Lighthouse Reef (A Pelican Pointe Novel Book 4)

by Vickie McKeehan

  Logan stared at Wade. “Despite what anyone’s said to you, I have no firsthand knowledge of any paranormal activity. And if Kinsey’s told you any different—”

  “No one’s said a word to me. I just wondered if you’d experienced anything out of the ordinary so far, that’s all. You’ve been there less than a week so maybe it’s a little soon for that to take shape.”

  But Logan wasn’t sure what the guy’s angle was.

  Wade, however, took Logan’s silence for an opening to go into a detailed account about how he’d taken his sensors out to the old Victorian on two separate occasions and how both times his electronic gadgets had tripped out. “I have firsthand experience myself dealing with earthbound ghosts.”

  Fascinating, thought Logan that intelligent people could believe in such nonsense. And some people labeled him eccentric. “I’m sure you do. So you’ve seen Scott?”

  Wade found Logan’s question intriguing since he hadn’t mentioned Scott by name. “Oh yes, many times. Most people in town report sightings off and on. Scott Phillips, for reasons of his own, roams the streets of Pelican Pointe and definitely patrols the grounds of his childhood home. I believe he’s here to guard those he loves to keep any harm from coming to them.”

  Logan considered that. It was a shame the ghostly Scott couldn’t take that one step further to protect everyone in the town, like innocent, defenseless, young girls. “Gotten a whole lot of miles out of that story, have you? Ghost stories usually sell well. I wish you luck with it.”

  Used to a degree of skepticism, Wade simply went on unruffled, “Most ghosts hang around because they have unfinished business on earth. In Scott’s case I’d say Scott’s world is right here.” He spread his arms out wide, then adjusted his glasses. “Knowing that doesn’t need to upset you. But if you should see Scott, I’d be interested in hearing your story. Ethan’s seen him, you know. So has Hayden Cody.”

  Not surprising that’s something the former deputy had held back in his emails. But in a complete about face, Logan heard Wade ask, “You fish, Mr. Donnelly?”

  “Not in a long time. Why?”

  “You look stressed out. Fishing relaxes a person. Several of us, Murphy, Bran Sullivan, Doc Prescott, Wally Pierce, Carl Knudsen, even Joe Ferguson, we get together sometimes to fish and play poker. You play poker?”

  “I’ve been known to.”

  “Next time we get together, I’ll make it a point to let you know where.”

  About that time, Kinsey had finished with her set and walked up to the bar. “Hey Wade. How’s it going?”

  “It’s going fine, Kinsey.” Wade picked up her hand, gave it a kiss. “You play that piano beautifully. If I were twenty years younger I’d take you away from all this.” When he saw her smile, he added, “You take requests?”

  She put a hand on his shoulder. “For you, Wade, absolutely. I liked it when you stood up to applaud the other night. That…made my night and I had just gotten started. What would you like me to play?”

  “I wouldn’t mind a little Bill Withers every now and again. You play that, you’ll make this crowd a lot happier. That’s my first request. But you ever heard of a guy named Johan Blohm?”

  Kinsey knitted her brow in thought before her lips curved. “The Swedish band, The Refreshments? Sure. You surprise me, Wade. I had you pegged for a classical fan all the way. Shows you what I know.”

  “I drag on my dancing shoes now and again. I want you to play something special for Abby Pointer’s reception. Johan does a mean Boogie Woogie. Since I heard you were doing the wedding, I want you to let your hair down ’cause I think you can play that piano, girl. But you need to liven things up,” Wade prompted as he studied the man beside him.

  Kinsey chuckled. “Boogie Woogie, huh? I played it a time or two, just not sure I play that as well as Johan. But for you, I’ll give it my best shot. How’s that sound?” Kinsey eyed Logan who sat there looking tense, brooding into his Coke.

  “Couldn’t ask for more.” With that, Wade drained his wine glass and stood up. “Well, it’s time for me to head to the house. Looks like you guys are closing up anyway.” To Logan he said, “Let me know if you want that poker game. We’d love to take your money sometime.”

