It had been nice enough, but it needed new windows, a new yard in the front and back, and an appliance update.
Kelli told herself she couldn’t afford to be picky. All she needed was somewhere to harbor her son, and somewhere she could find enough clarity of mind to see why she hadn’t noticed the changes in Julian that had led her to this house hunting endeavor.
Down the street and around a bend in Sanctuary Island, and Shane pulled up to a row of homes that looked like they bordered the beach. “Is this in my budget?” Kelli asked, peering at the individual structures that stood only a few feet from each other.
“Yes,” Shane said simply. “I know these don’t have yards, and that was a must for you.” He unbuckled his seatbelt. “But you’re literally on the beach here, Miss Thompson. That is your whole back yard.” He grinned at the row of brightly colored houses and got out of the sedan.
Kelli pressed her eyes closed and said a quick prayer before she joined him near the hood. The breeze blowing off the water cooled the hot air. She didn’t think there was a better scent on earth than the salty, sea air. She took a long breath and held it for a second, trying to decide if the for rent sign was in front of the green house or the yellow one. The sign seemed to be planted smack dab between the two—but that was why she’d hired Shane.
“These are two bedrooms, one bath,” he said. “These are reclaimed beach houses, and they’ve been remodeled for upscale living.”
“I can’t afford upscale living,” Kelli said as they stepped off the main sidewalk and onto the one that led up to the quad of beach homes.
“You can afford this,” he said. “It’s eight-eighty per month, and that includes all utilities except garbage.” Shane continued to rattle off stats and features of the home, but Kelli found that she simply needed to be in the space. It would speak to her if she gave it a chance, and the moment she started up the steps of the yellow beach house, she knew she needed to be here.
She could run yoga classes right in her own front yard. People would pay for them—and pay well. She was a certified yoga instructor, and she had plenty of experience in leading workouts from her job in New Jersey.
“Eight-eighty,” she mused as he put in the code and opened the lockbox. Inside, the living room spread before her, stretching from the front door all the way to the back wall. The kitchen sat in the corner and along part of that wall, and then another door led out of the house.
“It’s nicer than I thought it would be,” she said.
“All of these have been completely remodeled. The bones were there, and they simply enhanced them.” He pointed to the ground. “There’s no carpet, because the sand would be a nightmare. You’ve got waterproof and scratch-resistant wood-like tiles here. Very durable for kids…pets…”
Kelli listened to him detail the breakfast bar, and then she followed him into the bedrooms, which took up the other half of the house. They were nothing to write home about. Instead, they were functional, a queen-sized bed in both of them. Parker wouldn’t like that, but Kelli didn’t have a lot of choices in her price range.
She turned on every light and checked to make sure all the blinds lifted and lowered. There would be no inspection here like there was when buying a new property, and she wanted to make sure she wasn’t getting a lemon.
When she stepped onto the deck that spanned the width of the house, she asked, “First and last month’s rent?”
“This is the one, huh?” Shane asked with a big grin.
“Yes,” Kelli said. “This is the one.” She faced the ocean, which came ashore only about fifty yards away. Julian hadn’t frozen her out of their accounts yet, but as soon as she wrote a nineteen-hundred-dollar check, he likely would.
He had a mean streak, and Kelli had always tried very hard not to awaken the beast. He did this, she told herself as her real estate agent made a few phone calls, and thirty minutes later, he said, “This place is yours, Miss Thompson. All we need to do get some paperwork signed and collect your payment.”
A hint of guilt stole through her as she wrote the check and signed the papers. She should’ve gotten a house on Bell Island to be closer to her mother. Parker would love that, and so would her mother.
Kelli hadn’t been able to bring herself to do it. She needed a buffer zone, and hers had just shrunk considerably. She handed Shane his pen. “When can we occupy it?”
“How about right now?” He grinned and handed her the keys he’d gotten out of the lockbox. “Someone will come take the key box off your front door, and all the furniture stays. Do you have pets?”
