by JoAnn Ross
Two evenings ago, as they’d sat on the front porch, drinking wine and watching the sunset on the water, she’d indulged in a daydream where they’d be slow dancing at Kylee and Mai’s rescheduled wedding, when having watched the couple exchange their vows, followed by his mother christening pink-cheeked baby Clara, who’d be dressed in the same white dress Kylee herself had worn for her baptism, Seth would realize, like she had that day in the hospital cafeteria, that he wanted to build a new life. To create a family. With her.
* * *
CAROLINE HAD JUST packed her cotton canvas tote with painting supplies for another morning in the park with Mike when there was a knock at her door.
“You’re early,” she said as she opened it. “I’m almost...” Her words dropped off as she saw who was standing there, flowers in hand. Not roses this time. But the tulips were the same tropical sunset coral color.
“Hello, Ben.” She struggled for calm, even as her heart was racing. He wouldn’t bring flowers if he weren’t going to finally cave in, would he? “Those are lovely.”
“I got them at the Blue House Farm booth at the market,” he said.
“Let me put them in water.” When she had to practically pull them from his tightly fisted hand, she realized he was as nervous as she. And wasn’t that a thought?
He followed her into the apartment, glancing at the tote and easel by the door. “Are you going somewhere?”
“I’d planned to go up to the park.” The furnished apartment hadn’t come with any vases, but it did have a white pitcher she filled with water. “I’ve been working on plein air, which is landscape painting in its natural setting. It’s tricky, but I enjoy it.” She arranged the tulips and set them in the middle of the small circular table.
“That’s good. That you enjoy it. I guess Mannion’s teaching you.”
She lifted her chin at the edge she heard in his rough voice. “He is the only art teacher in town,” she said. “Did you come here for a reason? Other than to bring me flowers again? Because as lovely as they are—”
“I came to ask if you wanted to go out.”
“Out?”
“Like...you know...” He sort of waved a broad, work-roughened hand.
“Are you asking me out on a date?”
“Yeah. I am.”
“Oh.” Now she was the one having trouble coming up with what to say.
“There’s this restaurant in Port Townsend. It’s got both meat and vegetarian dishes.” Caroline felt her heart melting as he looked down at the wooden floor he was scuffing his work boot on like a bashful six-year-old. “I thought maybe we could have dinner there tomorrow night.”
It wasn’t a full surrender. But it was encouraging. “I’d love that.”
He lifted his head, allowing her to see the surprise and what appeared to be relief in his eyes. “Really?”
“Really. It’s been a very long time since we’ve been on a date together.”
Before he could say anything else, there was another knock at the door. Terrific. And wasn’t Mike Mannion showing up just what this situation needed? Knowing she couldn’t leave him outside, she drew in a calming breath, then walked across the room and opened the door again.
“Ready for a great day?” Mike greeted her, his smile fading as he glanced over her shoulder and saw Ben standing there, hands now jammed into his jeans pockets. “Harper.”
“Mannion.”
The younger, more romantic girl she’d once been would probably have found the idea of two handsome men vying for her attentions wildly romantic. The woman she’d grown to be did not.
“I can stay if you want to talk,” she suggested to Ben.
“No.” He shook the tension from his shoulders. “You go ahead and paint your landscape,” he said. “How about I pick you up tomorrow at six? I took the chance of booking a table on the patio, so we can watch the sun set on the water.”
Now that was romantic. And definitely encouraging. “I’ll be ready.”
He blew out a breath. “Great.”
“And thank you again for the flowers.”
Proving he was still a man of few words—she’d probably never change that—he merely nodded. Then, mission accomplished, left the apartment. And if his shoulder just happened to bump Mike’s on the way out, well, that could’ve been an accident.
Probably not.
“So, we’re still on for a lesson?” Mike asked.
Sarah felt her lips curving. A day painting in the meadow with a man whose company she enjoyed, and a sunset dinner with her husband tomorrow night. Life was definitely beginning to look up.
“Absolutely.”
* * *
ON THIS SUNDAY MORNING, as usual, Seth had driven Zoe’s Civic up to Hurricane Ridge, was waved through the station gate by the ranger on duty, then spent the next hour watching a pair of ospreys with at least five-foot wingspans sitting, feeding their nestlings with fish they’d fly in from the strait. Usually his trips up here caused an ache in his chest. One that, even though it had lessened over the years, he’d learned to live with. Today, after about twenty minutes, he realized that he wasn’t feeling it. He waited a bit. Thought about his wife. Waited some more as the giant birds dutifully continued their flights back and forth between water and nest.
It wasn’t that he didn’t still miss Zoe. She’d always be a part of him. It was more that somehow, over this spring, it didn’t hurt to think of her. And most of the anger he’d felt about the unfairness of what had happened was gone. People had told him that time cured all wounds. He’d never believed that, and he knew there’d always be a scar in that place in his heart where Zoe had resided for so many years. But it was no longer a gaping wound. Not healed by time.