  “See ya, Wade,” Kinsey said all the while eyeing Logan’s demeanor. She noted the scowl on his face that said he couldn’t wait to get something off his chest. “What’s wrong?”

  “You off the clock?” Logan asked as he tossed some bills on the bar. He picked up his to-go box with the food left over from dinner. As soon as he saw her head nod, he added, “Then let’s take a walk. Outside.” He took her by the arm, yanking her through the front door and out into the parking lot.

  Kinsey puffed out a breath, beginning to get pissed off. “You are upset. Look, it’s been a long day for me. I’m tired. I want out of these shoes. I really don’t feel like a lot of drama right this minute. So if you don’t mind—”

  “Too bad,” Logan muttered. Still holding her arm, he tugged her along to his truck. Once they settled inside the cab, the two still said nothing.

  All the while resentment built in Kinsey. The curtain of silence might as well have been a brick wall. If she had her own transportation she would have already been headed home by now, instead of dealing with this sullen man. This is exactly why she didn’t like having to rely on anyone but herself. Ellie Wyatt, wherever you are, Kinsey thought now, I love you for teaching me the importance of being my own person.

  Kinsey folded her arms across her chest. Annoyed, she spoke in defiant, clipped terms, emphasizing each word. “If you ask me, you and your artistic temperament can go suck an egg. Am I at least allowed to ask where we’re going?”

  “You’ll see.” He headed up Ocean Street, veering toward the lighthouse. The truck bumped along the narrow road, taking the hairpin turn in the dark with careful deliberation. Just before they reached the uneven dunes, he brought the truck to a stop and cut the engine.

  He immediately picked up the to-go box with the cold, grilled salmon inside and shoved it in her direction. “Here. Eat.”

  She looked down at the box. It took her several seconds before she realized what he was offering. When he impatiently flipped open the lid and she saw the tasty fish, the green beans, and the baby red potatoes inside, her heart tripped. How could this man be so gruff one minute, and then so thoughtful the next? “You brought me dinner?”

  “I don’t think you had much time to do more than grab a snack in between jobs. You’re bound to be hungry after sitting for several hours without eating. It’s like a model who poses for hours sitting in one spot. I know something about that. Doesn’t Perry let you take a break? He should let you take a break,” Logan grumbled.

  She dug into the food with the plastic knife and fork he’d also thought to include. “I get fifteen minutes, but I usually end up in the ladies’ room just relishing the quiet.” She looked through the windshield and out into the darkness. “It’s a little spooky out here this time of night,” Kinsey announced as she watched clouds drift over a fat, low-hanging full moon. Beach grass swayed in the breeze that whipped in right off the ocean. She could hear the distant sound of the surf pounding the rocks below the cliff.

  “Believe me, this place will liven up plenty tomorrow for real. Did you know they used to call this spot Make Out Pointe?”

  “It’s a great place for it. Did you ever bring a date here when you were fifteen?”

  Shit, he thought, he’d opened himself up for that one. “No.” But he wondered now if maybe Megan had ever come out here to these cliffs to neck with one of the locals. An interesting idea to mull over, he decided as he looked around at the wooded area to the north. The thicket of Monterrey pine and cypress would be a perfect place to bury a body when you were done with it. He shut his eyes to shake off that image.

  “Wonder if Scott ever brought his dates out here?” Even in the dark, she noticed that one question brought another disgruntled look to his face. “What di
d Wade say to upset you back at the restaurant, Logan?”

  “Not a thing. Why do you ask?”

  She finished nibbling on the food and closed the lid. “Oh come on. You think that irritation goes unnoticed. It doesn’t. Why are we out here?”

  All of a sudden Logan unsnapped his seatbelt, turning to her in the dark cab of the truck. He roughly took her chin, crushed his mouth to hers.

  Heat bubbled in degrees, hot as August sun on blacktop. The kiss drew out, waking every sensation from the top of Kinsey’s head to the tips of her toes. Her brain lost focus. Longing, rich and thick, spread slowly through her bones like molasses through a sieve.

