Glimmer Lake Bundle

Chapter One

Robin Brannon woke up three minutes before her alarm. In the sleepy, drifting moments before the alarm forced her to life, a persistent question shoved itself into her mind. 

Is this the rest of my life?

The question had been haunting her since her forty-fifth birthday earlier that year.

Is this my life?

Really? This? Every day until I die?

She stretched her right arm across the bed, but Mark was already gone.

The alarm went off, and she quickly tapped her phone screen to get rid of the noise. Her daughter, Emma, had reset the alarm to the La’s “There She Goes” a few weeks before because it was “so retro.” 

Whatever. The song made her happy, but she’d never admit it to Emma. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and extended up and over, bending down to stretch her back and spread her toes on the warm, honey-toned wood that filled their house in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Empty bed.

Soon to be empty house.

Emma would be gone the following fall, and then it would just be Robin and Mark.

Mark’s whereabouts weren’t a mystery. Not much was a mystery when you’d been married for twenty-three years. He’d be down in his basement office, working online at his job in San Francisco. Though the city was hundreds of miles away, Mark had been telecommuting in one form or another since their kids were young. 

Robin pulled her hair into a quick bun, then threw on a pair of leggings and a sports bra before stepping into her favorite running shoes and lacing them tightly. 

These days telecommuting was common, but when she’d first told her parents that they’d be moving back to her hometown in the mountains because Mark could work from home, the idea had been revolutionary.

Does this mean they’re going to fire him?

How will he go to meetings?

Is this because of Y2K?

She bounced on her toes to warm up. The physical therapist had outlawed running, but Robin still needed the outdoors. Power walking with a knee brace would have to take the place of five-mile runs.

She paused in the upstairs hallway to make sure she heard Emma getting ready. She passed Austin’s empty room and wondered if he’d scheduled morning classes for the semester.

Not your problem, Robin.

She unlocked the front door, stretched a little in the driveway, then started walking down the hill, breathing in the cold Sierra Nevada air.

It filled her up. Lifted her. The mountain air was such an essential part of her she sometimes felt like she couldn’t breathe when she was at lower elevations.

She thought about headphones, but that morning she was craving silence. Unfortunately, silence made her mind drift.

Am I a bad mother for not following up on Austin’s schedule? 

Austin was at the state university near Mark’s parents in Chico, and Robin was legally allowed to no longer care if he ate a balanced breakfast. Or scheduled his classes sensibly. Or slept through his alarm. 

Do I care if I’m a bad mother? 

She was probably still supposed to care about all that on a maternal level, but getting Austin out of the house had been such a relief she couldn’t bring herself to feel guilty. 

Robin had needed a break.

She loved her son—she really did—but he was work. He always had been. She’d almost passed on having kid two because kid one was such a pain in the butt.

Thank God she didn’t, because Emma was night-and-day different from her brother. Robin had sent Austin off to college with a wave and a happy heart. When Emma left next year, it might break her. It would just be Robin and Mark, married for twenty-three years, parents of two successful kids, and…

What? What else were they? A software programmer and the owner of an antique shop?

Is this the rest of my life?

Really? This? Every day until I die?

Her legs were pumping and her lungs started to burn.

So did her eyes.

What the hell is wrong with you, Robin?

She dashed the tears from her eyes. She wasn’t a crier. She was famously immune to crying. She hadn’t cried during Steel Magnolias. Beaches made her roll her eyes. She was forbidden from watching chick flicks with her two best friends for that very reason.

Robin needed to get out of her head. She reached for the phone in the pocket of her leggings and realized a notification had popped onto the screen at seven a.m. 

Monica Velasquez 45th Birthday—All Day

“Shit!” How had she forgotten it was Monica’s birthday? Monica had lost her husband to a heart attack six months before, and this would be her first birthday without Gilbert making her Queen for the Day.

She tapped on her phone icon and went to her favorites list, touching the top contact.

It rang and Val picked up seconds later, clearing her throat before she spoke. “Why are you calling so early?”

“You remember Monica’s birthday is today?”

“Yeah, of course. We’re going out tonight, remember?”

“Was that in the group text?” 

