“Your mom will be at the book group. I can’t ask her to miss it to tend my kids. So will your sister and Jan.”
Those were about the only people she dared entrust with all three of her children, especially considering Silas’s behavior issues.
“What time is it over? I should be able to wrap things up here and leave the rest of the job to the guys so I can be home by eight. You would only be a little late.”
“Don’t bother. It’s fine. Finish the job.”
“No. I’ll see what I can do. I don’t want you to miss book group.”
“You said it yourself. You can’t leave the Tanners with a hole in their roof with rain in the forecast. Do what you need to do. I’ll be fine.”
“I’ll do what I can,” he repeated. “I’ve got to go. Love you.”
It sounded so practiced, so casually offhand that she suddenly wanted to cry.
“Bye,” she said, tapping her wireless earbud to end the call.
She stared into space, aching inside for everything that had gotten in the way of the vast love they used to share.
She was distracted from her grim thoughts by a clatter and matching squeals from the girls. When she whirled around, she found Silas and Ava standing over her tray of beautiful sugar cookies, now a jumble of broken glass, crumbs and frosting all over the floor. An entire day of work. She had been working on them all day and had finally perfected the lavender-infused icing.
“Look what you’ve done!” she exclaimed. The stress of the day chasing kids seemed to pour over her like water gushing over the cliffs to the ocean.
“I’m sorry, Mommy,” Ava said, tears dripping. “We didn’t mean to ruin your cookies. I was trying to look at one when you were on the phone. Only look. And Silas grabbed it and the whole tray fell down.”
“They were so pretty.” Grace wandered over to look at the disaster with a mournful look. “Now they’re trash. Should I clean them up and throw them away?”
Grace was being helpful, she knew, but Rachel still couldn’t like the way her daughter was always so eager to throw away anything that wasn’t perfect, whether it was a coloring page where she went outside the line or a toy with a broken piece.
Silas sat down and picked up a cookie piece from the floor. Before Rachel could stop him, he popped it into his mouth.
“Silas, stop. Don’t eat that. There’s glass.”
He looked at her, barely acknowledging she was there, and picked up another broken cookie to eat.
She wasn’t even sure he would notice if he ate glass. His reactions to things were sometimes so far out of the realm of what most people would consider normal. He could hold his hand under hot water without making a sound but have a complete meltdown if she left a tag on his shirt that bothered him.
“No,” she said again and swooped around the kitchen island to pick him up and physically move him out of harm’s way.
As she might have expected, Silas didn’t like that. He wriggled to get down, grunting his displeasure at her. “You’ll hurt yourself on glass,” she said.
He started banging his head back against her, something new and fun he had recently discovered.
“Stop,” she ordered. How did he manage to wriggle his body and buck his head like that at the same time? Sometimes keeping him from danger was like wrestling an angry baby alligator.
She had finally managed to restrain him and calm him a little when the doorbell rang, starting him up again.
“I’ll get it.” Ever helpful, Grace sailed to the front door before Rachel could remind her that they didn’t always have to answer the door every time it rang.
Great. Just what she needed. Someone to witness what a disaster she was making of her life.
Silas continued to fight so that he could be free to eat sugarcoated broken glass while Ava sat on the floor sobbing quietly, though Rachel couldn’t tell whether she was crying because of what she and her younger brother had done or because of the cookies she could no longer eat.
She almost forgot the doorbell had rung until she heard a whoop of excitement out of Grace. A moment later, the last person she expected to see that day walked into the kitchen.
Jess, her older sister. Jess, who lived a rambling life and was usually on the other side of the country.
Jess, who hadn’t given her one single whiff of warning that she might be coming to Cape Sanctuary.
Her sister surveyed the chaos of broken cookies and upset children with the impassive expression she always seemed to wear whenever she was around Rachel and her family.
“Looks like I’ve come at a bad time.”
“Aunt Jess!” Ava exclaimed. Her tears miraculously dried as she launched herself at her aunt, who hugged her with a little laugh.
Rachel couldn’t seem to stop staring.
Jess was as stunning as ever, her sun-streaked hair shorter than Rachel remembered. She wore hardly any makeup but was still beautiful. Lean, fit, with a flat belly that had obviously never had anything to do with giving birth to three children.
Her sister lived almost the length of the state away and rarely even came for a scheduled visit, let alone an unexpected one.
“Jess. What are you doing here? Why didn’t you call and let me know you were coming?”
“Surprise.” Her older sister smiled, though it seemed forced. “I picked up a job in this area so that I can spend time with you and the kids.”
“A job?”
She knew Jess helped people, usually senior citizens, clear out their houses before moving. Rachel considered it a strange occupation but her sister seemed to thrive on it.
“Yes. I’ll be here for a few weeks cleaning out a place over near Sunshine Cove.”
Rachel knew a handful of people who lived in that area of Seaview Road but didn’t have time to figure out who might have enlisted her sister’s help. She was too busy trying to figure out what her sister was really doing there.
And also trying to face the fact that her relationship with Jess was yet one more area of Rachel’s life where she was failing. Their bond had been broken for a long time and at this point she didn’t know how to repair it.
“That’s great,” she said now. “So great.”
Did her voice sound as hollow to her sister as it did to Rachel? Could Jess tell her presence was a shock on par with a UFO landing in the backyard?
“I haven’t spent nearly enough time with the kids. A few phone calls and visits here and there during the holidays. I’m looking forward to spending more time with them.”
“Wow. They’ll love that.” Rachel tried to infuse her voice with warmth and delight but it took every iota of her limited acting skills.