Kristen spent most of Wednesday afternoon carefully wrapping the paintings that Andrew had chosen for the showing on Saturday. Andrew had called earlier and said he’d be by around four to collect them. She was a little surprised and disappointed that she hadn’t heard from him since the first time he’d stopped by and they’d gone for burgers.
She’d enjoyed his company and thought that she’d sensed interest. But she’d also told Andrew about her breakup, and he’d told her he’d be happy to ‘hang out’ whenever she was up for it. But she hadn’t reached out either. It wasn’t her way to call up a man she barely knew and invite him out, even as a friend.
She hadn’t thought much of it until this past week, as she had been busy and was still trying to get over Sean. He didn’t make it easy though. She had several missed messages from him and finally a voice message asking her to please call, that it was important.
Once all her paintings were safely wrapped and waiting in the living room for Andrew to arrive, Kristen called Sean. She had a half-hour before Andrew was due to arrive, and she didn’t imagine the call would take long. She just wanted to make sure she was done and ready before she let herself get distracted. Sean answered on the first ring.
“Kristen?”
“Hi Sean. You called? It sounded important.”
“Yeah, I…I appreciate the call back. I miss you. It’s been a few weeks now, I’m just hoping that maybe you’ve missed me too. We can start over. It will be different this time, better.” She liked what he was saying, but she knew him by now.
“Does this mean you’ve filed for divorce? That’s great news.”
There was a long, heavy silence. “Well, no. Not exactly.”
“Not exactly? It’s a simple yes or no question, Sean. Are you getting a divorce?”
“It’s complicated. We’re separated, almost as good as divorced.”
“It’s a world of difference, Sean. I don’t do complicated anymore. Complicated is messy. I like simple. Divorced is simple. Single is too. Simple is good.”
“If you could just be patient and trust me.”
“I’m all out of patience Sean. And I have to go. Please don’t call me again.”
“But, Kristen….”
“Bye, Sean.” Kristen ended the call and walked into her kitchen. A few weeks ago the conversation would have reduced her to a pile of tears, now she felt sad, but there were no more tears for Sean. She made herself a cup of hot cinnamon tea and breathed in its heady, sweet spice.
As she took her last sip, she heard footsteps outside the door and then a polite knock. Andrew had arrived.
She opened the door and felt her spirits lift when she saw him. His smile was easy and big, reaching his eyes as he saw her.
“It’s almost the big day,” he said as he stepped inside. “Are you excited?”
“Yes. A little nervous too,” she admitted.
“Nothing to be nervous about. I’ll be there, and I expect we’ll be packing them in. Daffodil weekend gets crazy.”
“It does. Are you going to the parade?” There was a vintage car parade in the afternoon, and people planted their blankets along the side of the road to tailgate and watch the cars and people go by.
“Probably not. I’ll be in the gallery all afternoon and evening.”
“Of course.”
“What about you, will you go?”
Kristen shook her head. “Probably not. That’s not really my kind of thing. Too crowded.”
“How’ve you been? I thought about calling you a few times, but I didn’t want to be a bother. I was hoping you might reach out to me if you wanted to hang out.”
“I’m good. I’ve just been working a lot. And it wouldn’t be a bother. If you called.”
He grinned. “Good to know.” They had an awkward moment of silence until Andrew nodded at the lined up paintings.
“Are these all going?”
“Yes, they’re all there and ready for you.” She helped him carry the paintings out to the gallery van.
Once they were all safely settled, Andrew turned to leave.
“Do you have plans for Friday night?” he asked.
Of course, it was the one night she did have plans. “I do, I’m going to dinner with my sister and mother. We’re going to the opening of the new restaurant near my mother’s house.”
“Oh, that’s opening this weekend? You’ll have to let me know how it is. Maybe we’ll grab a drink after the show on Saturday. If you’re not too tired. I know it can be draining to be ‘on’. At least that’s what I’ve heard.”
She laughed. “I’m sure that never happens to you. I’d love to have a drink after.”
Lisa was counting the days until Gina’s ‘vacation’ was over. Every time she turned around it seemed like she was running into the woman. As Rhett had predicted, Gina had yet to make it down for breakfast, but she’d chased Lisa down every day for something, extra towels, bottled water, suggestions on who to call for a taxi or where to go for lunch or dinner. Fortunately, she did have friends staying downtown and had met up with them several times so she wasn’t looking to spend all her time with Rhett. Still, she liked to remind Lisa that they were married for over ten years.
Lisa was getting the mail on Thursday when a sleek silver vintage Jaguar roadster pulled up to the house. Seconds later, Gina came flying out the front door, screaming and waving.
“It’s Delilah my daughter!”
A tall, elegant young woman with her mother’s long wavy dark hair got out of the car and came over to them. Lisa knew that she was Rhett’s step-daughter, the one he’d said was going be bringing his car to the island for Daffodil weekend.
