Tales From Sea Glass Inn (10 page)

Now, as she drove back to the center, she
felt a growing feeling of acceptance. She’d accept the failure of her business
with as much dignity as she could muster. She’d accept yet another disruptive
move and an uncertain future. She walked into the auditorium and looked at the
rows and rows of pens. Many were empty now, but a few animals and birds were
being found and brought in every day. Her problems seemed puny in comparison.

Jenny was standing by the curtain leading to
the washing area, talking to her father, but she hurried over as soon as she
saw Helen.

“Hey,” she said, pulling Helen into a big
hug. “Thanks for texting me updates about Buddy. He’s really going to be all
right?”

“He’ll be fine. He was already looking less
disoriented by the time we got him home.” Helen hesitated before telling Jenny
everything the vet had said. Jenny had made it abundantly clear she was ready
to go elsewhere as soon as she was done here. “He agreed with your diagnoses
and said your suturing technique is the best he’s seen. He’s wanted to open a
practice here in Cannon Beach, but he’d need to staff it.”

“Cannon Beach needs its own vet,” Jenny
agreed. “I’ve met plenty of pet owners here, and they shouldn’t have to travel
far for decent health care. It’d be even better if he could find someone who
could work on wildlife as well since there are so many animals and birds in the
area. I might be able to come up with some names for him from contacts I’ve
made.”

Helen shook her head. “He wants you, Jenny.
He’s heard about the work you’ve done here, and Amy was a little dramatic in
her description of how you helped Buddy.”

Helen didn’t mention her own addition to the
conversation. The vet must have been left with the impression of Jenny as the
Mother Teresa of the animal kingdom.

“I’m flattered, of course, but you know I
can’t stay here.” Jenny shook her head as if emphasizing her words. “It’s a
wonderful town, and the job sounds tempting.
You
tempt me to stay here, to have a chance to spend more time with you. But I’m
accustomed to traveling, and I’m good at what I do. I don’t know how to stay in
one place, how to really integrate myself into a community beyond the temporary
way I connect during an emergency. I understand temporary. Permanence scares
me.”

“I figured as much,” Helen said. She took a
deep breath. Jenny had called her a temptation. She sounded as interested in
pursuing their relationship as Helen felt, and the knowledge gave Helen the
courage to do what she could to give them a chance. “I wanted to talk to you
about that, actually. You already know I’m going to lose my business. I’ve been
considering where I’ll go from here.”

“Are you sure? There must be something you
can try.”

Helen shook her head. “I’d take on another
job doing anything at all to pay the bills, but no one is hiring right now. I
sell a few items to locals, but a tray of brownies a day isn’t going to keep
the bakery afloat. I don’t see any other way to—”

“Helen,” Mel called out, jogging toward them
from across the room, “I’ve been looking all over for you.”

Helen sighed. She wanted to broach the
subject of possibly going with Jenny to her next assignment and she was nervous
enough about asking without being interrupted. “I’ll be right over to help
clean,” she said.

Mel waved her hand. “Don’t worry. You did
enough by helping with Buddy. I just wanted to give you this order form.”

Helen looked at the invoice Mel had handed
her. Sandwich rolls, pastries. By the dozen. “What’s this for?”

“Pam and I are organizing a series of tours
to the Oregon Coast galleries. Everyone is suffering from the lack of tourism,
and this is something we can plan even if the area’s beaches are closed. The
tours will have sack lunches and dinner in local restaurants. They’ll have
planned stops at galleries and stores.”

“Sharing the wealth,” Jenny said with an
appreciative nod.

“What little there is,” Mel said with a
laugh. “But it’s a start. I was hoping you could make those yummy soft potato
rolls for the sandwiches, Helen. And sand dollars for dessert, of course. Plus,
we’ll make your bakery one of the after-lunch stops, and I’ll let you know the
dates and times to expect the buses once we’ve finalized the schedule. Oh,
there’s Glen. I need to talk to him about working as a tour guide. Talk to you
later.”

Mel disappeared again, and Helen stared at
the invoice in her hand. She had already made the decision to let go of the
bakery, but she couldn’t stop her mind from running the numbers against her
stack of bills.

