She’d just reached the driveway when she heard someone calling her name.
“Hey, Chrissie?”
She turned, not certain she was the Chrissie who was being paged. The tall guy with the green Eagles cap she’d seen in the lobby chatting up the pretty blonde was jogging toward her.
“It’s Chris, right? Chrissie?” He stopped ten feet away, and she realized who he was. Jared Chandler. Owen’s friend who’d made Chrissie feel like a stammering idiot at both of her cousins’ weddings when he’d tried to make conversation with her, but she hadn’t been up to the challenge of talking to him for any length of time. She’d still believed that guys like Jared were way out of her league, and she’d acted like it. She’d danced with him when he asked, but there’d been little conversation. When the song ended, he’d walked her back to her table like a gentleman, then disappeared. She noticed him dancing later with a friend of Cass’s from college, with whom he’d left at the end of the evening.
That Chrissie—the one who couldn’t carry on a conversation with a hot-looking guy—was the old Chrissie. The new Chrissie was determined to do better.
“Right. Hi, Jared.” She could almost feel a blush beginning to rise from her chest to her face, but she mentally beat it down. Hopefully his shades were dark enough that he couldn’t tell.
“I thought that was you. Owen’s cousin, right? From the weddings?”
She nodded.
“So how’ve you been?”
“Good. You?” Apparently the new Chrissie was still working on her conversational skills.
“Work’s a little slow right now.” He gestured toward the general direction of the island. “The state is trying to decide which is more important, the Native American settlement at the bottom of the river, or the merchant ship from the early 1800s that’s sitting on top of it, so things are a little quiet.”
“That’s right. You’re a diver, like Owen.” She tried to recall what her cousin had told her about the boat they were salvaging, but Jared had removed his sunglasses, and at the moment, all she could think of were his dark blue eyes, which were looking directly into hers. “He mentioned something about an old camp but didn’t go into detail.”
“We’re naturally more interested in getting to the ship—that’s what we’re here for—but no one’s made a decision yet, so everything’s on hold.”
She nodded again. She wasn’t sure what the laws were regarding salvaging archaeological sites, and didn’t know if Jared would be inclined to explain them.
“So where are you off to?” he asked.
“I have a few errands in town, then my weekly stop at Scoop.”
“You’re going to Scoop? I keep hearing about that place. Supposed to be the best ice cream on the Eastern Shore.”
“It totally is. I’m surprised you haven’t checked it out yet. It’s a definite must when you’re in St. Dennis.”
“Hey, do you mind if I tag along? I’ll even drive.”
“I don’t mind, but I’m walking. If you want to ride, I’ll meet you there.” Pat on the back for not taking the ride with the hot guy when she really did want to walk.
“Well, it’s a beautiful morning. I guess I’ll walk with you.”
Chrissie smiled. “Try to keep up.”
Jared laughed and easily kept pace. His long stride soon bested hers, and she had to ask him to slow down.
“Your legs are longer than mine,” she said. “Not a fair contest.”
“Hey, you were the one who told me to keep up with you.”
“A mistake on my part.”
“So tell me again, what you do? I know we talked at the weddings, but I don’t remember what you said about that.”
“Probably because I didn’t say anything about working. Because I’m not. Well, I do work in Ruby’s store, but it’s not like a job.”
“Ruby’s store? You mean the general store on the island?”
Chrissie nodded.
“I’ve been there a couple of times. I don’t recall seeing you there.”
“When were you in last?”
Jared appeared to think about that for a moment before saying, “I guess the end of the summer or so. I left this job to work on another job my dad had lined up. When we finished up that dive at the end of February, I came back here to work with Owen, but then we got put off.” He shoved his hands into his pockets as they walked. “Which is okay, I guess, since it’s been a while that I’ve taken any real time off.”
“I didn’t get here until the end of September for the wedding, so I wouldn’t have been around when you stopped in.”
“So Ruby’s your, what, grandmother? Great-grandmother?”
