The Lighthouse Chapter 28

Chapter TWENTY-EIGHT:

Alice groaned as her alarm went off, because Robin had not cut her off as soon as she should have. She rolled over in bed, teetered on the edge of the mattress, and barely kept herself from falling to the floor.

“Mom,” Charlie moaned, and Alice finally got the alarm to stop chirping. “Do we have to get up?”

Alice didn’t know. The twins had been asleep on a couple of air mattresses in her bedroom when Eloise had finally delivered her to her room. She knew they had plans to go to the lighthouse this morning, and she’d somehow set an alarm, so she must’ve known what time she had to be ready at some point last night.

“I’ll find out,” she said, her tongue feeling like she’d put a handful of sand in her mouth and tried to swallow it all. She slipped out of the room without taking anything with her, relieved the bathroom was free.

Robin had a lovely home, with five bedrooms and three bathrooms, but Alice usually didn’t share a bedroom or a bathroom. She didn’t mind doing so here either, and she grabbed a washcloth and put it in the sink to run hot water over it. She refused to look at herself until she’d melted the sleep out of the corners of her eyes and had taken a deep breath of steamy air.

Then she looked right into her light brown eyes, and she recognized the shape, the color, the way her eyelashes looked a little thrashed. On the outside, she looked the same, and it wasn’t as miserable as she felt.

But inside, Alice felt like a completely different woman. For the first time in years, she’d enjoyed the twins’ birthday, and she knew it was because she knew she didn’t have to deal with Frank. She hadn’t had to call him six times during the day to find out if he’d left the office yet. She hadn’t had to make sure Ginny and Charlie received a separate gift—that she’d bought—from him. If he had to buy something for either of them, he wouldn’t get them something they liked. So she’d buy the sweater Ginny had eyed at the boutique and put it in a plain bag and put Frank’s name on it. Last year, for Charlie, she’d put a dirt bike in the garage with a blue bow on it with Frank’s name dangling from the handlebars. He’d almost hit it as he pulled into the garage an hour later.

“I don’t want to go home,” she whispered to herself. In fact, the Hamptons didn’t even feel like home now that she’d been here, though her days here had not been easy in any way, shape, or form.

She couldn’t stay in the cove. Her kids needed to get back to school, and Alice did have a library board meeting next week. As she got in the shower, she told herself she’d simply distract herself from her life by planning the vacation to the cove in June.

Her mind ran through details, and she told herself to slow down, because none of the other women even knew about the summer sand pact Alice wanted to get them to agree to. They’d all agreed to go to Rocky Ridge with her easily, but she knew convincing AJ and Kelli to come back in only six weeks would take some serious work.

She got out of the shower and wrapped a towel around herself to get back to the room. As she reached for the doorknob, the door further down the hall opened, and Kelli came out. She had her hand over her eyes, and she almost ran into Alice before she saw her.

“Hey.” Alice hugged her, glad when Kelli gripped her shoulders too. “What did we decide to do today?”

“Leaving for the lighthouse at nine,” Kelli said. “Duke is taking the kids to Pearl for a surfing lesson, though it’s a school day. Robin still isn’t happy about it.”

“My kids don’t need to be entertained,” Alice said. They could come to the lighthouse, and she could take them to her father’s that afternoon.

“She knows that.” Kelli smiled at her and continued down the hall. Alice slipped into the bedroom and started rummaging through the closet, where she’d hung all of her garments the first night she’d been here. She’d learned quickly that she couldn’t leave silks and wools folded in a suitcase and expect to look polished and poised when she got dressed.

She dressed quickly, keeping her eyes on her twins as they slept. The clock on her phone read eight-fifteen, and she bent down to pick up Ginny’s phone. She had no alarm set, and Alice put one in for eight-forty. That should give the twins enough time to get up, brush their teeth and hair, and put on clean clothes.

Alice left the room again and went downstairs, hoping Robin had gotten up and made coffee. Very strong coffee. But the kitchen sat quiet and empty, so Alice opened the cupboard above the coffeemaker, having seen Robin brew the liquid caffeine the night before.

She set about making the coffee, though she had no idea what else to get out to make for breakfast. She wasn’t hungover, and she didn’t need a greasy breakfast sandwich to function this morning.

Robin needed a new coffeemaker, because hers took forever to drip the drink Alice desperately needed. At least now Alice knew what to get her friend for her next birthday. She’d just put a dash of cream—no sugar—in her coffee when she heard someone else coming down the steps.

AJ came into the kitchen, and Alice nodded at her as she took her first sip. Relief moved down her throat as the hot liquid did, and she reached up to get a mug down for AJ. “Coffee?”

“Yes.” She sighed as she sat at the bar. Her long hair wasn’t wet, which meant she hadn’t showered, and yet, she still looked fresh and ready for the day. Alice wasn’t sure how she pulled that off, but AJ had always had the most spectacular beach waves, while Alice’s hair couldn’t hold a curl for more than ten minutes.

