Page 36 of Patio Lanterns (The Blue Canoe Cottage #1)

Robin

It was nearly a quarter to six, and still no delivery truck in sight.

“Where are all the supplies you ordered for tonight, Rob?” Dove looked panicked as she

carried Nova through the living room. “People are bound to be showing up soon, and we still have nothing. No drinks or ice or decorations.”

“It’s coming. They probably just hit heavy lake traffic driving up here on a Friday afternoon,” Robin said, trying to keep her composure despite internally exploding with panic. And speaking of exploding…

“Can you please deal with this?” Dove plopped Nova into her arms and immediately, the stench of a full poopy diaper hit Robin’s nostrils. “It’s definitely your turn.”

“Oh, great. Thanks a lot.”

Dove walked off. “If you need me, I’ll be outside with Lark rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.”

Robin scowled at the stinky problem in her arms. “I thought we made a deal, kid. I’m the fun auntie, remember? No poop.”

“Poop, Bobbin!” Laughing, Nova placed her hands on either side of Robin’s face and squeezed her cheeks.

Robin marched upstairs to the master bedroom.

Lark had taken up residence in there that week and had converted it into a nursery with a portable play pen.

Mutt jumped off the bunk in Robin’s room and trotted across the hall to supervise.

“What’s the matter, Mutt? No faith I can handle a diaper change by myself?

” She grabbed the wipes and a fresh diaper from the bag hanging on the doorknob.

Then, she laid Nova onto a changing pad in the middle of the bed and gave her a stern talking to.

“Now, you’re going to be a good girl for Bobbin.

And that means no wiggling around and making this stinky poop situation worse than it has to be for either of us, okay? ”

“Poop,” Nova echoed, shaking her head back and forth as Robin proceeded to remove her little pants.

“Tell me something I can’t smell.” Robin held her breath as she peeled back the tabs of Nova’s diaper. As she suspected, its contents were thick and nasty. “Good God, what has your mother been feeding you? Baked beans and cabbage soup?”

She wadded up the offending dirty diaper, using the tabs to seal it up tight. Then she wiped Nova clean and slipped a fresh diaper under her bottom. “Well, I don’t know what you were making such a fuss about, young lady. That really wasn’t so bad now, was it?”

Nova clapped her hands as Robin redressed her. Take a bow, Bobbin.

Just then, Mutt snatched the dirty diaper off the bed and took off with it in his jaws.

Gross!

“Mutt! Get back here!” she commanded.

So much for taking a well-deserved victory lap. Robin picked up Nova and hurried after Mutt, finding him at the bottom of the stairs with Aidan. “Could you grab that out of his mouth?”

Aidan made Mutt sit and the dog obediently offered up the disgusting bundle, its stinky, squishy contents hermetically sealed. Thankfully. But seriously, what was with Mutt and his love of all things malodorous?

Robin held out her hand and Aidan placed the diaper into her palm. “Sorry about that.”

“No worries,” he said. “Lark and Dove aren’t around, so I just wanted to let you know that the last cabinet door has been installed on the cupboards, but I’ll have to come back tomorrow to finish the pantry if that’s okay.”

“Of course. Thanks for getting that done before the party,” she said. “Is your dad with you?”

“No,” he said. “It’s weird. He hasn’t answered any of my texts from yesterday. And I drove by his place, and his Jeep’s not parked in the driveway.”

Rick hadn’t responded to the messages Robin had sent him last night either, nor the ones from before she went to work. It wasn’t like him to be incommunicado, so maybe he was having connectivity issues with his phone. Although it was definitely concerning that he didn’t appear to be home either.

Dove joined them, looking uncharacteristically flustered. “Rob, please do something. Lark’s freaking out that there’s still no sign of the delivery truck.”

Great. No Rick. No delivery truck. And a shitload of people due to arrive in a couple of hours.

“Robin!” Lark called out as she stomped through the cottage. “It’s after six, and there’s still no ice. Or drinks. Or decorations.”

“I’m well aware of that, Lark, thank you. It’s all under control.” Robin handed Nova and the dirty diaper over to Dove. “I’ll go check my copy of the invoice, call the number, and find out what the driver’s ETA is.”

Aidan backed up. “I’ll try my dad again and see if he can come early. When the truck gets here, we’ll need all hands on deck to get everything unloaded.”

Good idea. Robin really needed brE71 to calm her down and remind her that everything was going to be all right. And the sooner she laid eyes on him, the better. She pulled out her phone and texted him again.

Where are you?

I need you

Then she rushed to the dining room table, where she remembered leaving the order form a couple of days earlier. Everything had been cleaned away, all the piles of mail, every piece of paper. Spotless. In a hot panic, Robin’s eyes searched the room.

“Looking for this?” Lark asked, dangling the invoice by a corner.

“Yes, yes I was. Thank you.” Robin charged forward and snatched it away.