“Great-grandmother, yes.”
“She ever spook you?”
“What?” The question was totally unexpected.
His grin was that of a seven-year-old who knew he’d said something provocative. “Ruby. She ever say anything that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up?”
Chrissie laughed. “Many times. But you—?”
Jared nodded. “Oh yeah. One time I dropped in at the store to see Owen but he wasn’t there. Ruby was just getting ready to have dinner and she asked me to join her. So I said sure, since it was nice of her to invite me, plus I was starving. I’d just gotten into town and didn’t know anywhere else to go, so it seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“What did she do? She read your palm? Tarot cards?” Chrissie asked, knowing full well Ruby did neither of those things.
“No. We’re sitting there talking, and all of a sudden she says, ‘You’re heading south.’ And yeah, I was. My dad opened up new headquarters in South Carolina and that was going to be my next stop, so I figured that was what she was referring to.
“But then she tells me there was going to be stormy weather soon and I needed to mind my instincts. Which I thought was strange, but, okay. Then my dad calls out of the blue and tells me he needs me to fly down to the Keys and look at a job he’d been asked to take over from another salvor who’d botched it. So I go down there and right from the start, everything’s off. The crew, the equipment, the salvage boat itself—nothing’s up to our standards, so I called my dad and told him I didn’t want us to take the job. Fortunately, my dad trusts me, and he turned the job down. Someone else came in, took it over, and four days into it a hurricane hit and the ship went down with everyone on it.” He shook his head. “Trusted my instincts, all right. Funny thing is, I’d forgotten about what she’d said about a storm until after I’d heard what happened. Then I got goose bumps, head to toe. Seriously freaked me out.”
“Did you ever tell Owen that story?”
“Yeah, but he didn’t seem to think it was anything out of the ordinary. I guess he’s used to it. Her coming out with stuff like that.” Their arms touched as they walked. “Don’t you think it’s odd? Or are you immune to that sort of thing, too?”
“Not immune so much as not surprised. I guess the only thing that surprises me at all is that she said something to someone out of the family. So she must like you.”
“Better to be liked by the woman who knows all than not,” he said.
Chrissie laughed again. “She can be disconcerting, that’s for sure, but she has the kindest, truest heart of anyone I’ve ever known.”
“Owen said the same thing.”
She found him easy to talk to, and she relaxed enough to enjoy their chatter as they walked along the shoulder of the road.
“So you grew up around here?” he asked.
“No. Born in Salisbury, south of here, raised outside of Pittsburgh, but my mom was from Cannonball Island. She’s Ruby’s granddaughter. I spent most of my summers on the island growing up.”
“It must have been pretty cool. There’s so much for a kid to do there. Ponds, the marsh, the point, the bay.”
“Crabbing from the dock, digging for oysters in the bay, swimming. Catching frogs and other fun critters in the marsh.”
“You’re the firs
t girl I ever heard say she liked catching frogs. I’m impressed.”
“When you’re a kid, and you’ve read every book you own, and there’s no TV, you learn to play with what you’ve got. In our case, it was the island.”
“Back then, it must have seemed like one big playground,” Jared said.
“That’s exactly what it was. One big playground, and for the most part, it was just ours.”
“No other kids on the island?”
“There were some friends that Lis and Owen went to school with in St. Dennis, but odd as it seems now, back then, a lot of island families sent their kids to relatives off island for the summer. In retrospect, I think maybe they didn’t have anyone to watch the kids while they worked, so sending them off to Grandma’s might have been easier than finding a babysitter.”
She stumbled a little on a stone and he caught her elbow. “Thanks,” she said. “So how ’bout you? Where are you from?”
“I grew up in Boston.”
“Siblings?”
“I have a sister, Rachel. She’s a diver, runs salvaging jobs for our dad, and is married to a marine archaeologist who also works for the company. They have two little demons—I mean, little boys. When my nephews get a little bigger, we’re going to teach them to dive, too. We’re thinking we’ll be able to pass the business on to the third generation.”