“No,” she said, her mind still stuck on the fact that she didn’t have anything to move in. Not really. She’d brought mostly clothes from New Jersey, and she obviously didn’t need furniture if this rental came with it.
“Good, we can skip this form,” he murmured, almost to himself. “No smoking, drinking, or alcohol?”
“I drink socially,” Kelli said. “Mocktails mostly, with the occasional alcoholic drink. Is that a problem?”
“No,” Shane said. “The owner just doesn’t want these to be turned into party houses.” He glanced up from his tablet, where he’d been looking to ask her these questions. “He lives in the red one on the end.”
Kelli looked down from her end with the yellow house, to the other end, where the red on stood. It had lawn ornaments stabbed into the sand, and it was semi-disturbing to see a dolphin leaping out of anything but water.
“All right,” Shane said a moment later. “This is all yours. I can take you back to the ferry station? Or do you want to stay here?”
“I’ll stay for a few minutes,” she said. “Thank you so much, Shane.”
“You betcha,” he said, and he walked back to his car. Kelli stood on the sand and admired the yellow house. It had the most potential to get dirty, but someone had obviously been taking care of these four cabins.
She’d just climbed the steps to go inside her new place when her phone rang. Eloise’s name sat on the screen, and Kelli’s heartbeat started tap dancing, the staccato beats sending shockwaves through her whole body.
“Hey,” a man called, his voice friendly.
Kelli looked up from the phone call that was still coming in. She looked down the row of homes to find a tall, tan man striding toward her. He had blonde hair that he probably put some sort of spray in to make it that light, a wide smile with a dimple in his right cheek, and an amazing positive energy flowing around him.
“Did you get the place?” he asked.
“Yes,” Kelli said.
The man laughed, tipping his head back so his face was toward the sky and everything. “I’m glad. I’m Jackson Bybee. I own all four of these.” He stuck his hand out for her to shake.
Kelli went back down the steps. “Kelli Thompson,” she said, giving his hand a couple of good pumps. “I have an eight-year-old son who’ll be living with me.”
“That’s great,” he said. “Old Grandpa Henry right next door has his grandkids over quite often.”
“Great,” Kelli said, because it was great. Maybe Parker would have a playmate. She needed to register him for school today too, but she had a feeling that wasn’t going to get done.
“Well, I’ll let you explore,” Jackson said. “I’m right down the row if you need anything.”
“Thanks,” she said to his retreating back. That was how Kelli felt about everything in her life. Things were going great—and then just when she thought she had dating and relationships figured out, life would throw her a curveball.
That was all this was. Julian trying to be cute, trying to get attention. She honestly didn’t know how he could be starved for it. She was the one who asked him about his day and had dinner ready when he deemed his family important enough to visit from time to time.
She stepped inside her new home and looked up at the vaulted ceilings. This place was far nicer than any of the others she’d looked at today, and she liked the walls of windows in the back.
Before she could even so much as sit on the couch, Kelli’s phone rang again. This time, she connected Eloise’s call and said, “What’s going on?”
“You tell me,” Eloise said. “You’re on Sanctuary Island and you didn’t tell me?”
Kelli took a couple of seconds to get over the shock of Eloise’s question. “How did you know I was on Sanctuary Island?”
Eloise sent a peal of laughter up, but Kelli didn’t understand what was so funny. “I didn’t,” she said between the giggles. “I guessed, but now I know where you are.”
“I just…” Kelli trailed off, because she hadn’t told anyone the reason she’d returned to the cove, not even Alice. She felt like she owed an explanation to her first.
“I just talked to Alice,” Eloise said. “She said you showed up a couple of nights ago, and she hadn’t seen you since.”
“I need to call her.”
“Let’s have dinner,” Eloise said. “Tonight. Is Parker at your mother’s?”