“No, stupid. We’re surprising her, remember? Her son’s taking her out for lunch today. The rest of the kids are coming up this Saturday for dinner, and I texted you three days ago that we needed to take her out tonight.”

“I didn’t text you back?”

Val sniffed. “Are you out walking?”

“Of course I am.” Robin turned the corner, waving at her neighbor as he moved the trash cans out to the curb. “Are you still in bed?”

“The boys can make their own breakfast. I was up late reading.” Val must have taken the phone away from her mouth because the next words were muffled. “Jackson! Andy! Are you getting dressed?” 

Robin couldn’t hear anything, but she assumed Val’s two boys had answered in the affirmative because her friend came back on the line. 

“Anyway, you probably thought about texting me and then forgot. Don’t pretend you have anything more important than this. We’re taking her out. We absolutely have to take her out tonight.”

“Of course we’re taking her out.” Robin made a quick decision as she turned back toward the house. “I’ll even drive so you and Monica can have all the wine, okay?”

“Sounds good to me.” Val sighed deeply.

“Fuck congenital heart defects.” 

“I know.” Robin’s heart ached every time she thought about Monica’s husband. “Damn, I miss Gil.”

If there was a dream husband who embodied all rom-com boyfriends, it had been Gilbert Velasquez. Movie star handsome, Gil had been a fireman with the state. He was a certified hero who had medals and got choked up when he thanked his wife in speeches.

Robin would have been jealous of Monica and Gil’s marriage, but she was too damn happy Monica had such an amazing husband. He’d been a stellar dad and an amazing friend too.

“Okay, when do we want to pick her up?” Robin blinked hard. “Seven?”

“Yeah, that works. I already checked with Jake. He told her he’s cooking a special dinner for her tonight, so she doesn’t have any other plans.”

“We need to remember to text her happy birthday though. Remember when Mark surprised me for my thirtieth?”

Val started laughing. “You were so pissed.”

“I thought all my friends had completely forgotten about me on my birthday, Val. Of course I was pissed.”

“Mark’s the one who told us—”

“I know. I remember. Let’s just make sure we call Monica, okay?” She finished her regular circuit and saw her house peeking through the trees. “Talk to you later.”

“See ya.”

Robin was panting when she reached the kitchen door on the side of the house. She opened it and immediately yelled, “Emma?” 

“In the kitchen, Mom.”

Robin walked through the mudroom and hung her sweatshirt on one of the pegs in the wall. “You almost ready?”

Emma was sitting at the counter, eating a bowl of cereal and staring at her phone with a smile on her face. She glanced up. “Yeah.” 

“Anything going on today?”

“Not much.” She slid her phone into her backpack. “I have a group project for physics though. Can I go to the library with everyone after school?”

“Who’s in the group?”

Emma narrowed her eyes. “Uh… Heather Bix. Jordan Havers. Some guy named Christian who I don’t really know. I was going to ride with Heather though.”

“She a good driver?”

“Mom, it’s like five minutes to drive to the library.”

Robin pursed her lips. “This wouldn’t be an issue if you’d just get your license.”

Emma sighed deeply. “I will. This year. Before I go to college, I promise.”

Robin glanced at her daughter’s cereal bowl and backpack. Then the clock. “Clean up. We should go.” 

She heard Mark on the stairs. Her husband walked through the door and straight to their daughter. 

“Morning, sweetie. Did you say you have a physics project?”

“It’s nothing big.” She lifted her cheek and her father kissed it. “Like a ‘Physics in the News’ project. It’s not even an experiment or anything. We just need to make a poster.” 

Robin stared at Mark. He was nearly six foot, which she liked because she was almost five foot ten. He was slim and still had a runner’s build even if he was starting to get a bit of a belly. They’d met on the track team in college, and she’d fallen in love with his humor, his persistence, and his kind smile. Plus she couldn’t lie, the sex was really good.

And twenty-three years later, she woke up every morning alone in bed.

Mark hadn’t even looked at her. He hadn’t said good morning. Hadn’t even glanced her direction. 

Am I a ghost in my own house? 

