Folly Cove (9 page)

“Oh,” he said. “It's you.”

“Yes,” she said. “Me.”

Sebastian glanced away from her, then back again, as if making sure she wasn't a hallucination. “I heard you moved away.” He had another beer on the bar in front of him and spoke with great deliberation; she wondered how much he'd had to drink.

“I did.”

“Where were you?”

“Puerto Rico.”

“Why?”

“I was surfing.”

He frowned. “The Web?”

“The waves.”

Sebastian gave her a glum, unfocused look. “Good for you.”

“Yeah,” she said. “So good. I can't even tell you how good.”

One corner of his mouth turned up. Anne felt herself smiling back. She suddenly wanted to make this man laugh. To erase some of the pain creating deep furrows between his eyebrows.

Unfortunately, Jake spotted her then. He moved toward the bar, grinning, his perfect square white teeth gleaming in the dim light like Chiclets. “Anne! There you are! Laura told me you were back. I've been looking all over for you.” He hopped up on the stool next to Sebastian's, giving him a quick nod in greeting.

Sebastian arched an eyebrow in return. Sebastian's tux was so wrinkled that it looked like he'd dug it out of a bread box. His shoulders were hunched and his eyes were dark. Misery came off him almost visibly, a sort of indigo fog. Anne's eyes stung when she looked at him.

Jake, by contrast, was pressed and polished, jittery and amped-up. Except for a long forelock that he swept out of his eyes with one hand, his dark hair was buzzed short. The close haircut revealed a thin face with small, neat features. He'd played lacrosse in college and had always
been a poster boy for fitness; his body was as lean and muscular now as ever. He was dressed in his standard khakis and polo shirt. The shirt was a bright salmon color and tucked neatly into his trousers. Anne wondered if Laura bought his clothes.

Looking at her brother-in-law evoked a smoky swirl of bleak memories. Anne desperately wanted to get rid of him.

“What can I get you, Jake?” she asked. “I'm about to close up here.”

“Oh, I don't drink anymore,” Jake said, patting his flat belly. “Too many empty calories. But a seltzer and lime would hit the sweet spot.”

“No problem.” Anne poured the drink and handed it to him, careful to slip her hand away before their fingertips touched.

“I'm not interrupting anything, am I?” Jake looked from Sebastian to Anne, smiling broadly.

“No,” Sebastian answered.

At the same time, Anne nodded and said, “You are, actually, Jake. So if you don't mind?” She pointed toward the tables at the back of the bar. “Plenty of open seats.”

“I'm comfortable here, actually.” Jake smiled and turned to Sebastian, who was staring at Anne in confusion. Jake offered him a hand and the two men shook. “I don't think we've met. I'm Jake Williams. Anne's brother-in-law. Married to Laura, Anne's older sister.” He gestured at the tuxedo. “You must be in the wedding party.”

“I am. Sebastian Martinson, brother of the bride.” Sebastian was gripping his glass with his free hand as if it might fly off the table.

“Shouldn't you join the party?” Jake pointed toward the door, through which they could hear the DJ cranking up “Last Dance” by Donna Summer. “See your sister off on her happy day?”

Why, Anne wondered, did everything Jake say sound so stiff, as if he were reciting lines in a play for the first time?

“No. Paige already left,” Sebastian said. “She and her groom have an early flight to Italy.” He jerked a thumb over one shoulder. “Those are just stragglers. Friends of hers. Nobody I know.”

Jake cocked his head to one side. “You're not driving home, are you, buddy? Because you're in no condition. Just saying. You might want to start mainlining the coffee.”

Sebastian shook his head. “I'm walking. I don't live far.” He turned to Anne, surprising her by adding, “I went to Italy on my honeymoon, too.”

“Sounds romantic,” Anne said, then winced at her own thoughtlessness. Clarkie had said that Sebastian's wife was dead. She wondered how long they'd been married before she died.