“Yes,” Kelli said, eyeing the front window. She was starting to think Eloise was nearby, watching her every move. She still didn’t want to go to dinner with Eloise.
“Great,” Eloise said. “You, me, Alice, and Robin. Right here on Sanctuary.”
“I don’t think—”
“It’s a dinnervention, Kel. We can meet at seven at a restaurant of your choice.”
“I can’t,” Kelli said, annoyance rising through her. She paced toward the back of the house and looked out the window above the sink. She’d always had a window above her kitchen sink, but the home where she and Julian lived had the sink on an inside wall.
“Kelli,” Eloise said, her voice kind but completely strong. “We love you, and we know there’s something going on.”
Kelli watched the waves as they lapped against the shore. They soothed her, even though she really didn’t like water all that much. That wasn’t true. She loved the ocean and the waves. She just didn’t want to experience them while on a boat.
“I can’t tonight,” Kelli said.
“Why not?”
“I already have a dinner appointment.”
“With who?” Eloise asked.
Kelli pressed her eyes closed, her stomach vibrating violently. “I’ll tell everyone at dinner tomorrow,” she said. “I’ll need to call my mother, but tomorrow should work.” She turned away from the ocean and leaned into the counter behind her. “Okay?”
“Name the restaurant,” Eloise said.
“Coddington’s,” Kelli said. She’d need a lot of crab cakes and lobster rolls to get the truth out.
“Six? Or seven?”
“Let’s do six,” Kelli said, because she couldn’t think of a reason she’d be later than that. The utilities would need to be turned on, and she’d have to figure out how to get Internet in the beach house. She’d have to get Parker registered for school and buy more clothes than what she could pack in a single suitcase.
Utility companies and elementary schools closed way before six, and she could buy clothes any time.
She drew in a deep breath as Eloise confirmed with her. “’Bye, Eloise.”
She faced the water again, a swarm of snakes in her stomach. The phone in her hand didn’t yield under her pythonic grip, and she finally tore her gaze from the undulating water and the blue sky above it.
She heard the waves when she stepped outside and turned back to lock the door behind her. After tapping to call a RideShare, she scrolled through her texts to find the string she’d sent to Zach.
He hadn’t answered any of them, but Kelli wasn’t going to give up. She knew a couple of people around the cove, and she’d been able to get his license plate number. From there, she’d figured out where he lived.
Zach had a studio apartment above a Chinese restaurant, on the block just down the street from Coddington’s. She had no idea if he’d be home or not, but she’d called his landlord as if the rental listing was still open, and the woman who’d answered had said, “I wish it still was. The guy who lives there now is this unemployed loser who yelled at some customers last week.”
Kelli hadn’t even known what to say. She hadn’t known Zach to yell at anyone. She’d never thought he’d approach her mother either, and Kelli had started to learn that she didn’t know Zach Watkins at all.
Her ride pulled up, and Kelli got in the back seat and gave him the address to the Chinese restaurant. Her heart pounded in her chest, the rhythm of it getting harder and harder with every passing second.
An alarm went off in her mind, and she had the distinct thought that she shouldn’t approach Zach alone. With a couple of blocks to go, she texted Eloise. I need some help tonight. Can you come to The Mandarin Garden?
Kelli took a deep breath and quickly tapped out another text. And can you call Aaron and ask him to send an officer to the same place?
She shouldn’t have been surprised when Eloise called and demanded to know what was going on. Kelli took a breath and said, “It’s about my half-brother, Zach…”
She didn’t even know if he was her half-brother, and Kelli disliked all of this sudden uncertainty in her life. Eloise confirmed that she was on her way, but she was up at the inn, and it would take her about twenty minutes to get down from the cliffs.
“Okay,” Kelli said. “I’ll wait for you.” She ended the call and pressed her phone to her lips, her mind revolving around what she wanted to say to Zach.
