| |
“So, you made it,” his younger sister Lauren razzed him as soon as he shut the door. She sat on the couch and didn’t look up, her thumbs typing away on her phone.
“I’m not that late.” He checked the clock. Only an hour. He looked around the room. His father was sitting in his recliner, Jack in the kitchen. “Adam and Elizabeth aren’t even here.”
“We told them to come a little bit later.” Jack handed him a beer. “We figured you’d be late, after carving the trails.”
“Ha, ha.” Matt twisted the cap off. “Speaking of which, where’s your ball and chain?”
Jack rolled his eyes. “In the kitchen.”
Matt looked in the kitchen and saw Rachael walking out of the pantry with his mom, the two of them fixing something together. Their relationship was natural and easy. Justine and Sarah were like oil and water. Never easy.
“Well, you decided to show up.” Sarah didn’t waste any time.
“I think it was very nice of you to take her snowboarding today,” Rachael said, while laying napkins on the table.
“Yes, it was.” Sarah nodded. “She must be devastated. Apparently, her fiancé hasn’t called her since the whole thing happened.”
“She was supposed to have a guy with her?” John asked from his chair.
“Seriously?” Lauren looked up from her phone. “Mom’s been talking about this all day.”
John just shrugged and returned to reading the paper.
Matt hated thinking about his reaction in the snowstorm. She came to Camden Cove alone. All alone. He looked out the window toward Vivi’s house. He wanted to head over there and make sure she didn’t spend Christmas evening alone, as well, but he decided against it. Tomorrow, he’d take her out on the water and do whatever it took to get her mind off the guy who was crazy enough to let her go.
Sarah shook her head. “Frank said she had no idea it was coming.”
“Mom, stop,” Matt said, as a sudden urge to protect her privacy came over him.
She put her hand on her chest and shook her head. “I just feel terrible for her.”
“It’s none of our business what happened.” He knew how much the women loved a good story, but it didn’t feel right, letting them talk about Katie.
Sarah looked to Rachael, then to Lauren.
The door swung open and his sister walked in with Lucy. Her husband Adam came in behind them with presents in his arms. Matt got up to help.
“Did you hear about Tyler?” Jack asked from the couch.
Matt had noticed that his cousin had called while he was out with Katie, but he figured he was calling for the holidays. “No, what?”
“Some of his traps were cut, too,” Jack said. “Out by Taylor’s Falls.”
Two days of tampering with cages, two different families. This was no longer a joke. “Do they know who’s doing this?”
Jack shook his head. “You should be careful.” He leaned closer to Matt. “I heard Freddy’s buddy O’Malley is back in town.”
There were no laws protecting Maine’s long history of territory rights, but the Atlantic fishermen almost always abided by unwritten rules like law. Families passed down territories from father to son.
Before he could say anything else on the matter, Lucy ran up and squeezed him into a big hug, squealing in delight.
“I thought the lady in the pretty dress was going to be here,” Lucy said. “Is she your girlfriend?”
He noticed that the women in the room all became quiet. “No, she’s not my girlfriend.”
Jack turned to hang up the coats, then started in just as Matt predicted. “So you just take random women snowboarding?”
Matt looked at his mother as she hugged Lucy, ignoring him.
“You totally still have a thing for her,” Elizabeth teased. “You were practically drooling last night.”
He rolled his eyes. “I was not.”
He hoped he hadn’t been. Did Katie think that, too?
“He asked me to give back a mixed CD she made for him!” Lauren hooted from the couch. The women erupted into laughter.
“Last night, you two looked like you were having fun,” Elizabeth continued tormenting him.
He didn’t engage in any of the banter. It was all true, of course, but Matt wasn’t going to admit it.
***
KATE SAT IN FRONT OF the fire with the lights out. Her phone lay face down on the floor in front of her, her journal next to it. She took another deep breath and held it in as she stared at the pulsating coals. Her thoughts swirled out of control once again.
Off in the distance, the ocean’s symphony played its familiar tune. The night had not been as hard as expected. With the driveway and van cleaned off, it prompted her to take a long drive, winding along Route 1, playing sad love songs as she passed through the small seaside villages. When she made her way back home, she found leftovers from the night before with David and Frank, along with more chocolate truffles, in the fridge.
As she sat in front of the fire, she opened the leather cover of her journal and wrote lobstering. She immediately crossed it out. She didn’t want to jinx herself. Planning didn’t seem to work out that well for her.
And just like that, Eric popped into her head. Things she didn’t allow herself to see before, that were now as clear as day. Problems she either denied, or chose to ignore. Not that it mattered now, she supposed, but her heart didn’t seem to want to admit it. She still held out hope that they could be fixed, just as soon as he reached out to her. How long was she willing to wait?
The what-ifs took over. What if she hadn’t pushed the dream wedding so much? What if they waited to buy a house? What if she paid attention to the signs?
A while back, a drive and an old love song used to help get her mind off her pain, but now her pain just remained there. Anchored.