Marin rested her hand on her mother’s arm. “We’ll find a way to help, Mom.”
“Let’s go,” Missy finally said. “I can only look at it for so long.” She drove the golf cart up a hill and into a residential area that didn’t seem at all impacted by the storm.
“The tornado didn’t come through here?”
“No. It came through the golf course and slipped down into town over by the central park, missing most residential sections.”
“Thank God for small favors,” their mother mused.
Missy pulled the golf cart in front of a neatly kept yellow-and-white Cape Cod. “This is where you guys will be staying. The couple who’d been renting this place had just moved here last year to start up a new restaurant. But the storm destroyed their building, so they’ve decided to start over in Door County.”
“Where’s your house?”
“Right next door.” Missy pointed. “How’s that for convenient?”
As if on cue, Missy’s husband, Jonas, came out the front door of their house, a much larger Cape Cod, carrying two small boys. “Hello, ladies,” he called. “Welcome to Mirabelle.” The moment he cleared the steps, he set the toddlers down in the grass and they ran somewhat clumsily toward Missy.
“Look at you two go,” Missy said, smiling.
Angelica Camden had come to Mirabelle no less than three times to visit Missy these past couple of years, so the boys likely remembered her. Marin, on the other hand, had never met either one of the kids. “Who’s who?” she asked.
“Nate is the towheaded one,” Angelica said. “And Michael has dark hair.”
She bent down and held out her arms. “Come say hello to Grandma!” The boys ran toward her and she hugged them both at the same time. “Thank God one of my kids finally gave me grandchildren.”
“Well, don’t count on me ever adding to the lineup.”
“Never say never,” Angelica murmured. “Now go give your auntie Marin a big sloppy kiss.”
They both turned to Marin with their big, round eyes and messy mouths.
“No, that’s okay.” She smiled and waved. “Hi, boys.”
Jonas laughed and grabbed the suitcases from Marin. They followed him up the sidewalk, the boys holding Grandma’s hands. Everyone piled inside the house Marin and her mother would be renting for the duration. Immediately, the boys went racing from room to room and Marin flashed on what the next several weeks could look like if she didn’t set some ground rules with her mother right off the bat. The boys screamed and raced by Marin. The vision wasn’t pretty.
“If Grandma wants to see her grandbabies,” Marin suggested, “I think she’ll be going over to Missy’s house from now on.”
“I don’t think you’ll need to worry about your peace and quiet, Marin,” Missy said, smiling. “The boys have a pretty good sense of self-preservation.”
“I’m going outside with my grandsons,” their mother called from the kitchen a moment before the back door opened.
“I’ll keep an eye on them.” Jonas headed outside.
“Hey,” Marin whispered, pulling Missy aside. “Heads-up. Mom just saw a divorce attorney last week. That’s why she came along.”
“If I say it’s about time will you be mad at me?”
“No.” Marin sighed. “But I have this feeling she and I are both a bit raw.”
“I’d say I’m sorry about what happened with Colin, Marin,” Missy said. “But the truth is you dodged a bullet.”
“I know. It’s still hard to switch gears. I thought I’d be spending the rest of my life with him.”
“Well then, you came to the right place. This island has a reputation for creating matches made in heaven.” Missy winked at Marin. “Who knows? Maybe you and Mom will both get lucky.”
“Oh, no.” Marin smiled grimly. “I need another man like I need a hole in the head.”
CHAPTER TWO
“NO!” WYATT STOMPED HIS FEET. “Carla can’t go!”
“She has to, Wyatt,” Adam said calmly. “Her mother is sick and needs her.”
“But we need her, too, Daddy,” Julia said. “What are we going to do without her?”
“I’ve already made some calls to people who help match nannies with families.” Adam pulled lunch meat, cheese and a couple apples out of the refrigerator. It’d be cold sandwiches and fruit tonight. With Carla leaving, he wasn’t losing only his nanny, he was also losing cook and housekeeper. “We’ll find someone new. Someone you’ll like just as much as Carla. In the meantime, Phyllis will take care of you.”
They both groaned.
“She’s boring,” Wyatt said.
“She never plays with us,” Julia complained.
“Why can’t you take care of us?”
“I have to work, Wyatt. You know that.” Adam slapped together some sandwiches. “I’ve made a commitment to this community to help its residents get their businesses up and running before Christmas. I can’t let them down.”
Pulling her suitcases, Carla came out of her rooms, mother-in-law quarters located in an addition built just off the kitchen. This rental house had been the perfect setup for a live-in nanny. So much for that.
Wyatt cried. Julia’s lower lip trembled.
“Oh, niños.” Her eyes were even redder and puffier than earlier in the day. Carla got down on her knees. The kids flew into her open arms the way Julia used to jump off the end of the dock at his parents’ house on Lake St. Louis. “I will never forget you.”
Foregoing dinner preparations for the moment, Adam looked away.
“Both of you…be good for your father. He’s a very busy man with important work to do.”
Sniffles and sobs and sucked in breaths. If he had to listen to another minute of it, he just might… No. Adam refused to let this get to him. This situation was no one’s fault. It was entirely uncontrollable. What point would there be in getting angry, anyway? That emotion was particularly unproductive. Not to mention distracting and draining.
“I called Arlo for a carriage to take you down to the ferry,” he said gently. “Looks like Austin is waiting for you on the porch to take your luggage.”
Carla stood, sucked in a big breath and, trying for stoic and dismally failing, headed toward the front door. “Thank you, Mr. Harding.” She shook his hand.
“Thank you, Carla. Take care of your mother.”
“Find someone good,” she whispered as she slipped out the door.
The kids watched her through the front picture window. They both stayed there long after she’d disappeared. Adam had no more a clue what to say now than when he’d had to find the words to tell them their mother was gone. Forever.
“Come on, kids, let’s get something to eat.”
They slowly followed him into the kitchen.
“I miss Mommy,” Julia whispered.
“Me, too,” Wyatt agreed.
Redirect them. That’s all he could think to do. He cut an apple in quarters and cored a section. “How ’bout we take our sandwiches out into the backyard for a picnic?”