She poured AJ’s coffee and pushed the cream and sugar toward her, envious of the two healthy spoonfuls of sugar her friend stirred into her cup. Eloise arrived in the kitchen and opened the fridge.

“Who wants eggs?” she asked.

“Pass,” Alice said, moving into the living room to nurse her coffee, all the breakfast she needed. Eloise chatted easily with AJ as she cracked and scrambled, and by the time the eggs hit the table, Kelli had come downstairs. Not long after that, all the teens arrived, but there was still no sign of Duke or Robin.

“Could she have overslept?” AJ finally asked when there were only ten minutes before they were supposed to leave.

Alice glanced at Charlie, Ginny, and Mandie as they sat at the table on the back patio, wishing she could hear what they were talking about. She needed to ask her son what, if anything, was going on with him and Mandie, but Alice didn’t want to embarrass him.

“I’ll go check on her,” Eloise said, and Alice finished the last of her coffee as Eloise went down the hall. She felt conflicted this morning, and she made no attempt to speak to anyone.

“She’s coming,” Eloise said as she reappeared in the living room and kitchen. She grinned around at everyone. “I think she did oversleep.”

“And she didn’t even drink,” Kelli said with a small smile.

“At least we know she’s human,” Alice quipped, and that got AJ to chuckle. Eloise set about making more eggs, and Robin and Duke came down the hall together a few minutes later.

“I’m so sorry,” Robin said, glancing around at everyone.

“It’s fine,” Eloise said, scooping eggs onto a couple of plates. “It’s not like we have a deadline.”

But Alice would like to get going. She hated sitting around, waiting to do whatever needed to be done that day.

“We do need to leave on time,” Duke said, picking up the plate and taking it with him. “Our lesson is at ten, and if we miss the ferry, we’ll be late.” He opened the back door and said, “Hey, let’s get in the car.” He shoveled a few bites of eggs in his mouth and put the plate down. After chewing and swallowing, he grabbed a protein shake out of the fridge, thanked Eloise for breakfast, and kissed Robin good-bye.

Robin ate her eggs slower, but she did pour her coffee into a to-go thermos so they could go. The five of them piled into Eloise’s car, and the drive to the lighthouse began. In the front seat, Eloise and Robin chatted about the final funeral arrangement. Beside her, AJ and Kelli talked in hushed voices too, and the feeling of being a fifth wheel overcame Alice.

She could do something about it; she knew how to interject herself into a conversation and take command of it. She simply didn’t want to talk right now.

Before she knew it, they’d arrived at the lighthouse, and Robin got out easily. Alice hesitated for a moment, and neither AJ nor Kelli moved at all. “It’s okay,” Alice said as she opened the door. “She’s not mad.”

“I just feel stupid,” Kelli said. “She called me a couple times, and I didn’t answer.”

“She loves us,” Alice said, surprised the words came from her. It was more Robin’s role to give mini-lectures about how someone else felt, as if that changed how awkward a situation was.

She got out and held the door as Kelli scooted across the seat and emerged from the car too. “Are you going to have her sign the glassworks shop over to you?” Alice asked.

“I’m not going to bring it up,” Kelli said. “If she says something, I guess I’ll have to figure out what to do then.”

“It’s at least property,” Alice said. “On a beautiful island. You could build a vacation home here like all my friends in the Hamptons.”

Robin hadn’t gone very far, and she said, “You should do that, Kel.”

Kelli cleared her throat and adjusted the strap of her bag over her shoulder. “I, um, have a house on Bell.”

Alice froze, blinking rapidly for a few seconds. Thankfully, it was Robin who said, “You do?”

“The house I grew up in,” Kelli said as AJ came up beside her. “That’s where AJ and I went the past few days. It’s a mess, and I’d probably need to do a ton of work to actually live in it, but I do have it.”

“Then you should get the Glassworks too,” Alice said, catching up to her senses. “It’s on the same island, and even if you don’t use it like your father did, it’s worth something.”

“And I don’t want it,” Kristen said. Everyone turned toward the lighthouse to see Kristen standing there. She wore her black cotton pants and a long-sleeved blue blouse, and she looked positively maternal.

Alice moved first, stepping around Robin and Eloise, who had created a wall between Kristen and everyone else. “Good morning,” she said, stepping into her and hugging her.

“Morning, dear.”

Alice pressed her eyes closed and pulled in a breath of Kristen’s powdery scent.

“Kristen,” Kelli said, her voice breaking, and Alice got out of the way so she could hug Kristen too.

“I’m so sorry, child,” Kristen said. “I didn’t know, and I’ve already signed the deed over to you. It’s in my cottage.”

Kelli said nothing—at least, nothing Alice could hear, and she stayed out of the way while everyone had their turn giving Kristen a good morning hug. This was why she’d called the pilot the moment she’d gotten off the phone with Robin last week. To be here to see the six of them together again, to see all the distance between them narrow to nothing, to realize that forgiveness was possible, and reconciliation could happen, even with six of the strongest, most stubborn women on the planet.

* * *

“All right, Alice,” Robin said hours later. She pushed away her plate with half a lobster roll still on it and folded her arms. “Tell us why we had to take two ferries to get to Rocky Ridge this afternoon.”

