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“I don’t want to sit by myself,” Lena said. She looked like she might throw the uncharged tablet. Her eyebrows dropped into an angry V. “Can we go to lunch with Robin another day?”
“Yes,” Clara said easily. “You can call her and see when she’s available.” She lifted her eyebrows, silently asking Lena if she wanted to go to lunch badly enough to make a phone call.
“Okay.” She tossed the tablet onto the built-in-desk.
“You better go get ready for work, then,” Clara said.
Lena’s face screwed up, and Clara waited for the scream. It didn’t come. She growled loudly and then stomped down the hall to her bedroom.
Clara exhaled slowly, refusing to classify the sound as a sigh. Lena could throw a tantrum, and it wouldn’t be a weight on Clara’s conscience. Not anymore.
She sipped coffee and flipped through her social media while Lena got ready. When it was time to get going, she called for her daughter. She came out of the bathroom, her long hair secured back into a ponytail. She’d slicked it tight and sprayed it with hairspray.
Clara smiled at her. Jamie, Robin’s daughter, had taught Clara how to do her hair like that, and she did it that way every day now. It lasted through her whole shift, and Clara often commented on it when she picked up Lena after work.
“You look great,” she said.
Lena wore black pants and the blue polo for the Cove Market, the bottom of the swooping C going underneath the whole logo.
“Thanks.” Lena didn’t smile, but she’d gotten ready on time, and Clara did think her daughter looked amazing.
“Maybe Carter will be working today,” she said as she turned to pick up her purse.
“Mom.” Lena sounded completely disgusted. “Gross.”
“Gross?” She faced her daughter again and grinned. “I thought you liked Carter.”
“Last week,” Lena said, rolling her eyes. “There’s this new boy in the deli.”
Clara’s eyebrows went up, but she didn’t feel shaky like she had the first time Lena had started talking about boys at the supermarket that she liked.
“How old is he, Lena?”
“I don’t know.” She led the way toward the garage. “His name is Kurt.”
Clara said nothing, but she did smile as she followed her daughter into the garage. She drove her to work in the car she’d borrowed from her mother for today.
She dropped Lena at the market and continued toward the ferry station. Her mother had an annual parking pass, so the gate lifted for Clara without any effort on her part. A lot of her life in Five Island Cove had felt like a total struggle, but not the past five months. Things had gotten considerably easier once she and Scott had chosen to stop rebuilding Friendship Inn, and Clara could honestly say she was happier now than she’d been in a long time. Happier than she’d ever been in the cove before, that was for sure.
She boarded the ferry and went left when all the other passengers turned right. She went to a door marked “personnel only” and knocked smartly a couple of times.
Scott opened the door a few moments later, checked behind her, and stepped out of the way. “Hey.”
She smiled at him as she squeezed into the tiny room with him. She didn’t always stow away in his control room, but she had a few times now, and it was exciting. It felt forbidden, especially when he checked the walkway like he had.
“Are you driving this shift?” she asked.
“I’m on braking,” he said. “They’ll radio when I need to be on.”
The remains of his lunch sat on the tiny desk, and Clara nodded as she picked up the empty bag of chips and put them in the brown bag. “So about a half-hour.”
“Yep.” He took the bag from her and tossed it in the trashcan by the door. They faced one another, and Clara smiled at him as she reached for his collar. He kissed her, and Clara fought him for the first few strokes.
She then sank into him and let him lead. With the door locked from the inside and the only key in Scott’s pocket, a thrill moved down her spine at making love to him here in this tiny, private space.
They’d only done it one other time, but Clara had told him how much she’d liked it, and when she’d told him she was going to lunch with Robin today, he’d said to come to his “office” and he’d hopefully be on braking.
If he’d been driving, he wouldn’t have been alone, and he’d have said something completely different. She wouldn’t have come in at all.
