by Verna Clay
There was a shuffling and then, "Yes, Gabriella. Come on down."
By the way he'd emphasized her name, she knew he wasn't happy about being called Leonardo, but she didn't care. She descended the stairs and saw him pushing a shop-vac toward a puddle of water. He glanced up. "This is the last of the disaster. Just give me a few minutes."
Gabby nodded and sat on a stair halfway down. In a short time the puddle was sucked dry and Leo was pushing the vacuum to a corner. When he started up the stairs, she rose, but he made a downward motion. "Stay there. I need to rest a minute. I've been cleaning for over an hour." He sat beside her, forcing her to scoot over. She wanted to move to another stair, but that would only let him know how much he affected her. He released a long sigh. "I'm getting too old for catastrophes like this."
Gabby didn't want to make small talk so she said pointedly, "Why did you ask me here. Is it about Wainwright?"
Leo chuckled. "I love it when you put me in my place. And yes, it's about the resort. Dave McGovern called and said Mr. Wainwright signed the papers for the Ocean Boulevard house. Now the guy has a home in our town and I fully expect he'll begin courting the town council."
Gabby placed her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands. "Rats."
Leo murmured something in agreement and then became silent. Finally, he said, "You might as well eat lunch with me since you're here."
Gabby frowned. "I've got too much happening at the B & B." She started to rise, but Leo touched her arm. Being so close, as soon as her eyes met his, she knew she was in trouble.
He said softly, "You came here because you wanted to see me. You could have insisted I tell you my news over the phone."
She couldn't remove her gaze from his, and it was only when his lips touched hers that she closed her eyes. Magically, the years faded and she was again that young woman being kissed by a man who made her heart both soar and hurt at the same time. He moved one hand to the back of her head and deepened the kiss. She gripped his shoulders, moving her mouth in synch with his. When he trailed his lips to her ear and said, "Gabby, I love you," she didn't push away. It was only when she felt tears welling that she pulled back, and, in direct opposition to what she really wanted, whispered, "No," then forcefully, "No!" She pushed at Leo's chest and he leaned back as a tear dripped down her cheek. "No, Leo. This is wrong."
He released her.
Face-to-face, he smiled sadly. "Gabby, for being such an intelligent woman, you're ruining what could become the happiest years of our lives."
"Marcus gave me the happiest years of my life."
His stare did not waver. "I'll not argue over words. You know what I meant. We could be very happy together."
Gabby stood and started backing up the stairs, then turned and rushed up them. When she entered the hallway she blinked back a flood of tears. At the kitchen door she paused to compose herself and then hurried through the room and into the dining area. Noah had his back to her conversing with patrons and she ignored the hostess' farewell as she escaped into the sunshine.
She cried all the way home.
30: Painting
Baxter had reached the breaking point. For five days Faith had been reclusive and inordinately quiet. At first he'd thought she was coming down with something, but after three days he'd suspected that wasn't the case. For the next two days he'd given her space, thinking she was having second thoughts about their burgeoning romance. But now he needed clarity. He needed to know what her feelings for him were, because he was crazy about her.
He knocked on her door once, twice, and when she cracked it open, they stared at each other. He was the first to speak. "May I come in?"
"I was just about to take a nap."
"This will only take a moment." When she didn't respond immediately he said, "Please, Faith. I have to talk to you."
She barely nodded and opened the door, and then walked to the window, waiting for him to speak.
He closed the door and said, "Faith, honey, something's going on that I don't understand. Talk to me."
She broke eye contact.
He said softly, "Are you having second thoughts about us?"
She nodded and his heart wrenched.
Unexpectedly, she said, "It has nothing to do with you though, and everything to do with me."
Inhaling, he replied, "What does that mean? Help me to understand."
She returned her gaze to his. "I have unresolved issues that you wouldn't understand."
When she didn't continue he prompted, "I want to understand because I care deeply for you. We've shared so much with each other that there's no reason to stop now. Talk to me, honey." He inhaled again and finally admitted, "I want our relationship to become more than a summer fling."
He watched an incredibly sad expression enter her eyes. "I can't go in that direction right now. I have to make sense of something first. Please don't pressure me because…because I care for you, too."
Baxter recognized the pleading in her eyes and acquiesced. "All right, Faith, if that's what you want." He swallowed the lump in his throat and turned to leave, but his gaze was drawn to something barely visible under the bed. He saw the artist's signature. "Is that one of Vicky's paintings?" He inclined his head toward the picture and heard Faith gasp.
When he walked over and reached to retrieve it, she exclaimed, "No! Don't!"