She turned a shoulder to them and went back to drying glasses, hoping Jake would leave now that he'd seen she wasn't alone. The last thing she wanted was for Laura to show up, too, and see them together. All hell would break loose then.

But Jake leaned over the bar and said, “Look, Anne, I need to talk to you. Alone,” he added pointedly. “Before Laura comes gunning for me.”

She looked up from the glass in her hand, heart pounding. “Why would she do that?”

“Yeah, why?” Sebastian said. “What have you been doing?”

Jake kept his eyes trained on Anne. “Nothing! But you know how Laura worries. She wasn't home when I stopped by the house after work, so I came here. She'll be wondering where I am.” Jake reached across the bar and grabbed Anne by one wrist. “I need to talk to you.”

Anne snatched her hand away. “I'm working.” She moved out of reach.

“I don't think Anne wants to talk to you,
buddy
,” Sebastian observed, resting his chin on one hand.

“Anne, look. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but we need to have a conversation. You don't get it.” Jake's voice was pitched high. Desperate.

“No.
You're
the one who doesn't get it.” Anne crossed her arms. “Until you tell my sister the truth about what happened, you and I have nothing to say to each other.”

“I can't do that. Not yet,” Jake said. “Look, you have no idea how difficult this has been for me.”

“How difficult this has been for
you
?” Anne asked. “Are you
kidding
? You made it impossible for my own sister to trust me!”

“I know. But my marriage is falling apart. You need to help me fix it.”

“I don't need to help you do anything, Jake. You have no right to
ask me for favors! My sister hardly speaks to me anymore. She hates me. Because of
you.
”

“I know. I know. But if you hear me out, you'll understand why I had to do what I did. Trust me, Anne.”

“
Trust
you?” The bar was empty now, except for the three of them; Anne decided her best course of action was to close early. She opened the gate separating the bar area from the pub and passed through it. “That's a laugh, after everything you've done. Look, we're done here. I'm asking you to leave and then I'm locking the pub doors. You, too, Sebastian. Out!”

She made it halfway across the room before Jake caught up with her and grabbed her arm. “Wait!”

“Let go of me.” Anne was vaguely aware that Sebastian had followed Jake; he stood within arm's reach of the other man, swaying a little.

“You heard her,” Sebastian said. “She wants you to leave her alone.”

Oh, great, Anne thought. Caught between an adulterer and a sad drunk. “It's fine, Sebastian,” she said. “Go back to your sister's party. Jake, let me go,” she ordered. “Or I swear I'll scream.”

“Hello? Are you still serving?” a woman's voice called from the doorway. It was the bridesmaid who'd been in the pub earlier. “I'd love, love,
love
another cosmo,” she said. “Lord, you make the prettiest, sweetest drinks. And then they knock you on your
ass
!” She giggled and put a hand over her mouth. Her pink nails matched her dress.

The wedding reception was clearly over; the music had stopped and the lights were on in the dining room, which meant the servers were clearing the last things away.

“Sorry,” Anne said. “The bar's closed for the night.”

The bridesmaid turned away with a mew of disappointment.

“Anne, please, let's go someplace quiet and talk,” Jake pleaded.

“She's not going anywhere with you,” Sebastian said.

Just then Laura stalked into the bar. When she was angry, Laura walked in a way that made floors shake and dishes shatter. Tonight her powerful stride was accentuated by knee-high riding boots pulled over jeans. Jake dropped Anne's arm at the sight of his wife.

Laura must have arrived home, realized he wasn't there, and gone out again, pulling her boots on because they were always next to the door. Even so many years after not being allowed inside her sister's house, Anne could picture the mudroom with its wooden cubicles, its neat rows of boots and sneakers.

Laura clomped over to them. “Jake, what the hell? I thought you were coming home from the office for dinner. I was worried sick when I got back and didn't see you.”

