Page 51 of Sweet Love at Bayside
I don’t want to know what that wink was for.
“But don’t worry. I’ll still be here for your delicious, happy-humper, post-coital breakfasts every morning.”
“Ohmygosh.” Desiree buried her face in Rick’s chest.
Rick tipped her face up, a wide grin lighting up his handsome face. “I guess we can never stop, or everyone will starve.”
NO ONE STARVED over the next week and a half. In fact, everyone around Desiree and Rick probably gained ten pounds. Their ravenous appetites for each other carried over into even more elaborate breakfasts. Violet had let that slip at a bonfire last week, and Drake and the others had begun finding reasons to drop by at breakfast time. Even Mira and Hagen had joined them. Hagen had helped Desiree cook French toast, reminding her of how far her mind had strayed from her life back home. She hadn’t thought about school or teaching at all, although she missed Emery even though they’d been keeping in touch with texts and phone calls. She loved every minute of having so many people to cook for. A room full of people who felt like family made the house feel alive. She’d even begun looking up recipes again. She knew this summer was like playing house, but she couldn’t help wishing it never had to end.
It was Saturday evening, and she and Rick planned to go out for another surprise date. She was used to being the planner, but she realized that as much as she loved schedules and plans, she’d been running pretty loosey-goosey all summer, taking up the slack when Violet got caught up in doing pottery or exploring the area and stealing time for moonlit walks and stargazing in the widow’s walk with Rick. They’d even gone into town and listened to a band play by the beach. She wasn’t a vagabond like her mother, but it felt good to let herself ride the wind a little bit.
She walked along the driveway picking flowers from the newly manicured gardens, dwindling away the time as she waited for Rick and marveling at how the yard and house were coming together. It had taken months for the gardens to become tangles of vines and weeds that had nearly suffocated all the flowers. But it had taken only a few days to make them beautiful again. It was funny how a little love could make everything better. The renovations to the house were nearly complete, and the flower boxes had kept Cosmos from climbing over the fence, although he had started digging under the fence despite the new plastic pool Rick had bought for him. What had started out as a disastrous turn of events had turned into a life-changing summer.
She carried the flowers to Violet’s cottage, remembering how, when she was a little girl, she’d dreamed about living in one, with Violet next door and her mother in the big house.Little-girl-lost dreams.In a sense, this summer had made that dream come true.
Desiree peered through Violet’s screen door. Her sister stood by the back window, reading. She wore a black miniskirt and a tank top. Her finger trailed along the page as she read. She looked content.Sweeteven. Cosmos was asleep on the living room couch. How could she leave them at the end of the summer?
“Hey,” Desiree said.
Violet glanced up, smiling as she closed the book.
“I brought you some flowers. Can I come in?”
“Sure.” She held the book against her chest.
“I can’t believe I haven’t been in any of the cottages before this.” Desiree stepped inside, taking in the artsy batik wall hangings and the pictures Violet must have taken from their mother’s studio covering bright white walls. Tie-dyed throws covered the arms and back of the white sofa and wicker chair. The setup hadn’t changed from when she was a little girl. A bar still separated the living room from the kitchen, and a small eating area led to French doors, which opened to a small deck in the backyard.
“Let me get a vase.” Violet grabbed a pretty, colorful glass vase from a cabinet. “The other two cottages are in good shape. Thanks for the flowers. They’re beautiful.”
“Did you make all these batiks and throws? They’re really pretty. I’d love to buy one from you.” Violet had started working with fabrics with Lizza when she was around twelve. Desiree was glad she was still making them.
“I made them, and I’ll make you one, but you’re not buying it.”
“Thanks.” Desiree walked across the room to look at pictures on the wall more closely. “You took some of Lizza’s pictures?”
“I’ll put them in the shop when we need more stock. But the white walls were killing me.” She put the flowers in the vase and set them on the table. “I thought you had a big date with Rick.”
“I do. He’s picking me up soon, but I was taking a walk and wanted to bring you the flowers.”
“You look hot,” Violet said.
“Thanks. I still have no idea where we’re going.” She’d worn the dress she was wearing the first night she and Rick had met. She caught sight of the first picture she’d painted, the one of Violet as a little girl, hanging in the dining room. “You took my painting?”
“I probably should have asked. Do you mind?” Violet crossed her arms over the book she was holding, a pensive expression on her face.
“No. I’m flattered, but I thought you hated that dress.”
Violet shrugged. “I did. But you painted it.” She busied herself putting the book she was reading on top of a stack of others by the couch and straightening them. “That made it special.”
Desiree felt like she was going to cry, but as she and Violet grew closer, and she made new friends, and the renovations came to fruition—with a new kitchen, baths, and paint colors she and Violet had chosen together—and Rick’s return to DC neared,everythingmade her feel that way.
“What were you reading?” Desiree asked, to try to force her weepiness away.
She held out the book, and Desiree scanned the title.Running a Bed-and-Breakfast for Dummies.“Are you thinking of staying after Lizza comes back?”
“Don’t you meanifshe comes back?” Violet plopped onto the couch.
“You have a point. I hadn’t really thought about that, although I should have, given her history.”