Alice had finished her lobster bisque and oysters a while ago, but she’d enjoyed the ferry rides and the lunch at the premier seafood restaurant on the island. She looked from Robin to AJ, who also wore a look of curiosity.

“Okay,” Alice said, putting a smile on her face. “But everyone has to listen all the way to the end.”

“Oh, boy,” Eloise said, leaning back in her chair and folding her arms.

“I’m just saying,” Alice said. “Robin tends to interrupt, and AJ tends to scoff.”

AJ scoffed, and Alice couldn’t have planned it any better. “I do not scoff.”

Kelli giggled and said, “AJ, you literally just scoffed.”

“Fine,” AJ said. “I won’t make any noise until the end.”

“I won’t interrupt,” Robin said, gesturing for Alice to go on.

“I want us all to come to my vacation house in June,” Alice said bluntly. “Two weeks, on the black sand beach. Our summer sand pact.” She looked around at everyone, and the only one who looked like she might actually come was Eloise.

And Alice knew Aaron Sherman had a lot to do with that.

“Robin, you live here,” Alice said. “It’s easy for you to come. You’ll bring the girls while Duke’s out on the boat, and he won’t even know you’re gone. Eloise, I’ll make sure there’s plenty of free time for you to see Aaron. Kelli, you can bring Parker—and Julian if he’ll come. There’s plenty of room, and we could use more boys in our kid group.”

She looked at all of them, and Robin now had her arms folded too. Her bright blue eyes blazed, but with an emotion Alice couldn’t name.

“And AJ, if you put in your vacation now, I know you can get it off. You’ve been away from the cove for so long, and I think it—well, I don’t know. I just know we made a summer sand pact, and we’ve only kept it once. Once.” She held up one finger. “One summer. Maybe two.”

She drew in a deep breath and looked around at everyone.

“I don’t work in the summer,” Eloise said. “I’ll come.” She swatted Alice’s arm. “I didn’t know you had a vacation house on Rocky Ridge.”

“You didn’t? I thought everyone knew that. It’s on the north side of the island, and the sand isn’t quite the same as the black sand beach down by my father’s, but we can go to the black sand beach easily.”

“How big is your house?” Kelli asked.

“Sixty-five hundred square feet,” Alice said. “I have a management company that rents it when I’m not using it, and it sleeps eighteen.” She hadn’t done the math yet, but there was no way there’d be more than eighteen of them. If everyone brought their whole family—husband and children—there would be sixteen of them. And that was with Aaron and his girls, and AJ’s boyfriend.

Seventeen if Frank came, which he wouldn’t. Alice wasn’t even planning on telling him about the vacation until she’d left the Hamptons.

“And I can bring in more beds if we need them.” She reached for her water glass, her heart pounding. They had to come. They just had to.

“I’ll talk to Duke,” Robin said, and that was as good as a commitment. Robin did have a partnership in her marriage, but Alice knew she’d get her way if she really wanted it.

“Kelli?” Alice asked. If she could get Kelli, she might be able to get AJ too.

“I don’t know, Alice.” Her eyes opened wider, and she seemed so anxious. Alice wished she could do something to help the woman, because she didn’t want to cause this feeling in her friend. “I’ll have to see how things go at home before I can say for sure if I can come or not.”

“That’s fine,” Alice said. She refused to look at AJ. “I just think this has been so amazing, and we’ve needed this time together. Think how much fun we could have if we weren’t dealing with secrets and grief and a funeral.” She smiled at her friends. “And I don’t know about you, but I need some fun in my life. I need you guys.”

She’d needed these girls when she was a teenager, and she still needed them. How she hadn’t known that and had let herself drift so far from them, she didn’t know. She supposed life had just gotten busy, for everyone.

“Why not?” AJ said, scoffing loudly. “I’m in. I’m probably going to break up with Nathan when I get back to Atlanta anyway, and having this to look forward to might be the only thing that keeps me going.”

“Oh, no, really?” Kelli asked.

“He hasn’t called or texted once,” AJ said miserably, and Alice knew exactly how AJ felt. She knew keenly how she felt. But she let the other girls console AJ, because Alice had some serious thinking to do about her own marriage.

In some ways, AJ’s situation was easier, as she and Nathan weren’t married. But Alice had her whole life tied in with Frank’s, and she couldn’t see through the web of their lives to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

She drew in a deep breath and pushed Frank and her miserable marriage out of her mind. If AJ was in, Kelli would find a way to be there, and Alice needed to start planning for the best two weeks any of them had ever experienced.

“Okay, enough.” AJ shook herself and ran her hand down her face, effectively erasing her emotion. She put that hand into the middle of the table, the way a team did to yell their cheer. “To the summer sand pact.”

Alice threw her hand in and put it on top of AJ’s. Robin did, and Eloise, and finally Kelli.

“The summer sand pact,” they said together, throwing their hands up. Alice laughed along with everyone else, hoping this vacation actually came to pass.

She’d simply make sure it did.