Page 56 of The Spotted Cottage By the Sea
Granny pulled them both in for a tight hug. “Absolutely perfect.”
Twenty-four
Maybe it was time to go back to the wolves. Russell’s attempt to rejoin society had been admirable, but he was ready to admit he’d failed.
He kept replaying that moment with Sheila over and over again. He didn’t know what had gotten into him. He hadn’t planned on trying to kiss her, but they had been in that little office and she was so close…
Maybe his attempted kiss wasn’t as obvious as he thought? Maybe it was all in his head?
No. She’d known what he was doing, and she couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
The only saving grace was that he’d thought to lie that he couldn’t come over for the tea shop debut.
The trouble was he didn’t actually have any plans. He decided to leave the island anyway to avoid running into her, and once he was safely on the mainland, he came up with things to do.
His biggest distraction was preparing for Thanksgiving. It was Holly’s turn to host the kids, but she was shooting a movie and didn’t know if she’d be done in time. Russell wanted to be ready in case the kids decided to come and stay with him.
He set about buying all the little things he was missing – extra pillows, serving dishes. A roasting pan.
That evening, he got dinner with some old friends and, afterward, when he still wasn’t quite ready to go back to the island, he booked a hotel room for the night.
Early the next morning, Russell was getting a breakfast sandwich from McDonald’s when he got a call from Harry at Marine Magic Funland.
“I’m betting you have great news for me,” Russell said.
“No, Russell! I’ve got bad news!”
Sarcasm didn’t translate for Harry. “Aw, really?”
“I know you’re a busy man, but I need you to come in. We need to talk. All of us owners.”
It was another excuse to stay off-island and he was all for it. “You’re in luck. I can be there in an hour or two.”
He made the drive over to Marine Magic Funland and approached the front gate slowly. There were roller coasters as far as he could see, whizzing and screaming by.
It wasn’t busy, and he wasn’t sure if it was normal for it to not be busy, but he suspected so. He’d only been to the park once before, when Holly had been shooting her movie there. He’d come to visit her on set, but she was so annoyed by his presence he didn’t dare come again.
Harry was waiting just past the ticket gates. “Come with me. The other owners are here. Have you met them? Mr. and Mrs. Smitt.”
“Like the spy movie? Mr. and Mrs. Smith?” Russell asked with a smile.
“They don’t like that, don’t do that,” Harry said, hurrying along.
“What’s going on?” Russell asked, following behind. “You’re acting like we’re under attack.”
He looked over his shoulder and lowered his voice. “We are.”
They wove through the park and got to a nondescript brown building on the grounds. Inside, Harry led him to a room with a long table.
Mr. and Mrs. Smitt were already there. They were formally dressed and had that long-lived relationship look where they’d started to resemble each other.
Was it the clothes? They both wore gray suit jackets. The husband had a black tie, the wife a black neck scarf.
It was more than that, though. Their faces were the same shape, their eyes the same color, and their skin was the same stage of wrinkling.
Russell had to stop staring. He cleared his throat and introduced himself.
“We know who you are,” Mr. Smitt said flatly. “There’s no need for theatrics.”