“Laura.” Jake's smile was brittle. “I did go home. You were out. I assumed you had book club or something, so I went to the gym and then stopped by here for a drink.”

Liar,
Anne thought, but she was too afraid of Laura to say anything.

“I took Kennedy to the mall for new sneakers,” Laura said. “Which you would have known if you'd read the note I left on the whiteboard in the kitchen, where we're
always
supposed to leave family communications.” She turned to Anne. “So this is where you've been hiding out. Mom said you were back.”

“I'm not hiding,” Anne said. “I'm only working here tonight because Mom had an emergency.”

Laura rolled her eyes. “And you were the only one available to fill in?”

“That's what Mom said.”

“And now it's closing time, so you're looking for someone to take you home.” Laura looked from Jake to Sebastian. It took her a minute to recognize Sebastian—Anne could see the wheels turning before the confusion on her sister's face cleared.

“Ah,” Laura said then, smiling. “Sebastian. It's been a while. Last time I saw you, my sister was screwing you in a car. Back for more?”

Sebastian didn't flinch. “Hello, Laura.”

“Hello,” Laura said sweetly. “History repeats itself. You must be as drunk now as you were then.”

“His sister's wedding was tonight,” Anne said. “He's entitled to be drinking.” She nearly added,
because his sister's wedding reminds him of his dead wife
, but caught herself.

“Of course he's entitled,” Laura said. “Aren't we all? Maybe I'll get trashed tonight and join the club.” She raked Anne up and down with her gaze. “So why are you here? What happened in Puerto Rico?”

“Haven't you talked to Mom?” Anne asked.

“Of course. I see her every day,” Laura said pointedly.

“Then you must know why I'm here.” Anne watched her sister's face and felt a small shiver of satisfaction when Laura frowned, then quickly tried to make her expression blank. Her mother must not have told Laura anything about the baby. Good. Let her sister wonder what was going on.

“Laura, let's go home,” Jake interrupted. “You look tired.”

There was a silence, then Laura said, “That's wonderful to know. Thank you.”

“Rule number one: never tell a woman she looks tired,” Sebastian said. “They don't like it.”

Jake tried to slip an arm around Laura's waist, but she shrugged away. Her sister was close enough that Anne could smell coffee on her breath, overlaid with mint toothpaste. Laura had been married to Jake long enough that she took dental hygiene seriously.

Laura said, “What are you really doing here, Anne?”

“I came home for a visit. That's all. No big agenda.”

“Really? Last I heard, you weren't ever coming back to Folly Cove. What changed your mind?”

“Look, it's late. Let's talk tomorrow.” Anne's knees felt leaden, but she managed to walk past her sister and the men toward the door.

“Fine,” Laura called after her. “Just remember that I'm keeping an eye on you.”

Anne wheeled around. “Maybe you should keep an eye on your
husband
for a change! He came here looking for me tonight. Ask him!”

“That's a lie!” Jake said.

“He did come in here looking for Anne,” Sebastian said. “I think.”

Jake gave him a pitying look. “And I think you're going to have some headache in the morning, buddy.” He turned back to Anne. “Please, Anne. You'll just stir things up if you insist on fabricating stories again.” His face had drained of color; he ran a hand through his hair so that it stood up in brown tufts around his ears.

Anne curled her hands into fists. “You're the only one fabricating anything here.
Tell
her, Jake.”

“Oh, will you please shut
up
!” Laura said. “I've seen you in action, Anne. Once a slut, always a slut!” She lurched forward and slapped Anne across the face.

The sound reverberated off the marble bar. Anne held her face for a moment, then lunged to slap Laura back.

“You bitch!” Laura shrieked. She reached out to grab Anne by the hair, but Anne ducked sideways so fast that Laura nearly fell over.

Jake caught Laura around the waist and held on to her as Anne went back to the freezer, grabbed a handful of ice, and pressed it to her face, staring at Jake, willing him to defend her. He dropped his eyes and led Laura, who was crying now, out of the bar by one arm.

