Moon Shell Beach: A Novel Part 15

TWENTY-SEVEN.

The phone rang just as Lexi came out of the shower. She considered not answering. It was late, and she was exhausted. Still...she picked up the phone.

"Hey, Lexi, can I come over? I've got news." Clare's voice was warm, friendly, even exuberant.

Lexi was confused. "Well, I don't know what to say, Clare..."

"Oh, Lexi, I'm so sorry about freaking out this morning, it was unforgivable of me, although I hope you'll forgive me, of course. Listen, I love the name of your shop. That's not what I want to talk about."

Warily, Lexi asked, "What do you want to talk about?"

"Oh, Lexi, please just let me come over!"

"All right. Come over. I'll put some coffee on."

"No. I'll bring champagne."

"You're pregnant."

"Ha! Not even close." Clare's laugh was musical.

"You and Jesse eloped." Lexi found herself smiling in response to Clare's enthusiasm, and this conversation reminded her of childhood phone calls when they had so much to say they couldn't seem to hang up in order to meet somewhere.

"Colder and colder. No more guesses. I'm on my way!"

Lexi pulled on a long-sleeved white T-s.h.i.+rt and a pair of plaid men's boxer shorts. She spent a few moments trying to straighten her immensely chaotic living/office/warehouse s.p.a.ce and finally settled on removing a box of padded hangers from one of the two armchairs by the window. Outside, darkness had fallen, and stars shone down like lighthouses in an unimaginably vast ocean. She couldn't imagine what Clare had to say but the happiness in her voice was contagious.

She saw Clare's Sweet Hart's van slam to a halt on the cobblestones and hurried down her back stairs to reach the door just as Clare knocked.

Lexi held the door wide. "Come in."

Clare didn't waste a glance on the store, but raced up the stairs to Lexi's living quarters. She wore khaki shorts and a chocolate-spotted white s.h.i.+rt and carried a bottle of champagne with her. "Gla.s.ses?" she asked.

Lexi gestured around the room. "Juice gla.s.ses will have to do. I haven't gotten around to unpacking things like crystal."

"Perfect. Fine." Clare popped the cork, then hurried to hold the bottle over the sink as the bubbly liquid fizzed over the neck.

Lexi gawked. If she hadn't seen Clare in her extravagant states before, she'd worry about her now in this manic mood. She held out two gla.s.ses and waited.

Clare poured the champagne. She held up her gla.s.s in a toast. "I've broken off with Jesse."

Lexi nearly fell over. "I don't believe it."

"Believe it. I did. And Lexi...I feel so happy! So free!"

Lexi bit the inside of her lip. "What caused this breakup?"

"I don't know, Lexi. All sorts of things, I guess. Adam, certainly-and I swear on my life, if you mention this to Adam, I'll truly never speak to you again-whatever happens between Adam and me is hands off to you, Lexi, okay?"

Lexi leaned back against the kitchen counter. "Of course. I won't say a thing to him."

"Okay, first, I guess, is Adam. I am just experiencing the most wonderful sensations, emotions-such clarity, such pleasure-when I'm with him. And maybe nothing will happen between the two of us, or maybe something will, but it made me realize how muddy and tired things had gotten between me and Jesse. How my whole spirit seemed to ache from holding on so tight, keeping Jesse on some kind of leash, and that was just so wrong for Jesse and wrong for me." Clare couldn't stand still; she gestured and turned and walked away and came back to face Lexi. "And you coming back. I don't know, it could be that seeing you back here, knowing you got divorced and you're happy and optimistic and starting over and oh, I don't know, just throwing yourself onto Fate...well, I can do that, too! I want to do that."

"It might get lonely," Lexi warned.

"I know that. But it will be more genuine, Lexi. I won't be living my life trying to force Jesse into a role he doesn't want to play."

"So you've told him?"

"Just tonight. After dinner."

"How did he take it?"

"He was surprised, of course. Confused and kind of angry. He kept thinking I suspected him of sleeping with someone else."

Lexi bent down to pick up a loose bit of the foil from the bottle. "Is he sleeping with someone else?" Guiltily, she remembered Jesse's kisses, and her own response.

"He swears he isn't, but that doesn't even matter now, Lexi. That's not why I broke off with him."

Lexi straightened so she could watch Clare's face. "But Clare, you know how Jesse is. How are you going to feel when he does sleep with someone else? When he gets engaged to someone else? When he marries someone else and you all live on this island and see each other every day?" What if Jesse and I got together, she wondered, but forced that thought aside. This wasn't the right time to think about that.

Clare was bubbling. "Honestly, Lexi, I'll feel fine about it. I can't explain it, it's like they say about having a veil lifted from your vision, or in this case more like a weight lifted off my shoulders. I want Jesse to be happy. I don't hate him, I don't wish him ill. I know he'll find someone else and marry someone else, and even if I end up a spinster living with a dog and eating too many of my chocolates, I'd rather do that than be with him."