From his bent over position he glanced up at her stricken expression. Had he finally reached the crux of her "issue"? He ignored her request and pulled the partially wrapped picture from under the bed. His eyes widened when he saw Owen and Rex. Straightening and laying the painting on the quilt, he turned and said, "Why do you have this? Did you purchase it from the gallery?"
Faith's mouth opened but no words came out.
"Answer me, Faith."
She nodded.
"Of course my next question is why." He waited, and when she didn't answer, he sat on the edge of the bed next to the painting. He was determined to stay for as long as it took.
In a soft response she said, "I did see Owen and talk to him, but I convinced myself it wasn't really him, just a boy like him. When it happened again I knew it was him and Rex." With eyes luminous with tears she stared at Baxter.
He processed her admission. "You talked to him a second time?"
"Yes, the day you met me at the beach and I told you I was getting sick."
Slowly, Baxter stood. "And that's what's kept you so upset?"
She nodded.
He clenched his hands. "This game has gone on long enough. My emotions have been in turmoil worrying about you, and now I find out you're still insisting that you talked to a dead boy." He started toward the door and when she said, "Baxter, I did talk to him," he shook his head in disbelief.
For a long time after Baxter left, Faith gazed out the window at the beach and contemplated her life. Of one thing she was sure, she could not continue living at the B & B. She sighed and closed her eyes. What were her alternatives: return to St. Louis, find another town, become a vagabond? No. She couldn't do any of the above. After several minutes reflection she retrieved her cell phone and called Doris McGovern.
"Hello, Faith. How are things going? I haven't spoken to you for a while. Are you still thinking of making Somewhere your home?"
"I am. In fact, I want to purchase the cottage on Haven Drive if it's still available."
Doris sounded surprised when she responded, "Why yes, it's still on the market. Good for you. How would you like to proceed and when would you like to make a deposit?"
For several minutes the women discussed the purchasing process and when Faith disconnected the call, she said into the room, "Either I'm crazy, or something unfathomable has happened."
To avoid another encounter with Baxter, Faith ate dinner in her room and then telephoned Gabby, asking her to stop by. Within minutes Gabby knocked on her door and after both women were seated at the small oak table, Faith said, "Baxter came to see me today and it didn't turn out well."
Gabby leaned forward. "Was he terrible to you?"
"No, just honest. He expressed how much he cared for me and wanted to know what was wrong, but when he saw this…" She stood, walked to her bed, and reached under it for the painting. "It changed everything. I told him I'd had a second encounter with Owen and Rex and he didn't believe me."
"I'll talk to him," Gabby interjected.
"I don't want you to talk to him. That’s not why I asked you here. I wanted to let you know that I'm leaving the B & B in three or four weeks."
"Oh, no. Are you returning to St. Louis?"
"No. I purchased the cottage on Haven Drive that I told you about."
Gabby's expression changed from one of concern to surprise, and then she smiled. "I'm so happy to hear that. Baxter will come around. I just know it."
"That's not the reason I'm staying in Somewhere. I had a moment of insight this afternoon that I can't explain. It brought clarity and I knew in my heart that I'm supposed to live here, but at the same time, I realized my decision to leave or stay couldn't be based on Baxter; it had to be based on me and something else." She hesitated before adding, "Discovering the reason for my bizarre encounters with Owen."
31: Revelation
Faith sat on the patio of her new home and listened to the bark of Dog and the laughter of Darren and Dirk in the yard behind her. As they did almost every day, the brothers were playing in their backyard, and, surprisingly, she looked forward to watching their antics. Her heart still hurt because of the loss of her own child, but somehow it had lessened since her arrival in Somewhere.
She gazed beyond the houses to the sea and then the peninsula owned by Gabby. Shifting her gaze to Ocean Boulevard, she followed the thoroughfare until she spotted what she thought was the magnificent home Doris and Dave had shown her, and wondered about the new owner. During the move to her cottage she had overheard gossip at Mama Pink's Diner that a wealthy business man had purchased the place and that his name was Michael Wainwright.
At the mention of his name, Vicky, who was dining with Faith at the time, gasped and almost spilled her tea. Curious, Faith responded by leaning forward and whispering, "Do you know him?"
"He's been to the museum a few times and I only recently discovered his last name. I know he's a successful business man who lives in Portland and he just bought a home, but I don't remember him telling me it was here."
She'd tapped her short, but pretty nails on the table and Faith knew she had more to say. Finally, she'd admitted, "He commissioned me to paint four pictures for him."
"That's wonderful!"
Without enthusiasm Vicky's response had been, "I was going to refuse, but after I got a letter from the government and discovered my portion of the monthly expense for my mother's care was going up, I decided to accept." She'd confided, "He's paying me a fortune."
"Are the pictures for his home?"
"That's what I assumed."
