Page 67 of The Spotted Cottage By the Sea
Life could still be worse. He could still be answering to studio executives. Russell didn’t miss that in the least. “That’s not too far from my place on San Juan Island.”
“Oh yeah? You ended up moving there after all? I know Mia mentioned it.”
“I did.”
He tried to keep the edge out of his voice. It wasn’t her fault she’d moved on and didn’t keep track of what he was doing with his life. It wasn’t her fault he was discarded goods no one wanted. She was just the first person to identify it.
He cleared his throat. “Listen, I don’t know if this would be too weird, but I could host. You could book a plane. It can’t be more than an hour or two, fly back after dinner.”
“Are you serious, Russ? That would be…I mean, just amazing.” She paused. “There’s just one thing.”
He knew what it was, but he had to play nice. “What’s that?”
“Toby – uh, the guy I’m seeing. We were supposed to spend Thanksgiving together. I don’t know if you know him. Toby McFlaren.” She laughed. “I think you two would get along.”
As if he didn’t know who Toby McFlaren was. He’d won two Golden Globes for his depiction of a prisoner of war inBattleship Echoes,and he’d been voted sexiest man alive last year.
“The big guy? I’ve seen him.” He paused. “Bring him along. I can put him to work chopping some wood. Maybe carrying plywood around.”
Holly laughed, a real one this time. “Do you mean it, Russ? Oh, this would just – I’ve been so torn up about this.”
It was what was best for Lucas and Mia. It was only a matter of time before both of them married and took off on their own. How many more Thanksgiving dinners would they have as a family?
He wasn’t trying to win Holly back; he was past that.
Sure, if he could wake up and find out it had all been a bad dream, he would take it in a heartbeat. But it was too late to win her back. Too much had changed. He had changed.
People liked to ask if he was “over” the divorce. A divorce wasn’t something to get across, like a bridge. It was something completely transformative, like a bomb going off.
He was still here, his heart beating in his chest, getting ideas of its own.
He could forgive Holly, even envy her, with her full life, with her joy. She had no fear of loving again.
Russell was different. Maybe he was overreacting to Sheila trying to get something out of him. He wasn’t sure. He couldn’t think about it. It was too painful to picture her face, her smile, her laugh…
It was too painful to know he’d been living with a false hope – that he could trust again, even live again.
The best he could do was be a gracious ex-husband. “The more the merrier,” he said.
Thirty
As soon as she could do so without attracting suspicion, Sheila made an excuse to retreat upstairs to the privacy of her bedroom.
First, she called her mom back and told her where to find the spare key to the house.
“Please don’t worry about me,” her mom, the stoic, said. “I will make myself at home and make do.”
Sheila sighed. “Sounds good, Mom.”
Of course her mom would show up at a moment like this. She could be a lot of fun when she was around, but she wasn’t helpful in a crisis. She was more like the harbinger of a crisis.
Sheila ended the call, then tried to focus. She couldn’t bear to think past this moment or she’d end up sick to her stomach like the night before.
She gripped Patty’s letter in her hand so tightly that it hurt. If only she could crush the thing, strike it from existence – but the best she could do was call the number listed.
The flat voice on the line confirmed what she’d feared. Patty hadn’t been getting threatening letters from the insurance company; she’d been getting threatening letters from the bank. Ray had taken out a business loan before his death, and Patty hadn’t made a payment in years.
“So you’re saying,” Sheila said, her voice shaking, “unless we can come up with a hundred thousand dollars by next month, you are going to liquidate the business?”
