Reece had been on cloud nine ever since her first date with Ted. It had gone extremely well, so well that she couldn’t stop thinking about him. Which was a problem because every time his face or name flitted in her mind, it was joined with a pang of guilt.
She had to tell Shelby the truth. The woman was her best friend in Sugar Cove, and she deserved to know.
But the problem was that every time Reece planned to tell her friend, something always came up—like her guilt, for instance.
“You never told me how your date with Ted was,” her mother asked one night when they were having dinner. This was Evelyn and Baxter’s last night in town, so Chandler was having dinner with them. This left the other two women to enjoy the evening breeze while listening as the waves slapped against the shore.
“I didn’t tell you how it went?” she asked, trying to dodge the question.
Her mother slid a piece of French baguette through the spinach and crab dip that Reece had made for their light supper. “No,” she said with a pointed look, “you didn’t tell me at all.”
“Okay, well, it was…” She cringed.
“It went that well, huh?”
“I wish that I could say otherwise.” Things would be so much easier if she could. “But it did go really well. He’s already called and asked for another date.”
What she didn’t mention was that when he called, they spoke for an hour about absolutely nothing and everything at the same time. It felt like she had known him her whole life, which scared and thrilled her.
“Honey, have you told Shelby?”
“And there’s the problem.” She dragged a slice of baguette through the dip, which was golden brown on top. She took a bite and the zing of the mayonnaise hit her tongue first, followed by the sweet crab meat and the earthy flavor of the spinach. She finished chewing before adding, “No, I haven’t told her. I don’t know how, and we have another date coming up.”
“Usually honesty is the best policy.”
“I know.” She grimaced. “But this is harder because how am I supposed to break this to Shelby? She likes him so much, and he told me that he doesn’t have the same feelings for her. If he did, he would’ve asked her out a long time ago.”
“I can see truth in that. You probably don’t want my advice—”
“I do; I want anything you can give me.”
“Okay, in my opinion, this is like ripping off a Band-Aid. You can either do it quickly or you can go about it slowly, which is a lot harder because you’re in agony the whole time.”
“Are you in agony when you take off Band-Aids?” she joked.
Her mother shot her a stern look. “You know what I mean.”
“I know. I do.” She raked her fingers through her hair. “I just wish it was easier.”
She dropped her hands to the table, and her mother reached out, squeezing one. “When you look back on this, you’ll see that it was easy, and when Shelby really thinks about it, when she realizes that Ted has never returned her feelings, she’ll be happy for you. If she isn’t, well then, things might not work out the way that you’d like. But I have a feeling that everything will be okay between y’all.”
Reece was tired of talking about her love life, so she expertly changed the subject with, “And how’s the diary going?”
Her mother slumped back onto her chair. “Well. Slow because I’m so busy with the café, but overall, very well.”
She explained where she was in the story, that Emma Grace and Jim had decided to run off together.
Reece slapped a hand over her mouth before letting it drop. “You’re kidding. She’s going to up and leave her dad? Run off with this guy? Wasn’t that scandalous to do back then? What was this, like seventy years ago?”
“I think so, which would’ve placed it in the fifties. So yeah, it would’ve been very inappropriate for her to do such a thing.”
“Wow. That’s the power of love.”
Her mother smiled. “That is the power of love. It helps you make decisions that you otherwise wouldn’t have.”
“Not sure if that’s good or bad.”
“It just depends.”
Her mother smiled wistfully, and it was obvious that she was thinking about Aiden. Reece liked him. He seemed like a good man, but she still worried. That last thing she wanted was for Mama to get hurt by another man.
“Are we all ready for the Teal Scarf ladies?” her mother asked.
Reece had almost forgotten about the ladies’ luncheon they were hosting in a little over a week. “Yes, I think so. The menu’s done and the tasting went well, right?
“It did. Mrs. Travis liked all the dishes.”
“Then all we need to do is get a little closer and I’ll start preparing everything.”
“Great, and then we’ll need to focus on Thanksgiving.”
“Yes. Will it just be us?”
Her mother leaned over and dropped her elbows on the wrought-iron table. “I don’t know. Maybe we could invite some other people.”
She lifted a brow. “Like Aiden?”
“Maybe. If that’s okay with you and your sister.”
“It’s fine with me, and maybe we can invite Shelby and her grandmother?”
“Of course, and anyone else.” She gestured toward the lighthouse. “We have plenty of room inside. We can host fifty people if we want.”
She laughed. “Fifty seems like a bit much.”
“To me too,” her mother said in agreement. “But we can, if you’d want to cook for that many on your day off.”
“Let’s start with a few and see where we go. Is Hudson coming?”
“He’s going to New York, I think.”
Reece scraped her teeth over her bottom lip. “Does Chandler seem okay to you?”
“How do you mean?”
“I don’t know. She just seems quiet, not as excited as she should be.”
Her mother’s eyes flashed with worry. “I’m sure she’s just got a lot on her mind.”
“Maybe.”
But she wondered if her sister was still thinking about their father and how her marriage to Hudson could turn out the same way as their parent’s. She hoped not, because Hudson was not Jack Rigby.
She was about to say as much when a cell phone rang. Her mother scooped the phone from the table, glanced at it and frowned. She pushed a button on the side, sending the call straight to voice mail.
“Who was that?”
“No one.” She shook her head. “Come on. Let’s finish this dip before it gets cold.”
As Reece dug into the dip, she couldn’t help but think that whoever had been on the other line was someone, a secret that her mother didn’t want her to know.