Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Melody

I stood behind the cash register and tried to settle my racing heart. Seeing Charles had taken me by surprise. I knew his grandmother was still alive, although it’d been a long time since I’d seen her. I hadn’t seen her order come in, which was concerning. It must have come through Mandy, the high-school girl I’d hired to work in the afternoons.

Maybe it was vain, but I picked up my cell phone and went to my camera app. I turned it around as if I were about to do a selfie, using the camera as a mirror. Thankfully I had taken the time to pick out the perfect Christmas dress this morning. The funny thing about divorce was that all my clothes fit better. I’d lost about eighteen pounds since last Christmas, and it was like I had a new wardrobe.

I blew out my breath and thought about the man who’d just walked out of my store. Charles King. The last name fit his family. How many times had I teased him about that last name, and that he was way too rich for me? He’d hated it, but I couldn’t help it. Teasing him had somehow made it seem untrue, though it wasn’t. He came from old money.

My mother always liked to say the money would eventually come between us. I would protest, but she would simply shake her head and say, “Time always tells that story.”

It had.

I glanced down at my hand, reliving our brief handshake. How had nineteen years gone by? And why was I experiencing that same twitterpation the teenage version of me had once felt about Charles King?

Charles hadn’t lived in Jewel Cove full time. His parents had passed away when he was a sophomore in high school, so he and his brothers had come to Jewel Cove for almost a year. Then his grandfather had sent them all away to boarding school until college.

Before that, his family had lived in New York and come for the summers. We’d been best friends, finding each other every time he was in Jewel Cove. We’d had a group of beach friends that had always felt comfortable and easy to be a part of.

Where had all those summers gone? I knew where the beach crew had gone. Most of them had been my friends during school as well as the summer. Most had moved away, except for Gretchen and Kent, who were married and owned the bookstore next door.

I had heard that Charles’s brothers were serving in the military. They were all close in age, each only a year apart from the next, and we had always hung out as a group. Where were they all this Christmas?

When I was young, I hadn’t cared about the discrepancies between the uber-wealthy and me. It was only my mother that had made sure to tell me.

I’d heard Charles had been married, then divorced. I stared out the window and wondered what had happened with his wife. I knew the general picture. My mother had told me some things. It was like she’d wanted to make sure that I knew we’d all made the right choices so long ago. Her implication was that no one could make it work with Charles King. At least, no “commoner” could. Apparently, Charles’s ex had been a secretary at a bank before marrying him.

I’d mostly tried to ignore my mother then. Now I wanted to know more.

My phone buzzed. It was Peter. I didn’t want to talk to him, but I was still waiting for the 401(k) to be divided, and I needed that money.

Wasn’t it funny that money seemed to always play such a big part in everyone’s lives? Whether that was hating money, as my mother seemed to, or needing money.

I answered the phone. “Hello.”

“Hey, have you heard from Will?”

I sighed. “I don’t think it’s your business what I’ve heard and what I haven’t.”

“He’s our son. We should be able to talk about him. Is he still planning to spend the holidays with you?”

“That’s what he texted us.” Since our son was a sophomore in college, there were no binding legalities. I didn’t want to give anything away.

“I know what he texted us.” His tone was flat.

I rolled my eyes. I’d realized in the past year that we had never been a team in our marriage. Peter had taken the husband-and-wife roles very seriously, and while he’d built his career, I’d been left to raise Will and do all the domestic things. Which I hadn’t minded. In fact, I’d loved it. That’s what made it so painful when he’d told me about getting divorced before the Christmas party. I’d worked so hard building a home and a community for us, and it hadn’t mattered.

“He won’t answer my calls,” Peter said.

I considered telling him that Will wouldn’t answer my calls either, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. “On a different topic, when will the 401(k) be split?”

Peter grunted. “I gave you half of the house, and you’re still pestering me about this? You didn’t even earn that money. Plus, you still haven’t sold your mother’s house.”

“That house is in a trust that is being given to Will, and you know that.”

“Not if you’d sell it before he turns twenty-nine.”

Anger surged inside me. “My mother wanted it to go to Will, so it’s going to Will.” I would go under before I’d sell the house my mother left for my son. “We’ve been over this countless times with the attorneys. When you get a divorce, you split the assets. That includes your 401(k). You can look at it as compensation for raising your son and building a community and a family of people around us—something that you threw away.”

A rumbling laugh came out of him. I hated that laugh. “If you and I were so easy to tear down, were we really worth building?”

I bit my lip. “Just get me my half. If I don’t get it by the end of the year, then we are going to court.” I hung up before he could argue further.

My hands were shaking, and I put the phone down. I paced around the cash register and into the center of the store, which certainly wasn’t as big as I remembered. The store was a few missed payments away from financial ruin. When I’d decided to take it over, mostly because I was floundering and had nowhere else for my life to go, I hadn’t realized how hard it would be to keep afloat. Tears came to my eyes, and I blinked them away. I would not lose it.

I had to think about my class this afternoon. That was the main reason why I had hired a girl to work after school: so, I could go to the local community college for my classes. Unlike my son’s tuition, mine was minuscule, but I was trying to learn a skill. Accounting. Something practical. I was good with numbers, and I regretted not finishing my degree.

I regretted so many things.

