The Bookstore on the Beach - Brenda Novak Page 0,82

five children—three girls and two boys. He used me to finish raising them, then he ran off with a younger, skinnier woman who has less emotional baggage, I’m sure.”

Mary sighed. “I’m sorry. When did that happen?”

“It’s been eight years since he moved out. I don’t have any family. That’s why I decided to find you. I told myself you might need me, probably so that I wouldn’t have to admit that I need you.”

Mary’s throat began to burn, and it felt like she had an elephant sitting on her chest. “Tammy, what your parents did was so cruel—to both of us.”

“We were just children. And I loved you so much.”

Mary wasn’t sure if Tammy was agreeing with her or accusing her, but she couldn’t stop the tears that were beginning to slide down her cheeks. Yes, they’d been children, but Mary had been older than Tammy. Could she have done more to protect her? “I loved you, too. Let me get through the summer, okay? Then...then maybe we can pick a place to meet. And who knows where it might go from there.”

“Are you sure? I’m not trying to force my way into your life. I just...want to be wanted by someone, I guess.”

“You deserve that.”

Laurie pulled back the curtain, one eyebrow cocked in warning. “Autumn just came through the front.”

“I’ve got to go,” she said into the phone. “I’ll call you later.”

“Would you mind sending me a picture of Autumn?” Tammy asked before she could hang up.

Although Tammy’s request wasn’t a big one—a photograph of her half sister—Mary was reluctant to provide it. She preferred to maintain a barrier until she knew more about Tammy and gained some confidence that she could let down her guard.

But how could she say no? Risk hurting Tammy again? Besides, Autumn was an adult. It was possible she’d want to know her half sister—if only she knew of her. “Sure,” she said.

“I’d be grateful to get one of you, too.”

“Drake D. Owens didn’t provide one?” She hoped she’d managed to keep the bitterness out of her voice—evidence that she wasn’t happy to be rousted out of her hiding place.

“There were quite a few in the file he gave me,” she admitted. “He caught you from behind, as you were walking out the door of Starbucks. Then there were several as he followed you back to Sable Beach and to the bookstore—but mainly of the back of your car and then the business.”

Bastard, Mary thought. She’d been so shaken she hadn’t even noticed him.

“About the only one that shows you from the front shows you sitting on a stool in the same Starbucks,” Tammy went on. “You look so worried. I was hoping to get one that shows you a bit...happier.”

“Right. Of course.” No doubt Tammy interpreted that worried expression as more rejection. “I’ll text them to you later.”

“Mom?”

At the sound of Autumn’s voice, Mary said goodbye, clicked the end button and parted the drape. “Yes, dear?”

“Didn’t you hear me at the door?”

She blinked, feigning shock. “No. Did you try to come in this way?”

“I did, but it’s locked.”

“I lock it when I’m here alone. I must’ve done it after I came in this morning without realizing it,” she lied.

Autumn seemed perturbed, but she waved it away. “I brought you some lunch.” She lifted a small brown bag. “It’s an Italian sub from Huckabee’s deli. Are you hungry?”

“Starving,” she said, but nothing could be further from the truth. She was sick to her stomach.

19

Autumn didn’t know what to expect when she arrived at The Daily Catch. Quinn had texted her earlier and asked her to meet him at the restaurant, and he’d said to come hungry. But the time he gave her was after the restaurant was closed, so no one else was around.

What did he have planned? She was excited to find out. But she would’ve been excited to see him, regardless. The sting of having to cut off the search for Nick and the reality of what her life might look like without her husband didn’t seem quite as terrible since she’d come to Sable Beach.

The human spirit was more resilient than most people thought, she told herself, but she knew Quinn had a lot to do with how optimistic she was feeling about her future.

How could she still care about Nick and yet be so selfish? she wondered as she knocked on the front door.

While she waited, she looked back at her car. She should have parked down the street and