But by Brianna having come back home and into his life. He wasn’t sure where they were going, but perhaps that wasn’t just a bad thing. Maybe, he considered as he got back into the Civic and began the drive back down the road that wound like a tangled fishing line out of the park, like his mother kept telling him, there was a lot to be said about living in the moment. Especially when a lot of those moments were spent having hot, blow-your-mind sex. And, something he’d really missed, sleeping with a warm, soft woman in his arms afterward.
He was passing the ranger checkpoint when the woman walked out and waved him down. He stopped and she came over to the open driver’s side window.
“Nice day,” she said.
“Can’t argue that,” Seth said.
And it was going to get better once he got over to Herons Landing and spent some lazy Sunday morning time rolling around that wide mattress with Brianna. One cool thing about Sundays was that she’d try out her B and B breakfast menus on him. Last week she’d had him taste test a citrus berry pizza made with a cream cheese base on top of fluffy dough with a berry topping and whipped cream, which he thought was pretty good, for like maybe a breakfast appetizer. He’d admitted that male guests would probably prefer her hash brown/cheddar cheese/bacon casserole topped with eggs fried in fresh butter from a local dairy farm.
“Got a question for you,” the ranger said as his stomach growled at the memory of that meal.
“Okay.” He was expecting her to ask about doing more remodeling on her ’70s rancher when she surprised him. “You ever think about selling this car?”
“Not really.”
“I was just wondering. Now that you and the Mannion girl are an item, I figured you wouldn’t need an extra vehicle in that two-car garage of yours. Course, I guess if you end up moving into Herons Landing, you can build yourself a bigger garage.” She scratched her head like she was thinking on something, while Seth was thinking how the hell she knew about him and Bri. “I’m not sure I’d be that thrilled about having a previous wife’s car parked next to mine if I were her, but hey, we all look at things differently, right?”
“Right. But w
hat makes you think that Brianna Mannion and I are a couple?”
“Oh, honey, don’t be so naive. Everyone in town knows that you and that girl are seeing each other.”
Seriously? “I don’t get into town gossip, but you’re the first person who’s brought it up. And if it is true, which I’m not saying it is, how would anyone know?”
“Maybe because you haven’t been eating dinner at Mannion’s every night?”
“Sometimes a guy just likes to mix things up. I’ve gotten take-out tacos. And pizza. And lasagna.”
“You’ve also bought enough groceries down at the market for two. Unless you’re storing up for some disaster like those survivalist types.”
Seth realized he was busted. “Everyone knows?”
“Just about. But don’t worry. We’re all keeping it off the Facebook page to give you both some privacy.”
“Now there’s a concept.” One that had, as far as he’d seen, never before existed.
“You deserve to have yourself a romance after what all you’ve been through,” she said, her eyes warm with sympathy. “Being widowed myself, though not at a tragically young age like you, I know how it feels as if you’ve lost a major part of yourself. And how small towns can be like living in a fishbowl. When I started going out with my Kenny, who became my girl’s stepdaddy, I felt like we were lit up in a spotlight whenever we went anywhere. Gave me an idea how those celebrities must feel, always being followed around by tabloid photographers looking to make a quick buck.”
“I’m not planning to get remarried,” he felt obliged to point out before everyone in Honeymoon Harbor had Brianna and him engaged, married and filling Herons Landing with a passel of kids. He didn’t mention that more random scenes of imagined children—who’d grow up loving Herons Landing the same as the two of them did—had occasionally flashed through his mind.
“Neither was I when I stopped by Kenny’s garage to have my winter tires put on. But life goes on and love can happen just when you’re not looking for it.”
“Well, I appreciate everyone giving us some space,” he said.
“No worries. And getting back to my original point, if you ever do decide to sell this pretty little red car, I’ve got a granddaughter who just finished culinary training at Clearwater Community College and got herself a job in Olympia at some fancy seafood place on the Sound.”
“Good for her.”
“We’re real proud of her. The thing is, she’s going to be working nights and I’d feel a lot better if she didn’t have to walk over to the bus depot, then walk home after the driver lets her off a couple blocks from her apartment. I’ve been thinking that this baby would be affordable for her to keep up and keep her safer. Plus, red’s her favorite color. So if you change your mind about keeping it, I’d like first shot at buying it for her.”
“You’ve got it,” Seth promised. Not that he intended to sell the Civic, but he did agree that while the state capital might not have a lot of big-city crime, a young woman walking alone on the dark streets at night probably wasn’t the best idea.
“Thanks.” She tipped her fingers to her Smokey Bear ranger hat. “I’d appreciate that. Have yourself a nice rest of your day.”
“Thanks, I intend to. You, too.”
As he drove to Herons Landing, Seth debated whether or not to tell Brianna that they’d landed in the town’s social topic bull’s-eye, apparently reclaiming the spot taken up by his parents’ separation and the birth of Kylee and Mai’s adopted baby.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
SETH WAS PASSING Cops and Coffee, wondering what Brianna was making for breakfast, hoping it would hold because just the thought of her bustling around in the kitchen had him fantasizing about taking her on that matte quartz kitchen counter with her wearing nothing but one of those cute retro ’50s aprons she’d begun buying—and maybe a pair of high-heeled pumps like all those TV housewives used to wear—when his dad came out and waved him down.