He grabbed the handle of the coffeepot and refilled his mug. Then he kissed the top of Emma’s head and said, “Have a good day, honey.” 

Robin watched him disappear down the stairs.

Really? This? Every day until I die?

She didn’t have time to think about it. She grabbed her keys and nodded toward the door. “Time to go.”

-------------------------------------

She grabbed a coffee at Val’s café after she dropped Emma off at school; then she headed to Glimmer Lake Curios, the antique shop she’d taken over from her mother.

Robin had gone to school to be an artist. She’d never intended to follow in her mother’s footsteps, but her mother had run the shop successfully in the quirky lake town for decades. Both of Robin’s kids were in school when Grace was ready to retire, and the timing made sense, so Robin became the proprietor of a store that sold everything from antique desks to glass art to decorative horseshoes. 

She told herself that working at the shop would give her more time to work on her own art, but she never did.

Robin pulled into the parking lot and parked her trusty Subaru in the space nearest the log house her parents had meticulously restored. As a child, she’d lived in the upstairs until her father, Philip, could afford a newer house in one of the developments on the edge of town. 

Now the upstairs and downstairs were filled to the brim with carefully curated antiques, designer accents, and local artists’ wares.

Cabin chic, not cabin kitsch. 

Glimmer Lake was a year-round vacation town. In the summer, the cool waters of the lake attracted swimmers, boaters, and anglers from the valleys at the base of the Sierra Nevada. They came to escape the baking summers in the lowlands and to enjoy the crisp air. In the winter, heavy snow made the lake town a destination for skiers, sledders, and those looking for the rare white Christmas in California.

It was four hours from San Francisco and only a little bit farther from Los Angeles. The town that occupied the banks of Glimmer Lake had replaced the old logging and mining town of Grimmer, which had been flooded in the 1940s to create a reservoir that could serve the thirsty population boom in Southern California.

It had been Robin’s grandfather who suggested changing the name to the much more pleasant Glimmer Lake. Grimmer now lay under 120 feet of water, a ghost town looking up at happy vacationers and locals alike.

Robin walked up the steps of her store to the wide porch and swept off the scattered debris of pine needles and bark the wind had blown in, then she unlocked the door and flipped the Open sign over. She wouldn’t get a visitor for at least an hour because people on vacation slept in.

Which was fine. Robin liked quiet mornings, and she really needed caffeine.

She set her coffee on the counter and pulled out her phone, then touched the second number on her favorites list and waited for the line to ring.

“Hello?”

“Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you,” Robin sang. “Happy birthday, dear wonderful-woman-who-is-like-a-sister-to-me.” She took a breath. “Happy birthday to you!”

Monica was laughing by the time she finished. “Thank you. You must have had your coffee.”

“Drinking it right now, my friend.” 

“How’s your knee?”

“Eh.” Robin flexed it. “It’s fine. The same.”

“Are you taking the apple cider vinegar?”

“I don’t think it really does anything, Monica.”

“No, you just have to keep taking it.” She heard her friend moving through her kitchen. “I’m telling you, it helps.”

“I’ll keep taking it.” Robin nearly asked what Monica was wearing to go out that night until she remembered it was a surprise. “So, I hear Jake is making a special dinner for you tonight.”

“That boy is so sweet,” Monica said. “I know he’s between apartments right now—”

You mean between girlfriends who let him freeload.

“—but he is so helpful around the house. He cooks. He changed the oil in my car yesterday. He’s such a good boy.”

He’s a spoiled boy. “He loves his mama. He better.” Jake did love his mama. He also probably felt guilty that he’d been freeloading, but working at the marina didn’t pay that much, and Jake seemed incapable of moving more than a few miles from his childhood home. 

“Well, I hope you enjoy your dinner.” Robin needed to change the subject or she was going to end up spilling about their girls’ night out. “I’m going to give you that dresser for your birthday, by the way.”

“It’s a nine-hundred-dollar dresser, Robin. Don’t even think about it.”

“It’s been sitting in that corner for over two years. It’s practically taken root. I don’t want it anymore, and you love it.” She heard the bell ring over the door and the creak of old hinges. “I’ll call Jake to come pick it up. Bye-gotta-go.” She blew a kiss into the phone and ended the call. 

