Page 92 of Dreaming at Seaside
Chapter Twenty-Two
BELLA HAD BEEN lying on her bed staring up at the ceiling for hours, vacillating between thinking that Caden was doing the admirable and right thing and thinking about how the right thing felt horrible. Then guilt swallowed her whole for the latter thought. She’d pretended to be asleep when Jenna and Amy came over and peered into the bedroom. She’d ignored Jamie when he called through the bedroom window, and she’d ignored Pepper’s barking when she heard Leanna returning to her cottage and calling across the road to Amy, explaining that she’d forgotten something.
She tried to doze off. A laughable thought. She had a meeting with the school board in a few hours, and she wanted to be rested, but she couldn’t have slept if her life depended on it. She didn’t want to think or feel. She wanted to pretend today never happened.
Darn it.
She didn’t want to be this person, either. A woman who pined over a man who was only doing what was right for his child. A woman who pined over a man at all. She’d had a plan this summer. Her decisions were supposed to be made based on what she wanted, separate from any man or relationship.
What on earth?
Why did I cave?
When did that happen, exactly?
She caught sight of the bookmark Caden had given her and she groaned aloud. How was she supposed to just push aside her feelings for Caden—and Evan?
Forget this.
She tore off her clothes and wrapped herself in a towel, stomped to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of Middle Sister wine, slipped her feet into a pair of flip-flops, and left her cottage.
A break! A stupid break.
It was well after midnight and the lights in all the cottages were off. She went to Jenna’s bedroom window, put her mouth up to the screen and shielded it with her hands.
“Jenna,” she whispered loudly. “Jenna, get your butt up.”
She heard Jenna grumble in her sleep. “Jenna Ward, I need you.”
“Bella?”
Bella heard feet shuffling across the hardwood floor. Jenna’s face pressed against the screen.
“Are you okay?” Jenna asked in a sleepy voice.
“No. Chunky-dunking. Now.” She left no room for negotiation. “Hurry.”
Jenna’s face disappeared into the darkness. “We came by earlier,” Jenna said as she shuffled around the room. “You were zonked.”
“I was wallowing,” Bella said through the screen.
Jenna’s front door creaked open. She tiptoed across the grass in her towel and matching flip-flops. Her hair was pulled up on top of her head and secured with a plastic clip.
“Are you still upset over Vera and Evan?” Jenna looped her arms into Bella’s and wiggled her toes. “Like my nail polish? Amy’s are red. Mine are blue. We’ll paint yours tomorrow. You got stuck with white.”
“Nope. I’m not getting stuck with anything I don’t want.”
They walked across the quad and between Tony’s and Leanna’s cottages, then crossed the gravel road to Amy’s cottage.
“It’s just nail polish. What were you wallowing over?” Jenna asked as they went around Amy’s cottage to her bedroom window. “Jamie said Evan apologized and explained everything to them. Apparently, he shed a few tears, too. Poor kid. Being a teenager is so hard.”
“Ames,” Bella called through the screen. “Amy! Get your skinny butt up.”
“What?” Amy pressed her nose to the screen and shielded her eyes, peering down at them. “Chunky-dunking? Oh goody! Hold on!”
They made their way down the gravel road, taking swigs of wine and passing the bottle from one to the next.
“Bella wasn’t sleeping when we went over; she was wallowing,” Jenna explained as she fumbled with the lock on the pool gate. The heavy chain clanked against the metal pole.
