Trevor looked to Dustin for advice, but his friend only shook his head and shrugged. Before Trevor could stop her, Julie fled from his arms, his reach, and most likely his life.
Chapter Twenty
Julie sat on her bed, still in her dress, with her face in her hands.
“Mom?”
The bed lowered at Julie’s side, and Bri wrapped her arms around Julie. “I’m so sorry. I thought Trevor was a good man, or I wouldn’t have encouraged this.”
“It’s not your fault, darling.” Julie held tight to her daughter. “I didn’t even know him that long. I’m only upset because it shocked me.” She patted Bri’s arm and stood, putting herself back together with the façade she’d managed to keep for so many years. She cleaned her face of the paint with one of Wind’s makeup removing cloths, stripped off the dress, and put on jammies. With one glance to her daughter, she knew if Bri would ever return to her life far from Summer Island, Julie needed to make sure she believed her mother would be fine without her. She was the best daughter a mother could ever want. “I’m fine, really.”
Bri took the dress from the chair and hung it in her closet, as if Julie would wear it again.
“You’re not fine.” Kat came in carrying two mugs and handed one to Julie.
Wind followed behind and handed one to Bri. Trace had her own and collapsed on the bed. “I know people. The kind who dump deadbeat men into the ocean where they’ll never find the body. Heck, I can do it myself.”
“With two accomplices,” Kat said, despite her law-worshiping attorney ways.
“Make that three,” Bri grumbled.
“There’s hope for you yet, girl.” Wind raised her mug of tea at Bri and then took a sip.
Julie forced the pain from her heart and focused on her friends. They all needed to get back to their lives at the end of the week. There was nothing for them here in Summer Island. “Listen, it isn’t a big deal. I knew the man for like a minute. I’m fine.” She took a sip from her drink. Chamomile with a hint of mint. It had been their go-to tea whenever one of them had a broken heart when they were teenagers.
“That’s all it takes for you,” Trace said but didn’t elaborate.
Julie decided to stay on topic. She’d have time to deal with her feelings later. “Listen, I’m not heartbroken. As a matter of fact, he did me a big favor.”
“How’s that?” Kat asked.
“This was the push I needed to start focusing on what I really want. Bri’s been encouraging me to go back to working on my art. When we were on Friendship Beach cleaning up yesterday, I was inspired.”
“You’re inspired by trash? You are a little different, aren’t you?” Wind said, but Trace smacked her in the back of the head.
“Yes. I’ve been looking for inspiration to create something happy and pretty like I thought a true artist would do, but that isn’t my art. My creative process is all about feeling passionate about sending a message. After seeing the plastic in the ocean and the condition of our little corner of Florida, I realized that all those people out there spouting about climate changes and pollution are like white noise. It’s going to take something visual to show how these issues impact us all.” Julie paced. She felt the idea bubbling to the surface. “I’ve been looking in all the wrong places to find out who I was post wife and mother. Bri was right: it was inside me the entire time. I’m going to start working in the morning on a piece that I hope will make some sort of small impact on our local community. For us to make more of an effort to preserve the natural beauty of our beaches and oceans.”
Trace perked up. “That’s brilliant. I’ll offer my services in any way I can.”
“No, when the week’s up, you will all return to your own lives. I don’t want you spending any more time worried about me than necessary. I’m fine, so you can return to your normal lives now.”
Trace scooted between Wind and Bri and approached Julie with a tense expression. “What if I don’t want to? What if I want to stay awhile longer? Would you have me?”
Julie scanned her soft eyes—vulnerable, searching, lost. “Yes, of course. Any of you who ever want to stay here are welcome. That’s a given.”
“Is it?” Kat tapped the side of her mug. “’Cause it has never felt that way. I know I thought after I left that I wasn’t welcome back, as if I’d betrayed our friendship for leaving you behind.”
“No, of course not. I just never wanted to hold any of you back.” Julie swallowed the lump rising to her throat. “I have always loved and missed you guys but thought you’d grown out of my friendship.”
Wind shot from the bed and flung into all of them. “Never.”
They huddled together, but Julie couldn’t comprehend why any of them would ever want to return to Summer Island when they’d had such fulfilling lives. But when she caught sight of Trace and the way she bit her lip, as if to fight tears from forming, Julie knew there was more to see than she’d noticed. It wasn’t just Julie who’d suffered the loss of their friendship. They all felt the pain of so many years apart. “How about this?”
They all wiped falling tears from their cheeks and chins. Julie grabbed the tissue box and passed it to Wind, who passed it on. “Let’s establish an annual Summer Island Book Club. Each year we’ll return here, no matter where we are in the world, and we’ll have