“So I’ll go out on a limb and guess that your mother is a diver as well?” she asked.
“My mother hated anything to do with the business,” he said briskly. “She was a concert pianist and died when I was twelve.”
“I’m so sorry, Jared. I had no way of knowing.”
“You wouldn’t. And it’s okay. It was a long time ago. I don’t remember her much.”
She thought he was about to elaborate a little, but he left it at that. She sensed there was so much more to the story that he’d left unspoken, and that he remembered more than he wanted to admit.
“So what’s so cool about diving? Obviously you like it, and I know Owen loves it, but I don’t get it. No offense, but the thought of going underwater freaks me out.”
“You’re kidding?” When she shook her head no, she wasn’t, Jared asked, “What is it that bothers you?”
“The whole thing. Looking up and seeing the surface of the water above you just seems weird to me. And all the things that live under there! Sharks, rays, barracuda.” She shivered. “If God meant for people to go down there, we’d have been born with gills.”
“If you’d ever gone, you’d look at it entirely differently. You’d see the beauty in the silence, in the way the sunlight shimmers below the surface, the gracefulness of all those things you just named that you’re afraid of.”
“If you say so.”
“You should try it sometime. I could take you, or Owen . . .”
“Not gonna happen in this lifetime.”
“Your loss. Really. It is,” he said to emphasize his point. “But if you ever change your mind—”
“I know who to call. Thanks.”
They reached the light at the center of town and walked left down Kelly’s Point Road, past the municipal building that housed the police department as well as the town’s administration offices. Once past the free parking lots that stretched along each side of the road, Kelly’s Point ended at a boardwalk. To the right was the marina, Captain Walt’s (“Best Seafood on the Bay”), and the boat shop owned by Lis’s husband, Alec. To the left was One Scoop or Two—Scoop to the locals—the ice cream parlor that had once been an old crabbers shack.
Jared reached around Chrissie to open the door, and the bell that hung over it rang weakly. She smiled a thank-you as they stepped inside and started toward the counter. The interior of the shop was much like the exterior, with a rough-hewn floor and walls. There were three people ahead of them in line.
Chrissie whispered to Jared as she pointed to the wood-covered walls. “So much in vogue right now.”
“What, wood walls?” He stared at the wall for a moment. “Says who?”
“Says HGTV.”
“I don’t know what that is.”
“Where have you been for the past couple of years?”
“On a boat in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. Before that, I was in Bermuda, then Costa Rica.”
“I guess we could give you a pass. It’s a television channel about home renovating and decorating.”
Jared made a face. “Sounds like must-see TV.”
Chrissie pointed to a blackboard where a list of flavors was written in different-colored chalk. “Those are the specials,” she told Jared. “But there are other flavors in the cooler.”
He walked closer to the board.
“Hey, Chrissie,” the woman behind the counter called as she filled a cone and handed it to a customer. “What can I get you today?”
“Hi, Stef. Give me a moment to check out the selections.” Chrissie turned to Jared. “Have you met Steffie MacGregor? Owner and creator of the finest ice cream on the Eastern Shore.”
“No, I don’t think so.” Jared took his eyes from the board. “Jared Chandler.”
“Stef, Jared’s with the salvage company—” Chrissie began.
“That’s searching for the merchant ship that went down in 1812 or thereabouts. Yeah, I heard about it.” Tall and leggy with honey blond hair and a quick smile, Steffie nodded as she went to the cash register to ring up the sale. “We’ve had some of your crew in here. Not to mention Owen and Cass.”
“What’s the newest flavor?” Chrissie asked.
Steffie pointed to the board. “The strawberry festival is new this week. Tons of berries and pieces of pecans. The rhubarb pie is also good—not quite as sweet but really tasty. Oh, and the spring fling is amazing if you like chocolate and raspberries.”