“Hello?” She walked out from behind the counter. “Can I help you?”

She walked to the door of the shop, but there was no one there. Maybe whoever it was had peeked in and left? Robin looked out to the parking lot and saw no new cars. No pedestrians.

She frowned. “Weird.”

Robin shrugged and walked back to the counter. It was hardly the first time the door had blown open and hit the bell. It happened pretty regularly.

“Because old houses, that’s why.” She logged on to her computer and checked her online sales page and her retailer accounts. She sold as much via the internet these days as she did in the store, but since her family already owned the building and the furniture needed to be kept somewhere, it made sense to keep the shop even with the extra overhead. After all, if the shop wasn’t open, what would Robin do to pass the time?

She responded to an email from Emma’s guidance counselor.

She texted her mom about visiting her grandma Helen that afternoon.

At noon she forgot to eat lunch while she was helping a couple from Marin County choose between two dining tables for their vacation home. She grabbed a granola bar after they left.

By two, she locked up the shop so she could go visit Grandma Helen.

This is my life.

Robin climbed in her trusty Subaru to drive the five miles to Russell House, the enormous family home that overlooked Glimmer Lake.

This.

This is my life.

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“Whoo!” Val was cackling in the back seat. “I knew we were going to surprise you!”

Monica was beaming. “I wondered why Jake was so insistent that I dress up for dinner. I was actually a little irritated with him. I’d already taken off my bra.” 

“Truth,” Val said. “I’m glad you decided to put your knockers back in the boulder holder, because we are taking you out. There will be wine. There will be dancing. I’m going to make Robin sing karaoke at the lodge.”

“Uh…” Robin navigated a sharp turn leading up to the dam. “I don’t think that will be happening, but I’ll be sure to gather video evidence of you two. Emma can post it on YouTube for me.”

Big Creek Lodge was mostly for tourists, but they did have Thursday-night karaoke and half-price drinks, perfect for both the vacationer and the celebrating local. The only downside was the road leading up to the lodge, which was narrow, twisted, and had almost zero lights. Robin absolutely hated driving it at night.

As long as there are no drunk tourists coming down the hill, we’ll be fine.

Robin listened with a smile on her face while Val and Monica chatted about their day. Val had recently shaved one side of her short hair and dyed it green. Her makeup was ruthlessly cool, and her fitted halter top showed off numerous tattoos. Monica, on the other hand, was in a dress. Monica loved wearing dresses. And lace. And ruffles. Anything soft and feminine. Her short, curvy figure looked amazing in wrap dresses, and she had a closet that took up half her bedroom.

Robin… well, she’d thrown on a pair of black pants and a leopard-print top that Val had forced on her last spring. She also had a pair of sensible shoes and a large purse. She didn’t need to carry a large purse anymore; she just couldn’t seem to break the habit.

Why am I always the uncoolest friend?

Val and Monica were approaching their midforties with style and attitude and way better wardrobes. They had plans and adventures mapped out. Monica was taking her daughter to Spain for the summer. Val had been approached by an investor to expand her café.

And Robin sold antique dining sets to rich couples from the Bay Area.

She had slipped out of the house without anyone even noticing. Mark and Emma had cooked dinner without her and were engrossed in a new TV series they were bingeing. They hadn’t even noticed Robin saying goodbye.

A squirrel ran in front of the road and Robin tapped the brakes, certain it was too late to miss the little creature. Luckily, she didn’t feel a thunk. She was a careful driver, but this road freaked her out. 

Val and Monica had started singing. The lyrics to “Always Be My Baby” filled the car, and Robin glanced in the rearview mirror when Val hit a particularly painful high note.

“Robin!” Monica yelled next to her.

She glanced back at the road to see a massive white deer frozen in the middle of the road.

Her heart stopped.

Robin swerved in the darkness, letting out a single hard breath when she realized she’d avoided the deer. Then her stomach dropped when she realized there was nothing.

No deer.

No road.

Nothing but the darkness and the moon over the water.

Val screamed a second before the car nosedived into the dark water of Glimmer Lake and everything went black.