The Seashell Promise

Chapter 2

Annie Mason sighed over the side of the ferry, wishing she’d stayed in the car the way her daughter had. Paige was not happy to be coming to Nantucket for the holidays, and Annie hadn’t the heart to tell her it was either the Point and Aunt Julia’s cooking, or an empty house with an empty fridge at her father’s.

Donovan, her ex-husband, hadn’t told anyone he and his partner had decided to leave Chatham. Annie had found out quite by mistake, actually when she’d called him on the way to his house with Brianne, and he’d blurted out that he lived in Vermont now.

An entirely different state.

“Guess he doesn’t want to be as involved as he claimed,” she said into the wind.

“What?” Bri asked, and Annie turned toward her, putting a false smile on her face.

“Nothing, dear.” She lifted her arm and put it around her youngest daughter. Bri hadn’t given her any trouble about coming to Nantucket for Thanksgiving, but she didn’t have a boyfriend she had to leave for six whole days.

Six days. Annie rolled her eyes toward the sky, glad she stood taller than Bri so her daughter couldn’t see. Annie herself, as a mother, had learned to see everything around her, and she knew Logan and Paige were not just friends.

Six days.notJust like she’d known that Donovan had stopped loving her right about the time Bri turned ten years old. He’d stayed for a year or two, but in the end, he’d embraced a whole different part of himself, one he said had been suppressed for too long.

She didn’t fault him for that. She wouldn’t want to be untrue to who she really was. She simply wanted to be communicated with, and having the father of her children leave the state of Massachusetts without telling any of them had opened wounds she’d thought she’d stitched closed.

“Aunt Julia says Maddy is the best cook on the island, and she’s already been baking for a week.”

“Pumpkin pie?” Bri asked, a big smile on her face.

“And apple,” Annie said, returning the smile. “Rolls, tarts, and I got a text this morning that she’s even prepared the breakfast casserole already. Apparently, it has to sit overnight.”

“I can’t wait,” Bri said.

Annie turned her face into the wind, because she was looking forward to five days where she didn’t have to take care of things. Someone else could make breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Someone else would make her bed once she left. Life away from home, with someone who would tell her where to sit, what time to get up, all of it, was exactly what Annie needed right now.

Her stomach tightened at the thought of spending the holidays with a half-sister she barely knew. She’d met Janey a few times now, and they got along just fine. She didn’t really know her, though, and something buzzed in Annie’s blood.

knowShe couldn’t decide if she wanted to know her half-sister better or not.

What she wanted felt completely out of her control. She wanted the sense of stability she’d once had. She wanted to be able to talk to her daughters without it turning into an argument or hearing the words, “You just don’t get it, Mom.”

She wasn’t so out of touch that she didn’t know what the world was like for teenagers, though that was how Paige made her feel.

She wanted to feel happy again. Not just the brief kind of happiness she experienced when her daughters brought home good report cards or one of her patients got to check-out of the hospital early.

But true happiness. The kind that a person woke with deep down in their soul. The kind that made simple things like a child playing in a fountain bring a smile to her face and the general feeling that all was well in the world. The kind that told her she was good enough, just as she was.

Her phone rang, and she almost didn’t want to check it. It would either be her shift boss, her mother, or Julia. At the moment, Annie didn’t particularly want to speak to any of them.

She couldn’t just ignore her phone, and she lifted it to check the screen. Mom sat there, and out of the three, she was the worst one.

Mom“Don’t answer it,” Bri said. She even reached over and took the phone from Annie before she could blink. “She’ll just say something to make you mad or feel guilty.” She silenced the phone and stuck it in her back pocket. She glanced at Annie, who blinked at her in pure surprise. Her daughter looked out over the water too, and Annie took a few seconds of silence to figure out what to say.

“She’s going through a hard time,” she finally said.

“We all have things,” Bri said without looking at her. “And I don’t feel that bad for her.”

“Bri,” Annie chastised. “She…” She didn’t have adequate words for her mother. A few months ago, they’d all found out about Janey Forsythe, a woman the same age as Julia, her oldest sister.

The only problem was, Janey wasn’t Annie’s full sibling. She only had her father’s DNA running through her veins. Proven with a paternity test.

At some point in the past, he’d been unfaithful to her mother, and Annie didn’t want to judge her mom’s reaction and then subsequent actions.

She’d first gone to Toronto, where her family hailed from. She’d stayed there with her mother and sister for a few weeks before returning to the huge house in Southampton where Annie had grown up with her two siblings.

Then she’d asked Dad to move out, but he’d refused. They’d been living in the house, but barely speaking. Annie had witnessed it first-hand when she’d gone to visit in October. She’d never felt such tension in her life, not even when she and Donovan had sat down with the girls to lay things out for them.

Her mother was supposed to be hosting Thanksgiving dinner, but Annie had adequately warned Julia and Eric, her brother, and they’d all made alternate plans. Because of everything going on, Mom hadn’t invited anyone until last week, and it had been easy to say they’d already made arrangements for the holidays.

“She’s being childish,” Bri said. “Grandpa has explained everything a thousand times over.”

“It’s hard to know what really goes on behind closed doors, honey.” She gave her daughter a closed-mouth smile.

“It’s just…you’ve been through hard things.” Bri met her eye, some measure of strength in hers. “I didn’t see you shrink up and run away.”

Annie’s shock reverberated through her again. “What did you see?” she asked, wanting to watch herself through her daughter’s eyes.

“You told us the truth,” Bri said. “And you didn’t sit around feeling sorry for yourself. You went from part-time to full-time to support us, and you didn’t even break stride with anything. I even saw you pack boxes for Dad, Mom.”

