Page 6 of The Inn on Bluebell Lane
“I hate you!” Jess had shrieked, knowing it was pointless, that her mom would just be annoyed by her melodrama, and yet unable to keep herself from it. She’d run to her room and slammed the door as loud as she could for the same reason, and when there hadn’t been any noticeable response, she’d opened it and slammed it again, just for good measure. It had been satisfying, for a few seconds, anyway.
Later, her mom had come up and apologized, trying to explain everything, using that patronizing grownup voice about how there were things she didn’t understand, and there was stuff they had to consider that she didn’t know about, but Jess just had to trust her. Of course, she wouldn’t actually tell her what any of it was, and Jess knew it didn’t make any difference, not to her, anyway.
“I know Dad lost his job,” she’d fumed as she’d rolled over on her bed, her face blotchy from crying, “but why can’t he get another job here? And what about my school? My friends?”
“You’ll make new friends, Jess—”
Jess had pounded her fist into her pillow. “I don’t want to make new friends!”
Now, thinking of Chloe, Jess reached for her phone that she’d hidden under her bed. Her mother had a strict rule that phones went on the charger in the kitchen at eight o’clock at night, which was ridiculous. Chloe’s mom let her have her phone all night long in her bedroom, an argument that had never held any water with either of Jess’s parents, who remained firm. Jess had stopped asking about it because she knew there was no point; her parents were that strict sometimes.
Last night, after her parents had gone to bed, Jess had crept all the way downstairs, the steps creaking underneath her, once so loudly she was afraid she’d been heard, and rescued it from the charger. She had to see what Chloe was up to—and tell her all about this horrible place. At least her best friend would get it, even if nobody else did. Her stupid siblings seemed to actually be okay about living here, even if Josh was kind of nervous and Ava was little and couldn’t really understand it. As for Ben, he always just seemed to goofily go along with everything, and just rolled his eyes whenever Jess kicked up a fuss.
But when, in the middle of the night, she’d tried to message Chloe on Instagram, her friend had left her on read—the message received but not responded to, the worst online insult. Chloe was her best friend. She never did that… except she just had.
Her stomach clenching even harder this morning, Jess opened the app to see if Chloe had responded to her message last night—a long moan about everything here that definitely deserved a response. But there was still no reply.
Jess’s stomach swooped unpleasantly as she realized how long Chloe had left it—seven hours. Why? She’d promised she’d message her every single day when they’d left. She’d seen Chloe just two days ago, when they’d had a final sleepover, crying and laughing in turns, staying up late, promising to be BFFs forever. And now she’d left her on read like she couldn’t be bothered to reply?
Feeling as if she was torturing herself, Jess clicked on Chloe’s story to see what she was up to. A photo popped up of Chloe snuggled up on the sofa with Emily Rhodes, another girl from their class, both of them in matching onesies and fuzzy slippers, a big bowl of popcorn on their laps. What? Chloe was having a sleepover with Emily?
Jess stared at the picture, hardly able to believe it. Chloe hated Emily. Or at least, she didn’t like her. Emily was one of the snobby popular girls in the class, the kind who flicked her hair and rolled her eyes while you were talking. Jess and Chloe had always agreed they’d never go after that crowd, never try to be “in” with girls like that, because they knew better.
It looked like Chloe had changed… in just two days. She hadn’t even mentioned any plans with Emily when they’d had their sleepover. Had she been lying to her, even then?
Tears stung Jess’s eyes and she blinked them away furiously, too angry to cry. Why was she in Wales? And why was her best friend bailing on her literally the second she’d left?
She flung her phone away from her, not even caring when it clattered onto the wide wooden floorboards, spinning away under her bed. What did it matter if it broke? It was an old and cheap phone, anyway, one of her dad’s castoffs, because her parents refused to buy her a new one, like everybody else in her class had, claiming they weren’t necessary and were too expensive. She was practically the only girl in her entire grade who didn’t have the latest phone. It was embarrassing.
