13 Seascape Lane

It was drawing close to six o’clock in the evening when Camille Walker walked out of the front doors of her school building. Monday’s were always her longest school days and in a way she couldn’t stop herself from longing for them. Perhaps it was the hustle and bustle of being in the big city for several hours of the day, that certainly wasn’t something one experienced much in Cedar Cove. On other days, however, she dreaded being out of Cedar Cove for that long.

A part of Camille wished she could have been as bold as the rest of her friends — well, not all of them but a great majority of them, who went off to big four-year colleges away from Cedar Cove and even the state of Washington entirely. Take Madison Marshall, Camille’s best friend since the first day of middle school. Madi had decided at a young age she’d wanted to be a writer and thus, she went to a university in Boston that specialized in courses for writing. What had Camille decided to do with her life? Social work and luckily enough for her, University of Washington Seattle campus specialized in it.

As she headed for the parking lot, she pulled her iPhone 6 from her pocket and turned the ringer back on. The number of missed calls and texts had startled her — she’d only been in class since one o’clock that afternoon and had left Cedar Cove only an hour before that. That uneasy feeling in her stomach that she’d had the night before returned as she saw most of her texts and calls were from her best friend Madi Marshall. She missed her best friend now that she lived in Boston but, who was she to complain? It was Madi’s life to live. Camille knew the real reason Madi had left, though, wanting to go so far away from Cedar Cove…

Since then, albeit still best friends, the two of them only saw one another on breaks and holidays. It was a tough best friendship to maintain, but the two persevered as best as they could. Camille was just about to listen to the voicemail from Madi as she walked along the sidewalk, stopping at a crosswalk and waiting until it turned for her to continue on her journey — when her phone began to ring once again. “Hello?” Camille answered coolly, not wanting to seem too alarmed already at the number of times Madi had called her. “Cami! I’ve been trying to get a hold of you,” she had a tone of urgency in her voice that was unusual and the knot in Camille’s stomach tightened.

“You know Monday’s are my super long days at school, Madi. I’m sorry, I just got out of class, what’s wrong?” Camille offered her apologies to her best friend, thinking she was still miles away at college in Boston. “You haven’t heard?” Her best friend questioned and Camille thought on an answer as she hurried across the street and continued her way down the busy sidewalks of inner Seattle, heading towards the bay that was about another eight blocks away. This was certainly a good workout routine. No wonder she stayed so fit…

“I haven’t heard anything, Madi. You’re scaring me, I’ve never missed so many calls from you —,” she was going to continue, but Madi’s voice cut hers off. “Cami, my Grandpa died last night.” Her best friend’s voice was full of sorrow and Cami’s gut wrenched as she came to a halt on the sidewalk, a few people that were behind her bumping right into her. She said sorry very hurriedly and tried her best to keep walking but ended up taking a seat on a set of concrete stairs in front of a rather ornate Seattle building, one of many in the downtown area.

“I hadn’t heard, I’m so sorry. If I’d have known I wouldn’t have gone to school today at all. Does your family need any help until you get to town?” That’s when Cami was cut off again by just a quiet laugh from Madi. “If you checked your texts, you do-do bird, you’d know I’m already in Cedar Cove,” of course, that made Cami laugh which partially made the young woman feel bad for making light of a terrible situation. That’s just how the two of them were together, light-hearted and carefree. They honestly were the only ones that brought it out in each other; Madi and Cami lived far from uncomplicated lives.

“I’ve got a few more blocks until I’m at the ferry, I should be home within the hour,” Cami stated rather firmly. “I could just really use some best friend time,” said Madi and of course Cami understood all too well. She didn’t know what she’d do if it was one of her grandparents. One set had died when she was awfully young, she barely had memories of them but her other set of grandparents… the thought made her want to choke up and cry right then.

“Meet me at the pier when I get off the ferry?” Cami offered and Madi agreed right away. The two best friends said their goodbyes and hung up rather promptly. With a new found tenacity, Cami swam through a sea of people for a handful of blocks and finally reached the ferry to take back to Cedar Cove. Luckily, she’d caught it with only a couple of minutes to spare. Within a few short moments of sitting down and clutching her bag to her, she was on her way back home to Cedar Cove.

In a way, Cami had never wanted to get back to Cedar Cove so badly. The last time she’d seen Madi was Christmas due to the fact she couldn’t make it into town for Easter a week and a half ago… now with her Grandpa’s death and only a month before graduation? Cami had no idea where Madi’s last year of college was going. Cami couldn’t even imagine putting herself in Madi’s shoes — what would she do if put in that situation? Would she drop out of college and come home? No, surely not… not being so close to the victory of a bachelor’s degree.

