AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I have to say goodnight,” she said, bending over to kiss Russ. He winked at her, which should have made everything okay.
“I’ll be right behind you,” Claudia lied.
The next day ended up being their usual round of farmers’ markets and events at the beach, anything to stay outside, but it didn’t stall Claudia’s constant flirtatious banter. Maggie nixed a poolside dinner, sending Russ on his way. For the first time, she decided it was better to risk offending him that have to suffer through Claudia’s thong bikini and surely a removal of the top sometime during sunbathing.
While they sat at the pool—and without an audience, the top stayed put—Maggie watched and listened to her friend. How could a few hours together turn a loving, lifelong relationship into a toxic mishmash? She was astonished and wanted nothing more than for the weekend to be over, wishing she had the courage to ask Claudia to leave.
“What are we doing tomorrow?” Claudia asked after they ate.
She was lying on a lounge chair facing the setting sun, the heat still intense from its rays, the sound of gulls loud overhead. The surf pounding the shore invited beach strolling, but Maggie was too annoyed to spend any intimate time with her.
“Tomorrow I play catch-up. Get my laundry and grocery shopping done. All the fun stuff we have to do.”
“Oh! You don’t see Russ?”
“Not every Sunday.”
There was silence for a bit.
“What time does your flight leave?”
“Not until later, but I think I’ll try to get an earlier flight out.”
Maggie couldn’t help herself. “I guess with just me for the day, you’d rather just leave.”
Claudia looked over her shoulder at Maggie. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Exactly what it says, Claudia. You came to visit after I asked you not to, and now that my boyfriend, whom you flirted with constantly for the past twenty-four or more hours, isn’t going to be available, you’re going to leave.”
“That’s not true. I mean, I did flirt with him, but I have things to do tomorrow, too. It will be easier if I get home earlier. That’s all I meant.”
“Okay, gotcha,” Maggie said.
That evening, Claudia disappeared up to the guest bedroom, and the next morning when Maggie got up, she had already left without saying goodbye.
Dreading the mess Claudia was known to leave after a visit, Maggie went upstairs and was pleasantly surprised that she’d cleaned up and even made the bed, which was quickly stripped. Anything that Claudia had touched was better off sanitized, knowing her history. At that thought, Maggie plopped on the bare mattress and had a good howling laugh that segued to tears.
Looking at her watch, it was nine forty-five. She usually heard from Russ first thing in the morning. The thought entered her mind; did Russ take her to the airport?
Chapter 4
After Randy Jaeger left and Maggie shook that walk down memory lane out of her head, she changed into a ratty college T-shirt and even rattier cutoff jeans; today she was going to get busy doing work on the cottage. The inside was okay, not great, but clean enough to house her while she did the really important things like scraping the old peeling paint off the outside.
For as long as she could remember, the cottage had been a faded tannish beige. But once she started to scrape, she realized it had been painted white at one time, and then blue, bright sky blue. The paint had to be old, old because she never saw it blue, ever. She’d add it to the list of things she wanted to ask her aunt: when was the cottage blue? She scraped for hours, staying out of the sun. When she had done as much as she could on her feet, she dragged an old ladder out of the shed and climbed that, only taking breaks to let little Brulee off the porch to pee and to use the bathroom herself, both pup and woman drinking water in the heat.
She was dragging the ladder around to the back of the cottage when she heard a motor up front; a boat was at the dock. That would be a lesson to always have a pair of binoculars on the porch. But she could tell by the way he walked and the sun on his blond hair that it was Steve Casson.
Waving when he saw her, her heart did a little skipping around there for a moment. Another hunky guy dropping in. At least he’d be able to tell by her ratty clothes, the dirt on her face, and the bandanna round her hair that she was working. She held on to the paint scraper as she walked out to meet him, hoping she could waylay whatever it was he wanted right at the dock. But it wasn’t to be. He walked toward the cottage as he talked.
“I’m so sorry I’m dropping in. I tried calling and thought maybe you were having issues with the phone.”
“No, it’s working fine. I’ve been scraping all day.”
He looked up at the cottage. “Boy, you sure have. It looks great. Let me help.”
Taken aback, she had to smile. “That’s awfully nice of you. But to tell you the truth, I’m beat. I’ve been doing this for hours. I don’t even know what time it is except the sun is over the bay, so it must be getting late.”
“It’s three.”
