“Oh, I didn’t need a big to-do. We got married at the courthouse, just like Sylvia and Marcus did. Denny didn’t even have a ring to give me—I used my mother’s. He didn’t feel right about that but I didn’t care. I had everything I’d dreamed of when he proposed to me on bended knee, right there.” She gestured to the area in front of the fireplace. “Afterward, we celebrated with champagne in the best room, didn’t we, Captain?”
Gazing at his portrait, Ivy absently raised her teacup as if toasting him, a faraway look in her eyes. Then she took a sip and blinked several times. “I’m sorry I rambled so long. You girls must be bored to tears.”
“No, we aren’t! I’m really glad you told me your love story, Aunt Ivy. It’s really amazing even thought parts of it are sad. It reminds me of some of the historical romances I’ve read, only it’s a lot better because it was about you. And about our family.” Gabi’s response couldn’t have been more earnest or endearing and Zoey could tell by the expression on Ivy’s face how pleased her aunt was to hear it, even if she shook her head and apologized again for blathering for so long.
Gabi walked over and kissed her aunt’s cheek before collecting the tea cups and saying goodnight. Shortly after her niece left, Zoey accompanied Ivy up the stairs, cupping her elbow for support. On the first landing, her aunt paused to take a rest.
“I must have used up all my breath telling that long-winded story,” she said. “I can’t seem to help myself. I only have to catch a glimpse of the chess table or Denny’s hat on the mantel and all my favorite youthful memories come rushing back… You know, my brother Charles’s wife—your grandmother—used to try to get me to take home movies but I never had any use for them. She’d say, ‘When you’re old and gray, you’ll be sorry you don’t have anything to remind you of the people you loved or what you did in your younger years.’ But Idohave something to remind me. This house reminds me, if that makes sense.”
“Yes, it does,” Zoey assured her.And that’s why I’m going to do whatever I can to keep Mark from forcing you out or making any changes to your home that you don’t want to make, she silently promised her aunt.
Chapter Four
Since Ivy’s house was just under two miles away from the school, Gabi wasn’t eligible to take a school bus and of course, Zoey didn’t want to drive her in Ivy’s car. The teen could have taken public transportation—there was a bus stop right down the hill—but Zoey was glad when Gabi said she’d rather walk.
It was a gray and mizzling morning and a foghorn sounded as they strode down Main Street in the opposite direction from the harbor. They passed the golf course before cutting east, down a slope and through the valley. Zoey pointed out landmarks along the way: the library, a historic gristmill, the site of the island’s first church and even the road leading to the part of town where Mr. Witherell lived.
“Do you want me to meet you after school in case you forget how to get back home?”
Gabi pretended to suck her thumb, ridiculing, “No, Mama. Me a big girl.”
That wasexactlywhat Jessica would have done and Zoey elbowed her. “Fine. Did you at least bring an umbrella?”
“No.”
“Here, take mine.”
“It isn’t raining.”
“It isn’t now, but if it starts this afternoon, Aunt Ivy will worry about you and then she’ll make me drive down to pick you up in the Caddy. And I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to stay in my lane—or even on the road. Is that really the first impression you want to make on your new classmates?”
Gabi groaned as she accepted the umbrella and shoved it into her bookbag.
Once they arrived at the school, Zoey discussed the questions she had with the vice principal before signing the required paperwork. Then, a cheerful girl a head shorter than Gabi and a skinny boy wearing glasses arrived to take her on a tour. Zoey dawdled in the office threshold, watching them flank her niece as she ambled down the corridor, her long, blond hair hanging down her back, her bookbag hoisted onto one shoulder.
It reminded her of how she’d accompanied Jessica when she walked Gabi to school on her first day of kindergarten. Usually unflappable, her sister had cried all the way home. Since Scott was traveling on business, Zoey ended up taking a personal day off from work so Jess wouldn’t have to be alone.
“Gabi will be fine. She’s going tothrive,” she’d comforted her.
“I know she will and more than anything, that’s what I want for her,” Jess had sobbed. “But it’s still hard to let her go.”
She said the same thing about leaving her daughter at the end of her life, too—except she used the word‘excruciating,’Zoey recalled, the lump in her throat growing bigger. She shot out of the school and dropped onto the cement bench encircling the flag pole. After a few moments, when she’d caught her breath again, she blotted the dampness from her face and got up.You know I’ll do whatever I can to help Gabi thrive, she mentally reassured her sister, just as she’d done the day before Jessica died. She only hoped her best was enough.
On the way home, Zoey was so melancholy she wandered at least half a mile beyond the farm stand before she remembered she was supposed to stop for eggs. It was drizzling harder now and the clouds on the horizon had darkened from gray to charcoal, so she quickly backtracked and made her purchase.
She had just scuttled half a block down the road when the sky let loose. Because she’d been too warm to wear a coat and she’d given her umbrella to Gabi, she had no protection from the nickel-sized raindrops. She tried jogging, but she was worried the jostling would break the eggs.Not that I care if there are shells in Mark’s omelet, she thought sardonically as she slowed her pace to a brisk walk.But I don’t want to hear him complain.
Within a minute, Zoey was soaking wet. By then, she figured it must have been eight o’clock, maybe later. Her backtracking had made her late. Although she didn’t want Ivy to attempt to come get her, she hoped if Mark had arrived at the house, her aunt would at least send him. She didn’t want to call and ask, for fear that Mark would twist her request and send Aunt Ivy out to drive in the rain, leaving him alone to conspire with the carpenter about the renovations.
The egg carton she carried was a recycled donation that must have been used repeatedly because once the flimsy cardboard top got soggy, it began to tear. Zoey slipped the package beneath her T-shirt and hugged it against her chest to protect it, although by that time, her clothes were so wet she doubted it did any good. The rain was falling at a slant against her face and even though Zoey tucked her head against it, droplets dripped from her lashes into her eyes. Squinting, she didn’t see the pedestrian approaching from the opposite direction until the last second.
It was Mr. Witherell and he was bent so far forward he didn’t see her, either, so she quickly leaped aside to avoid colliding with him and breaking her eggs. He wasn’t carrying an umbrella, but he was wearing a hat and a dark rain jacket that looked as old as his funeral suit.
“Good morning, Mr. Witherell. Crummy weather, isn’t it?” she asked but he scuffed on without replying.
I’m sorry about Mark!she had the impulse to call after him, but didn’t.Please don’t hold his behavior against me. I’m a nice person, really!
A few minutes later, the friendly beep of a horn sounded behind her. She stepped farther away from the pavement. It beeped again, so without turning to look she swept her arm in a semi-circle, signaling the driver should go around her. Another honk. She could tell by the volume the driver was much closer now. He yelled something that sounded like,you’re on the wrong side.