Gina introduced them.
“Michelle, this is Lisa. She owns the house where Rhett and I have been staying.” She said it almost as if they were there together, which irritated Lisa.
“Nice to meet you, Michelle.”
“You too.” She turned to her mother. “What time are we going out to dinner? I need to shower and change first.”
“Not till around seven or so. We’re going to go to Rhett’s restaurant. Tonight is their opening night, so he has to be there, but he’ll be able to join us once the restaurant slows down a bit.”
Michelle yawned. “Cool. Maybe I’ll have time to lie down for a bit then.”
“Go ahead and rest up honey. We’re in the room at the end of the hall, upstairs. I left the door ajar.”
Michelle grabbed her overnight bag and went inside. Gina seemed to have more to say, so Lisa waited patiently and glanced at her mail. All bills, as usual.
“We’re so excited to go and support Rhett’s new restaurant. When are you going?”
“Tomorrow night.”
Gina nodded. “That makes sense. Tonight is the soft opening when they work out the bugs. It will mostly be family and friends.”
“Rhett said he wanted things to be as close to perfect for us. We don’t really care when we go, it’s all good.”
“Right. Well, I’m off to visit with Michelle. Enjoy your day.”
As Gina walked off, Lisa shook her head in amusement. Gina seemed determined to try to convince Lisa that she was Rhett’s priority. And it didn’t matter a bit which night they went to celebrate Rhett’s opening. She understood that he wanted to have them wait a day, so they could work the kinks out.
The following morning, she was surprised to see Gina walk in for breakfast for the first time, along with Michelle. Rhett had just sat down with his first cup of coffee and smiled when he saw them.
“Michelle got you up, I see,” he chuckled.
“Not by choice. She’s not exactly quiet in the morning.” Gina poured herself a cup of coffee and joined them, sitting next to Rhett.
“You’re just a grump in the morning,” Michelle said with a smile as she put a bagel in the toaster and helped herself to a glass of orange juice.
“How did the opening go?” Lisa asked.
Gina answered before Rhett could say a word. “It was fantastic. I knew it would be. Rhett has the magic touch…when it comes to restaurants. He always did.”
“Thanks, Gina.” Rhett turned to Lisa. “It went about as well as could be expected. There are always issues the first night, and we had a minor hiccup where the fry station power didn’t want to work, so it looked like we weren’t going to be able to do any fried food. But Henry James of James electric got us up and running before it got busy.”
“That’s a relief.” Lisa knew that fried seafood would be a popular and expected item on the menu. It was something people always wanted on Nantucket.
“So, if you have a craving for a fried fisherman’s platter tonight, we can hook you up.” Rhett winked, and she laughed.
“It’s been a long time since I ordered one of those. What do you recommend?” She looked at Gina and Michelle. “What did you both have?”
“I had the shrimp and scallop scampi. It was good and lemony.”
“I had a stuffed lobster. I knew it would be good because the one at his New York restaurant is to die for. It’s a seafood stuffing, scallops, shrimp, crab and Ritz crackers.”
Lisa smiled. “The secret ingredient.” Many of the restaurants on the Cape and Islands used the buttery cracker crumbs in their stuffing.
“We do a lazy lobster casserole, that’s nice if you don’t want to do any work. The swordfish is my favorite though. It’s an inch and a half thick, lightly dusted with crumbs and broiled in butter.”
“It all sounds good to me. Are you staying through the weekend?” she asked Michelle, who looked up from spreading peanut butter on her bagel.
“No, I’m heading back today, actually. I’m meeting friends in Boston for the weekend, then taking the train back to New York on Sunday.”
“Jillian and I are going to try to come in again tonight. We’ll sit at the bar.” She smiled sweetly at Lisa who had to fight the urge to kick her under the table. “The bar is sleek, black and gray granite with black leather stools. In a big semi-circle. Gives it a cozy feel.”
“I stole that idea from Keeper’s. Adjusted the design after we had dinner at the bar. Mine’s about four times the size though.”
He looked at Gina. “If you want to sit at the bar, I’d advise you to come early. I won’t be able to hold the seats there, and I have no idea what to expect tonight. I’m hoping we will be very busy. We have an encouraging amount of reservations already.”
“I’m not worried about it,” Gina said blithely. Lisa was annoyed that the woman was going again, two nights in a row. She didn’t stay long at breakfast though. She only had coffee and as soon as Michelle was done with her bagel, she wanted to leave and dragged Gina with her.
“She’s making me go shopping,” Gina complained.
Rhett laughed. “You poor thing. Have fun.” He waited until they were gone and then said, “I have plans for us tomorrow afternoon, if you can sneak away for a few hours.”
Lisa was intrigued. “I’m free. What are we doing?”
“We’re going to be in a parade.”