Lexi reminded her vaguely, "Spinsters live with cats."

"Right!" Clare lifted her gla.s.s. "Guess that means I won't be a spinster."

"No." She chose her words carefully. "Perhaps you should wait a few days to celebrate. Let your emotions settle. Maybe you'll realize how much you miss him. How much you love him."

"Oh, Lexi, I know exactly how I feel! I'm happy. I'm free. I'm starting over."

"Well, it's very brave of you. But go slowly," Lexi advised. "You seem a little...volatile these days."

"Oh, Lexi!" Clare stomped her foot impatiently. "Come on, drink with me." Clare clinked her gla.s.s against Lexi's. "Here's to the future."

Lexi said quietly, "Right. Here's to the future."

TWENTY-EIGHT.

Lexi woke with a hangover. It had been after midnight when Clare finally wound down and went laughing off down the stairs and into the night. Lexi had collapsed on her bed with all her clothes on, and now the sun was glaring in the windows like an irate timekeeper. It was after ten o'clock. She took a long and extremely hot shower, letting the water pound away her slight headache, flas.h.i.+ng back on Clare's visit. Clare had been so happy, almost bored with the whole subject of Jesse, and somehow they'd gotten onto remembering their childhood, laughing like girls while they drank the entire bottle of champagne.

Remember when we pretended to be in the CIA and left notes for each other in the books at the library? Remember the time we Super Glued Harsh Marsh's desk drawer shut?

She rubbed her scalp hard as she toweled her hair dry. She drank two cups of strong coffee and ate a piece of toast with peanut b.u.t.ter. No chance she could open today; there were too many things left undone. She found her list and scanned it. Hooks had to be hung in the cubicles-four in each. And brackets for the curtain rods and holders for the tiebacks. Would she be able to mount the hardware herself? In her own home, she would trust her work, but she wanted everything in Moon Sh.e.l.l Beach to be perfect. Plus, she needed the quarter board with the shop's name mounted above the front door and that was one thing she really couldn't do herself. Jesse had said he'd come back to finish the work...should she call him? He would a.s.sume Clare had told him about their break-up...

She caught herself staring off into s.p.a.ce. There were a million other things that had to be done. She would not stand here thinking about Jesse Gray.

All day she unpacked, checked inventories, ironed, sewed, and stacked. Now and then she noticed people entering Sweet Hart's, and she smiled, imagining Clare flying around the shop on her newfound high.

She wasn't even thinking about Jesse when her phone rang and Jesse said, "I'm downstairs at your door."

It was late afternoon. Jesse looked rough, his s.h.i.+rt stained with sweat, his work boots covered with sawdust, and dark circles under his eyes. One look at him, and Lexi knew to focus on the shop, not on personal matters.

"Oh, Jesse, thanks for coming. I need the sign mounted, and some hooks put on the walls, and the curtain brackets. It shouldn't take you too long."

Jesse nodded without speaking and headed to the back of the shop. He had already marked the spots for the hooks, and in only a few minutes he had them securely fastened. Wrestling Lexi's footstool around, he stood on it to nail in the brackets. Then he took the sign outside and hung it above the door: Moon Sh.e.l.l Beach.

Lexi and Jesse stood side by side on the cobblestones, looking up at it.

"Looks good," Jesse said gruffly.

"It really does." This was a huge moment for Lexi, and she was disconcerted to find her attention distracted from her shop to the simple fact of the handsome man standing next to her. The man just radiated s.e.x. It had to be a chemical thing.

"Want to share a celebratory drink with me?" she asked lightly, wincing at the very thought of putting alcohol into her system after last night.

Jesse shook his head. "Thanks anyway." He headed back into the shop and picked up his toolbox.

"Well, Jesse, let me pay you before you go."

"I'll send you a bill."

"Oh, right, sure, of course." Lexi flapped her hands. "Jesse...Jesse, Clare told me you two have broken up."

Jesse didn't look at Lexi and his voice was low. "I'm sure she did."

"I just, well, if you ever..." She didn't even know what she wanted to offer. Consolation? A shoulder to cry on? s.e.x?

"I've gotta go, Lexi." Jesse's shoulder brushed hers as he pa.s.sed her on his way out the door.

It was quiet after Jesse left. Lexi stepped back out into the cobblestone lane to gaze at her sign. Next door, Sweet Hart's was empty; the Closed sign hung on the door. Tomorrow was not Lexi's official Grand Opening Day-that would be on Sat.u.r.day, and she'd put an ad in the paper announcing it. But tomorrow, Friday, she would open. In the morning there would be plenty of time to hang the lavender and blue panels of raw silk she would use for privacy curtains on the cubicles. She went through her shop and out the back door.