The ferry ride was peaceful and it gave Cami more than enough opportunity to think. No wonder she’d felt so uneasy and unsure of things last night, call it an inner intuition or a sixth sense if you will, but she knew something eerie was up. It had caught her off guard because yesterday hadn’t been strange in any way whatsoever. Moments like this really made Cami Walker wonder if she were psychic, but just as she always did, she quickly dismissed the thought with a lighthearted laugh and a shake of her noggin.

Oh, how she wished she wouldn’t have gone to school today so she would have received Madison’s first call which Cami imagined was right when Madi got into Cedar Cove from Boston. These last six hours in Seattle, Cami had been in class and none the wiser to what was going on in the world around her. It was moments like these that Seattle felt hours away from Cedar Cove rather than a thirty-minute ferry ride at best. She prayed someone would have called her last night, she would have went and comforted her best friends’ family until her arrival. Cami always felt close to the Marshall’s and the Beldon’s.

Cami couldn’t even begin to imagine what Madi’s family was going through. Madi’s three cousins which Cami had met dozens of times had also lost their Grandfather. Glynda Beldon, Madi’s extraordinarily nice Grandma, had lost her husband and Madi’s parents, Tammy, and Jeff, they’d lost their Father and Father-in-law respectively. There was Madi’s crazy Uncle, Jay, he’d lost his Father as well. Last but not least, a staple of the Cedar Cove community, Bob Beldon, had just lost his eldest brother. How was all of the family coping? She was certainly going to find out as soon as the ferry made port which couldn’t come soon enough.

~*~

It had been close to two weeks since he’d made his decision of leaving Cedar Cove public and it had been close to a week since he’d admitted his true feelings for Olivia Lockhart right to her face. Olivia was the type of woman that wasn’t going to let Paul leave town without a real answer and by God, that’s exactly why he’d fell in love with her. Was it right? Absolutely not, she was in a committed relationship no matter how rocky it seemed from the outside looking in. Paul was biased and as District Attorney, he knew all about biases.

Paul had already promised the old district attorney his job back and had most of his things packed at the Thyme and Tide B&B, now it was just a matter of getting the sludge out of his gears and actually making the move back to North Carolina. He’d only been in Cedar Cove for about eight months now and already, he felt this was more his home than North Carolina ever had been. Paul had made friends here which included Judge Olivia Lockhart. There was also Alex, a young lady who was keen on him but honestly, he wished it to be no more than a friendship. Then of course, there were the Beldon’s: Bob and Peggy. Although he and Bob didn’t like one another very much at the start, Peggy had taken a liking to him right away and then it had only been a matter of time before Bob came around.

His sister had come up for a visit and even she could tell that Olivia wasn’t being honest about all of her feelings towards him, but Paul insisted she let it go — he wasn’t and will never be a home-wrecker, but even Peggy seemed to think Paul made a better match for Olivia Lockhart than Jack Griffin did. Paul and Jack would never like one another but, he’d finally got in good graces with Bob Beldon and that meant something to the forty-something-year-old. Of course, Peggy continued to have a soft spot for Paul and he certainly had a soft spot for her; she was a phenomenal cook and an amazing B&B hostess.

The complete truth was: he didn’t want to leave Cedar Cove and a part of him regretted making the decision to leave in the first place, regretted telling Olivia his feelings for her, and honestly regretted ever forming them. Could he be happy just being her friend, probably so but it would hurt like the dickens: but life liked to throw curve balls at him and apparently, they liked to throw them at her too. “I wish you’d tell me what’s going through that head of yours,” said Peggy Beldon as Paul made his way in through the front door of the B&B and towards the kitchen for some refreshments.

“Beer,” replied Paul with his signature grin and Peggy narrowed her eyes in his direction as he reached for the fridge and of course, no beer was found, nor was it ever found in the Beldon’s fridge. Instead, he took out the pitcher of sweet iced tea and poured a glass before replacing the pitcher on the top shelf. “Paul Watson, you know good and well what I’m talking about,” said the woman who was nearing sixty and to Paul, at least, she didn’t look a day over forty. These were the kinds of situations that were getting Paul into trouble, but he knew without a shadow of a doubt if he could trust anyone in the world, it was Peggy Beldon.