“Sold.” Jared moved ahead a few steps as the line moved. Chrissie was still staring at the board.
“I love anything with mint,” Chrissie said.
“Then the mint julep is for you. Best mint flavor I’ve ever been able to make.”
Chrissie nodded. “I definitely need to try that.”
“This is a very cool place,” Jared told Steffie when he and Chrissie had moved to the head of the line.
“Thanks.” She beamed, clearly proud of her business. “It’s all mine. It was a mess when I got it and it seemed like it took forever to fix it up, but it’s my little corner of the world.” She paused, ice cream scoop in her hand. “What can I get you?”
“Chrissie?” Jared deferred to her.
“One scoop of the mint julep,” she said.
“Cone or dish?” Steffie asked.
“Cone, please.”
“And you?” Steffie turned to Jared.
“I’ll have that chocolate thing with the raspberries. Two scoops. You can top them off with some of that strawberry pecan. Cone.”
“A triple-decker cone?” She raised an eyebrow. “I hope you’re a fast eater.”
“Good point. Make it a dish.”
“Coming up.”
The bell over the door rang and several other people filed in as Steffie worked behind the cooler. In no time, she had Chrissie and Jared’s orders ready and met them at the cash register. Jared dug in with the spoon before taking his wallet from his back pocket.
“You know, Chrissie, you can come in more than once a week,” Steffie said.
“Right.” Chrissie shook her head. “I think the ice cream looks better in the case than it would on my hips.”
Jared reached behind her and handed several bills to Steffie.
“This is for both,” he told Steffie.
“Jared, you don’t have to pay for my cone,” Chrissie protested.
“A small price for letting me tag along with you.” He took another spoonful of the strawberry. “And for introducing me to the best ice cream I ever had.”
“Thanks.” She grabbed a handful of napkins from the counter. “Stef, I’ll see you next week.”
“Right. Wedne
sday right before noon. I swear I could set my watch by you,” Steffie said as Jared and Chrissie turned away. “Oh, wait. Chris, you going to the fashion show at the inn tomorrow night?”
“I’m thinking about it. Need a ticket? I have two.”
“I have mine, but thanks. I’ll see you there,” Steffie said. “A whole bunch of us are going. Maybe we could have our own table. I haven’t had a girls’ night since I had the twins, so I’m beyond due. Vanessa’s doing the show, all new stuff from her shop, and somehow she talked my sister-in-law into modeling.”
“Sounds like fun.”
“You know who my brother’s married to, right? My husband’s sister?”
Chrissie nodded. “Dallas MacGregor, the movie star. I heard.”
“May I interrupt your conversation by saying that I have been in love with Dallas MacGregor for my entire adult life?” Jared leaned an arm against the cooler.
“You and every other guy who ever gazed upon her gorgeousness,” Steffie said, then added with a smile, “Don’t think it makes you special.
“Anyway, she usually keeps a low profile and only agreed to do it because it’s a charity thing. The money’s to go to the new women’s shelter that’s being set up over on Pearl Street.”
“I heard about that.”
“Yeah, so that’s tomorrow night.” The doorbell rang again and Steffie glanced at the growing line in front of the cooler. “I’ll look for you then. Jared, nice meeting you. Come back again.”
“Count on it.”
They had to cut through the line of customers to get to the door. Jared reached for the handle, then stopped. “Want to get a table in here or go outside?” he asked.
“Outside, for sure,” Chrissie said.
Outside on a small patio were several small tables with umbrellas to block the sun, and along the boardwalk there were backless wooden benches. Chrissie headed for the benches and sat facing the marina and the bay beyond the pier.
“Good choice.” Jared sat next to Chrissie and gazed out at the water. “I noticed these benches earlier.”
“I like watching the water. The sailboats especially. Oh, and those speedy little boats. They look like so much fun.” She licked the side of the cone where the ice cream was starting to drip. “And those big yachts. They look so majestic going by.”
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