“Wow. You okay?” Sebastian said.

“What do you think?” Anne said. “Look, go home and have some coffee. Can't you see it's closing time?”

O
utside the terminal, Elly spotted Laura parked by the curb despite a red-faced state trooper gesturing at her to move. Laura's expression was stoic as she sat with both hands precisely placed on the steering wheel and pretended to be deaf and blind to the cop. Kennedy, in the backseat, was almost unrecognizable. When did her niece get so big and round?

“Hey, you're early!” Laura leaned over to give Elly a one-armed hug after she'd climbed into the car, then pulled away from the curb with a queen's wave at the cop.

“Yeah. The trip was still stupid long, though,” Elly said. “You'd think we'd have faster planes by now, right? Or at least flying cars. How did the Jetsons get things so wrong?”

“Who were the Jetsons?” Kennedy asked.

Elly pulled down the visor mirror and rolled her eyes at her niece. “Just the best cartoon
ever
. What's your mom making you watch on TV these days, huh? CNN?” She slipped off her shoes and propped her feet up on the dashboard.

Behind her, Kennedy giggled.

“What's so funny?” Elly asked.

“Mom doesn't let us do that,” Kennedy said.

“Do what?”

“Put our feet up there! It wrecks the car. And she hates looking at dirty bare feet.”

Laura was silent, staring ahead at the traffic on Route 1 as they headed north from Logan airport. The cars appeared sluggish and benign to Elly after surviving Los Angeles freeways, where people thought nothing of driving eighty in bumper-to-bumper traffic, but her sister was squinting in concentration.

“Your mom doesn't like it, huh? That's too bad.” Elly pushed her feet higher on the dash toward Laura and wiggled her toes. Her toenails were a satisfying, shocking orange. “My feet are clean as a whistle. Oh, except for the piss I stepped in when I went barefoot into the airplane bathroom. Some men can't aim for shit.”

“Ew!” Kennedy said, laughing.

“Language!” Laura said, though to Elly's satisfaction, she was grinning.

“Watch yourself, miss, or you will be the ruin of this family,” Elly said, pitching her voice high to imitate their mother.

This made Laura snort. Kennedy fell all over herself howling. Elly laughed, too, and leaned over the seat to high-five her niece. She'd been right to come home. Her girls needed her to lighten things up in gray old New England.

Laura wanted Elly to stay at her house, not at the inn. Elly was happy to oblige. “I'm glad I'm staying here,” she said after Laura had sent Kennedy to the den with a handful of cookies and a book. “I wasn't too enthused about having Mom hover over me and quiz me about my singing career. Or about men. God, she's probably going to ask me about boyfriends, isn't she?”

“Probably,” Laura said. “I think the older Mom gets, the fewer filters she has.”

“I suppose we'll be like that.”

“I already am,” Laura said. “It's like my thoughts roll straight out of my head onto my tongue and fall out of my mouth. I want to slap myself sometimes.”

They were sitting at the kitchen table with cups of coffee. Jake wouldn't
be home from work for at least another few hours, Laura said. “We never eat dinner before nine or ten,” she warned.

“That's fine. It's three hours earlier my time, remember.” Elly glanced out the window at the yard and the stables beyond it. Behind the stables was the pasture, hemmed by the thick woods of Dogtown. Their father used to take them hiking in Dogtown as children when the inn was busy, “to keep you out of your mother's hair.”

Dad loved Dogtown, an area of about thirty-six hundred acres between Gloucester and the far edge of Rockport. In the mid-1600s, these woods had been the site of the original Commons Settlement, the most prosperous area of Gloucester until after the Revolutionary War.

After that people began moving out to the coastal areas, but some war widows and other loners remained, using guard dogs to protect them and earning this place its name. She and her sisters used to come here as children, terrifying each other with tales of what corpses might have been tossed into the icy depths of the reservoirs.

