Page 35 of The Spotted Cottage By the Sea
“Do you know who Granny’s celebrity crush is?” Sheila asked.
Before Eliza could answer, Patty emerged from the cottage with a dish rag on her shoulder. “What’s the matter with you two? I said leave it!”
Sheila felt like she’d recovered from purging her secrets and decided to have a little fun with Patty’s. “Have you told Eliza about the new man in your life?”
A scowl settled onto her face. “What? What man? There’s no man. There are no men in my life.”
Eliza raised her eyebrows. “You mean Idris Elba?”
Patty’s mouth popped open, and Sheila and Eliza burst into hysterics.
Patty let out a tut as she wiped down the table. “You two,” she muttered, hiding a smile.
Eliza smiled and turned back to tidying up.
It lifted Sheila’s soul to hear Eliza laugh. She’d grown so serious in the last few years, so hard to reach. Sheila knew she was unhappy. She could feel it in her long silences, see it in her sullen eyes.
Sheila would do anything to make her daughter happy, but there was not much she could do. Now that she had come to the cottage, something already felt different. This was the right place for all of them. There was something healing about it. She had a real chance to help Patty, and Eliza, and even Lottie.
Maybe, if she was lucky, she could help herself a little, too.
They spent the rest of the evening trying to convince Patty to let them inside the tea shop. She didn’t break down until just before her eight o’clock bedtime.
“All right, all right. Tomorrow morning, I’ll let you both in to see it. But no teasing about what a disaster it is. I’m serious. I can’t bear it.”
Sheila and Eliza promised not to tease, and the next morning, after Patty served a very full breakfast, she slowly walked them over to the tea shop.
“It would break Ray’s heart to see it shuttered like this,” she said. “It got to the point where I thought if I didn’t go inside, I could convince myself it was just closed for a long weekend.”
“Hm,” Eliza said. “Denial. I use that all the time. I didn’t know it was a family trait.”
“I’m sure it’s not that bad,” Sheila said, but she prepared herself for the worst.
The outside of the building didn’t look too rough – not as rundown as the cottage. It was a more recently touched structure, updated by Ray himself to fulfill Patty’s lifelong dream of running a tea shop.
Growing up, Patty’s military father had been stationed all over the world – South Korea, Japan, London, and even Poland for a brief spat. Young Patty had thrived on going from place to place, and her hippy soul soared, fascinated by the people she met and the places she saw. She was especially interested in how tea mattered in each culture and dreamed of running a shop of her own one day.
When she and Ray had moved to the island, he’d vowed to build her the tea shop of her dreams. It was a humble building – one level with an entryway, a small kitchen, and three tea rooms.
The first room was London-themed, another was Japanese style, and the last tearoom was designed for children.
That had always been Sheila’s favorite. There were cartoon characters painted on the walls, scenes around campfires, and whimsical moons and stars. Patty had made a special menu with hot chocolate, cookies, and miniature s’mores cooked over little candles.
When they had first opened, it was magical, and their offerings had been quite popular. People had raved about enjoying tea on the patio with a gorgeous view of the water.
Sheila knew that for Patty to abandon this dream, it had to have been quite bad. She braced herself as they reached the front door. Patty’s hand shook as she unlocked it.
“I can’t go in,” she said, shoving the keys in her coat pocket. “You go. I’ll be at the cottage. I’m making the Jennifer Aniston salad I emailed you about. Did you see it? The recipe? They said she ate it all the time when she was shootingFriends.”
Sheila shook her head. “I don’t think so, but I’m sure it’s lovely.”
“Fresh mint and parsley, that’s the key,” Patty called out as she walked away. “I’ve got good lemons for it, too.”
They watched her make her way back to the cottage. Eliza turned to Sheila. “Poor Granny.”
She sighed. “I know. Let’s take a look.”
She pushed the door open and they walked inside. There was dust and spiderwebs, which she had expected, but otherwise, it looked tidy. Sunlight streamed through the windows onto an apron hanging behind the cash register, as though waiting to be put into service at any moment.
