Chapter Forty-Two

For once, chatty Jaci Barros did not want to chat.

Olivia found her sitting on her bed, headphones on, looking at her phone. Her suitcase, packed but still open, sat in the middle of the floor. When she saw Olivia, she removed her headphones. “Hey, what are you doing here?”

“I heard you’re leaving town,” Olivia said. “So I wanted to say goodbye. May I sit?”

Jaci shrugged.

Olivia perched on the edge of the bed. “So…why the rush?”

“It’s just time to go,” Jaci said. “You get that, right?”

“Look,” Olivia said. “Your mother is really upset and I’m wondering if you could compromise? Stay a week or two longer just to show you’re not, I don’t know, running away from them?”

Jaci narrowed her eyes. “Aren’t you the one who told me I had a right to live my own life? How did you put it? It’s better to just pull the Band-Aid off.”

Olivia nodded. “I did say that. But—”

“But what? Now that you’re hooking up with my brother, it’s not true anymore?”

Olivia bit her lip. “How do you know about that?”

“Come on. You two aren’t exactly stealthy.” She smiled. “For the record, I’m psyched about it. Except for the fact that now you’re taking his side.”

“I’m not taking anyone’s side,” Olivia said. “I just realized I gave you the wrong advice.”

“So now I don’t have a right to live my own life?”

“You do. Of course you do. But I think I was telling you to do whatever you wanted without thinking about your mother’s feelings, figuring she’d get over it. And I realized that when we have rifts with our mothers, there’s no getting over it.”

Jaci’s eyes filled with tears. “Well, I have to leave. I just have to.”

“Okay,” Olivia said. “But maybe do it in a less hurtful way.”

Something caught her eye across the room, something gold and glittery sticking out of the small wastepaper basket near Jaci’s desk. Now that she was looking, she noticed a trail of glitter from the bed to the desk. “What is all that?”

“Oh. I was making some stuff for Carnival. But now I’m not going to need it.”

Carnival. She’d seen it listed on the calendar of events posted on the refrigerator at Shell Haven. She’d heard people talking about it as the biggest party of the summer.

Olivia thought of the way her mother had convinced her father to stay a few more weeks, roping him in over July 4. If she’d just asked him to stay longer, he would have refused. But when she said, Oh, just stay for the holiday, it seemed more reasonable. Everybody liked parameters.

She stood from the bed, hesitated a few seconds, then retrieved the gold mask from the trash. It was clearly handmade, the glitter shedding under her fingers. She carried it back to the bed; gold dust littered the bedspread. “Why don’t you stay for Carnival?”

Jaci shook her head. “I’m leaving today.”

Olivia brushed away the glitter and moved closer to Jaci. “Running off just makes your mother feel rejected. It calls so much negative attention to yourself. Just give them a few more weeks. Otherwise they’re going to wonder what’s wrong. They’re worried about you. And I’ll be here too. We can talk about New York and what you want to do after school.”

Jaci seemed pensive. “I don’t want my parents to freak out. Nothing’s wrong, okay?”

“Well, if nothing is wrong, maybe you should prove it by staying.”

Jaci said something in response but Olivia was distracted. Was that her mother’s voice downstairs?

  

The first season of any business was trial and error, and Elise and Fern were still figuring out the patterns of their regular customers and the flow of tourists. They had debated what time to open that morning, wondering if they should adjust to some sort of late holiday schedule. But since they had been awake since dawn, and Rachel was available to watch Mira, they opened the doors not long after nine and found themselves alone behind the counter.

“You smell good—like lavender,” Fern said.

“It’s Ruth’s body lotion,” Elise said. “I’m obsessed with it. And she puts all her stuff in those cute little blue jars.”

“I know. They’re everywhere at Shell Haven.”

Elise walked over to the shelves of tea tins and rearranged a few, thinking. She turned back to Fern. “What if we sold some of her products here?”

“Skin-care products?”

“Why not? Think about why we became interested in tea in the first place. It all comes down to wellness, and if a product falls under that umbrella, we could carry it in the shop.”

Fern nodded. “That’s true. And she created Liv Free. She knows what she’s doing, so I’m not worried about quality.”

“I guess it just becomes a question of our brand,” Elise said. “Are we a tea shop or are we a tea-and-sundries shop—”

The front door’s bells chimed, heralding the arrival of Bianca Barros. Elise noticed immediately that Bianca was wearing white, not black.

“Bianca,” Elise said. “This is a new look for you.”

“It’s a new day,” Bianca said. “I am turning a corner.”

Elise and Fern looked at each other. “Well, that’s great,” Fern said. “It’s nice to hear you so optimistic.”

Bianca walked closer to the counter, squinting at the chalkboard menu.

“Can we get you something?” Elise said.