“Mandarin Garden,” the RideShare driver said, and Kelli snapped herself back to the present. She quickly pressed her card to the payment sensor and waited for the green light. The few seconds it took to register felt like years, but she finally spilled from the car and onto the sidewalk.
She turned to the left and then the right, as if she wasn’t sure where she was or how she got there. She shouldn’t have come alone, she knew that. She didn’t want to go into the restaurant, and the door beside it—which she knew led up to the apartment where Zach lived—had a keypad above the doorknob. She’d have to know that to get to his front door.
Kelli looked at her phone and took a few steps away from the blue door. She turned around and glanced up—right into the blazing blue eyes of Zach Watkins.
Chapter Seven
Laurel Baker had heard the chirp of the radio on her shoulder hundreds of times. When the Chief’s voice came over it, she listened, because he rarely came on to say anything. Dispatch did that.
“Unit to The Mandarin Garden on Sanctuary,” he said. “Come back with location and ETA.”
Laurel glanced at her partner, Connor Hatch, and he nodded. He reached up and pressed the button on his radio. “Unit S-12 on Blackbird Avenue. ETA, four minutes.”
Another chirp, but this one didn’t go up as high, which meant the words didn’t go out to everyone. “Siren and lights. Get there now,” the Chief said.
Laurel didn’t waste another second. She flipped on the two switches that started the siren and the lights, and she pressed on the accelerator.
She loved being a cop, but not many interesting things happened in Five Island Cove. Routine traffic stops and the occasional shoplifting offense. Some rowdiness on the beach when too much alcohol got involved, and as the tourists got younger and younger, Chief Sherman had brought on more and more cops.
He’d been busy dealing with his new K9 dogs, and Laure did not envy the amount of work on the man’s desk.
“I see them,” Connor said. “Two people—one man, and one woman. Oh! He just took a swing at her.”
Laurel’s pulse crashed against her ribs, and she drove right up onto the sidewalk. In her adrenaline-fueled state, she wasn’t sure how she got her seat belt off and the door open.
“Freeze!” she yelled. “Police. Do not hit that woman, sir.”
Connor approached the front of the police car. “Step away from her.”
The ginger-haired man turned around, and the honey-blonde woman’s sobs reached Laurel’s ears. Her blood burned hotly through her veins, and she blin
ked to stay focused on the situation.
She wasn’t back in that abusive relationship. Her boyfriend had dark hair, not reddish-blonde. And he wasn’t her boyfriend anymore.
“Step back,” she said again, rounding the open door of the police car. “Hands above your head.”
The man raised his hands slowly as he turned fully toward her and Connor. He wore a smirk on his face that angered Laurel, and she gritted her teeth as Connor handcuffed him and started leading him to the back seat.
Laurel went to the woman sitting on the ground, her hands in her hair as she ducked her head toward her knees. “Ma’am,” she said as gently as she could. “Do we need to call an ambulance?”
“No,” the woman said, lifting her head. Her eyes held nothing but panic and tears, and she seemed like she might jump to her feet and bolt at any moment. “I’m fine.”
“Did he hit you?”
“No,” she said.
“Who was he?” Laurel asked, taking in this woman’s distress and making it hers. She knew exactly what she felt, and she hated seeing it on another woman’s face.
“My half-brother.” The woman wiped her face. “Maybe. I’m not sure about that, actually.”
“What’s his name?”
“Zach Watkins.”
“And yours?”
“Kelli Thompson.”
Laurel was starting to get too much information, and she pulled out a notebook and started scratching notes in it. “Did you arrange to meet him?”
“No.” Kelli got to her feet, and Laurel straightened too, keeping her eyes on Kelli. She didn’t get the sense that this woman was lying to her, but Laurel knew that people had all kinds of reasons to lie, and a lot of them were very good at it.
“I—I was just here to get some food, and I ran into him.”
“Kelli,” another woman called, and Laurel turned to find her. A dark-haired woman hurried toward them, and Laurel already knew her.
The Cliffside Inn Page 6