Barefoot on the Beach

Didn’t stop you the first time.

Renee’s cheeks burned.

“Whatever you want to make. You know I don’t care.” Marcus’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts. He glanced next door as if he knew what she was thinking.

Renee broke away from the door and went back into the kitchen, determined to scramble the eggs, along with Luc, out of her mind.

Chapter 5

After breakfast, Cait insisted on spending the day at the beach.

Renee placed the final clean dish from the rack into the cabinet. “We need to get started on the planning.”

Cait glanced at her floral sundress. The ties from her bikini peeked out around her neck. “It’s my first full day here. I haven’t had a beach day yet. Can we push it to tomorrow?”

Renee understood why none of Cait’s plans were confirmed. “No, we can’t.”

Cait stuck out her bottom lip, the way she used to do when she was a toddler. As a teen, Renee used to flick her fingers at that lip, which would cause Cait to tumble to the floor in a fit of giggles.

“Nay, don’t be like that.”

Renee sighed. “How about we take the time and make appointments for this week?” She doubted the vendors would have space to fit them in that day anyway.

“Yay! You’re the best.”

“I said ‘we’.”

“I know, I know,” Cait said, reaching for her phone. She tapped away as Renee brought the coffee machine parts to the sink to soak.

Renee’s phone pinged from the table several times in a row. Cait placed her phone on the counter and swooped her hair back into a bun at the very top of her head. “Those are from me.”

“What are?” Renee asked.

“The list of vendors. That’s my part.”

“Cait, that’s not what we agreed to.”

“I don’t know anyone here, remember? You said you would call them. After that, I’m all in, okay?”

Renee tapped the screen of her phone and sifted through the emails. They were forwarded from each of the vendors asking for confirmation of times, and some even had attachments of surveys, which Cait hadn’t filled out.

Renee counted seven of them in total: the bakery, the venue, the DJ, hair and makeup artist, the dress shop, florist, and photographer. It seemed comprehensive and a little overwhelming. Cait wasn’t the organized type, and Renee wondered how long she had expected to put off these details.

Some of the emails were a string of follow-ups that Cait had chosen to ignore. Renee recognized all the names from the emails. They were established businesses in the area, and she knew a few of them would need smoothing over before she could ask them to make an exception for Cait. Some might not have held the date open without the proper responses.

The sliding door closed, and Renee glanced up from her phone. Cait was already outside, crossing the street with a towel under her arm.

A grumble vibrated in Renee’s throat, and Marcus chuckled from his spot on the couch.

Hunter rushed to the door and barked in Cait’s direction.

Renee crossed her arms. “What’s so funny?”

“You can say ‘no’, you know.”

“What else am I supposed to do? She’s done nothing. She chose West Cove for her wedding. I can’t let her have a bad time.”

“I understand.” To Renee, it sounded like he didn’t. She climbed the stairs to her bedroom.

Renee hadn’t been in her room since last night. The amount of clothes covering every surface made it look as if Cait’s suitcase had exploded. She wondered how much of it was from Cait being careless versus Hunter’s need to make every room a mess. His quick feet hurried up the stairs, and Renee closed the door before he could invade her space. A soft thump sounded from the other side. A whine and a bark came next. But Renee needed to get her work done before she could join Cait at the beach.

A bra hung from the side of her computer monitor, and Renee delicately tossed it on the bed before logging into the desktop.

First, she checked her schedule and answered emails. She left Cait’s emails as UNREAD and moved on to the rest. A few clients wanted updates. She fielded those she could answer with a few sentences before opening Cait’s emails. The only way to work through them was to jump in.

Her phone buzzed. It was a text from Cait. Are you coming?

After I plan your wedding, sure. But Renee didn’t type what she wanted to and instead sent a thumbs-up emoji.

The bakery was the first email on the list, and cake tasting seemed like the perfect place to start. West Cove Country Club wedding packages included local vendors. But it was up to the bride to select the details. Cait had done half the work, and it seemed like Renee was in charge of the other half.

Sprinkles and Crumbs was the go-to place for any baked goods in the local area. The owner, Eileen, answered.

“Eileen, it’s Renee Clarke.”

