Chapter 5
Chapter Five
J ulie was the one who found Cathy only a few minutes later, crying outside on the back deck. She had gone there to avoid running into Anne, having felt ashamed for everything that had happened in the kitchen that morning. She’d been so determined to make things right with Thomas, but instead, all she managed to do was make a fool out of herself. Not only that, but little did she know that while she was worried about having hurt Thomas’s feelings, the man was yucking it up with her ex-husband, promising to regale him with tales of the young women who used to throw themselves at his feet.
“What a jerk.”
“I hope you’re not talking about me.”
Cathy turned around in her chair and saw Julie walking over with her morning coffee. “That’s really no way to greet an old woman first thing in the morning. Is this because I didn’t bring you a cup of coffee? In my defense, I had no idea you were going to be here.”
“No, no, that wasn’t aimed at you.” Cathy faced the other way once more and settled further down into her chair. “I didn’t even know you were there.”
“I see.” Julie took a seat next to her. “In that case, I will not retaliate with a comment of my own.”
“Please don’t. I can’t handle another insult right now.”
“Someone was insulting you? Who?”
“Never mind. It’s not important. I’m probably just being overly sensitive anyway. It’s all alright.”
Julie frowned, then seemed to realize that Cathy had been crying, because her face softened as she got a better look at the younger woman’s expression. “Are you sure you’re alright?” she asked in a quiet voice. “If you want to be left alone, I can go back inside.”
“No, you can stay. I’m fine.”
Julie snorted. “Yeah, and I’m a spring chicken. Really, Cathy, what’s going on?”
“I’ve just had a rough morning, that’s all,” Cathy said. “There has been some miscommunication between me and… and a friend. Then there’s the stuff with Hunter, and as you know, he’s not the easiest person to deal with either.”
“That’s putting it mildly. Is the friend you’re talking about Anne?”
Cathy shook her head. “No, Anne’s been nothing but an angel ever since I had the crazy idea to open the inn again. I feel like I owe so much to her.”
“Should I take that to mean you’re having issues with Thomas, then?”
“... Sheesh, that really puts into perspective the fact that I only have two friends.” She
looked down at her hands, folded up in her lap. “And I’ve been giving Hunter a hard time for not having more people to confide in.”
“Do you want to talk about what happened?”
“If I’m being honest, it’s all a little raw at the moment,” she said. “And I’m not even sure that I’ve totally made sense of it. You see, Thomas and I were supposed to go out to dinner the other night.”
Julie nodded. “I remember.”
“Right. I forgot we ran into each other on my way down the stairs. Well, I assumed that he had asked me out on a date , but he maybe didn’t see it that way. It doesn’t matter how he felt at the time because that was the same night Hunter showed up. Thomas found us hugging, and he got the wrong idea of what was going on.”
“Just hugging?”
“Yes. Just hugging.”
Julie clicked her tongue. “And that upset him? That seems a little overly sensitive if you ask me.”
“I agree,” Cathy said. “But I was ready to apologize and make it up to him anyway. This morning, I finally got a chance to talk to him, but when I started to explain myself, Thomas acted like he had no idea what I was talking about. Like he hadn’t been upset at all, and that we were only going to get dinner as two friends.”
“Ha!” Julie opened her mouth in obvious shock. “He said that?”
“Yeah… Almost in those exact words.”
“That’s ridiculous! That’s—that’s—what’s the word young people use all the time now?” She snapped her fingers a couple of times. “Oh yeah! That’s gaslighting. He’s totally gaslighting you. He’s a single man who asked a single woman out to dinner, and now he wants to pretend like he never intended for it to be a date? Not a chance.”
“But why gaslight me?”
“To save face, I’m guessing,” Julie said. “He didn’t want you to know how heartbroken he truly was, so he tried to act like it never mattered to him in the first place. Even though it most certainly did.”
“You think?”
“I know.”
Cathy sighed and let her head fall into her hands. “Well, then I don’t know what to do! I started to backtrack, you know? Apologizing for getting the situation so wrong, and then his demeanor changed completely. He backtracked as well, and we agreed to start the conversation over.”
“That’s good,” Julie prompted.
“It would’ve been great,” Cathy said. “I was going to be one hundred percent honest with him about how I felt, and I had a feeling he would do the same in return. But then we were interrupted by Hunter, and things went from bad to worse.”
“Of course he made things worse. He would.”
Cathy couldn’t help but laugh. “He didn’t do it on purpose. But yeah, it was really terrible timing. Although, Hunter did illuminate a few things for me. Apparently, Thomas used to live the rough and tumble life of a musician, and he toured all over the UK in his twenties. The best part though? He had groupies fawning all over him wherever he went. Or so he led Hunter to believe.”
