Saltwater Cove

by Amelia Addler

  “I should have Morgan bring her fancy camera,” she said.

  “Oh that’s right. I’ll bring her out on the boat too, some other time.” He cleared his throat rather loudly. “But I’m glad that you agreed to come with me. I…really enjoy spending time with you.”

  Margie turned to him – his cheeks looked slightly red. Was it the sun? No – it couldn’t be. He certainly wasn’t a man who was used to sharing his feelings, but it seemed that he was trying. Margie had no problem sharing her feelings most of the time.

  She reached out and touched his arm. “That’s good Hank, because I like spending time with you, too.”

  They continued around the island and spotted porpoises, harbor seals, and countless sea lions sunbathing on the rocks. As wonderful of a time as she was having, Margie was starting to get hungry. She suggested that they find a shaded area and settle in for their picnic. Hank was happy to oblige, and he directed the boat as close to the shore as was safe so they could catch some shade from the trees.

  “Now it’s not much, and I didn’t know what you liked, but I packed a couple of things…”

  “This is incredible!” he said, looking at the sandwiches and the cheese. “Everything you make is incredible. I knew that I should’ve smuggled a bottle of wine on board.”

  Now Margie felt her own cheeks turning red. She wasn’t used to that sort of praise. Was he trying to manipulate her? No – he didn’t seem like the type.

  “That’s enough out of you. And we couldn’t have wine, you can’t drink and drive a boat!”

  “I’m a pretty big guy. I could handle one glass. If I’d known you were going to put together something so fancy –”

  “Here, stop calling a simple picnic fancy and have a sandwich.” She thrust one into his hand. “And when was the last time you had some fresh tomatoes?”

  He shrugged. “Does pizza count?”

  “No, pizza does not count.”

  They laughed, both catching the same giddiness; Margie wasn’t sure if it came from the excitement of seeing all the animals, the beautiful weather or the fact that if this was a first date, it was going amazingly.

  They finished off the picnic, with Hank eating half of the brownies, again full of praise, and headed back to dock the boat. Margie was having a marvelous time, but she wanted to get back to the house and get some things in order. He drove her home, and unlike the trip out to the boat, they talked the entire time.

  She worried that the girls might be watching from the window and was afraid that he might try to hug her or something – so as soon as he stopped the truck, she opened the door and hopped out.

  “Thank you for the lovely day! We’ll have to do it again.”

  “No, thank you. This was the most fun I’ve had in ages.”

  She smiled. “Take care!”

  Margie turned and walked to the front door, ignoring the two sets of eyes peering at her from the front window.

  Chapter 13

  As soon as Margie pushed the door open, there was a flurry of activity inside the house.

  “Hello girls,” she called out. “Were you doing some bird watching from the window?”

  Jade and Morgan appeared in the hallway.

  “No, we just heard a car pull up and…” Jade’s voice trailed off.

  “We wanted to see if Chief was going to kiss you,” added Morgan.

  Jade’s hand darted to her mouth. Margie tried to think of something stern to say back, but nothing came to her. To her surprise, it wasn’t the worst thing in the world to have a man interested in her. Especially someone as nice as Hank.

  Morgan crossed her arms. “But we were sorely disappointed.”

  “Morgan!” Jade groaned.

  The whole exchange made Margie laugh. “Well I’m sorry to disappoint you girls, but this isn’t The Bachelor!”

  “So he didn’t give you a rose?” asked Morgan.

  Margie shook her head. “No, he did not.”

  “So,” Jade said, clearing her throat. “How was the boat? Did you see any orcas?”

  “No, we didn’t. But we saw lots of other animals! Bald eagles, sea lions, harbor seals…it was really nice. And Hank said that he would love to take you two out on the boat sometime.”

  Morgan frowned. “Isn’t he a little old for us?”

  Now Jade started laughing. “You’re ridiculous.”

  “I know,” Morgan said with a smile.