“Alright, could I stretch your ear for a bit?” The bachelor questioned and Peggy immediately nodded, leading him through to the quiet living room. Bob was out in his woodworking shop for a while so, at least Paul didn’t have to worry about the older Beldon having to hear what he was about to admit to Peggy. “I don’t want to leave Cedar Cove,” his voice was sharp yet mournful. “Tell me something I don’t already know,” the chipper blond replied and it surprised him she’d figured that much out: my was she perceptive!

“I have to, though, I’ve complicated some things for some people for quite some time and it wasn’t right of me to impose or intrude,” his voice trailed off and Peggy placed a hand upon his shoulder. “I think Bobby was right about your feelings towards Olivia, but, unlike him I’m not going to be rude to you for it like he was at the start, when he believed you were a threat for Jack’s happiness.” Peggy was right, Bob was right to look at it that way — Paul was endangering not only Jack’s happiness but Olivia’s as well.

“She’s a fantastic woman and it’s hard to work with her everyday and genuinely be her friend and not fall in love with her. Over the last few months, she and Jack have been through a lot, I could only imagine having watched their relationship blossom over the last three years because it sounds like they’ve faced a lot of hardships. I know all about bias, Peggy, I’m a lawyer and right now I have the biggest biased opinion on Jack Griffin. He’s a swell guy, a great writer, a humorous man, but… do I see their relationship as healthy? Does it upset me every time she cries to me about him? Of course it does,” this was the most candid Paul had ever spoken about his feelings towards Olivia but he thought he by as well get it out now and off his chest.

After telling Olivia about his feelings, he’d been waiting for the last week to hear from her, any kind of inkling that the feelings were reciprocated. He was starting to believe after a week he should just take the hint that he should move on, move back home, and find some other way to be happy again. That was until Peggy quipped up, “It’s a difficult situation you’ve put yourself in, and I love Jack as if he were my own brother-in-law because of how close he and Bob have become, but Olivia and Jack want so much out of their relationship that the other can’t give them. Jack is a simple man and unfortunately, Olivia has never been a simple woman. Jack has a hard time telling her how he feels and that’s been a large thorn in their relationship since day one.”

Peggy was absolutely right, Olivia had worded it very much the same way when she spoke so openly to him about her and Jack’s relationship. “Olivia wants to live in that house at 16 Lighthouse Road for the rest of her life. Olivia wants to be a judge in a small town like she already is, she turned down a federal judgeship three years ago, in fact,” and that wasn’t news to Paul, he’d read all about her turning down the offer from her friend ‘Petey.’ “It scares Olivia, the thought of Jack working in Seattle for a big newspaper, the newspaper trying to get him to move there. It scared her even more the possibility of him moving back to Philadelphia, and then that happened… they worked through it but, there’s only so many hits a relationship can take,” the more Paul listened to her, the more unbiased he was beginning to feel his opinion on their relationship was.

“I’m not saying they don’t love each other Paul, and I’m not saying you aren’t in the wrong for falling in love with Olivia no matter how lovable of a woman she is — but they don’t have what I and Bobby have. Maybe it’s because they’re younger than us, haven’t known one another remotely close to how long Bob and I have, but… I like you, and I like Olivia, and if something were to happen there, I wouldn’t be a Bob Beldon about it,” the blond laughed and Paul found himself chuckling as well. A part of him felt as if a weight had been lifted off of his heart by not just being honest with Olivia but by finally sharing this secret with Peggy who, surprisingly, knew him better than he knew himself.

“I guess I should let you get back to your day,” said the bachelor as he stood up from the couch. “It’s a slow day, a sad day; Bob’s eldest brother passed away yesterday evening. You’ve been in and out so much, I’m not sure you’ve heard us talking about it,” her voice was sad and Paul couldn’t help but to reach out and give the older woman a hug. “I hadn’t heard a word of it. Do you or Bob need my help with anything? I can always go out to dinner tonight and save you the trouble of cooking if it would help,” and Peggy nodded her head. “I’m not sure if I’ll be cooking dinner tonight or not since you’re the only guest; we may very well end up over at Bob’s sister-in-law’s, the widow’s house. So that would be a help,” she admitted and Paul nodded his head, “consider it done. I’m sure there’s something that’ll strike up my fancy in town.”

A dinner for two perhaps and one of the seats had Olivia’s name on it… if she wasn’t busy, and if she’d ever agree to it after him admitting his feelings for her. Paul was a hopeless romantic at heart, though, and it was most definitely worth a try. After a week of silence on Olivia’s end, though, Paul knew that her rejecting his dinner invitation was a very large possibility.