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“Not trying to help my sisters keep The Sea Glass Cottage going I hope,” he said.
“Stepsisters,” Jeanette corrected. It flew out of her mouth immediately, her brain not even processing the words before she said them. She blushed uncomfortably, not sure where that little quip would land. To her discomfort, Joe only sneered, revealing two crooked rows of yellow teeth.
“That’s right, you ladies stick together. I should have known that’s what you’re back here for,” he said, looking her up and down as if disgusted. “That’s fine. It doesn’t matter. They don’t have the stuff it takes to run a place like that. It should have gone to me. Like my dad wanted.”
Jeanette’s one brow arched in a challenging manner. She didn’t want to get into an argument with Joe. Not in the store and not on her very first day back. But the urge to do so was strong.
“Whatever you say, Joe,” she replied, staring right back at him with a straight face. “Listen, I’ve really enjoyed our little reunion, but I’m nearly finished with my shopping and need to get back. Lots to do you know. Especially since it's just us three little ladies working all alone.”
To her amusement, Joe’s had the decency to look flustered, and she took that opportunity to steer her cart around him and head to the checkout.
4
“How was the store?” Amanda asked. Jeanette had pulled back up to The Sea Glass Cottage, and Amanda and Whitney had come out to help carry in the groceries.
“I ran into your brother,” Jeanette replied, her tone flat. Amanda and Whitney both grimaced.
“Yikes. We were hoping it would be a while before you saw him,” Whitney said, taking an armful of cloth tote bags.
“He looks so…” Jeanette trailed off, not able to think of a polite way to express her thoughts.
“Yeah,” Amanda agreed, shaking her head sadly, “time has not been kind to him. But maybe that’s just payback for him not being kind to the world.”
Jeanette laughed as she followed her cousins back into the house. “That’s a great way to put it.”
“Did he say anything to you besides hello?” Amanda asked, starting to put groceries away.
“Nothing surprising,” Jeanette replied with a shrug, “other than the three of us are doomed because we don’t have a man around.”
“Is that what we are?” Whitney asked in mock amazement. “Here I thought the proper term was blessed.”
“Amen, sister,” Amanda replied, making Jeanette laugh again. They all worked together to put the rest of the groceries away, chatting as they did so about Joe’s progress from bad boy to miserable old man.
“Mom always thought he had the potential to turn it all around,” Amanda explained. “She thought that if he’d just been handed the right opportunity, he’d straighten himself out and not be so hateful. But, the more she and our stepdad tried to help him, the more things Joe ended up ruining. Originally, ownership of The Sea Glass Cottage was to go to the three of us. But when Joe ended up in trouble with the feds a few years ago, Mom decided to cut him out. She left him a little of her savings, but he blew through that in less than a week.”
“What happened there?” Jeanette asked, intrigued.
“He thought he was going to be the next big fish mogul,” Whitney explained, rolling her eyes. “But, of course, all of his ideas involved cheating of some sort. He started boasting about a business license and got into a few deals with some of the local boatsmen. But he failed at holding up his end of the deals almost immediately and got caught in a bunch of lies. Eventually, the boatsmen he screwed over got the authorities involved. That’s when they found out his business wasn’t real, and that he was selling illegally outside of shopping centers on the mainland. It was a big mess.”
“Sounds like a gem,” Jeanette said sarcastically. Both Amanda and Whitney nodded.
“Honestly, though, it’s a little hard not to feel sorry for him.” Amanda sighed.
“Speak for yourself,” Whitney replied quickly, adding a cackle. “That man is meaner than a rattlesnake that swallowed a balloon full of cement. He’s had at least three decent women try to spruce him up and change his ways, and he chased every single one of them away. That’s a man who knows who he is and likes it. There’s no reason to feel sorry for him.”
“Here, here,” Jeanette said in agreement.
Once the groceries were all put away, Jeanette, Amanda, and Whitney headed to the back deck of The Sea Glass Cottage that overlooked the beach. Their conversation switched from Joe to much more pleasant things as the day slowly turned into night. Like the old friends they were, they finished one another’s jokes, reminisced about the old pretend games they’d played as children, and discussed only the bright possibilities of their future.
Later, when they were all talked out and ready for bed, the three of them hugged each other goodnight and went their separate ways. After a long shower, Jeanette finished unpacking, no longer hindered by thoughts of Daniel, and then grabbed her sketchbook before heading back out to her balcony. She by no means considered herself an artist, but it was a hobby she used to enjoy much more frequently before her life got busy and Daniel gave up on working. As she started to sketch, a smile grew on her face, and for the first time in a while, she felt at peace.
5
With as busy as her couple of days had been, Jeanette found little to no time to lose herself in thoughts of Daniel or her old job. With a renewed work ethic, she had checked off everything on Amanda and Whitney’s list and had found that she quite enjoyed helping with the weekend dinner services they hosted. The work was not only fun, but so was interacting with their guests. She discovered that most of them were tourists that at one time or another had stayed at The Sea Glass Cottage, and they were all eager for it to open its doors once again.
When Jeanette wasn’t working on tasks around the bed and breakfast or helping with the dinner arrangements, her time was easily filled with pleasant conversations with Amanda and Whitney. She had missed them more than she realized and for many reasons. Of course, not everything they discussed was all sunshine and rainbows.
Jeanette had known that Amanda had married some fifteen years ago, but she hadn’t been able to make it to the wedding. But what she hadn’t known was that she had gotten married for less than romantic reasons. Instead, she had married for friendship and favor. A good friend she’d met in college had needed a green card, and Amanda had agreed to become the necessary stepping stone for her husband to qualify for citizenship. Though their marriage wasn’t romantic, it was full of love. She got to meet Javier on the first night of their dinner service and she found him to be kind, funny, and sensitive, very much like her cousin.