  Luckily that was all of the teasing that Margie had to endure for her sort of, kind of date. For the rest of the evening, Morgan excitedly showed her some of the pictures that she’d taken and edited, and Jade showed her the beginnings of the website. It wasn’t completely done because Jade ran into a few setbacks, but she really wanted to get the website up and running, so she asked her boss if she could work remotely for the day. That way she didn’t have to take the ferry back until Monday evening.

  Margie loved having them both in the house, though she did worry that Brandon might start to complain that Jade was over too much. She kept it to herself – for now. She knew that her kids’ relationships were their own business, but it was hard to keep quiet sometimes.

  On Tuesday that week, Margie made another trip to the mainland to buy some basics for the other bedrooms in the house. She wanted the kids to be comfortable when they visited, to relax and feel at home; and even if the barn might not be ready for the party, she could at least have the home ready for her family.

  At the very least, she wanted each room to have a bed frame, a mattress, and a nightstand. Hank was gracious enough to loan her his truck so she could easily fit a number of items. He offered to come and help as well, but she declined – she was perfectly able to make the trip with her furniture buddy Morgan. They drove down to the Seattle Ikea and had a field day – Margie ended up with matching dressers for the bedrooms as well. The prices were great and the furniture looked cute, too.

  Hank stopped by on Wednesday and insisted on helping her build the furniture. Since it was all from Ikea, there was a lot of work to be done, but she hated to ask him any more favors.

  “I’m sure you’ve got lots of other important things to do,” she told him.

  He leaned over and peered into the doorway of the first bedroom, where the entire floor was covered in cardboard boxes along with bits and pieces of furniture. “I can promise you that I don’t have anything important to do. I feel like you could use some help with this. Don’t the instructions say that this is a two-person job?”

  Margie bit her lip and cast a look at the paper instructions, splayed open on the floor. “It does have a picture of two people in the beginning. Well, they weren’t exactly people. They didn’t have faces or anything.”

  He laughed. “But they have four hands between them?”

  She nodded. “They definitely have four hands.”

  “Then it sounds like you’re two hands short.”

  “You’ve got me there.” Margie laughed. If the man insisted on building furniture with her, then what was she supposed to do? Send him away?

  They got to work and spent the next two hours putting together one bed, one dresser and one night stand. Margie couldn’t believe how long it took. Hank was handy though, and despite mentioning several times that he had a drill back home that would make things easier, they just kept tackling each piece as a team and taking their time. Hank was sure that they would be Ikea experts by the end.

  Margie didn’t mind that they didn’t have a tool to speed things up; she quite enjoyed passing the hours with him. He had great stories about living on the island and being a deputy. The only issue was that once they finished the furniture for one room, her entire body hurt. The thought of doing it all over again for the other bedroom, even with their new expertise, was painful.

  “Oof!” she said out loud as she stood up, hips popping.

  “What’s up?” asked Hank.

  “I forgot that Morgan told me that I could use her yoga mat while building this stuff.”
/>   “Oh okay. Where is Morgan today?”

  “She wanted to go for a hike and take some pictures,” Margie replied, stretching out her back. Everything was sore. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to do the other room. Yet she was having so much fun…

  Hank grunted. “A hike. Sure. She told me that’s what she was doing when she trespassed on Brock’s property.”

  “Well hopefully she’s not doing that again. You have to let kids make their own mistakes!” Margie added with a laugh. “I’m going to go and get the yoga mat. I think she said she keeps it under the bed.”

  Margie went to Morgan’s room and got on her hands and knees to look under the bed. The room was nearly pitch black because of the light blocking curtains that Morgan hung up.

  Squinting, she could just make out the outline of what looked like a yoga mat. She stuck her hand under the bed and pulled it out. Unfortunately, she was a bit too forceful and she also pulled something else out with it: a small shoebox with a loose lid, and the contents immediately spilled onto the floor.