  Logan felt her yield, felt his own hunger for her take over inside him. As the sound of waves crashed in the distance, he slid her onto his lap. “I’ve wanted to do that all night, ever since I walked into the restaurant, ever since I had to sit there and watch you caress those piano keys. I want you, Kinsey. Honest to God, I’ve spent days trying to get you out of my head. But no matter what I do, nothing works.”

  For an answer, she grabbed his long hair just as he had hers the night before. She tugged him closer, ran her hands up his arms and around his muscular shoulders. She trailed kisses down his jaw line. “Do you always get what you want?” she asked, a bit breathless. She took a bite out of that little dimple in his chin.

  “Not always. But in this case I’m fairly confident I will.”

  “Cocky, aren’t you?”

  In response, he moved her hand to the front of his jeans. “Feel that? What do you think?”

  “Hmm.”

  His long, lean fingers skimmed over her breast. A thumb flicked at her nipple. He inched her top aside, so he could chew at her shoulder. Just as he started to bend his head to take advantage of the angle and go lower, Logan caught a shadow out of the corner of his eye. He stopped, looked out at the cliffs. The man crept along the waist high beach grass near the dunes. “Someone’s out there,” Logan declared in a whisper.

  “Where? I don’t see anyone. It’s probably just an animal of some sort.”

  “No doubt of the two-legged variety,” Logan muttered, uneasily. “I know what I saw. Let’s get out here. I should have my head examined for bringing you out here in the damned dark in the first place like we were two horny teenagers who had nowhere else to go.”

  Automatically taking the time to smooth her hair back, she adjusted her top. “I don’t know about you but right now I’m pretty horny.”

  He grinned as he started up the truck and turned the vehicle around. They took off bumping over the same ragged stretch of rutted landscape as before. “That was the idea. But I’d feel better if we got back to the B & B where we have no less than three beds available to us.”

  “Three?” She did a quick addition in her head. “Ah, I get it. Your room, my room, or the bed in my new apartment. What time exactly do you have to be at work tomorrow?”

  He sighed. “The first day, around seven to kick the whole thing off. Make sure everyone knows what to do. Troy and I spent a lot of time scheduling the entire week out so there should be no disagreements about assigned jobs. But with a bunch of guys I don’t know, there’s bound to be grumbling. And I’ve got the crew coming in from Oregon. The Preservation Commission arranged it.”

  “But it’s almost one o’clock now.”

  “Exactly. Which means when we get back to the B & B we head to our separate corners.” When he saw the disappointment edge along her face, nothing could have pleased him more. “We’re going to get there, Kinsey. If I didn’t need to get a few hours of sleep, I’d take you to bed tonight.”

  He reached over and took her chin. “Look at me.” When her eyes met his, he added, “The first time, I want no distractions between us. I’m amping up for tomorrow already. You’re winding down and tired from your two-day, work-a-thon weekend.”

  “Right,” Kinsey sighed, more than a little unwilling to admit her lust bubble had deflated and she wasn’t exactly happy about it. She wasn’t sure she understood his abrupt departure completely either. But then so much about him remained a mystery. “I still don’t understand what spooked you so much. This is Pelican Pointe, Logan, where nothing ever happens.”

  “You’d be surprised at that,” Logan returned, knowingly as he headed the truck due north to Promise Cove.

  Chapter Twelve

  Three days later, the cliffs near the lighthouse hummed with the sound of electrical saws, sanders, and construction workers wielding hammers. It was backbreaking work while rock music blasted from the portable boom box Logan had set up for his crews and vied with all the clatter and noise.

  Logan watched as the scaffolding went up around the base of the tower. He found himself grateful to John Norris and Dan Sullivan. Thanks to both men, they’d found and Federal Expressed him blueprints of both the keeper’s house and the lighthouse. Something Logan had been unable to put his hands on until three days ago.