“Hey! I’m a little swamped this morning—how can I help?”

“My sister, Cait Ingram, has a wedding on the Fourth—”

“That’s your sister?” Eileen’s cheery voice faltered. “I’ve been trying to get in touch with her for about a month now.”

“Sorry about that, I’m working with her to finalize the details. Can we come in this week?”

“I was about to write her off, so good thing you called. Let me get my calendar.” Shuffling sounds filled her ear as she flipped open her own calendar on her monitor. They found a date and time that worked for them, and Renee plugged it in.

“I appreciate this.”

Eileen grunted. As she hung up, Renee briefly wondered if Cait’s intention of having the locals want to help would do the opposite and hurt Renee’s contacts within the town. It seemed unlikely but scheduling the meetings sooner rather than later would help preserve those relationships. As she confirmed more appointments, the weeks ahead of her needed a lot of rearranging. The feeling of accomplishment somewhat overpowered the worry knotting her stomach.

When she finished, she looked at her work calendar. Most places weren’t open on Sundays, so she made a mental note to head over to the co-working space then.

Renee sorted her work—shifting more of it to the weekend.

This is only temporary. She wasn’t a stranger to working under tight deadlines, but there didn’t seem to be enough hours in the day. As long as she kept to her schedule on top of the wedding plans, everything would work out. She could host her sister and give her the best vacation and wedding while completing her work tasks.

By the time Renee was settled enough in her accomplishments for the morning, the clock read nine-thirty. How had it been forty-five minutes since she had sat down? Two more messages came in from Cait, insisting she come to the beach, and Renee finally conceded.

***

Renee’s bathing suit was a bit more modest than Cait’s as her body wasn’t quite the shape it used to be in her twenties. She stared at her sister’s almost concave stomach as she approached her lying on her towel facing the sun.

Cait rolled onto her belly and pulled her sunglasses low over her nose. “It’s about time.”

“I spoke with all the vendors.”

Cait’s jaw dropped. “All of them?”

“Yes.”

“That didn’t take long.”

Renee spread her blue and white striped towel next to her sister and smoothed the edges. “It wouldn’t have taken you long either.”

Cait took her sunglasses off and folded her arms in front of her. She cradled her cheek in her hands, turning away from Renee.

“Cait, I want to know why you didn’t ask for my help earlier.”

Cait shrugged, still not looking at her.

“At the very least, I deserve an explanation. I filled my schedule with a lot of work, including your website. Is everything okay?”

Cait sniffed and turned her head to rest on her other cheek. “Everything is fine. Jorden is so busy with work, I didn’t want to bother him with all this.”

“What about your other bridesmaids?”

Cait rolled her eyes. “I love them, I do. But none of them are married or even engaged. They don’t understand. I wanted to do this with you but wasn’t sure how to ask.”

Renee reached over and smoothed a chunk of Cait’s hair out of her face. “You can ask me anything. Anytime.”

Cait smirked against her arm. “I thought wedding stuff wouldn’t be on that list.”

Renee settled against the towel, peering up at the sky. “I want you to be happy no matter what. Even if you choose to spend your life with a ball and chain.”

A sprinkling of sand peppered her side, and Renee grinned. Cait wiped her hand on her towel.

There was a moment of silence, growing heavier by the second before Cait said, “You blame Mom for all of it?”

Renee ground her teeth together, holding back the venom she wanted to spew about Isla. Cait had never seen their mother at her worst. She had divorced Marcus when Renee was eight, then divorced Jacob before Cait was a teenager. Cait and her father’s relationship never suffered, and whenever she was around, Isla doted on Cait. Babysitting, feeding, and carting Cait around to activities had been Renee’s job.

“I’ve made my own decisions.” Years of therapy at college had formed a well-rounded, independent individual. But that dark thread weaving through every prospective relationship was tinged with her mother’s influence. Renee rarely spoke badly about her mother to anyone other than Sadie. Since Cait hadn’t been there for the dark times, it wasn’t fair for Renee to taint that relationship as well.

“I think you’d make a beautiful bride, and someone very happy.”

