A Nantucket Affair (Nantucket Beach Plum Cove #4)(7)
Chapter 5
The light coming through her oversized windows was fantastic, and on most days that would have meant an excellent painting session, the kind where Kristen would lose herself in her work and hours would disappear. But not today. She was struggling to get the vision in her mind onto the canvas in front of her. She knew that part of it was because she had a hard stop at four. She couldn’t let herself lose track of time today. The girls were all coming over for an appetizer night and drinks, which was always a good time. But, she was also worried about Tyler.
He lived in the cottage next door and they’d been dating for about six months now. Everything had been going so well. He was an artist, like her, a best-selling mystery author, so they understood each other’s obsession with their work and need for plenty of alone time. Tyler was the complete opposite of his brother Andrew, who Kristen had actually dated a few times before she met Tyler.
Andrew owned an art gallery downtown, and she’d enjoyed his company. He was also passionate about art and extremely social and outgoing. A typical extrovert. But he was her rebound person. They’d dated immediately after she’d broken things off with Sean, who she once thought she wanted to marry. But Sean was on a different timeline. He was separated when they met and never got around to filing for divorce—until she broke up with him. He begged her to reconsider, and she felt like she had to give him a chance.
So she did, but it didn’t last long. Everyone else saw it before she did, but Sean was completely wrong for her. And when he finally did propose, she had the sense to say no and to end things once and for all. And Sean got over it quickly enough as a few months later, he was engaged to someone else—someone who was actually much better suited for him. Jessica was equally interested in money and power and being seen as successful, just like Sean. Kristen had no interest in any of that. She was just happy that she was able to support herself with her painting.
And Tyler was the same way. He was actually a best-selling author and had an avid fan club on Facebook—women of all ages, many in their fifties and sixties, who thought he was the cutest thing and their favorite author. Kristen thought they had excellent taste. She’d liked Andrew, and they remained good friends when she went back to Sean. By the time they broke up, Andrew was dating someone else pretty seriously and Kristen had a small pang of regret as Andrew made her laugh and was fun to be around. But when she met his brother, who had just bought the almost identical cottage next to hers, she felt instantly drawn to him. They’d been pretty much inseparable ever since.
She was worried about him recently, though. He and Andrew unexpectedly lost their mother over the holidays, and Tyler had taken it hard. They’d both been very close to her. Tyler needed long stretches of time for his writing, but they usually saw each other almost every night. And he still seemed to be very down. He was quiet anyway, and she knew that sometimes he was just in his head with his book, trying to work out a plot problem and dreaming about the rest of the story. But something seemed off lately. She was surprised that he was still so withdrawn and distant. And he pushed away her attempts to help. She’d suggested a week ago, not for the first time, that he might want to talk to someone, a therapist or grief counselor. He’d immediately dismissed the idea.
“I don’t need a grief counselor. I’m fine. Just sad sometimes, but I’ll deal with it.”
She wasn’t going to see him tonight because the girls were coming over, but she was planning to make a lasagna and figured she’d make two and bring a tray over to him. The girls were all bringing the appetizers and a salad. She glanced at the clock, and it was a quarter to four. She was going to quit for the day at four, but it had been such an unproductive session that she decided to call it a day, and went to the kitchen to start on the lasagna.
Her mother had stopped by the day before for a visit and dropped off a big container of sauce and meatballs, which Kristen put to good use with the lasagna. She mixed together the ricotta cheese, parmesan, spices and an egg and layered it between sheets of curly-edged pasta, sliced mozzarella and sauce. She’d serve the meatballs on the side. After she slid the two trays of lasagna in the oven, she jumped in the shower to clean up.
By the time she was dressed and finished blow drying her long hair, which took a while, the kitchen smelled incredible. A short while later, she could tell by the smell that it was just about time for the lasagna to be done. She checked, and they were bubbling and golden brown on top, perfectly done. She carefully slid them out of the oven and set them on the stovetop to cool. It was almost five-thirty, and the girls were coming around six. She should have time to run some lasagna over to Tyler. She was looking forward to seeing him for a few minutes, too. She loved spending time with him. She didn’t want to just drop by, though. She hated when people did that to her as once she was interrupted, it was difficult to get back into the same artistic zone again.
At a quarter to six, when the lasagna was slightly cooler, she called Tyler. He didn’t pick up right away. She thought it was going into voice mail, but then he answered.
“Hey, there.”
“How’s your day going? I just made some lasagna for the girls and I have an extra tray. I could bring it over for your dinner.” She knew Tyler loved all pasta and thought he’d be thrilled, but he surprised her.
“Thanks, but I think I’ll pass. I figured out a plot issue and I don’t think I’m going to break for a while. I’ll probably fall into bed after that, I’m beat.” He did sound exhausted.