He pulled over to the curb and got out of the truck.
“We need to talk,” his dad, never much for talking, said without so much as a “good morning.”
“Is it about you and mom?” He’d been in Cops and Coffee the other morning just in time to see his dad getting onto the ferry. It hadn’t made sense because Pete had returned home from the VA hospital last week. Unless something else was going on. A possibility he’d been trying not to think about. “Because I don’t want—”
“It is. And it isn’t. It’s mostly about you and that Mannion girl.”
“What?” As far as he knew, except for his poker games, his dad never went anywhere, hardly talked to a soul. How the hell did he know? And what had Seth done to be forced to have this conversation twice on a morning when he could be tasting not just breakfast, but every inch of Brianna’s tall, lean body, which he’d come to know as well as his own? “I don’t want to be disrespectful here, Dad. But whatever our relationship happens to be, it’s our business.” And no one else’s, he left out, but the message was clear.
“It is and it isn’t,” Ben Harper repeated. “I’ve got some stuff to say and you need to listen to it. Before you fuck up the best thing in your life.”
Only because his father hadn’t offered him a word of advice since he’d shown up at his bedroom door with a box of condoms and given him “the talk,” Seth decided he must think whatever he had to say was damn important. Which meant the least he could do was hear his old man out.
“Let me get some coffee and something to eat.”
“I got a bag of bacon maple doughnuts. There’s enough for two.”
“Because everything goes better with bacon,” Seth said, thinking about Brianna’s hash brown/cheddar cheese/bacon casserole.
“You got that right,” Ben said. “I’ll meet you at the pier.”
* * *
SURPRISINGLY, THE PIER wasn’t as crowded as Seth would have expected on a sunny Sunday morning. He figured all the serious fishermen were out on the water, other folks might have been in church and there was a good possibility Wheel and Barrow was doing a dynamite business with everyone getting excited about a new season of planting their flowers and veggies.
His dad was sitting on a green bench toward the end of the pier, not far from a father and kid who looked about six or seven with their lines dangling into the water. Walking down the wooden pier, listening to the waves lap against the pilings, reminded Seth of those days when they’d get up early in the morning to go crabbing off the pier.
Although his dad seemed to take his crabbing super seriously, like he did most everything, Seth hadn’t cared whether or not they came home with a catch. It was having rare time together that didn’t have anything to do with work that was special. Although he wasn’t expecting an easy talk, thinking back on those rare times caused a bit of the peace he’d felt up on the ridge to settle back over him.
Seth sat on the far end of the bench, folded the plastic top back on his coffee and dug into the bag between them. Even as he felt his arteries clogging from the sugar, maple and bacon at the first bite, he decided a heart attack just might be worth it.
“So,” he said, breaking the silence that lasted through his dad’s entire eating of the Long John. “What’s up?”
His dad adjusted his Harper Construction hat, brushed some crumbs off his Tom Selleck mustache and said, “I’ve got something to tell you, and then we’re not going to talk about it again, okay?”
“Okay.”
“It’s about my trips to Seattle. I’m guessing you didn’t think I was visiting Pete.”
“That became clear after Pete came home and you were still taking those days off.” Seth hadn’t wanted to know about that because it brought up too many possibilities. Like was his dad seeing someone because he thought his wife was sleeping with Mike Mannion? Or had his mother left because he’d had a woman on the side all th
e time?
“I’ve been seeing this therapist.”
“A therapist?” Having just taken a drink, Seth spit out his Portside dark roast. “Like one who works on your bum knee?” Which had come from too many years of going up and down ladders. “Or like a shrink?” Unlikely. It’d be easier to believe his father had been beamed up by a spaceship.
“She’s a licensed therapist with a bunch of psychology degrees from fancy universities hanging on her wall.”
Seth took another long drink of coffee, willing the triple shot to pump caffeine into his brain. “You’ve been taking the ferry to the mainland, then driving to Seattle, to see a shrink—” he raised his hand to take that word back when his father speared him with a look sharper than the fillet knife he’d used to clean steelhead “—licensed therapist.”
“You got a problem with that?”
“No. It’s just not what I was expecting.”
“You thought I was seeing another gal.”
“No. Yes. Well, okay, since you brought it up, it did cross my mind.” Returning to his spaceship analogy, Seth wished that he could just call on Scotty to beam him up to anywhere and any other time but here. “Maybe.”
“I’d never cheat on your mother. Ever.”
“I believe you.” Ben Harper was not without his faults, but Seth had never known him to lie. Which was why his lack of openness about his reasons for suddenly disappearing every few days had been troublesome. There had been one more possibility that Seth hadn’t wanted to consider. That he was getting some sort of medical care he was keeping to himself. Like he had with his damn appendix. “I’m also glad that you have neither another woman on the side or cancer.”
“Why the hell would you think I had cancer?” Ben dug into the bag again and pulled out a second Long John.
“No reason.” There was no point in bringing up him almost dying once for having been a damn fool when his appendix had burst. “Why didn’t you tell me? Does Mom know?”