The sound of an engine roaring to life floated over the barrier from Luc’s truck. It took effort for Renee not to turn around to catch another glimpse of him. One instance of seeing her in partial clothes was enough for a lifetime.

“I know you want to get a peek,” Cait said.

Even with her eyes closed, Renee heard the smile in her sister’s voice.

“You still have a plus-one for the wedding.”

Renee couldn’t help the snort bubbling out of her. “Luc? Yeah, right.”

“Why is that so hard to believe? Did you see a ring? If not, he’s fair game.”

As far back as she recalled, her mother never wore a wedding ring through any of her marriages. “That doesn’t mean much. He could have a girlfriend.”

“Why don’t you ask him? What’s the worst that could happen?”

I could embarrass myself more than I did earlier this morning.

“Who else are you going to ask?”

“I’ve been to weddings alone before.” More than she wanted to count.

“There’s a wedding party dance after the first couple dance. Who are you going to dance with?”

“Dad?” Renee cringed saying it. As much as she loved her father, she couldn’t help the swirling glee within her stomach at the thought of dancing with Luc instead. It was completely ridiculous but enough to make her consider it.

***

The rest of the day at the beach was the most relaxed Renee had been in a long time. Work usually filled her mind but sitting in the sun with Cait allowed her to sink into the moment.

Cait did most of the talking—as she always did. But Renee missed being the listener. Even with the waves as their soundtrack, she fell into the memories of putting Cait to sleep when she was a kid or listening to what happened during her sister’s day.

Their mother had left Renee to care for her child while she did whatever she wanted, but Renee wouldn’t want her life any other way. Cait was the perfect result of all that heartache, and she couldn’t wait to show their mother how good of a job she had done for Cait when she was the one to help put the wedding together with her sister.

Chapter 6

The first appointments to get Cait’s wedding in the right direction were with the florist and photographer. Renee gave herself time in the morning to work at the co-office space before picking up Cait for their ten o’clock appointment.

Renee wasn’t much of a dreary-rainy-day type person, but she appreciated the thick gray clouds in the sky hovering over them. At least Cait couldn’t force Renee to attend to the appointments alone with an excuse of another “beach day”.

“Did you eat?” Cait asked, getting into the car. She wore a pair of micro jean shorts and a tank top. Cait shivered, and Renee grabbed a spare hoodie from the back seat and handed it over.

“Thanks.” Cait shoved her arms in the sleeves. As she turned away, Renee noticed the dark circles under her eyes. She blinked, wondering if she had imagined them.

Cait lifted her makeup bag from her purse and started doing her foundation using the miniature mirror attached to the visor.

“You sleep okay last night?”

“Of course,” Cait said quickly. “Your mattress is super comfortable.”

“I know,” Renee said with a smirk. “But make sure you eat enough. Sometimes Dad isn’t good at making food outside the essentials, so feel free to raid the cabinets.”

“Okay,” Cait said, dabbing her concealer brush under her eyes.

Renee opened her mouth but didn’t press the issue. Cait did what she wanted. She had since she was a kid. Pushing her to get over this diet would only get the opposite result she wanted.

“What’s first?” Cait asked cheerily as Renee backed out of the driveway.

“Greene Stems Florist.”

“Oh, I’ve been looking forward to picking out the flowers. It’s my favorite part of weddings.”

“What are you thinking?”

“Well, the scheme of the wedding is pinks and grays. The guys’ suits are gray, but I’d like to have pink boutonnières. For the bouquets, I was thinking pinks and whites. I have a whole Pinterest board full of ideas.”

At least that would help the initial process. As much as Cait seemed to want Renee to take care of the details, letting Cait take over where she shined—talking to people—would make the time go by so much quicker.

***

Downtown West Cove was bustling with people for a weekday. Summers seemed to carry their own schedule with the vacationers coming and going as they pleased. During most times of the year, Renee didn’t have to worry about parking. Now, the only free spots were at the bigger plazas, quite a walk from the florist. Renee wasn’t in a rush to get in and out of the area as they had plans, but it wasn’t convenient.

When they reached Greene Stems, Cait practically skipped through the door. Inside she twirled around and made a show of inhaling the scent around them. Pops of color peeked from various vases and displays across the space. A glass-front refrigerator took up half the size of the room, showing intricately arranged bouquets held by elaborate vases.