Elly's favorite hike in Dogtown was what her father called the “blueberry highway,” a narrow path through gnarled blueberry bushes. They'd pick berries until their mouths and hands were stained purple. Elly had loved seeing the old stone walls and cellar holes, and pretending with her sisters that it was still Colonial times.

She wondered where her father was now, and shivered despite having added a sweater and socks. A few of the trees were already turning orange and gold and red, the leaves trembling against the pewter sky. She'd forgotten about autumn in New England, when everything looked like a high school yearbook page and the temperature fell twenty degrees the minute the sun started going down.

“Is your heat broken or something?” she asked. “It's freezing in here.”

“We never put the heat on before October thirty-first,” Laura said. “Do you know how much a tank of oil costs?”

“Oh, come on. You're married to a friggin'
dentist
. I bet he makes bank.”

“Jake has dental school loans coming out his ears. You don't even want to know how much debt we're carrying.”

“Fine. Bring me a blanket, then. I'll pretend I'm homeless.”

“You've got to be kidding,” Laura said. “It's sixty-five degrees in here.”

Elly wrapped her arms around her shoulders. “Do I
look
like I'm kidding? When it's this cold in Los Angeles, people break out fur coats and down parkas.”

Laura shook her head, but went into the living room and returned with an afghan crocheted in tan and cream. She wrapped the blanket around Elly's shoulders with exaggerated care, tucking it high around her chin.

For a minute, their eyes met. This close, Elly could see the sadness there, flecks of gray in Laura's pale blue eyes, like stones below a river of sorrow.

“Oh, honey,” Elly whispered. “Things are really that bad, huh? I'm so sorry.” She reached out to hold her for a minute before Laura pulled away. “What's going on?”

“I saw Anne last night.” Laura sat down again.

Her grim expression did nothing to enhance Laura's looks, though she was still attractive in the way certain women are appealing, Elly thought. Women who are generous and practical. Dependable. The sort of women you'd want in your Conestoga wagon if horses were pulling you across the prairie, because they'd know the right herbal remedies for ailments and could fire a shotgun, too, hunting for food along the trail.

Laura had obviously made an effort to put on makeup this morning. Her skin was smooth, tan but not dried out like the skin you saw on the bronzed women of Southern California. She'd taken the time to add mascara and eye shadow and had slicked on a rosy lip gloss.

Unfortunately, she was dressed in clothes that she'd probably ordered from one of those catalogs aimed at suburban women who longed to be thought of as on the go: jeans, white Oxford cloth shirt, a navy cardigan. And sneakers.
White
sneakers, for the love of God, Elly
thought. Her sister had always been athletic, but did she have to look so
old Yankee mannish
?

“And?” Elly asked, tearing her attention away from her sister's appearance when she realized Laura wouldn't say more without prodding. “How does Anne seem?”

“She's fine. But it was a complete disaster. I acted like a total a-hole.”

This was so unexpected coming from prim Laura that Elly choked on her coffee. “What do you mean? What kind of disaster? Like high school level or nuclear war?”

“World War Whatever.” Laura sighed. “I got home last night and Jake wasn't here, so I went out looking for him. I found him with Anne at the pub and kind of went ballistic.”

“
Kind
of?” Elly held up a hand. “Wait. Back up. Are you saying Jake was at
work
on a Sunday?”

“Yes. Sometimes emergencies crop up,” Laura said, sounding defensive. “Jake has a solo practice, and he tries not to use on-call dentists because he's afraid he might lose patients to them. Believe it or not, dentistry is a dog-eat-dog world.”

“Okay, got it,” Elly said, though she couldn't imagine a situation where she would go looking for a husband, unless maybe she was afraid he was
dead
. “Where was Anne?”

“Bartending.”

Elly was still having trouble following this. “Wait. Sorry. Still catching up here. Why was Anne behind the bar?”

