The Cottage at Glass Beach by Heather Barbieri

Author:Heather Barbieri
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Fantasy, mystery, Contemporary, Adult
ISBN: 9780062107961
Publisher: Harper
Published: 2012-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Nora heard the sound of tires negotiating the drive, their steady progress crushing the shell fragments before halting in front of the cottage. The engine went silent. The radiator ticked and hissed, as if, in the process of cooling, it might detonate. A door slammed. Footsteps crunched. She didn’t pay them much mind. She was in the middle of gluing fasteners onto the sea glass, drilling holes, linking links, tasks that required focus and a steady hand. One or two more, then she’d rise and see who it was. After all, no one would be visiting except Polly, with the mail, or Alison, delivering an order from the store or dropping by to say hello.

Ella, however, seemed particularly attuned to the arrival. Out the door she went, and into the blinding light, a single word leaving her lips like the cry of a gull, shattering the tenuous quiet: “Daddy!”

Nora dropped the piece of glass she’d been working on. It skittered across the floor and spun before going still.

Annie looked up from her puzzle. She held the fin of an angel fish, feathery, brilliant, in her right hand, a question in her eyes.

Nora nodded, fighting the instinct to grab her and hold her close. Annie raced out of the cottage and into her father’s arms. Through the curtained window, Nora saw her daughters and husband. Malcolm, tall, slender as ever, more tan than when she’d seen him last, the girls wrapped around him like vines, all arms and legs.

What was he doing there?

She opened the door. The light, coming from the east at that midmorning hour—a long day ahead—cut into the room, forcing her to squint against the glare, he at the locus of its brilliance, as always, a second sun around which others orbited, with his smile, his very presence. She looked past him to the road, expecting others to appear in his wake—advisers, journalists, photographers—for he was rarely alone. The road was deserted.

Their eyes met over the girls’ shoulders, their disheveled hair, their expressions wild with hope and abandon.

He was here, at last.

“Malcolm.” Nora spoke as if moving a chess piece across a board. No matter what she was feeling right now, no matter how much her heart thrummed at the sight of him—not so much with anticipation as with anxiety and confusion—everything would have to be handled with utmost care.

“Nora.”

They used full names now, the time of endearments in the past.

The girls slid away from him, watched her, watched him, watched them watching each other.

“Why don’t you play on the beach for a while?” she suggested. As much as she wanted the girls there as a buffer, that would only prolong the encounter and expose them to unnecessary tension. She hoped it would be short, this meeting or whatever it was—a few minutes, an hour, a day at most. She could entertain the thought of sitting down together for a meal, lunch or, if need be, dinner. That, she could manage. Then he would get in the car and drive away.

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.