“Awesome,” Jenny said, looking over Helen’s
shoulder. “See? You’ve helped the community, and now it’s helping you. Does
this mean you won’t have to close?”

“No…I mean, it’s a generous offer, but I
can’t…” Helen added the numbers in her head again. She could stay open at least
a few extra weeks if these tours were a success. Her bakery wouldn’t be safe
even with the big order, but maybe she could find other ways to…No. Staying
would mean giving up Jenny, and Helen wasn’t prepared to do it until she had at
least given them a chance. “I still wouldn’t be in the black. I’ll help for the
first few tours, but once the rescue center closes, I’ll be ready to shut the
bakery and move.”

Jenny put her hand on Helen’s shoulder. “Why
rush? If the money buys you some time, then take it. I’ve witnessed this too
many times to count. When you’re caught in the midst of a crisis, everything
seems doomed, but things will return to normal.”

“Maybe I don’t want normal. Maybe I want—”

Tia burst into their conversation. “Helen!
There you are. We’re having a town meeting on Friday for all the business
owners. We’ll brainstorm ideas to help each other through this tourist drought.
I need you to bring about five dozen pastries, your choice, although you
absolutely must bring some of those cinnamon ones. I’ve had six already today.
And I’ll introduce you to Gary, the owner of Chez Mer. He just lost his pastry
chef to a big Portland restaurant and I told him you make exquisite éclairs. Do
you? Anyway, if you don’t already, I’m sure you can learn by Friday. Seven
o’clock at the town hall. Here’s a check for the goodies. Did you see which way
Mel went? Oh, there she is.”

Jenny laughed. “She’s a dynamo.” She rubbed
her hands along Helen’s upper arms. “I’m so happy for you. With these
opportunities and all the other ones I’m sure you can think up, I know in my
heart you’ll be successful here.”

Helen shrugged Jenny’s hands off her arms and
then captured them in her own. “This is amazing, all these people helping each
other, but I’ve already made my decision. I’ve been trying to tell you that I
want
you
. Not
my bakery, not to live here, but to be with you. If I come with you on your
next job, I can help with the work and give us a chance to be together. To
discover each other more than we can in the few moments we’ve had here.”

Jenny shook her head and backed away, but
Helen wouldn’t let go. “You’ve been through too much to make this decision,
Helen. You’re exhausted from working so hard and stressed financially and
emotionally. Wait before you decide to throw your life away for someone like
me. Give yourself a chance to make it here because it’s a good place.”

“And you’re a good person. You’re worth
taking a chance on, Jenny.
We
are worth a chance. I can sell the business and come with you. We work well
together and we obviously have a connection. Why not see where it takes us?”

Jenny finally broke free. “No, Helen. Because
I know where it will take us. From place to place, crisis to crisis. Our
relationship wouldn’t have a chance because the next disaster would always be
my priority. You’ll resent me for dragging you around the globe, and I’ll hate
myself for it. It’ll be just like…”

“You and your parents,” Helen finished for
her. It would be different, though, because Helen would have made a choice to
go, and it wouldn’t have been made for her. But she suddenly saw the truth
behind Jenny’s resistance. Jenny herself wanted out of the lifestyle she
followed. She was the one who was resentful and angry. Until she faced her own
responses, she’d never be able to accept a different kind of life. Helen turned
and walked away before she made a fool of herself and begged to go with Jenny.
She held Mel’s invoice and Tia’s check crumpled tightly in her hand. She’d put
her energy back where it belonged, into her business and her new home here.
Maybe, with the help of other business owners like these two, she’d be able to
get through this rough patch.

But this town would never be the same for
her. Everywhere she went, everything she did, she’d remember Jenny and she’d
wish she was here. Finding a home had meant the world to Helen, but her true
home was practically packed and ready to leave her behind.

*

Jenny stood at the end of the inn’s garden,
watching a few gulls circle the tide pools below Haystack Rock. The skies
around here had been eerily silent and empty for a few days after the spill,
but birds were beginning to return. Maybe some of these seagulls were among the
ones Jenny and her crew had released back into the wild.