Cait peered around the room with a loud gasp. “This place is so adorable.”

“I’ll be right with you!” a husky female voice called from the back.

“Renee! Look at these.”

Renee wandered across the room to Cait, who stood at a handcrafted wooden table. Cait flipped through a binder filled with photographs from other weddings. The binder was arranged by color, filled with hundreds of pictures.

“What do you think of this?” Cait landed a finger on one of the pictures. It was the scheme she was looking for.

“Pretty,” Renee said about the bouquet.

Cait groaned and flipped to the next page. “I don’t want pretty. I need perfect.”

“They’re just flowers. You know everyone is going to be looking at you, right?”

“When I look back, I don’t want to have any regrets.”

Renee couldn’t imagine Cait regretting anything about her wedding. These jitters seemed to be consistent with a lot of brides, and Renee understood her sister wasn’t immune.

“Good morning,” Francis Greene said, squeezing her body through the narrow space between the edge of the counter and the front window. “Sorry about that.”

Francis’s grandfather had opened the shop ninety years ago, and she had taken over for the last forty. She was well past retirement, but she didn’t look a day over fifty. Sprigs of flowers stuck to the tight curls on her head, looking more like a messy, floral headband.

“Francis,” Renee said, kissing her soft cheek. “This is my sister, Cait.”

“Oh, I remember you,” Francis said. “You were a little menace when you were a child.”

Cait glanced at Renee.

“She has a great memory,” Renee said with a smirk.

Francis snapped her fingers as if plucking the memory from thin air. “You came in here with Marcus, sticky with ice cream on your hands, wanting to touch all my babies.” It gave Renee a little thrill to see her sister squirm a bit.

“You remember cutting your finger on that rose thorn after I told you not to touch it?”

Cait smiled and laughed. To anyone else, it would have seemed as if she had brushed it off, but the tinge of red in her cheeks said otherwise.

“While these are beautiful examples, I thought I’d show you what I was thinking. Take a seat at the table, and I’ll be right back.”

Cait and Renee sat at the handcrafted table. Renee smoothed her hands across it at the beautiful craftsmanship. Marcus used to refurbish furniture, so she appreciated the attention to detail. The placard on the side read, Bower Designs.

Francis returned, holding a tall vase. She hefted it onto the table as if it weighed nothing. “Alternating tall and short centerpieces works well for a room that size.”

Renee and Cait stood. Renee couldn’t take her eyes off the assorted types of blush pink flowers. Matching sprigs from Francis’s hair were in the bouquet. She must have put it together for them right before they arrived. Several ivy-looking plants cascaded out of the vase nearly touching the table.

“With the regulation candles, these arrangements do sparkle.”

“Francis, this is amazing,” Cait said.

“It’s my job.” Francis stared at that centerpiece with a critical eye before moving one of the flowers over about a centimeter. She let out a satisfied grunt when she was done. “Besides, the Clarkes have been good customers of mine. I wanted to make it special.”

Francis winked at Renee, and Cait reached back to squeeze her hand. “It’s perfect. Thank you.”

“My pleasure. Now, let’s look at bouquets.”

***

The meeting with Francis took well over an hour and a half. Now that she was involved with the decisions, Cait had a lot to say. By the end, she and Francis were in perfect agreement on the arrangements.

Walking out of the florist, Renee mentally checked flowers off her list. If all the appointments were that easy, they could figure out the wedding in no time.

They weren’t due to meet with the photographer until one, so they had time to head over to The Coffee Pot for an early lunch.

Renee’s shoulders relaxed as they entered the restaurant. Cait seemed lighter in her steps too. Renee had put too much pressure on the appointments. It was easy enough.

Since it was a weekday, Sadie wasn’t there to chat with about the wedding. She was home with the kids during the week, but Renee was happy enough to unwind with Cait and get her opinion on how the meeting with Francis went.

The moment they sat at the window seat, Cait flipped open the menu. “This place hasn’t changed a bit, has it?”

Renee grinned. “Not at all.” The only update to the menus over the years was laminating over the same list of dishes. The specials were updated on the blackboard over the hostess station every day, yet the three-page spread had been the same for as long as Renee could remember.

