“I know,” Cora said, picking at her fingernails. “I wasn’t trying to give him a hard time about things, but it’s just different now between us, and that’s okay. We just need to figure out who we are to each other now that things have changed.”
“But what happened?” Muriel asked, still oblivious in her love bubble.
“I—” She stopped herself. She didn’t want to tell Muriel now. Not when things were perfect for her sister. Why add a worry that doesn’t matter anymore? “Just needed some space.”
Muriel nodded. “I get it. You said he was still dating other women. To think he thought you’d put up with that?”
Muriel shook her head as if Cora hadn’t put up with that. Cora felt a bit ashamed for not telling the whole truth and letting Muriel believe she hadn’t gone back the second Julian had made a move.
“He’s the one who called Madame Dubois and showed her your designs.” Muriel looked as though she hoped this might make it up to her.
Let go. Be patient. “It was really nice of him to help with Madame Dubois.”
Muriel smiled, “If you want me to dump him in the harbor, I can easily trip him when we go out tonight.”
Cora cracked up at her sister and hugged her.
“I’m good, really.” Whether she was or not didn’t seem to matter at this point because she wanted her sister to be happy, and that’s really all there was to it. She’d deal with Julian as best as she could.
She checked her phone again and sent a message to Brandon, telling him she’d love to see him before he left, but he didn’t respond.
That morning, the whole family, including Quinn and Kyle, went together to check out Muriel and Oliver’s little cape on Beachwood Avenue, which the previous renters had just left. The gray clapboard two-story farmhouse sat empty at the end of the street.
Cora walked around, checking all the spaces, pulling out drawers and checking inside closets, even pretending to check outlets and things that looked like she knew what she was doing, but she didn’t care what she found. She loved it the minute she stepped inside. The small house had golden pine floors and matching shelves along the walls. Big windows up front facing the farmer’s porch that could easily fit some chairs and a table and had the most killer view of Blueberry Bay.
Cora whispered to Muriel as they walked around, “It’s adorable.”
This made Muriel smile.
“So, what do you think?” Oliver asked Quinn and Meredith. “The owner says he’s willing to discuss selling if we’re interested.”
Quinn crossed his arms and looked at Meredith, letting her talk.
“Well, it needs a bit of work,” Meredith said, looking around the space. “You will have to work on the kitchen and bathrooms, which will cost an arm and a leg.”
“Looks like you’ll need to put on a new roof, too,” Quinn said.
Cora could see Muriel’s shoulders sink slightly as she waited for her mother’s answer.
“But…” Meredith then turned to Quinn.
“We love it,” Gordon said before they could finish.
Muriel jumped up and hugged them all into her arms. She pulled Oliver into their circle and Cora had never felt so happy and sad at the same time as she stood on the outside watching them celebrate this new chapter in her sister’s life.
The rest of the day, Cora followed through with her promise to make it about Muriel. All the women of the family, her aunt and cousins, even Ginny, drove to the next town over for a spa day. They indulged in champagne as they got pampered. By the end, they walked out with fewer knots, gorgeous skin, and painted nails.
“You ready for dinner?” Cora asked Muriel, who hollered out a woohoo .
Meredith and Quinn had planned the dinner: a candle-lit dinner at the cottage with a clam bake. All of Muriel’s friends arrived just in time to eat.
Cora smiled as young and old all came out to celebrate her sister.
“I’m so glad you all could make it!” Muriel exclaimed as more women came into the cottage.
“Wait!” Cora said, pulling out the linen bridal sash she’d made that said…
“Aww…it says A Blueberry Bride!” Muriel got teary as she hugged Cora long and hard.
Cora never would have imagined she would be thankful for all the things that had happened in Boston, but she wouldn’t be where she was if she had stayed. She’d probably still be kissing up to Madame Dubois. She probably wouldn’t have wanted to come up for the bachelorette, complaining about the drive. If she had come, she wouldn’t have stayed long, using her job as an excuse to leave. But now, being here, staying here, being part of everything day to day, she didn’t want it any other way.
When they finished dinner, they left for the tavern, and all the guys were already there, even Julian.
“Hey,” she said to Julian as they approached the group. You guys made it.”
He nodded, holding a drink that looked like it could be a drink or a soda. “Everyone’s over by the pool table. Quinn is beating Oliver again.”
Cora looked over at the crowd, then back at his drink.
“It’s a diet soda,” he said, shaking it.
She nodded, glad to see he continued to follow through, even at his brother’s bachelor party.
“Where’s Brandon tonight?” he asked.
“He left this morning early,” she said, shrugging.
“Sure.” Julian lifted his hand to the bartender. “Can I get you a drink?”
“I’m good,” she said, taking her purse off and resting it on the empty chair next to her. “I’ll have a coke.”
“Stop,” he said, shaking his hand at the bartender. “She’ll take a dirty martini.”
“You remembered what I like to drink,” she said, remembering how he had forgotten where she worked.
“Hard to forget you like the same drink as my grandmother,” Julian teased.
Before, a little joke like that would start things up again between them. His charming smile would lure her back in, but all she could think about was Brandon.
She thought about the way he’d looked at her, the way he’d studied her fabric, the way he’d gently traced the design with his fingertips… She couldn’t stop thinking about him.
“Thank you, Cora,” Julian said.
“For what?” she said, looking up at him. “I didn’t do anything.”
If anything, she had complicated things for him that night when she kissed him in the restaurant. She’d left with him, leaving his date to walk out and not pay. By going back to his place, she had been a bad influence that night.
“For being so forgiving,” he said. “I really don’t deserve it.”
She had so many things to say and questions to ask. Why did he leave the center? Was he still hiding his problem? Did he really have feelings for her?
“Thanks for helping me out with Madame Dubois,” she said as the bartender set her drink down in front of her. “She messaged me this morning, offering to put my things in her collection.”
“That’s great news,” he said. “What’d you say?”
She didn’t take a sip of her drink. She felt rude drinking in front of him.
“I heard you’re starting some kind of fabric shop,” Julian said, sounding a bit nervous.
“I’m going to start my own line of linens,” she said, feeling confident with her decision. “I’m calling it Blueberry Bay Linens.”
He lifted his glass. “To second chances and linens.”
And he gave her that look—the one that had made her kiss him right there in front of the whole restaurant, the one that had made her leave with him to go back to his place, the one that had made her rational thought process get jumbled and muddled.
“And to weddings and family,” she added.
He took a sip, his eyes on her. “To weddings and family.”
And all those feelings she had once felt no longer came.
“It was good seeing you,” she said, getting off her stool, grabbing her drink. “I’m glad you’re doing well.”
She walked away as he opened his mouth to say something to her. She didn’t mean to be rude; if anything, she wanted to be clear with Julian. She would be polite. She’d even sit next to him and share a toast, but she didn’t want to go back to the way things were before. That girl didn’t believe in herself and had let people walk all over her. The girl he had fallen for didn’t know who she was. But now, she was a woman who wouldn’t take less than what she wanted.
And she wanted her happily ever after.