Charlotte woke to the sun streaming through her window. She rolled over and looked at her clock. Nine o’clock. Which in L.A. she’d have considered an ungodly hour of the morning, but she’d gotten so she actually liked the mornings here on Belle Island. She stretched, climbed out of bed, and headed to the kitchen for coffee.
Robin had left her a note. Headed to work at the inn. Come by and tell me how yesterday went.
She poured herself a cup of coffee and sank into a kitchen chair. Yesterday had been a disaster. But, in the light of day, she knew that some of that was her own making. She let the things her family said get to her. She hadn’t stood up for herself. She and her family did the same dance over and over again.
And she let them.
She took a sip of the coffee. Maybe some of the words Ben had said had seeped into her brain overnight.
If she didn’t change how she reacted, nothing would change. Nothing.
She jumped up, grabbed the coffee, and headed for the shower.
Today things would change. She’d stand up to them. Tell them that art was her life. Tell them…
She didn’t know what all she’d tell them, but she was tired of the poor-Char stage of her life.
That changed today.
When she got out of the shower, she saw she had a text from Eva.
We’re having lunch at Magic Cafe. One o’clock. Meet us there.
Okay, she would meet them there. And she’d talk to them. Explain things. And they could either accept her as she was or not. Their choice. Determination surged through her. It was time things changed with her family. New dynamics.
She pulled on a t-shirt and old shorts. She still had time to paint for an hour or so before heading out to Magic Cafe. She was in the middle of painting a nighttime scene of the gazebo at the end of Oak Street. Lamps glowed on the brick pathway circling the gazebo where a young couple sat, their foreheads touching.
She wanted to add a full moon up in the sky and a silvery moonlight surrounding the scene. She picked up her paintbrush and started to work.