“Yes,” Bianca said, leveling her eyes at her. “I want my house back.”

Fern, clearly at the end of her patience, let out a loud groan. “Haven’t we exhausted this topic, Bianca?”

“No, I don’t think we have,” she said. “I’m moving back to town. Two winters in Florida were enough. I am done being displaced. I’m prepared to make you a fair offer on the house—I’ll pay what you two paid Pilar for it. But not a penny more.”

“We are not selling the house,” Elise said. “We told you, renting it out is just temporary.”

“Why did you move back in if you’re renting it out?” Bianca said.

“We didn’t move back in,” said Fern.

Bianca crossed her arms. “I know the truth about that baby.”

Elise’s heart began to beat fast. She’s bluffing, she told herself. She doesn’t know anything. Fern walked to the door and opened it.

“I want you to leave,” Fern said. “You’ve been provoking us long enough. I’m sorry that you’re unhappy with your life, but I’m not going to let you come in here week after week and take it out on us.” Elise wanted to throw her arms around her wife.

Bianca didn’t move. For what seemed like a very long time but was probably no more than half a minute, no one said a word. Finally, Bianca walked to the door, but before she left, she turned around and said, “That baby was left on your doorstep. It should be reported to the police. Now, I’m willing to stay out of it. But I want my house back.”

  

Olivia was surprised to find her mother in the Barroses’ kitchen and even more surprised by how jittery and off she seemed. Her mother apologized to Lidia for stopping by so early. “I really just meant to drop this off. I didn’t think anyone would be awake.”

Lidia, distracted by the drama with Jaci, accepted the gift bags and mumbled her thanks.

“We should go,” Olivia said quickly, and she hustled her mother outside.

“I didn’t expect to actually see anyone,” Ruth said. They walked along Commercial, just now coming to life, heading back to Shell Haven. “I just needed to clear out the kitchen. And I wanted to go for a walk. So, two birds with one stone.”

“Are you okay?”

“Fine,” her mother said. She tried to convince Olivia to keep her company while she made her last stop at her real estate agent’s office.

“No, I’m going back to the house,” Olivia said.

Her mother suggested breakfast, and Olivia’s stomach rumbled.

They reached Café Heaven and found a line already out the door. They decided to wait, since every place would be crowded. Ruth gave her name to the host.

“I’m glad you’ve struck up a friendship with Jaci,” her mother said. “I think…I think that girl needs a friend.”

Her mother seemed almost misty-eyed, and Olivia thought, for the dozenth time since reaching town, that Ruth was not the distracted, work-obsessed, selfish person she remembered. Could selling the company have really created such a dramatic change? Or had Olivia, due to her own neediness and lack of empathy, simply judged her too harshly?

Either way, all she wanted in that moment was a mother to confide in.

“Mom,” she said. “I wasn’t at the house because I’m friends with Jaci. I was there because I’m involved with Marco.”

“Marco Barros?” Ruth said, as if there were any other Marco. Olivia nodded. Her mother smiled. “He’s adorable.”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” Olivia said, sighing.

“Is there a problem?”

“The problem is that I don’t live here. And Marco has never even been to New York. Once I get back to work, how much time can I really spend here?”

“Oh, Olivia. These are just details. These are good problems to have. The important thing is that you met someone you care about. And who cares about you. Life is full of obstacles, and it just takes patience to overcome them. Do you have to get back to New York next week?”

“No.”

“Do you have to get back to New York next month?”

“No. But I should. And I don’t want to overstay my welcome at the house. Do you want me to—”

“Olivia, this is a dream for me. All I want is time with my daughter.” She stepped closer and hugged her, and Olivia felt the primal comfort of being enveloped in her mother’s arms.

Olivia thought about Lidia’s despair at the thought of Jaci leaving. “The reason I was talking to Jaci this morning was that she plans on leaving today. Her mother is really upset. I feel responsible because I once told Jaci she needed to do what was best for herself and not worry about her mother.”

“It’s not your fault,” Ruth said quickly. Too quickly.

“How do you know?”

Ruth looked uncomfortable. “I just don’t think it is. Is she really leaving town? Today?”

“I don’t know. I asked her to reconsider. I tried reasoning with her.”

Her mother tensed.

“Mom, is something going on?”

“No. No, of course not.”

“If there is, I need you to tell me. Marco is concerned about her; Lidia is upset. Is there something I should know?”

Ruth shook her head. “Just keep on being a good friend. That’s all you can do.”

The host called out her mother’s name and waved them inside. Olivia followed her mother to the table, trying to quell the feeling that her mother was lying to her. It was an old, cynical pattern of thinking, one she was trying to move past in the spirit of having a more amicable relationship.

They were seated by the window, and her mother smiled at her. No, of course she wasn’t lying to her.

Everything was different now.