“I’m starving,” Cait said, glancing toward the kitchen, which made Renee suspect that Cait hadn’t eaten breakfast that morning. It wasn’t like Cait to lie to Renee, but she had a way of stretching the truth.

Greer Huntley shoved through the double doors, holding a tray filled with food. The gray-haired co-owner of The Coffee Pot donned her signature impassive scowl. She called it her “concentrating look”, and those who knew her well enough didn’t hold it against her.

Greer spotted Renee and lifted her chin as if to say, “I’ll be right there.”

“Do you know what you want?” Cait asked.

“Sure do,” Renee said.

“I bet you order the same thing every time.”

“I have a rotating menu of about three items.”

Cait smirked. “Of course you do.”

Greer peered at the other patrons as she walked over to the table. She lifted a pen from behind her ear before posing it against a paper pad. “What can I get for you?”

Renee nodded for Cait to go first. “I always like to try the local flavor. Can you suggest something?”

Greer blinked, and for a moment, Renee thought she was going to give Cait a line about not having time for her. Instead, Greer tapped the end of her pen on her cheek. “That depends on how hungry you are.”

“We’re doing wedding planning today, so I’m plenty hungry,” Cait said with a smile.

“Greer, this is my sister, Cait.”

Then the impossible happened, Greer flashed her teeth in a wide grin. “I always feel like people are just lazy with that question, but any family member of Renee’s has to be sincere or else you wouldn’t bother with them, isn’t that right?” Greer sat back on her heels and tapped the end of the pen against her lips. “We have the Greer special: triple meat breakfast platter with eggs and French toast. The quadruple stack of buttermilk pancakes with or without chocolate chips. If you’re looking for lunch, I have the bacon supreme turkey club sandwich with a heaping supply of fries.”

Cait’s eyes widened. Since she had arrived, Renee hadn’t seen her sister eat more than a few bites of anything. When Cait ordered the Greer special, Renee rolled her shoulders and shed the weight she’d held there. Cait’s thinning out might have been due to a combination of stress from the wedding planning and traveling.

Greer left the table with their orders. Cait propped her arm on the table, resting her chin in her hand.

“You got through to Greer. Most people can’t get past the grumpy side of her.”

“I remember,” Cait said with a sigh. “After the meeting with Francis, I realized that I want to be a part of this place too. Just like you are.”

“You don’t need to try that hard to fit in. Everyone loves you.”

Cait rolled her eyes. “Everyone here loves you. They’re tolerating me because of that.”

Renee wasn’t sure where the dip in confidence came from. “You and Francis got along well this morning. You didn’t even need me there.”

Cait shrugged.

For a moment, Renee contemplated digging into the issue further, but the sudden appearance of Luc outside the restaurant stopped her. No, it wasn’t just his appearance. It was also the woman next to him. Even at their distance, Renee sunk into her chair, her shoulders curving inward.

Cait didn’t notice since her eyes were on her phone. Renee’s attention was equally glued to Luc as he and the woman with scorching red hair walked over to a white convertible parked across the street from the restaurant. Renee wasn’t a lip-reader, but from their body language—the closeness of their bodies and the way her hand brushed against his as he held the car door open for her—they knew each other very well. Cait’s earlier question about Luc’s singlehood had an answer. Especially when the woman tweaked Luc’s chin before sitting in the car. He grinned at the woman as he closed the door and lingered on the sidewalk watching her drive away.

Well, that’s that.

It’s not like Renee was going to start anything with Luc over the summer, but the sense of relief she should have felt never came. The urge to know more about the woman surged through her out of nowhere.

Cait’s phone erupted with music, breaking Renee’s attention from Luc.

“Sorry,” Cait said before picking it up. Her gaze locked with Renee. “Hey, Mom.”

By habit, Renee stiffened. She didn’t recall the last time she and Isla had a conversation. Isla’s efforts to “connect” involved Christmas and birthday cards, which had eventually stopped a few years ago. She had never been a mother to Renee. Marcus and Jacob had been the only responsible adults in her life. With Jacob gone, the list became even shorter.