Page 106 of At The Coffee Shop of Curiosities
“And you are now?”
I smiled sadly at him. “I’m closer.”
The boards of the pier vibrated underneath me and I glanced over my shoulder. My dad was walking this way.
“I’ll let you two talk.” Donovan pulled his legs back onto the pier. “But I’ll be waiting for you when you’re done.”
I grabbed his hand. “Will you do me a favor?”
“Name it.”
I glanced down at the manta rays. “I don’t want to fear the water anymore. Once you get that boat of yours, will you take me out in it?”
“Listen,” he said, smiling. “I’ll take you anywhere you want.Except if it’s to a place that involves an octopus. I have to draw the line. I have my pride, after all.” He pulled me in close and kissed the top of my head. “Never mind. I’ll do it even if it involves an octopus. I’ll do anything for you, Maggie.”
In that case, maybe I’d also ask him to pack some peaches-and-cream cupcakes for that boat ride. Because suddenly all I could hear was Boomy Eldridge shouting about sweet rewards.
As Donovan walked away, I stood up and leaned against the top railing. My legs ached and there was the sting of a sunburn on the back of my neck and arms. But for the first time in a long time, my head didn’t hurt, not even a little.
A lot of the pressure I’d been holding in had been released.
I’d let go.
The air shifted as my dad stepped up next to me. He said, “I’m sorry, Magpie. Really sorry for not telling you about Carmella and me. I should have.”
“If you had told me months ago, I don’t know how I would’ve reacted. Not well, I’m sure. I needed you to ease me into it the way you did.”
“After your mama disappeared, I should’ve found you someone to talk to. I saw what you were doing. Afraid to leave town, afraid of losing people you loved. So afraid, you just held on more tightly, dug your heels in, took on too much. But I didn’t do anything. Because if you talked about it, then I’d have to as well. And talking about it made all those feelings come to the surface, and I’d gotten real good at stuffing them down, of filling that empty space withthings. I’m sorry I failed you.”
“You didn’t fail me. I think we both coped the best way we could. We’re still coping. We’ll probably cope forever.”
“Sure enough.” His left hand wrapped around the penny pendant.
His ring finger was still bare, but the tan line was still visible. My chest squeezed, and I had to tell myself to just feel the emotions I was feeling. Jumping from denial, the first stage ofgrief, straight to acceptance, that last stage, wasn’t possible. It was a well-known process for a reason, and I needed time to work through all the stages—something I should’ve done a long time ago.
“What now?” I asked. “Between you and Carmella?”
“We’re going to be moving in together. We found a house down the beach, the old Kendrick place. We’ll give it a good reno, make it ours. Something we built together.”
It hurt. It hurt that it wasn’t my mother by his side, taking on a new adventure, but he’d had enough pain in his life. If Carmella made him happy, that’s all that truly mattered.
“I gather that’s what the yard sale was all about.”
“Clean slate,” he said.
“But you love your treasures.”
He said, “I love Carmella more. After we became a couple, I didn’t need my collection to fill the lonely hole in my life anymore.”
I swallowed hard. “Were you really sleepwalking the night you were found out in your skivvies?”
Grinning, he said, “No. I’d been at Carmella’s. It was late, and I heard a noise outside. When I went out to investigate, I locked myself out. She didn’t hear my knocking, so I was trying to sneak back home.”
I couldn’t help smiling, imaging the scene.
“I should’ve told you about us then and there,” he said, “but I was scared of how you’d react.”
I swallowed over a lump in my throat.