  “Oh for goodness sake,” Margie muttered. She stood up and turned on the light so she could see what she was doing. When she got back on the floor to clean up the mess she made, she saw that the shoebox was full of trinkets and pictures.

  It was quite sweet – Morgan collected postcards, rocks from the beach, even a sprig of dry lavender. All mementos from the island. There was also a stack of pictures with landscapes and wildlife. Margie knew that she shouldn’t look through them without asking, but they were so beautiful, and the picture sitting on top was a gorgeous shot of the barn at sunset. Margie sat on the floor and slowly sifted through the photos.

  She was staring at a picture of the coast, trying to figure out where it was taken, when a small photograph fell to the floor. She reached down and grabbed it, turning it right side up.

  What she saw made her stomach drop. It was a picture of Jeff and Kelly – just two squares cut out from what looked like a photo booth strip. In the top picture they were smiling – Kelly was exactly as Margie remembered her. Bright eyes, long dark hair. In the second picture, they were kissing deeply.

  Margie’s hand started shaking. She dropped the rest of the photos, needing both hands to keep steady. How could it be? How could her husband have hidden this from her? How could he have done something like this – not just to Margie. Not just to Kelly. But to the kids…was her whole life with him a lie?

  And Morgan. Sweet Morgan. What was Margie going to say to her?

  What on earth was she going to do?

  Chapter 14

  It’d been a few minutes and Margie still hadn’t come back with that yoga mat. Maybe she couldn’t find it? Hank was having a great time hanging out with her, but he agreed that being down on the ground for so long wasn’t good for anyone’s joints.

  “Margie?” He made his way towards Morgan’s room. “I have an idea. Maybe we could at least make the dresser and the nightstand on the kitchen table, and –”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” she said quickly. “I’m in…worse shape than I realized. Once I stood up, everything was…you know.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine, I just…I think I need to take a break for the rest of the night.”

  Darn. He didn’t want to go home yet. “Okay. Well, would you like to grab some dinner in town or something?”

  “That’s very sweet of you, but I really just don’t feel well. It came on all of a sudden.”

  She did look a little pale. “I can run and get you some chicken soup if you like? I’m not a good enough cook to make my own, unfortunately. But there is a shop not too far from my place that makes great soup.”

  She smiled and shook her head. “No, that’s very sweet of you, but that’s okay. I think…I’m so sorry, but I just need to lie down.”

  “Okay, no problem. Sorry that you don’t feel well. I can come back later this week to help you finish the furniture. My daughter is coming on Friday, so I’ll be a bit busy, but I’m sure she doesn’t want to spend all of her time with me. And I would love for you to meet her.”

  Margie didn’t respond; she seemed to be staring off into the distance.

  Hank leaned down to get onto her level. “You sure you’re okay?”

  She startled and looked back at him. “Yes, I’m fine. I think I must have caught something.”

  “Okay, well then, I’ll get out of your hair. Let me know when you need more help with this, I’m happy to come back. I can bring that drill.”

  “Thanks Hank. I appreciate it.”

  He hated leaving her when she didn’t feel well, but it was clearly what she wanted. He gathered up his things, said goodbye, and headed out the front door. The rest of the night, he sat in front of the TV and watched some reruns of Seinfeld.

  Hank had to go into work on Thursday, and once his shift was done he stopped by to check in on Margie. Unfortunately, she wasn’t home, and he wondered if it was weird for him to drop by like that. He decided that maybe he should announce himself in the future, and for now just send Margie a text message to see how she was doing.

  Hank had some errands to run that night to distract him, and to his surprise, Margie answered his message quickly. He wondered if she was also used to texting because of her daughters.

  “I’m doing okay, thanks for asking. Still not 100%. And for the life of me I can’t get the contractor to get here and finish up these bathrooms. He’s driving me nuts!”

  Hank frowned. “Who did you hire again?”

  “Eddie Mills. I’m starting to wonder if he gave me the runaround.”