“Apparently Mom had a big party and a staff emergency. Whatever,” Laura said. “The point is, I caught them together in the pub!”

“I'm sorry, but do you realize how insane you sound?” Elly said. “What do you mean, you ‘caught' them? They weren't actually fornicating on the marble bar, were they? Maybe Jake really did just stop by the pub for a drink. He probably didn't even know Anne was working.”

“Maybe not. But he had his hand on Anne's arm when I showed up.” Laura's eyes were bleak. “I saw them touching and went mental. I called her
names
.”

Elly had to put down her coffee before she choked on it again. “Like, what names?”

“‘Slut.' And then I slapped her.”

Elly was astonished enough to laugh. When Laura didn't join her, she stopped. “So what was going on? Did you ask him?”

“Of course. Jake said he was telling Anne that she needed to stay away from him, but she didn't want to take no for an answer.”

“And you believe him?”

“Yes! You and I both know Flossie spoiled Anne silly, and Mom never disciplined her the way she did us. Anne wants what she wants, and there's no stopping her until she gets it.” Laura stood up and went to the sink, filled a glass with water and drank it, then refilled her glass and did it again. “Weight Watchers tip,” she said when Elly raised an eyebrow. “Drink a glass of water before and after every meal.”

“But we're not eating.”

“Yeah, but I forgot to drink water after breakfast.”

Obviously, Anne's arrival had triggered Laura's determination to diet. “You look fine, you know,” Elly said.

“You're sweet. But if you'd seen the way Anne looks, you'd be guzzling water, too.”

“Why? How does she look?”

Laura shrugged. “Gorgeous, as usual.”

Elly considered this. “You know, I never really thought Anne was beautiful when we were growing up. Not with that red hair and those skinny legs and freckles.”

“You're right. Anne's not that pretty, if you take her apart feature by feature,” Laura said. “Which, believe me, I have. But she's a man magnet. I don't know why. Maybe it's her voice. That husky alto thing? Guys get hard just hearing it.”

“Hey. I thought I was the one with the voice,” Elly teased. “Mom gave
me
all the solos. You hated that.”

“I know,” Laura admitted. “I was jealous of everything you and Anne did when we were kids. So stupid.” She sipped at a third glass of water, made a face. “The problem with drinking so much water is that it makes me have to pee every twenty minutes.”

“In L.A. they call that ‘cleansing.' Really, Laura. Let's be serious here. Are you
actually
worried about Anne and Jake? Because to me it seems over the top. Just saying.”

Laura shrugged. “I don't know. Maybe I'm being super paranoid because this isn't a great time for Jake and me. I mean, we're not fighting outright about anything—other than about money and the usual domestic stuff—but something definitely feels off. We aren't happy.”

“Something's off, like what?”

“It seems like Jake's always avoiding me.”

“Even in bed?”

Laura turned her face away, confirming Elly's suspicions. “Stop right there. I'm not going to talk to you about our sex life.”

“That bad, huh?”

“Drop it, Elly!”

“Okay, okay,” Elly said. She'd always known something was up with Jake. Or
not
up, rather: she'd never seen Jake touch her sister in a way that wasn't, well,
fraternal
. She still couldn't understand why Laura had been in such a panicky rush to marry the guy. Or why she stayed married to him, for that matter, if she was so unhappy. She supposed it must change everything when there was a kid involved, but still, she hated to see her sister this miserable. “Tell me what I can do to support you.”

Laura peered into her empty water glass. “Talk to Anne. Find out what's really going on with her. Then tell me what she says.”

“You do realize that whatever Anne tells me might be very different from what Jake has told you, right? And that neither one might be telling the whole truth?”

“I know. But I need to hear what's going on in Anne's head.
Her
version of the truth. Promise me!”

“Okay,” Elly said. She rinsed out her cup, hugged Laura, and walked out of the kitchen, hoping that whatever Anne told her wouldn't be something that could destroy what was left of Laura's marriage.