With only ten days to go until she stepped onto a plane for Edinburgh with the next tour group, Lucy was a blur of motion. Post-it notes with reminders were stuck to every surface of her life: her bathroom mirror, computer monitor, even the dashboard of her car. She’d come home from St. Barts on a high after her time with Nick, flown directly to Buffalo to check in with her mom and her aunt Sharon, spent three days arranging for more hands-on care, paying her mother’s bills, and stocking the house with essentials, and then flown back to Florida to do some laundry and get on top of the details for this next adventure.
She was at her desk on a Thursday, answering emails from the next tour group when the door to her office flew open and a harried looking woman walked in.
“Hi, are you Lucy?” she asked, looking and sounding breathless.
Lucy stopped typing. “I am,” she said. She stood up and came out from behind the desk. “How can I help you?”
“I’m Bailey Melton,” the woman said, extending a hand for Lucy to shake. “Bradford Melton’s daughter.”
Lucy tried hard not to yank her hand away from Bailey’s, but she was sure that her confusion was written all over her face.
“Don’t panic,” Bailey said, holding up both hands in surrender. “I come in peace.”
“Okay,” Lucy said, motioning for Bailey to sit in the chair across from hers. She sat down again behind her desk and waited to hear what Bailey had to say and why she was there.
“I’ll just start by saying that Michelle is not my mother, which I’m sure is obvious, given that we’re basically the same age.”
“Right,” Lucy said, nodding.
“My father has made some choices,” Bailey said, with special emphasis on the word “choices.” Her eyebrows lifted as she paused for a moment. “And I don’t agree with all of them.”
Lucy tilted her head to one side, considering the choices her own father had made—leaving her mother and effectively placing her care in Lucy’s lap being the biggest one. She could probably relate to pretty much anything this woman was about to say.
“Anyhow,” Bailey went on, “when I heard about what happened in St. Barts, I knew I needed to track you down and make things right. Oh,” she said, waving a hand and shaking her head like she’d forgotten something important. “I should have mentioned that I live in Jacksonville, so this wasn’t like a monumental trip or anything.”
“Ah,” Lucy said, lacing her fingers together on her stomach and leaning back in her chair. “Then you didn’t fly in on a special mission or anything glamorous like that.”
“No, no.” Bailey laughed. She was truly a very pretty woman and she seemed kind, so Lucy tried to relax, certain now that Bailey wasn’t there to continue Michelle’s tirade or to say anything bizarre. “But my dad recovered from the accident and got to come home last week, and when I flew in to see him, he told me all about…the situation.”
“I see,” Lucy said, narrowing her eyes. She still had no idea where this was going.
“I’m not sure that you do,” Bailey said, leaning forward and looking Lucy directly in the eye. “He’s wanted to leave Michelle for years, and while I don’t agree with his methods of moving on, or with the fact that he led some sweet woman to believe that Michelle was his daughter instead of his wife, I do agree with him finding someone nice and loving and who is far closer to his age than his current wife is.”
Lucy took this in. It was relatable; she wasn’t the biggest fan of the woman her dad had married after leaving her mother, but she wouldn’t ever go so far as to drive forty-five minutes to deal with his messes after a vacation fling on a tropical island. If, in fact, that was what Bailey was there to do.
“Anyhow, he feels terrible about how things worked out with—is it Elise?”
“Yes, it’s Elise,” Lucy confirmed, looking at Bailey skeptically. “But did you really drive here to tell me this? Why doesn’t your dad just let Elise know himself? I’m sure he has her number.”
Bailey nodded as she pressed her lips together. “Well. That would be ideal, but my stepmother has him under lock and key at the moment, and the reason he can’t just leave her is that they don’t have a solid pre-nup. But that’s a tale as old as time.” She waved a hand again to indicate a subject change. “He did want to get something to Elise though, and I thought maybe if I came to you, you could forward it on to her. That way I’m not asking you to hand over any confidential information to me, and he’s not getting more involved than he can or should be. Does that make sense?”
“I think so. You want me to mail something to Elise on Bradford’s behalf?”
Bailey unzipped her purse and pulled out a folded white envelope. “If you would. I don’t want to make a ton of work for you or anything, so I put it in a blank envelope and put the postage on it and everything.” She thrust it in Lucy’s direction.
