Celia smiled. “It all sounds very familiar, honestly. And going to college means looking at yourself differently. It demands that you ask yourself who you are and how you can make this world better in some small way, you know?”
Lily nodded furiously. Ivy felt her stomach tighten with horror.
What was Celia trying to convince Lily to do? To leave Bluebell Cove behind?
Before she could interject, a shadow fell over her, and she turned to find Elliot Rhodes holding a beer and looking entirely too attractive in his open suit jacket, his black T-shirt, and his pair of slacks. She couldn’t remember if she’d ever seen him outside of his carpenter uniform.
“Hey there,” he said, raising his beer in greeting. His eyes flickered in a way that suggested something Ivy couldn’t fully grasp.
“Hi.” Ivy took a hesitant step away from him. She felt like a frightened rabbit. “Thank you again for your beautiful work on the inn. I mean, the eco-lodge.”
He smiled. “It must be hard to switch the name of the place in your head.”
Ivy felt her tight shoulders relax just a little. “I’m trying not to do it too much. Celia’s right about the branding. Eco-Lodge sounds so much better.”
“I don’t know. I like the term ‘inn.’ But I’m old-fashioned like that. And, well.” Elliott brushed his curls behind his ear. “I’ve been in Bluebell Cove too long. I don’t like change as much as others do.”
Ivy cocked her head in surprise. Is he insinuating that all this change is unnecessary? she wondered. Or is he saying he knows that Celia, Juliet, and Wren haven’t been around? That I’ve been here through thick and thin? That we’re the true Bluebell Covers?
“Although it stands to reason we should all be more eco-friendly,” Elliot went on.
“Yes,” Ivy said, her voice wavering.
“You have kids, so I’m sure it’s on your mind all the time.” Elliot shifted a bit so he could see Lily ten feet away, still in conversation with her Aunt Celia.
Ivy wondered if he knew that this was the young woman he’d helped bring into the world.
“I can’t believe it was so long ago,” Elliot said, turning to look at her again, confirming exactly what was on Ivy’s mind.
For a moment, as they looked at one another, Ivy felt just as strange and exposed as she had that day eighteen and a half years ago, when Elliot had sped her off to the hospital to deliver Lily. Neither of them had known whether Daniel was alive or if he would ever be found. She’d gripped Elliot’s hand so hard that she’d nearly shattered his strong fingers. She’d felt so foolish, like a little, frightened girl. And suddenly, she’d delivered a baby into the world and realized that she couldn’t be little and frightened anymore, not while Lily needed her.
“It’s crazy to see the old work I did on the inn all those years ago,” Elliot said then, emphasizing the word “inn.” “I feel like I was a nothing carpenter back then. But when I see what I did, I’m sort of impressed. Maybe I wasn’t so bad after all.”
“My father liked what you did,” Ivy remembered. “And he was never easy to please.”
“No, he wasn’t.” Elliot pressed his lips together. “I’m sorry for your loss, by the way. He was a pillar of this community. He was also maybe the scariest man I ever met. And that’s saying something, especially if you remember anything about my old man.”
Ivy remembered the rumors about Elliot’s father—how cruel he was to his contractors and how bitter he could be when one of his clients wronged him.
“That older generation,” Ivy said, shaking her head. “They were something else.”
“I think it’s part of the reason I had to leave Bluebell all those years ago,” Elliot admitted, referring back to when he’d left for Shelly. “I needed to get out from under his shadow. And then, when it didn’t work? I was right back under his shadow. Hate to admit how much I miss the old man these days. He was a mystery to me. But I love him still.”
Elliot sipped his beer and sidled closer to her. Ivy could feel her sisters’ gaze on them, heavy with curiosity. During the many weeks that Elliot had been working at the Bluebell Cove Eco-Lodge, Ivy had kept to herself, hardly allowing herself a glance. Now, he was very much acting as though they’d known each other forever. They sort of had.
“I wasn’t sure if you recognized me,” he said then. “When I first started working back at the inn, I mean.”
Ivy took a breath and searched her mind for an excuse. “It’s been crazy. I have the flower shop to deal with, and my sisters are back, and… Yeah.” They were weak excuses.
Suddenly, Celia, Juliet, and Wren appeared on the little makeshift stage near the back porch of the eco-lodge. Celia beckoned for Ivy to approach, while Wren wrangled the microphone from the DJ. Ivy had forgotten about their grand welcome to everyone who’d come out. “I’d better go,” she told Elliot, wincing at how much she didn’t want to go, how regretful she sounded.
“Let’s catch up another time,” Elliot said, his eyes urgent.
But as Ivy pulled away from him and headed to the stage, she reminded herself of how little she needed the stress of wanting something romantic to happen in her life. Elliot was an outright catch: handsome, charming, thoughtful, and soft-spoken. He’d approached her because of their shared past and nothing more. If she started to make up stories about what they could be to one another, if she started to dream beyond the boundaries of what could happen, she’d set herself up for misery. She knew that better than anyone.
Up on stage, Celia took the mic first and welcomed everyone to the grand opening of the Bluebell Cove Eco-Lodge. “For many years,” she began, “my father and mother worked tirelessly at the Bluebell Cove Inn. They joined our town’s thriving tourism industry and showed hundreds of thousands of guests what the magic of Bluebell Cove means. Now that they’re gone, we honor their memory and look forward to a brighter and more environmentally friendly future—one of sustainability and cleaner oceans for our world and our children.”
Celia handed the mic off to Juliet, who passed it to Wren like a hot potato. It was clear that Juliet wanted as little to do with making a speech in front of the public as Ivy did. Wren, who was meek but often chatty, took a moment to say what it meant to be back with her sisters for the first time in years.
