The Boardwalk House by Elizabeth Bromke

Author:Elizabeth Bromke [Bromke, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Elizabeth Bromke

21

When she’d finally made her way back to the boardwalk houses, Tatum considered stopping first at Liesel’s rental, just to check in. But that wasn’t Tatum’s place.

Still, she paused again at the second house, her lodgings. It loomed a little higher than the first. A little more modern, despite the fact that all three houses were built around the same time. Decades and decades ago. They’d held up well. The Cape Cod–style timelessness and, even if not low maintenance, well maintained.

She sucked in a breath, nervous to pitch her grand idea to Darla, whom she’d already tricked once on this trip.

Talking to Cadence would be no better. Tatum had kept her even more in the dark.

But even so, that third boardwalk house sat a little taller than the first two, yet. Brighter. It called to her.

Following her gut, Tatum passed her own vacay digs and made her way to the longest staircase from the boardwalk, the one that led to Cadence’s—and the Van Dam girls’—back deck.

She rapped once on the back door, willing Lotte to appear first. Of the three daughters, Lotte came across as the easiest going. The coolest. The sort to be excited about Tatum’s irrational decision.

It was little Mila instead. The smallest in stature and the blondest—her hair a wispy white—Mila seemed even younger than she already was. Maybe that could work in Tatum’s favor. She could sort of rally the troops around her cause, and then strike.

“Hi!” Tatum’s voice trilled a touch too cheery, but Mila returned the greeting, anyway.

“You just missed them.”

“Missed them?” Missed who? Could Mila read it on her face like a big, fat billboard: Now showing! Tatum Sageberry in her latest role as an unstable looney. Costarring Tatum’s band of hapless mutts and that one fussy cat that any real loon always totes around!

“Your sisters. You’re looking for Cadence and Darla, right?” She stepped aside, and Tatum took that as her cue to enter the house. She paused on the rug that ran the length of the French doors.

“Oh, right.” Tatum made a show of being bashful and uncertain. “May I come in?”

“Come in!” Mila assumed her position as the hostess, even now that she was officially living back home.

Tatum knew what it was to live at home past the age of eighteen. It used to be, as her parents said at the time, that kids never did that. They left at eighteen and forged a life of their own, marrying and popping out a string of cherubs in their three-bedroom-two-bath on Elm Street. The American Dream, her dad called it. The real world, her mother would say.

Tatum capitalized on this commonality. “How’s day two?” she started, following Mila to the kitchen. Ah, yes. The kitchen—the hub of any happy family.

“Day two?” Mila reached in the fridge for a jug of yesterday’s iced tea and set about pouring two glasses.

Accepting hers, Tatum explained. “Living back home. I mean, I know it’s not exactly the same, since Cadence is your stepmom, but still.” She hesitated meaningfully.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.