Lucy stared at it for a second. “Can I ask what it is before I agree to send it? Purely because I don’t want to upset Elise. She’s a wonderful lady, and she doesn’t deserve to have more reminders of what happened in St. Barts if it’s just going to upset her.”
Bailey nodded as she slipped the strap of her purse over her shoulder again. “Of course. I understand. It’s a letter from my dad that I did not read, but that I understand is an apology of sorts, which I agree with him that she deserves. And I think he also included a check to reimburse her for the trip, because he feels that he ruined it.”
Lucy took in a deep breath. “I don’t want to confirm or deny that, since I’m not Elise, nor can I say whether she’ll accept his money, but if it’s truly an apology, I think I feel good about sending it. I’ll put her address on it and get it into the mail this afternoon.”
Bailey held onto her purse strap and gave Lucy a final nod. “Thank you so much. I really appreciate it, and I know my dad appreciates the chance to try and make things right. Sometimes it takes a person getting to a certain point in their lives before they’re willing to make amends for the things they get wrong, you know?”
“I do know,” Lucy said, holding up the envelope. “I’m on it.”
“It was nice to meet you, Lucy.” Bailey opened the door and then turned one last time before she walked out. “Cute place you got here.” She gave Lucy a smile and then walked across the parking lot, opened the door to a silver Mercedes SUV, and got behind the wheel.
Lucy pulled up Elise’s information on her computer and picked up a pen. Would this be a welcome letter for Elise to receive? Should she warn her before she mailed it? She wrote Elise’s name and address in careful script and then stamped the upper left hand corner with the return address of The Holiday Adventure Club so that it wouldn’t just get lost in the mail forever.
Next door, Nick had Elton John playing in the postal store and Hemingway was sprawled out near the p.o. boxes, as usual.
“Hey, hey,” Nick said, tossing a stack of Express Mail envelopes on the counter and crossing the shop to greet her. “What brings you into my humble little place of business?”
Lucy stood up on tiptoes to put a kiss on his lips. “I need to mail something important.”
“Oh?” Nick looked at her with open curiosity, still holding her by the waist after their quick kiss. “A letter to Santa Claus?”
Lucy rolled her eyes. “It’s April, Nick. It’s obviously a letter to the Easter Bunny.”
He slapped his forehead. “Duh! Okay, let me get some postage on that for you ASAP.”
“Actually, I just had a visit that will blow your hair back when you hear about it.”
Nick was already halfway across the shop and about to pick up the discarded Express Mail envelopes when he turned to look at her. “Spill the beans, girl. I’m ready.”
“Remember Bradford Melton?”
“Douchebag Extraordinaire? Yes, I definitely remember him.” Nick stacked up the envelopes as they talked, tapping their edges against the front counter to make a neat pile that he could shelve in a cubby for customers to access them.
“His daughter just drove in from Jacksonville to deliver a letter—and, she says, a check—for me to mail to Elise.”
Nick looked puzzled. “A check? To what—say he’s sorry with money?”
“Apparently. Although his daughter said it was more like he wanted to pay for Elise’s vacation since he ruined it.”
“He sure as hell did,” Nick said, looking angry on Elise’s behalf. “Guys like that…”
“I know, I know,” Lucy said, holding up the envelope. “But I think it’s the right thing to do, sending it. And I’ll send her a quick email and let her know it’s coming so she’s not surprised.”
“Well, if you think it’s best to send it, then you gotta do what you gotta do.” Nick nodded at the mail slot.
With the envelope held aloft like a magician showing the audience that no sleight of hand was taking place, Lucy walked over and slipped it into the opening. “There. It’s out of my hands now. Let the universe take over.”
Nick finished putting his envelopes away and walked back over to Lucy, putting his hands on her waist again. “The universe can be a pretty magical place,” he said, lowering his lips to hers again. “It’s done some great things for me lately.”
“Oh yeah?” Lucy laughed, kissing him back. “What do you think it’ll do next?”
Nick looked out the window thoughtfully, pulling her even closer. “Hopefully the universe will tell you that you should have dinner with me tonight.”
“Dinner? That’s all you want?” She smiled at him, feeling a happiness like she hadn’t known in a long, long time.
“I’m a simple man.” Nick shrugged.
“Hey, I’m a simple girl,” Lucy said, running her hands up his arms and wrapping them around his neck. “And it just so happens that dinner is my favorite meal.”
“So it’s a date?”
“Nick Epperson,” she said, feeling warm and woozy in his arms. “It’s a date.”