The Cottage on Nantucket, Chapter 2
*women's fiction *heartfelt *mystery *friendship *sisters
“Thank you.” Tessa smiled at her sister when she set the plate with the fast food on it.
“Nothing like fish and chips in Nantucket.” Janey grinned too, turning to get the teapot she’d set on the stove. With that sitting in the middle of the table, she finally sat down. “The cottage is in better shape than I expected.”
“Really?” Tessa asked.
“Yeah.” Janey pulled her first fish fillet out of the paper bag. “No one came this summer.”
Mom had died in the middle of May, only a few weeks before she’d planned on coming to the cottage.
“It’s still summer,” Tessa said. “We’re only six weeks late.”
“Mom always cleaned for days before we showed up,” Janey said with a smile that could only be described as sad.
“I didn’t see a binder,” she said. “For some reason, I expected it to be sitting right in the middle of the kitchen table.” Tessa gave a light laugh, glad when Janey’s smile perked up.
“If only we could all plan when and where and how we’re going to die.” Janey glanced down at her phone as it vibrated. A frustrated sigh escaped her lips, and Tessa watched as she typed out a response to the message with the pad of her pointer finger. She looked up and said, “Sorry. My boss is trying to find something in my office.”
“It’s fine,” Tessa said. “I get you’re busy.” She offered her sister a smile. “You never did say what Cole’s doing in Atlantic City.” They’d been interrupted by the need to buy tickets, and Tessa did enjoying hearing about her niece and nephew. She only had one son, and Ryan had two semesters left before he’d graduate from Columbia with a degree in civil engineering.
“He’s working construction there,” Janey said with a fast smile. “He also works on the docks in the summer, so he’s really busy right now.”
“What does he do with the boats?”
“Detailing,” she said. “Inside and out. It’s pretty intense, from what he’s said.”
“Good for him,” Tessa said, hoping she didn’t sound condescending. Neither of Janey’s children had gone to college, and she knew her sister felt inferior to her about it. Tessa wasn’t sure why. It didn’t matter to her what Janey’s children did.
“He likes it,” Janey said. “Keeps him busy and out of trouble, and I like that.”
Tessa laughed with her sister. “He’s still living with McKenna?”
“Mm hm.” Janey nodded as she chewed the last of her fish. After swallowing, she added, “Yep, they’re still together.”
“Do you think they’ll ever get married?” Tessa asked, immediately wishing she could recall the question. She knew a lot of young people delayed marriage or chose never to enter into holy matrimony. She wasn’t passing a judgment, but Janey sometimes thought she was, when Tessa was just asking an innocent question.
She sighed, and she actually didn’t look too happy. “I don’t know. I used to ask him all the time, but I stopped. He’s twenty-one years old. He can do what he wants.”
“Yes, he can,” Tessa said with plenty of knowing in her voice.
“Is Ryan seeing anyone?”
Tessa shook her head. “He insists he has no time for dating, but I’m pretty convinced he doesn’t even try.” She didn’t mention that she hadn’t actually spoken to her son in almost three months now. When he’d first moved New York to attend college, he’d called every Monday, rain, shine, snow, busy, tired, bored, or whatever.
The further he got into his program, the less he called. The more he separated his life from his parents, the less he came home. She and Ron had funded his first year for him, to help him get off to a good start, and since he’d been working to pay his tuition and rent, the busier he became.
As it was, Tessa hadn’t seen her son since Christmas. Well, besides for a very brief few minutes during her mother’s funeral.
She hadn’t truly seen him or spent any meaningful time with him for six months. She hadn’t heard his voice in almost three.
New York City sat less than two hours from her home in Easton, and Tessa’s husband made the commute to the city every week. She’d asked him if he saw Ryan as they both lived there during the week, and he’d said no.
Tessa had often thought she should pack a bag and hit the road for the weekend. Let him know she was coming, and ask if he had time to go to lunch. Her treat.
She hadn’t done it, because spring had hit, and Tessa spent a lot of time in the yard in the spring and early summer. She loved pruning back the overgrowth and cleaning up anything that hadn’t gotten done in the fall. Walking outside and finding new, bright green shoots coming back after the winter made her smile. Every day held a new adventure in her garden, and she could lose hours with gardening gloves on her hands.
Which was fine. She didn’t have to give an accounting of her time to anyone. Her husband, Ron, had been working in the city for two decades, and back when he’d first started, they’d lived much closer. Close enough that he could commute across the river every day and be home in the evening.
When they’d moved to Pennsylvania twelve years ago, he started staying in the city Monday through Friday and only coming home on weekends. Ryan had been ten years old, and he and Tessa had adjusted to the single parent life the best they could.
Rarely, Ron would come home mid-week for a concert or performance, but as time wore on, Ryan didn’t even tell his father about them.
Tessa mindlessly finished her fish as she thought about her family, the familiar loneliness and sense of boredom filling her. Everything in her life was so quiet, and Tessa really needed someone to scream and wake her up. Wake up Ron to what their family and their relationship had become.
Dead.
Her lawn and garden might be a showstopper and town winner, but everything else in her life had died.
Despite Tessa’s heroic efforts, her family and marriage were both hanging on by a thread, and she didn’t know how much longer she could keep her grip.
She dusted the salt and crumbs from her hands, still chewing her last bite of chips, when someone rapped sharply on the front door.
Janey looked up from where she’d fully engrossed herself in her phone. “Who on Earth could that be?”