The order she’d placed was detailed exactly as she had written it down.

Drinks. Wine. Beer. Ice. Various finger foods and snacks.

Plates and napkins. Outdoor lighting. It was all there in black and white, in her very own handwriting.

Robin scrutinized the sheet, her eyes quickly finding the ten-digit phone number under the address for Rite Quik Transfer in Barrie. It was little more than an hour’s drive. Then she spotted the office hours. Monday-Friday: Closed at 5:00 p.m.

Closed at Five?

Oh my God. They closed over an hour ago.

She inhaled deeply and tried to reassure Lark with a smile. “Think I’ll call from another room where it’s a bit more quiet.”

Robin dashed into the bathroom and punched in the number. Four rings later, a recording gave her the number for after-hours service. She quickly dialed and prayed that someone would pick up.

“Rite Quik Transfer.” The woman on the other end of the line sounded very much live.

“Oh thank goodness,” Robin wheezed in relief. “I placed an order for a party I’m having tonight, but the delivery hasn’t shown up, and my guests are due to arrive in a little over an hour.”

“Do you have your invoice number handy?” the woman asked.

As Robin read out the twelve-digit number, she could hear typing on the other end of the line. That had to be a good sign.

“Pell-tee-ar?”

“Actually, we pronounce it Pell-chay , but yeah. I placed the order through Crawley’s General Store in Lake Whippoorwill.”

“Well, we have your order, Miz Pell-tee-ar, but it’s been scheduled for tomorrow.”

“What? That’s impossible!” Robin’s life flashed before her eyes. “Could you check again?”

“It says right here that delivery is scheduled for the twenty-fourth. That’s tomorrow. Saturday. Today is Friday, the twenty-third.”

The room started to spin. “But how could that be? I wrote up the order myself—”

She examined the order form in her other hand. There it was, under the Delivery Due date: the twenty-fourth.

How was it possible to fuck up the date, not once, but twice in the same week?

“Your delivery is scheduled to arrive tomorrow between ten and two,” the woman said. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“No,” Robin’s voice squeaked. “Thank you.”

This was a disaster. And it was all her own doing. How could she be so careless and not double-check the fucking date for crying out loud? Mrs. C had warned her. Be careful, she’d said.

On the verge of a breakdown or blacking out, Robin sat down on the edge of the bathtub. Maybe she could fill it with water and drown herself before anyone caught onto how badly she’d fucked up. Again.

Hardship only made her stronger echoed the voice in her head, harkening back to her great-grandmother’s inspiring story. Maybe Rosalie’s ghost was there in the bathroom with her, ready to dole out some tough love. Now pull yourself together, get up off your ass, and figure this shit out.

She grabbed Mutt’s leash, and they slipped out the side door, sprinting across the backyard before anyone spotted them.

They scurried down the road, cutting through yards, scooting across drainage ditches, and crossing side streets until finally reaching the Stanhopes’ front door.

Gasping for air, she hunched over to catch her breath as she frantically knocked.

The way she was huffing and puffing, she might as well have blown their house down.

“Robin!” Mr. Stanhope said as he opened the door. “We’re just getting ready to head over. What are you doing here?”

“I need help,” she panted, still sucking wind.

“Help? My goodness, what’s wrong?” he asked with a pained look of concern. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” she wheezed. “But do you have any spare lights you could bring tonight?”

“Lights? What kind of lights?” he questioned.

“I ordered patio lanterns for Mom’s memorial, but they’re not going to make it in time. And we need lights. Mom loved lights.”

“Uh, there might be some out in the shed. Let me take a look,” he said.

“That’d be great.” She gulped more air into her burning lungs. “And ice. We’ll need lots of ice.”

“We’re bringing our cooler with us,” he said. “Look, Robin, maybe you should come in and sit down for a minute? Have a drink of water?”

She shook her head. “Thanks, but no time. I need to get to as many neighbours as I can.”

“We could try reaching out to friends we know. Would that help?”

“Oh yes, yes. If you could do that, please, that would be a huge help. Thank you.” She waved goodbye, summoning the strength in her rubbery legs to continue on.

She continued knocking on doors until time ran out, and she had to give up and return to the Blue Canoe.

She’d fucked up royally, just as her sisters expected.

How did she ever believe she could actually pull off this whole shindig by herself?

Once people started arriving, the celebration of life was going to become a shitshow, tarnish the beautiful memory of their mother, and bring shame to her family. And it was all on her.

As she passed by the Maple Leaf Lodge, she looked for any signs of life. But Rick’s Jeep still wasn’t parked in its usual place. There wasn’t a single light on in the windows.

Robin lifted her eyes skyward and sighed. “Where are you?”

And then she spotted it.

It was barely visible, but the sinking angle of the sun made it slightly more noticeable.

A thin, wispy column of smoke was rising from behind his cottage.