For a moment, she stood just looking out at the harbor. In the strong, late-afternoon light, the water was darker, and the wind had picked up, making waves swell and retreat against the sandy curve of beach. The tide was coming in. The herring gulls were still at it, screaming and dropping sh.e.l.ls on the town pier, then dive-bombing down to eat the tender meat inside. She wondered what Clare was doing. She wondered what Jesse was doing. She saw Jewel sitting at the end of the pier, with the sun blazing down on her.

Grabbing up a tube of sunblock, she closed the door behind her and walked over the beach to the town pier.

"Hey, Jewel."

The child's face lit up. "Hi, Ms. Laney!"

"Mind if I join you?"

"That would be excellent."

Lexi dropped down onto the warm boards next to the girl. "Look what I've brought you." She held out a tube of sunblock.

"Thank you, Miss Laney. But I have my sunhat." Jewel tapped the floppy straw hat on top of her head.

"True, but what about your arms and legs?" She was not going to lecture the child about skin cancer. Surely Bonnie Frost lathered her daughter up with sunblock each morning. Lexi just wanted to be sure.

Jewel looked down at her scrawny girl legs protruding from yellow shorts. They were brown, with a glow of burn along the tops. "Well, I suppose it's a good idea. Thank you." Taking the tube, she smeared sunblock on her legs. "Feels good," she said. "Cool."

Lexi stretched out beside Jewel. "Might be wise to do your arms, too."

Jewel complied. "You aren't very tanned," she noted.

"True. I'm always working. No time for play."

"That's what my mother said about my father."

Lexi hid a smile. Of course the girl wanted to talk about her father. "I knew your father when I was in school. Well, I'm two years younger than Tris, so I hardly knew him. He was so old and sophisticated." Lexi smiled, thinking how from her vantage point, a teenage boy was so not sophisticated, but she saw the way Jewel nodded, her gaze growing dreamy, and of course from the girl's point of view, a teenage boy was a creature of infinite mystery.

"He was a friend of my brother's, Adam Laney, you know him, the veterinarian. He was really nice to little kids. I mean your father and my brother. They were the coolest guys in the school, and they weren't ever mean or sn.o.bby. They both worked in the summer, but on their time off they were always at the beach with a whole gang of boys." Lexi closed her eyes, remembering those long-ago summer days, the heat and glare and salt spray, how she and Clare spread their striped beach towels on the sand close enough to watch the guys as they body surfed or played Frisbee on the beach. The popular older girls would saunter by in their bikinis, striking poses to attract the guys, and the guys were attracted, no doubt about it. They'd yell at the girls, or chase them into the ocean, their bodies brown and slippery as seals.

"Everyone thought your father was cute," Lexi continued. "We didn't call guys handsome then. We called them cute or hunky. Whenever they could, my brother would go out with your father on Tris's sunfish. They loved capsizing-" Lexi stopped a moment, wondering if this would frighten Jewel, then continued. "They thought capsizing was the best fun. Sometimes they were real goofs in the water. My parents got mad when they heard about it, but Tris and Adam were ace swimmers, they were like dolphins." She remembered watching them from sh.o.r.e. She could hear their raucous nutty boy laughter all the way across from Monomoy. When they reached the town pier, they'd fall backward into the water, splas.h.i.+ng like drunken whales. They waded up onto the beach, dripping water off their muscular sunburned shoulders, their bodies as powerful as G.o.ds as they dismantled the sunfish and hefted the rudder and sail in their arms.

"I know," Jewel said, nodding. "My dad's second home is the water. I know he's fine, I know he's somewhere, I know he'll come home."

"I hope you're right," Lexi said. She wrapped her arm around Jewel, hugging her tightly. She didn't come here to help the girl, she realized; she came here for herself. Jewel was so good at hoping, and Lexi wanted to be good at that, too.

TWENTY-NINE.

By the end of the day, Clare's hangover headache had disappeared. When she arrived home after closing her shop, she felt clean and oddly virtuous. It had been a perfect day at Sweet Hart's, busy but not insane, and she'd had a chance to chat with some of the returning summer people she enjoyed. She found herself singing as she made a light meal of pasta and salad for herself and her father. After dinner, she phoned Penny to tell her the news, longing to discuss her feelings for Adam with her sensible friend, but baby Mikey was down with a summer cold. He wasn't ill, Penny a.s.sured Clare, just snotty and coughing and uncomfortable, and in addition, he was cutting two teeth, so he was thoroughly cranky.

Over the sounds made by the fussing baby, Penny said, "You did the right thing, breaking off with Jesse. I'm proud of you!" Mikey sneezed. "Gotta go!"