ChapterSeven
“What do you think?” Elsa gestured down toward the brand-new, state-of-the-art business chair, upon which she’d placed a big red bow. “It’s supposed to help your posture. I know it must be hard sitting all day behind the desk.”
Mallory placed her lunchbox on the secretary's desk, mere feet from her mother’s enormous office with its grand view of the Katama Bay just beyond their grounds.
“You’ve worked so tirelessly for all of us here at the Lodge since you started last year,” Elsa continued, her brow furrowing against Mallory’s silence. “Janine and I got to talking and decided it was time to honor your commitment here.”
“Yes. It’s um. It’s beautiful.” Mallory could hear the strain in her voice, proof that she cared very little about chairs and correct posture.
Elsa stepped back, padding the back of the chair. “Why don’t you give it a spin?”
Mallory sat at the edge of the chair. The cushion felt slightly harder than her old one, abrasive against her hind. “It’s nice,” she lied.
“You have to lean against the back,” Elsa instructed.
Mallory did as she was told, adjusting herself against the desk.
“There you are! It looks good on you,” Elsa said, as though she was complimenting a dress or a new pair of heels.
Mallory allowed a full beat to pass before she proceeded. “Should we go over your schedule for the morning?” Mallory had Janine, Carmella, Nancy, and Beatrice’s schedules outlined continually, with their sessions and meetings highlighted with different markers.
“We wouldn’t know how to work here without you,” Elsa said, beaming as she leaned against the side of the desk. “Your grandfather would be so proud.”
Mallory wasn’t so sure about that. After her mother departed for her first meeting of the morning, Mallory tried to drum up any sense of pride in her work. Yes, she was a secretary, a damn good one. But didn’t she want something more? The trip to New York City had ignited something in her, and the official break-up with Lucas had only fanned the flame.Wasn’t she ready to take the next step toward building her life?
Mallory clocked off at four-thirty that afternoon and stepped outside to find her elder brother, Cole, leaning against his big pickup truck and beaming. At twenty-seven, he’d begun to take on many more features of their late father, becoming much less “boy” and much more “man.” That said, he’d always just be Mallory’s brother— someone she could rely on when times grew chaotic and dark.
“You’re a sight for sore eyes!” Mallory cried, swallowing him with a hug.
“And you’re wearing business casual?” Cole teased, stepping back to assess her little suit jacket, which she wore over high-waisted black pants.
“I have to dress like this.” Mallory stuck out her tongue. “We can’t all be sailors, you know?”
Cole laughed. After weeks of springtime sailing, his face was tanned and healthy-looking.
“Alyssa and I were thinking about taking the boat out this afternoon,” he said. “You in?”
Mallory threaded a curl behind her ear, thinking first of Zachery, her heart pounding. Her responsibilities. She always had them. But then, with a funny jolt, she remembered that Lucas cared for Zachery this day, the next, and the one after that. In the previous two weeks since the breakup, they’d created a schedule for themselves that allowed Mallory a whole lot more “Mallory-time.” The free time was both jarring and freeing at once. She wasn’t always sure what to do with herself.
“You know what, Cole? Actually, I’m free as a bird.”
A little more than an hour later, Mallory sat in a bikini top and a skirt, her hair torn about with the ocean winds. Cole and Alyssa operated the sails easily, casting them out of the bay and toward the open water beyond. They were wordless for a little while, enjoying the frothing sea and the glittering sunlight, still orange and bright despite the approaching evening.
“You want a glass of something?” Alyssa asked Mallory, searching through the little cooler for a bottle of wine.
“Yes, please.”
Alyssa unscrewed the wine bottle and poured them two cups as Cole cracked open a beer.
“Feels so weird that Lucy’s back in NYC,” Alyssa said as she passed the cup over the sailboat. “I’m getting the slightest peek into your life as a mother, and in a word, it’s heartbreaking.”
“One broken heart after another,” Mallory agreed, laughing. “Any word from Lucy’s dad?”
“He’s still up in Seattle, and he’s still clean,” Alyssa affirmed. “I’m happy for him, but constantly terrified that I’ll get a phone call telling me something awful has happened to him.”
“He must be so grateful to you and Maggie for caring for his daughter,” Mallory breathed. “Although I can’t imagine giving my child up like that.”
“He’s a good guy going through a very, very difficult time,” Alyssa whispered. “I loved him to pieces when I was a teenager. I’m glad that I can put that love somewhere, you know?”