I walked over to the front doors and stared out at the bustling street. With Christmas coming, there’d been an uptick in sales, which had been nice. I thought about Charles. He hadn’t flinched at buying a six-hundred-and-fifty-dollar doll. Why would he? He was from King money.

I tried not to think about him, but it felt impossible. Especially after seeing the same look on his face that I’d seen nineteen years ago when he’d tried to stop my wedding. He hadn’t done it in a flashy “stop the vows” way. No. He’d just shown up early at the church and sought me out. I didn’t know why I couldn’t tell him what his grandfather had said to me on the phone. Why I had let my mother, and her words get inside my head. Why I hadn’t just fled the church with Charles and left Peter that day.

I cringed and closed my eyes, applying pressure to the bridge of my nose. How many times had I thought about that moment in the past year since the divorce? Too many to count.

I dropped my hand and opened my eyes. I would not live a life where I second-guessed everything. I would not.

I pulled out my phone and tapped on a picture of Will and me on his graduation day. It was a picture without his dad, and both of us looked so happy. My heart ached to go back to that day and hold the moment a bit longer—hold Will longer.

I texted him. Call me when you can. Love you.

The door dinged, and a couple walked into the store. I plastered on the smile I used for greeting customers. It had been a real smile before the divorce. Now it was fake, and I often wondered if it would ever be real again. Maybe I would use it forever and forget there was supposed to be happiness behind it.

The man and his wife looked around the store. I imagined they were in their mid-thirties. He wore a horrible Christmas sweater, and she wore a pretty red scarf.

The man grinned at me. “We need some Christmas dolls for our little girls. We were glad to see that the store was open.”

My fake smile went wider. “Great. How can I help you?”

Later that day, Mandy showed up to cover the rest of the shift, and I got my things together to head to class. Luckily, it was just down the street.

As I was walking out, my friend Gretchen hurried toward me. She ran the little bookstore next to the doll shop. She had married her high school sweetheart, and they ran several businesses in town; the bookstore was just her baby. “Are you headed to class?” she asked, falling into step with me.

I nodded. “Yep, learning how to crunch numbers properly. Maybe one day I can have a job that pays.”

Gretchen looped her arm through mine. “How was your day?”

I wasn’t going to hide anything from Gretchen. She would find out anyway. “Charles King showed up in my shop today.”

She yanked me to a stop. “Are you kidding me?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Keep walking with me so I’m not late. He showed up to buy a doll his grandmother had ordered.”

Gretchen let out a low whistle. “Wow. Charles King. He is a handsome man. I see him every year at the Christmas charity gala, but he usually shows up, sits at his grandmother’s table with his siblings, then leaves right after the program. Last year he sort of ran things, but he was so busy I didn’t try to talk to him.” She snapped her fingers. “But the last time I ran into him was before your wedding.”

I knew what she would say. “I know. Since he tried to stop my wedding, and you ran into him and told him where I was.”

She nodded. “Sorry about that.”

I scoffed. “I guess I should have let him talk me out of it.”

Gretchen raised her eyebrows. “Are you serious?”

“No.” I thought of his handsome looks and the attraction that had always been between us. “I have Will, and I’ll always be grateful for that, even if his father … is an idiot.”

“Charles is divorced. Maybe you guys …”

I shook my head. “That ship sailed a long time ago.”

“But ships set sail again if you put them in the harbor.”

I felt my cheeks flush. “Wait, I’m the ship being put back in the harbor?”

She laughed. “Sure, why not?”

“I’m too old for … the harbor.”

“No, you’re not.”

I shook my head. “You and your romances. Are you reading a romance right now?”

She shrugged. “Of course. A man is stuck on an island, and a pirate ship just arrived with a castaway that they thought was a boy, but it’s a woman.”

I rolled my eyes. “Nice.”

She giggled. “What are your plans after class tonight?”

I shrugged. “I’ll close the shop, go for a run, and then go to bed.”

“Why don’t you come out to the house for dinner? Kent is smoking a brisket, and my parents are coming. Of course, the kids would love to see you. Plus, there’s the movie tonight. You could go with us.”

I knew she was lying about the kids, because they were teenagers, and teenagers didn’t love to see anyone. Still, I appreciated the gesture. “No. But … thank you.”

She sighed. “Fine. Keep running and making me look bad.”

I rolled my eyes. “You look beautiful.”

She let out another low whistle. “You should come to the Christmas Charity Gala on Christmas Eve. Kent bought a table, and we’d love to have you sit with our family.”

“Uh, no.” Once again, Charles King’s face flashed into my mind. “Not interested in running into Charles again.”

She frowned. “We need to fill the table. C’mon, maybe you and Charles can start something up.”

“Stop,” I said, a little too forcefully.

Gretchen didn’t. “You know the town is raising money for the new cancer wing. Would you deny raising money for cancer?”

I laughed at her dramatics, though Charles’s sweet sister’s face popped into my mind. “I’m not going.”

We got to the community college, and I paused at the steps.

“I’m reserving space at our table for you,” Gretchen said.

“I told you, that ship has sailed.” I turned away from her, starting up the steps.

She tsked her tongue. “No, you’re getting back into the harbor.”

I shook my head without slowing down. “See you tomorrow.”

“Fine, see you tomorrow!”