The plan was for Juliet to sleep in her childhood bedroom and for Danica to take the guest room across the hall. This meant that, finally, after weeks of sleeping in Greenwich, they would have their own separate spaces. It felt pathetic to Juliet that they’d had to go back to her childhood home to find that space, but she reminded herself that this was a temporary measure.
Standing in the doorway of her daughter’s temporary room, Juliet watched as Danica removed her headphones from her backpack and turned her back to her mother. Juliet wanted a final conversation, something to set them on a good track for the months ahead. But Danica was tired of all Juliet’s pretending and false smiles.
Juliet knew that Danica needed some time alone.
Slowly, Juliet went downstairs and took her seat with her sisters and their children. The kids were nearly done, and half of them were getting out of their chairs, ready to head back to the water, or go outside, or watch television. Ivy reached across the table to pour more wine into Juliet’s glass, and Juliet thanked her, her head already swimming.
She worried about telling her sisters too much of the truth. She wasn’t sure she trusted them enough to give it to them.
When the kids were gone, Celia put her elbows on the table and offered Juliet a strained smile. “What made you decide to bring Danica to Bluebell?”
Juliet stuttered. “You know, I guess I got jealous. All your kids know each other now. And they’ve been falling in love with Bluebell Cove. I guess I got nostalgic?”
Ivy and Celia looked at her as though they couldn’t possibly believe that, not after everything Juliet had said in the past. Juliet guessed this was understandable. She’d been the biggest anti-Bluebell Cove teenager that ever was.
“And, yeah. You’ve both been so instrumental in getting the Eco-Lodge up and running,” Juliet said. “I figured I could chip in? Help out? I mean, I’m a Harper Sister.”
“I guess you are,” Ivy said thoughtfully.
“But we never thought you wanted to be,” Celia said, trying to laugh. But there was nothing funny in the air between them.
This didn’t feel like the time for jokes.
“Sorry,” Celia was quick to say. “It’s just we didn’t hear from you for a long time. We’d sort of…”
“We didn’t give up on you, per se,” Ivy said. “We just. We get how complicated our family is. We’re trying to overcome that.”
“But it’s hard,” Celia said.
They looked at Juliet, as though expecting her to offer her two cents or deliver some sense of urgent honesty. But Juliet’s tongue felt dry. She filled her mouth with wine and gazed beyond her sisters, at the dark and craggy edge of the cliff where, once upon a time, she’d told Callie she was leaving Bluebell Cove for good and had no plans to come back.
She’d hated breaking Callie’s heart, but she’d known that that was her future.
She’d gotten everything she’d ever wanted, for a time. Didn’t that count for anything?
“Anyway, it’s not like I’ll be here forever,” Juliet said, trying to lend a more formal and upbeat tone. “We’re city girls, Danica and me. We’ll try on the small-town life for a little while, but I guess it’ll make us both crazy!” She tried to laugh.
But it was clear that she’d already said the wrong thing. In essence, she’d criticized Ivy’s decision never to leave Bluebell Cove, as well as Celia’s decision to move home. Juliet closed her eyes, willing herself to take it back. But before she could, Ivy was on her feet, clearing plates and bowls from the table. Celia joined her, forks and knives clacking together.
Juliet remained at the table for a solid three minutes, her heart pounding. Why had she thought coming back to Bluebell Cove was an answer to all of her problems? Why had she thought the warmth of it would fall over her and Danica and unite them?
She’d never experienced that in Bluebell Cove before.
But Celia listened to Juliet when Juliet said she wanted to help out at the Bluebell Cove Eco-Lodge. Within the first three days, Juliet found herself at the front desk of the lodge, checking in guests and greeting married couples and solo travelers and people thrilled to be in this “magical coastal town.” Juliet wore a simple white dress with a name tag that read “JULIET.” She addressed everyone happily and watched herself, as though from above, as she entered their names into the computer system and handed over their old-fashioned keys.
“Are you from here?” An older man blinked from behind round glasses, waiting as his wife returned to the car for something she’d forgotten.
“I was born here,” Juliet told him. “But I haven’t lived here in a very long time.”
“How could you ever leave!” the man said brightly.
“Oh, it was a lot easier than you think!” Juliet laughed. Already, in the three days since she and Danica had driven in, she’d felt a harrowing sense of claustrophobia, as though the very sky of Bluebell Cove was pressing down upon her. She’d taken to opening her calendar app and counting down the days till the apartment in Greenwich Village would be open to her and Danica again.
The man looked at her, confused, until his wife returned with her bag, and they went upstairs to take a nap before their planned hike.
Meanwhile, Juliet twisted around in the office chair to peer through the window at Ivy’s place. From where she sat, she could see the bedroom where Danica slept, but a curtain in front of the window blocked her view. When Juliet had left that morning, Danica had still been in her bedroom, reading and making notes in her notebook. Juliet had reminded her to get out of the house at least once, to go for a walk with her cousins or head downtown to check out the library. But Danica had groaned into her pillow.
Now, Juliet called her daughter to check in. But Danica didn’t answer and instead texted her a few seconds later.
