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“You can eat their food,” Eloise said. “But be polite about it, and remember, we’re eating at Robin’s tonight.”
“Okay.”
Eloise looked over to Billie. “What did I forget?”
“She better take her phone, and it better be charged,” Billie said. “That’s what Daddy always says.”
“Good, yes.” Eloise looked at Grace again, then focused on the road. “You’ll take your phone and leave it in your bag. If I call, you answer it.”
“I will,” Grace promised.
Satisfied, Eloise continued through the quaint town and along the quiet streets on the east side of Diamond Island to the house she shared with Aaron and the girls. “We have to be ready to go in thirty minutes,” she said.
“I’ll be ready!” Grace flew from the car and toward the front door. Eloise turned off the ignition and sighed.
“Come on, El,” Billie said. “I’ll get out those peanut butter cookies Rhonda sent home with you last week, and I’ll make the popcorn. Everything will be perfect when you get back from dropping off Grace.”
She smiled, and she was so beautiful and so kind. So good. Eloise cupped her face in her hand and smiled at her. “Are you okay, Billie? It’s not like you to want to stay home with an old lady like me.”
Something crossed Billie’s face, but she looked away. Eloise let her hand drop. “I’m fine. Just don’t like the sun right now.”
Eloise wanted to press the issue, but Billie got out of the car and slammed the door, the very final punctuation mark on that conversation.
“You saidyou wouldn’t work today,” Billie complained. Her blue-eyed look was enough to make Eloise’s chest melt.
“I know.” She still catapulted herself off the squishy couch where she and Billie had set up their camp. The popcorn had barely cooled; the movie was only ten minutes old. “Keep watching. This will be a fast call.”
She swiped on the call from Julia Harper, praying with everything inside her that she hadn’t just lied to Billie. The teen harrumphed, and Eloise had heard that noise before, usually when Aaron promised something he knew he couldn’t keep.
“Julia,” she answered pleasantly. “How are you?”
“Good.” Julia sounded good; happy. “Did I catch you at a bad time?”
Eloise looked over to the TV as the volume rose…and rose…and rose. She rolled her eyes and stepped out of the living room. Billie had made her point. “Sort of,” Eloise admitted.
“Are you at the inn?”
“No.” Eloise scraped her bangs off her forehead, wishing she’d never cut them. “At home today. I promised the girls I’d take the day off.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll be fast.”
Eloise pulled in a breath as she continued into the kitchen. When Julia didn’t say anything, Eloise said, “Tell me you can accept the management job at the Cliffside Inn, Julia. Or are you crying because you just can’t do it?”
She’d been talking to the brunette since she’d come to the cove for her best friend’s wedding. Eloise experienced a twinge of guilt. She should’ve sent Julia to Clara. She reasoned that she had done that. She’d told her about Friendship Inn. She’d told Clara about Julia. Eloise had made sure to introduce the two of them the weekend of the wedding.
When Julia had called her a week later, Eloise had asked her multiple times if Clara had contacted her. She hadn’t.
“I can take the job!” Julia squealed, and Eloise sagged against the refrigerator in relief.
She started to laugh. “You’re joking.”
“I’m not,” Julia said with plenty of delight in her voice. “I met with my boss here on Nantucket, and she said as soon as she can find a replacement, I can leave.”
Eloise knew there had to be a catch. “What if she can’t find a replacement?”
“My contract is up in September,” Julia said. “So at worst, I couldn’t start until October first.”
Eloise nodded. She was drowning right now, but she would be in October too. And November. She was missing Grace and Billie’s important things, and she didn’t want to keep up the lifestyle she’d been maintaining. Four or five hours of sleep. Constant texts. Even when she was off, she was working.