  Things were coming together even though Logan had hired the Oregon crew sight unseen. He’d been more than apprehensive about the decision. But for the past few days, the men had shown a remarkable dedication that impressed him. Since the crew’s arrival, he’d watch them fall into an easy rhythm that spoke volumes about how long they’d been together as a team. He knew firsthand a construction site could be loud and bawdy, but if the people didn’t mesh it caused problems down the road. So far, the men from Oregon had had no awkward adjustment period. In fact, they’d hit the ground running with an expertise he admired. It told him they knew what they were doing. Besides, he needed as much help as he could get. He wasn’t ashamed to admit John and Dan knew far more about the restoration process than he did. That much he’d gleaned from their meeting on Saturday night. Plus, his “tower” crew was some of the best stonemasons in the business, go-to guys who routinely traveled from Canada to Mexico caring for and maintaining lighthouses up and down the Pacific coast. They’d assured him the original masonry on both structures could be brought back to life.

  The Commission had also put him in contact with experts that specialized in getting the lantern room at the top functional again. Logan would save that for last though. But he’d be lying if he didn’t admit that the best thing about owning a lighthouse was making it operational after so many years of non-use. To do that, the old drum lens would have to be removed and replaced with a state-of-the-art aero beacon that when installed would flash a white beam every ten seconds out to sea.

  But for now, the lantern room was put on the backburner where it belonged. Logan had other more pressing issues to deal with.

  Getting his studio finished at the top was a priority. He hoped to get that room ready so he could get back to the creative process he’d missed. Maybe that was at the core of his sour mood these past months.

  He looked over at his “keeper” crew. He’d started with five local men. Troy Dayton and his uncle, Derek Stovall, were a package deal. Logan had hired Sam Turley because he was a big man who worked like two. The ex-soldier, Paul Bonner, had gotten the job because he excelled at electric work even though so far Paul hadn’t been put to the test. Drake Boedecker was the last man he’d hired. Drake was a bit clumsy but had shown Logan he was willing to show up and work hard. All in all, seventy-two hours into the project, Logan was pleased with the way things were going.

  The “keeper” team had spent their first few days gutting and tearing out the rotted walls of the one-thousand-square-foot keeper’s cottage. This had to be done before they even thought about beginning the remodeling. When they were ready, the crew would shove out a wall to enlarge the space and double the size of the interior.

  Before Logan could even begin to consider this place his home, he had to put his own stamp on the job. He’d started that first week having to make some tough decisions. Even though Derek was a little rough around the edges, the man seemed to know the most about construction. So Logan had designated Derek Stovall his foreman. Because Logan considered Troy the go-to guy for
the staging area and materials, the kid’s job included keeping track of supplies in addition to all his other duties. Logan felt sure Troy could handle it. It hadn’t taken but a couple of days for Logan to peg Troy and Derek as the two hardest workers, although Paul Bonner and Drake Boedecker were no slackers. Logan wasn’t so sure about Sam Turley.

  Logan had discovered through rumor and rumblings that the Turley brothers had a long and troubled history. He found out Sam was known around Santa Cruz County as a hothead, much like his brother Salvatore. Born ten months apart in San Sebastian to a couple of teachers, Sal and Sam were almost twins. Both brothers had long rap sheets for drunk and disorderly, disturbing the peace, and driving while under the influence. If Logan hadn’t been desperate for workers he might’ve passed on a guy reported to enjoy nothing more than looking for a fight in any dive that would let him drink.

  But since everyone within a hundred miles said Sal was the more aggressive brother, he decided to give Sam a chance. Because even now, Sal was incarcerated in the maximum security Kern Valley State Correctional Facility after pleading guilty last fall to assaulting a police officer, namely Ethan Cody. But no one Logan had talked to had made the mistake of thinking Sam Turley was a choirboy.

  Sam had already given Logan grief about what was sure to be a hot, sweaty job of reinforcing the spiral staircase up to the lantern room. And they weren’t even ready to start there yet for probably another three months. After Logan spent twenty minutes arguing with Sam about the placement of rebar, Logan was already having second thoughts about his decision to hire Turley.

  As the outside crew started the sandblasting for the day, taking off the years and years of old paint, rusty metal and corrosion from the tower, the keeper crew started ripping out old clapboard.

  Logan stood back watching all the activity. A degree of pride moved over him. He realized then he’d come a long, long way, not just in miles and distance but in getting to this very spot in his life.