Annie swallowed, her chest so tight. “We all handle things in different ways,” she said. She had worked incredibly hard to maintain the sense of normalcy for her girls. She’d been working part-time as a nurse when she and Donovan had started the divorce process.

By the end of it, and through the grace of God, Annie had been able to move into a rare full-time position in the radiology department—a coveted job that didn’t come up very often.

One layer of tension heating her muscles released, and Annie had the distinct thought that she needed to be better about acknowledging the things she’d been blessed with.

She also couldn’t give up the job in Chatham, though Julia had been needling her to come to Nantucket and work at the hospital there. “Or any of the doctor’s offices, Annie,” she’d said. “They have a need here.”

She’d been tempted by the job boards in Nantucket, Annie could admit that. It would be nice to be closer to Julia, who’d been going through her own divorce and major life changes. Now that Donovan was gone…

Now that Donovan was gone…Annie cut off the thought and put her arm around her daughter. “I love you girls.”

“I know.” Bri leaned into her side, and Annie loved the weight of it.

Annie blew out her breath, letting more of her dread and tension go with it. “Now,” she said. “What are we going to do about Paige this weekend?”

“There’s a trick with Paige,” Bri said.

“Oh, yeah? Do tell.”

“Let her talk, and then agree with her before you try to give any opinion.” Bri grinned up at her mom. “I think she just wants to feel heard, and with you especially, she doesn’t.”

Annie’s first reaction was to say how unreasonable Paige could be. She held her tongue and let her younger daughter’s words swirl through her mind. “That’s why she gets so loud.”

“Exactly,” Bri said. “It would be great if we didn’t have to scream at each other over Thanksgiving.”

“It would be great,” Annie agreed with a smile. “I’ll work on that.”

“Mom,” Paige said from behind her. Annie turned that way and opened her other arm for her eldest.

“Hey, bug. You left the car.”

“Grandma called,” Paige said, stepping into her side. Annie took that as a major win, though her heart had dropped to the soles of her shoes.

“Why? What did she want?” Annie looked at Paige, and she really was a gorgeous girl. Nearly jet-black hair, with long eyelashes, and eyes the navy color of deep midnight. They could glint like the moon off still water when she was happy and shine like gold in a dark cave when she had something up her sleeve.

Of course, Annie had also seen the hard-as-nails flint in them when she wasn’t pleased. She told herself to let Paige talk and to actually listen before she said anything.

“She wanted to know if Aunt Janey would be at the inn,” Paige said. “I told her I assumed she’d be, yes. Isn’t she bringing her kids?”

“Yes,” Annie said with a sigh. “I’ve already told Grandma all of that.”

“She asked if she and Grandpa could come. I had no idea what to say.”

“What did you say?”

did“I told her to call Aunt Julia. She’s the one who knows how many people they have coming for Thanksgiving dinner.”

Annie’s pulse stormed through her veins, cracks of lightning bolting out every few seconds, making her fingers twitch and her eyes blink rapidly.

“Can you imagine?” she asked, her voice barely louder than the wind. “Grandma and Grandpa…in the same room with Janey?”

“Janey’s cool,” Bri said.

Annie said nothing, because she knew more about Janey Forsythe than the girls. She knew the woman had been in a psychiatric unit and that she’d been to visit their father three times now. Dad had gone to Nantucket once, without Mom.

Why in the world would her mother even want to come to The Lighthouse Inn for Thanksgiving? It made no sense, and Annie fought the urge to drop her arms and demand Bri give back her phone. She needed to call Julia and warn her, then call her mother and tell her in no uncertain terms to stay home.

wantShe didn’t need to blow up this holiday for anyone, least of all Annie. If she wanted her family around, she should’ve planned better and sooner.

The ferry continued on toward Nantucket, completely unaware of the turmoil brewing inside Annie Mason. She didn’t know how to exhale it out or release it into the atmosphere, and she didn’t ask for her phone. It was as if someone had encased her in ice, and she was slowly going numb.

They reached the dock, and people began to move toward the exits. They’d brought their car, so they had to return to it and wait their turn to depart.

“Let’s go,” she said quietly to the girls, and the three of them made their way toward the lower decks, where the cars drove on and off the ferry.

“Can I have my phone, Bri?” She held out her palm, and Bri gave her the device. Annie waited until she sat behind the steering wheel, seat-buckled in, waiting to get off the ferry, before she looked at it.

Julia had texted, and she went to that message string first. Look what I found in the storage room at Maddy’s father’s house!

Look what I found in the storage room at Maddy’s father’s house!She’d sent a picture with the words, and a book sat there. An old, tattered book with a pink, purple, and blue cover. Black lettering ran across the front of it that said The Seashell Promise.

The Seashell PromiseNo author name accompanied the title, and Annie frowned. Was she was supposed to know what this was?

Another message sat below the picture. I wrote this in college, and Maddy and I want to do it while everyone is here.

I wrote this in college, and Maddy and I want to do it while everyone is here.“Do what?” Annie asked as she typed out the letters. She sent the message, then started another one. Did you talk to Mom?

Did you talk to Mom?The ferry lurched, signaling they’d been tied and secured, and Annie looked up and out the windshield. They wouldn’t be first to exit, as she’d barely made it onto this ferry. Everything seemed to take forever these days, including packing and getting the girls out the door for their vacation.

Her phone vibrated, and she looked at it. I did, Julia said. I didn’t know how to tell her no. They’re only coming for dinner and one night.

I did I didn’t know how to tell her no. They’re only coming for dinner and one night.Oh boy, Annie said.

Oh boyYeah, Julia sent back. Now I just have to figure out how to tell Janey…

YeahNow I just have to figure out how to tell Janey…