  “I’ll have a talk with him,” replied Hank.

  He hadn’t recommended Eddie, but he remembered Margie telling him that the guys that he told her about were busy. Eddie had a tepid reputation on the island. He did good work, but he was known to take advantage of people when it suited him. He thought he was a tough guy – and he liked to brag about the things he could get away with.

  Hank felt his blood pressure rise just thinking about Eddie stringing Margie along. It wasn’t that Margie needed to be protected – she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. But Eddie, in his endless pursuit of proving how macho of a man he was, thought it was funny to mess around with people who didn’t know how long a job should take.

  “Women,” he once said, rolling his eyes, “are my best customers. I can tell ‘em I’m looking for a special wrench for weeks. They have no idea.”

  Hank promptly told him that his customers were probably just being polite and thought he had some sort of problem. Eddie didn’t like that. He was not Hank’s kind of guy, and Hank felt the irresistible urge to protect Margie from Eddie’s crude ways.

  On Friday morning, he was pretty pleased with how clean he got the house. It took a couple of days to get to a decent level, but now he felt that he could maintain it going forward.

  Before that, it seemed like there was no point. Truth be told, he now found himself wondering, “What if Margie wants to stop by sometime?” She might think that he was filthy! Plus his daughter liked a clean house.

  Amanda came in on the early afternoon ferry. She flew into Seattle the evening before and stayed in the city with one of her friends for the night. It made the journey a bit easier for her, especially with the jet lag.

  She then rented a car and drove up to Anacortes. Hank imagined a fun moment when he could stand at the ferry terminal waiting for her with a bouquet of flowers, but since she drove herself, he instead waited at the house with a bouquet of flowers.

  When he heard the door open, he jumped up with the excitement of a dog who hadn’t seen its owner in years. “Amanda!”

  “Dad!”

  He hugged her and picked her up off the ground. “I’ve missed you. How was your trip?”

  “I’ve missed you too Dad. Put me down!”

  He laughed and set her back on the ground. She was built like her mother – petite and delicate – but she did inherit his eyes. />
  He handed her the bouquet of roses. “These are for you.”

  She laughed. “Thanks Dad. I’ll put them back on the table. Very nice.”

  “You know,” he crossed his arms, “I don’t just keep flowers around here for anybody.”

  She nodded. “I got that feeling about you. Oh! I got something for you too.”

  “Oh yeah? I told you not to waste your money on your old man.”

  She turned around, unzipped the pocket on her bag, and pulled out a container. “This is bacon flavored tea.”

  He reached out and unscrewed the lid, taking a whiff. “Wow. That really smells like bacon.”

  Amanda clapped her hands together. “I knew you’d love it.”

  “Have you tried it yet?”

  “No, it looks disgusting.”

  They both laughed. Hank put on some water and they settled onto the couch to chat. Amanda had about a thousand things to tell him, which was nice. He liked sitting catching up on what was new with her.

  Normally, she called him at least once a week, but it was much easier in person to assess how she was doing. She seemed cheerful – she was full of smiles and she had funny stories about her job and her friends. She loved living in London, minus a few annoyances.

  “It sounds like San Juan has lost you forever,” said Hank.

  Amanda sighed. “Oh come on Dad. I might still move back – someday. I just…moved to a bigger island.”

  He laughed. “I’m just happy that you’re happy.”

  “What’s new with you? What’s new on the island?”

  Margie’s face flashed in his mind, but for some reason, the only thing he could say was, “Nothing. Nothing at all.”

  “Typical. Nothing ever happens here.”

  “Actually…” He took a sip of the bacon tea. It wasn’t great – but he didn’t hate it, which was slightly odd. “I’ve been putting some extra time into that case. You know the one I told you about? That lady who was hit with the car.”

  “The one who died?”

  “Yeah. Her daughter showed up on the island looking for clues. Really made me take a fine toothed comb over all the evidence we have.”