Page 7 of Saltwater Secrets
“You’re an incredible woman, Aria,” Darcy told her, her voice firm.
It was an evening of building Aria back up again, an evening of reminding her how strong she was. But when they returned to the house Hilary had raised Aria in, the house she now shared with Marc, Aria hurried upstairs to her old childhood bedroom and tried and failed to muffle her sobs.
Downstairs, Marc wrapped Hilary in a hug, pressed a kiss to her ear, and said, “She’s going to be okay. We’re going to make sure of it.”
Despite Hilary’s joy, despite how well everything seemed to be going, despite the fact that Marc was her rock and her eyes were healthy and her family was all together, her heart still broke for her daughter. It wasn’t fair that life’s many trials demanded heartache.
Chapter Four
One Week Later
It had slipped Aria’s mind to tell her mother about the phone call from Dorothy Wagner. Throughout her long nights at her parents’ place, swiping through social media and trying not to think about Thaddeus, Aria felt her mind like a pickled turnip: slightly gross and sludgy. On the late morning her mother returned to the office for the first time, Aria knew she was meant to tell her something and searched her papers until she found Dorothy’s phone number. She winced. Poor Dorothy! Did she feel forgotten, all alone in that big house of hers, wherever it was? But before Aria could say anything, Hilary announced they were going out to lunch. “My treat,” she said.
Hilary knew the importance of this day but was mercifully not bringing it up.
As they walked to the little sandwich and salad place down the road, Aria’s eyes scanned the horizon, searching for some sign of the ferry boat whisking Thaddeus away from Nantucket, off toward Boston, where he’d take the plane to London. Hereyes welled with tears, so much so that when they sat down at the bustling lunch place, she could barely read the menu. She ended up ordering exactly what her mother did: a tuna sandwich with a bean soup.
“You don’t like bean soup,” her mother said after the server left.
Aria let out a sob, then clapped her hand over her mouth.
“Oh, honey,” Hilary whispered. “It’s going to be all right.”
Before he left, Thaddeus had wanted to see Aria one more time. He’d wanted them to go out for burgers and talk about what the summer meant. Aria wasn’t sure what it was he was after. Confirmation that they could get back together after summer? Confirmation that she shouldn’t get her hopes up about getting back together? It felt too early for a relationship wrap-up, a list of what went wrong and who’d done the worst. Aria was still grieving.
So she’d told Thaddeus that she couldn’t see him. She’d texted: write me when you get back. She assumed she’d be ready then, although October felt like an eternity away.
Rather than talk about Thaddeus now, Aria told her mother, “I forgot to tell you about a potential new client. Dorothy Wagner? She called last week, and it completely slipped my mind. I’m sorry.” She raised her chin and met her mother’s gaze because she wanted her mother to know she was the type of person to own up to her mistakes.
Hilary didn’t skip a beat. “I haven’t seen Dorothy in years. I was sad she couldn’t make it to the wedding. But a week is nothing to her, really. She doesn’t leave her house much. I’ll give her a call when we get back to the office.”
Aria breathed a sigh of relief.
Later, when the soup arrived, she could barely choke it down.
From her desk, Aria listened to her mother on the phone with Dorothy Wagner, arranging for them to swing by her home later that evening.
“That’s very kind of you,” Hilary said to Dorothy. “And we’re looking forward to seeing you as well. It’s been too long.”
Hilary hung up and scribbled something down on a pad of paper.
“Did she say anything about what she wants done?” Aria asked, remembering that Dorothy had left her with very few details.
“She said she’ll cover it in person,” Hilary said.
Aria had a flashing image of Thaddeus, probably at the airport by now, handing over his suitcase and printing his boarding pass. Did he have enough money to buy a coffee? A beer? Was he nervous about the flight? It occurred to her she didn’t know if he’d ever flown on a plane before.
Snap out of it, she told herself.
“Why doesn’t she leave her house?” Aria asked.
Hilary furrowed her brow. “You know, I’m not sure. I have a few memories of her at your grandparents’ place when I was growing up, before she sort of locked herself away. Maybe Mom knows something.”
Before Aria could respond, Hilary called Estelle at home. Estelle answered on the second ring, calling out, “Well, isn’t this a surprise?”
Hilary smiled at Aria. Aria had the sense that her mother and grandmother were being extra kind in the face of Aria’s relationship’s demise.
“Mom, you’ll never believe who wants us to work on her house,” Hilary said sweetly. “Dorothy Wagner!”