“What was that noise?” Blinking sleep out of her eyes, Ava sat up in the bed opposite Jess’s, blond curls tumbling over her shoulders. Her blue eyes widened as she saw Jess’s phone under her bed. “Do you have your phone?” Her voice was filled with the sisterly glee of getting a sibling in trouble. Even though she was only four, she knew the rules about no phones at bedtime, and she’d make sure their mom knew when they’d been broken.
“Go back to sleep,” Jess told her irritably. “It’s only five o’clock in the morning.”
Ava turned to look out the window, a sliver of sunlight filtering through the chink in the curtains. “But it’s so bright out.”
“That’s because the sun rises at about midnight here,” Jess replied. And the birds started up with their stupid chorus at crazy o’clock, she thought to herself. “Go to sleep, Ava.”
Of course, she had to share a room with her four-year-old sister. Back at home, she had her own bedroom, with cool stencils on the wall she and her mom had done together, of dolphins and seahorses, with an ocean-colored carpet and pale green walls, and a canopy over her bed made from this cool sea-blue gauze her mom had found at a fabric store. She’d made one for Ava too, in pink, and Ava had had a meltdown last night when she’d realized the canopy wasn’t coming to Wales, crying and kicking her feet while their mom had looked on wearily.
Jess wasn’t about to cry about it, but she missed her old room now, almost as much as Ava missed her stupid canopy. She missed everything, even the things she hadn’t liked so much, like having to re-lace her ice skates when her fingers were freezing, or the gross broccoli and cheese casserole her mom made her eat sometimes, or even the way her dad had been so gloomy these last few months, since he’d lost his job. He’d kept saying he was going to do something like paint the basement or mow the lawn, but then he’d never actually do it. Her mom had kept getting annoyed and trying not to show it.
All right, maybe she didn’t miss that, but she missed a lot. A lot. And if she had her way, she’d hop on a plane that very morning to go back to Connecticut, to real life. She’d ask to live with her other grandparents, or maybe even with Chloe. If Jess went back, Chloe wouldn’t hang out with Emily anymore, would she? She and Chloe could be like sisters; Emily’s mom might let her stay with her family. They had a guest bedroom, after all, and plenty of space. Jess would make sure not to be any trouble…
A sigh escaped her as the futile dream evaporated. Her parents would never let her do something like that. Not yet, anyway. As it was, Jess knew she was going to have to wait… and figure out a way to make her family move as soon as possible, back to where they belonged.
CHAPTER 4
ELLIE
Ellie couldn’t sleep. Even though her body was jet-lagged, her brain was racing ahead, around sharp corners and down blind alleys. Would the kids settle in their new schools? Ben was starting a new school in year seven, its entry year, but Jess would have to go into year nine, the lone new students. And what about Josh, who had adored his second-grade teacher? And Ava, who was starting reception at just aged four, a year younger than she would have had to start kindergarten, back at home?
Home. When would she stop thinking of Connecticut that way? How long would it take? And would Matthew really enjoy renovating the bed and breakfast? Ellie knew he needed a project, but he’d never been that into DIY. What if it wasn’t financially viable? And what would she do here, away from everything she knew? She couldn’t even find a job, not yet, because of the limitations of her visa. Would she spend her days doing nothing more than trying to keep out of Gwen’s way? What a thought…
At quarter to five, she slid out of bed, doing her best not to wake Matthew, who, in any case, was snoring pretty loudly, and headed downstairs, hoping to have a little alone time before the day started, with all its expected needs, hassles, and complaints.
Yesterday had not been easy. Gwen had been about as welcoming as Ellie had feared, coming over all stiff and formal, which made Ellie instinctively act the same, even as she tried to find a friendly tone, an easy smile. Why did it have to be so hard?
And it had been hard, all the way through the interminable evening, beginning with the Welsh cakes the children had all dutifully nibbled under Ellie’s beady eye and Gwen’s gimlet stare, her faded blue eyes unblinking as she’d watched them all. None of her children liked raisins, and Ellie had tried not to flinch as they’d all choked them down; even little Ava had at least managed a bite. Then Gwen had shown them their bedrooms, up in the old attics on the top floor, all of the rooms cramped and baking hot in August, with sloping ceilings that Ellie had cracked her head on twice.