Julie made a disapproving sound at the back of her throat. “Men are just oversized boys a lot of the time, aren’t they?”
“Absolutely.”
“But what about all of that sent you running out here crying?” Julie asked with genuine interest. “Don’t tell me you’re jealous of those twenty-something groupies!”
“I’m not jealous! That’s—I don’t even know if he was telling the truth or if he was just trying to impress Hunter for who knows what reason. I guess I just had a different idea of who Thomas was in my mind. He never told me about his time as a musician, and when he talked about his ex, the woman he loved…” She trailed off but Julie waited patiently for her to complete the thought. “He seemed like he was more of the romantic sort.”
“And is that what you’re looking for? A romantic?”
“I’m not looking for anything,” laughed Cathy. “I didn’t come to Martha’s Vineyard to find a boyfriend. That would’ve been the last thing on my mind, actually, had I not run into Thomas that first week I was here. He was so charming, it was hard not to get a little wrapped up in that smile of his.”
“We’ve all been there,” mused Julie. “I spent some time in Ireland as a girl, and something about those UK accents makes them seem more handsome than they otherwise would be, don’t you think?”
“Definitely. It’s honestly not fair.” She shook her head. “But I shouldn’t have let myself catch feelings anyway. I’m smarter than that. Usually.”
“But if Thomas had turned out to be the kind of man you would like to date, would you be trying to patch things up right now?”
Cathy thought about this for a second. “Hmm. I’m not sure. It’s only been a year since Hunter and I separated. I’m not so sure it’s a good idea for me to be jumping into a new relationship.”
“Who said anything about jumping? Or a new relationship, for that matter?” She smiled. “Tell me—was Hunter the first man you ever seriously dated?”
“Yeah.”
Julie nodded knowingly. “That explains it. You never did any casual dating. You went from going out with a man once to marrying him and having kids. But you realize there are other options, right? You could spend time with a man like Thomas, without making any sweeping commitments. Just because you can’t see yourself saying ‘I Do’ again any time soon, that doesn’t mean you can’t have a boyfriend.”
Cathy blinked a few times in surprise, letting Julie’s words sink in. Once they were good and settled inside her brain, she laughed. “Oh, my God, you’re right. Why does it feel like dating is an all-or-nothing thing? You’re either with someone you plan to marry, or you’re not with anyone at all. But that’s not how regular people date, is it?”
“Not really,” she said, smirking. “Especially not Europeans. Though I suppose Thomas probably doesn’t consider himself a European. The British are a little stuffy, so who knows? He could have a one-track mind as well, but… something tells me he would be open to just getting coffee and going for a drink now and then.”
“Well, Thomas is off the table,” Cathy reminded her. “But in theory, I could meet another man who I went out with in a casual way…”
“Exactly. There’s a world of possibilities out there. You just have to open your eyes—and your heart—to them all.”
“ All? ” Cathy made a face. “I’m not sure I need to open myself up to all the possibilities, but more of them for sure.”
“Whatever you’re comfortable with, dear.” Julie’s eyes were bright when Cathy next looked into them, and for a moment, the wrinkles around the woman’s mouth reminded Cathy of someone. Someone near and dear to her heart, but whom she didn’t think about all that often. Someone whose photograph she kept in a frame right next to the one of Miranda on the bedside table.
Her mother.
“Julie,” Cathy said in a hushed tone. “Did you—did you ever meet my mom?”
The old woman’s face paled and she looked away abruptly. “Why are you asking me that?”
“I was just curious because I thought you probably would’ve been friends with my grandmother when she was pregnant, and?—”
“I was off traveling by then,” Julie said, moving to get up from her chair as quickly as her aging bones would allow. “I never had the chance to meet your mother, no, and it’s something I regret dearly, but alas. Can’t change the past.”
“Oh.”
“I just remembered that I—I have to go. I have a doctor’s appointment that I need to get ready for.”
“Oh–alright.”
“I’m sorry to cut this short. I hope you feel better.” She bent down to pat Cathy on the shoulder. It was a strained movement, and one that told Cathy just how badly Julie wanted to get away from the conversation. She scrambled to think of something to say that might keep Julie there, but nothing came to mind in time. It wasn’t until Julie was back inside, closing the door to the deck behind her, that Cathy remembered something. In the photo album her grandmother included in the box of documents, there had been a picture of Julie holding a baby that Cathy would’ve bet her life savings it was her mother.
But then why would Julie lie about meeting her?