The return to normalcy was rewarding to
witness, but it also heralded the end of Jenny’s stay here. Soon, she’d be
packing her small bag full of possessions—including Pam’s miniature oil
painting—and hopping on a plane bound for who knew where. She always felt some
small tug whenever she left one of her rescue efforts, tempting her to stay a
little longer, but she never failed to control the urge enough to leave.

She couldn’t fool herself this time, though.
Everything about this trip was different, but all the differences were
concentrated in Helen. She’d spent the night awake, thinking about Helen’s
words, her touch, her kiss. In a normal situation, she’d be able to date her and
see where the relationship would lead, but this wasn’t routine for Jenny. If
she really wanted to have a chance with Helen, she needed to stay here or
invite Helen to travel with her. Either one meant a complete upheaval of
Jenny’s familiar lifestyle. Was Helen worth the effort of learning a whole new
way to live? Everything in Jenny’s body and soul shouted
yes
.

“It’s a beautiful beach,” Eve said, coming up
behind her. “We’re ready to go whenever you are, darling.”

Jenny nodded without turning around. As expected,
her parents had decided to fly to Los Angeles and do some quick research before
traveling to the Sudanese village. Jenny was torn between wanting them to stay
and relief at seeing them go. They were her parents, no matter how frustrating
they could be, and part of her had never given up on the dream of them being
close and settled as a family. Funny how they had the opposite but similar
dream of the three of them practicing medicine together across the globe.
Neither was ever going to come true.

“I love it here,” Jenny said, without looking
at her mom. “I love the sunsets and the people and the way life is returning to
the tide pools.”

“Yes, it is very nice, dear. Do you remember
the village we lived in when you were…what was it, eight? Nine? The one on the
coast of Senegal. Your father and I were sent there because of the meningitis
outbreak. You loved the beach there.”

Jenny turned around. “I couldn’t go to that
beach because you didn’t want to risk me getting infected. I had to watch the
ocean from the back porch of our hut. Mom, did you and Dad ever consider coming
back to the States? Maybe not permanently, but long enough for me to make
friends or go to a regular school?”

“And have you miss the opportunity to travel
and see the world? What school could have given you the experiences we did?
Besides, you couldn’t possibly have expected your dad and me to give up our
life’s work. You saw firsthand what a huge need there is for doctors like us.
We couldn’t be as selfish as that, Jenny, and you know it.”

“I suppose not,” Jenny said. But maybe the
selfish act was constantly dragging her from one village to the next when she
needed the stability of a home and the company of other children. When she
needed her own parents to notice her needs, not just the needs of everyone else
in the world. She didn’t speak the words out loud, though. Her parents had made
their choice, and she didn’t need to fling guilt and recriminations at them.
What she had to do instead was move forward without the past dragging her down.

“I’m going to make some changes,” she said as
they started walking back to the inn. “I can’t go on like I’ve been doing.”

“Finally,” Eve said with a relieved sounding
sigh. “We’ve been waiting for you to come to your senses. The work you’ve done
is marvelous, darling, and we’re very proud of you. But once you have your
degree and can—”

“No, Mom. I’m not going to give up being a
vet. I’m going to stay here and open a practice in Cannon Beach.”

Her mom laughed, and then seemed to realize
she wasn’t joking. “Do you really believe you can be happy as a small-town vet?
When you could do so much more?”

Could she be happy here? Jenny’s heart said
yes
without hesitation.
She might be working on a smaller scale than before, but the job was no less
significant. Ask Amy and Sam. Or Buddy. Or Pam, who’d had tears in her eyes
when she saw the seagulls return.

Or Helen, who hopefully would accept Jenny’s
apology for pushing her away. She had a long road ahead of her as she struggled
to keep her bakery. Being with her and supporting her would be Jenny’s life’s
work if Helen would give her a chance.

*

Jenny drove on the winding Highway 26,
pushing Mel’s compact to the max as she hurried back to Cannon Beach. She had
driven her parents to Portland’s airport and dropped them off at the terminal.
They had naturally spent the entire hour and a half trip trying to talk her out
of her decision to stay in Cannon Beach, but she had been strangely unmoved by
their arguments. She had expected to feel defensive, maybe guilty, perhaps more
determined than ever to do her own thing and stay. Instead, she had felt the
calm peace of a choice well made.
Her
choice, free of any baggage.