Returning her thoughts to the present, Faith moved her gaze farther down the boulevard and settled it on the marina owned by Leo. Mentally, she congratulated him on his well organized and successful marina, restaurant, and museum. A continuing curiosity, however, was Gabby's resistance to him. On the few occasions Faith had brought his name into their conversations, Gabby had either interjected a new topic or suddenly discovered she had errands to run. Faith knew the cousins-by-marriage had a longstanding rift, but she found it difficult to believe the bad feelings were a continuation of disagreements begun by their spouses' ancestors almost a century ago.
She surveyed the peninsula owned by Leo and then moved her gaze all the way back to Hope Bed & Breakfast and thought about Baxter. As expected, they avoided each other like the plague, but when they accidently met up, they were cordial. Vicky had once asked if the debacle about her brother had reared its head again and Faith's response had been, "We have different perspectives about things, that's all."
The sound of Dog barking interrupted her musings and she rose to continue unpacking boxes that had been shipped from her storage in St. Louis.
Baxter walked to the edge of Stone House's bluff and gazed across the sea. On September twenty-third, less than a week away, he would fly back to California. He bent to retrieve a stone and toss it into the ocean. He'd been miserable since his confrontation with Faith, and as much as he wanted to despise her and believe she was up to no good, he couldn't get his heart to agree with his head. After she'd moved out of the B & B, he'd hoped to find peace, but it never came. He picked up another stone to toss.
"Baxter," he heard his mother call out. Surprised, he jerked around. "Mom, what are you doing here? Is something wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong. I just wanted to spend some time with my boy. You'll be gone soon and I won't see you until Christmas."
He joined his mother on the porch and she lifted a hand to his cheek. "Son, when are you going to come home to Somewhere? You know I'd give you complete authority over the B & B and someday it will be yours. What's keeping you away?"
Baxter covered her hand with his. "Honestly, I don't know, except that when I'm here, I remember all the dreams and goals I shared with Vanessa about the life and family we'd have in Somewhere. I guess being here reminds me of what could have been."
"But Baxter, that was years ago. It's time to relegate Vanessa to the past and start over." She turned her hand over and squeezed his. "In fact, I believed you were back on track with Faith."
Baxter stepped away from his mother and turned to gaze at the setting sun. "Mom, I doubt she would even give me the time of day now. I've been terrible to her twice." His mother didn't reply and he continued watching rays of light cast sparkles across the ocean.
Finally, she said, "Baxter, I'm going to tell you something incredible, and because it's coming from me, I expect you to believe it." He heard her step closer. "Faith did talk to Owen."
Baxter whirled around. "How can you say that?"
"Because there's more to the story than you've heard." She inhaled and motioned toward two rocking chairs on the porch. "Let's sit while I tell you something impossible."
When his mother finished revealing the psychic's words and the entirety of Faith's encounter with a boy named Owen, including the part about Mr. Lucky's Grocery, Baxter was flabbergasted. He confronted his mother. "Mom, you don't really believe Owen is haunting our town, do you?" When she didn't answer he proclaimed, "Someone is playing a cruel joke and I intend to find out who it is!"
After his mother left, he spent a sleepless night at Stone House. If anything, her confession had eliminated any hostility toward Faith. At dawn he was dressed and following the trail back to the B & B where he nervously paced in his bedroom until he figured Faith was up. Before nine he was knocking on her door, and when she answered, dressed in jeans and an old T-shirt, his heart slammed his chest. She looked soft and vulnerable and he wanted to take her in his arms and beg her forgiveness. He wanted to explain that someone was carrying out a terrible hoax and he was going to discover the culprit, even if he had to postpone his return to California.
Instead of spilling his guts, however, he said, "The refurbishing of Stone House is complete and I'd like to show it to you this afternoon. May I?" He watched her blink in confusion and hastily added, "I also want to apologize for my awful behavior. Something has come to light that we need to discuss. Can I pick you up around three?" Still looking confused, she nodded, and to make sure she didn't have time to change her mind, he rushed back to his car.
For the remainder of the day Baxter prepared for his afternoon with Faith. He called Seafood Heaven to place a takeout order of shrimp spaghetti and Italian bread, picked up the order, and then visited Genevieve's Flower Shop to buy a massive bouquet of pink roses and lilies. After that, he returned to Stone House to deliver their dinner, sweep the floors and porch, dust the mantle and furniture, and stock the hearth with logs. He then returned to the B & B to carry out his duties there.
While he was on the computer entering the prev
ious day's expenses into the accounting program, his mother came into their sitting room and sat on the sofa. She watched him until he finally said, "I've asked Faith to Stone House this afternoon so I can apologize once again. If you want to say, 'I told you so,' you don't have to. I freely admit that I'm a jackass."
"So you believe us about Owen?"
"I believe that someone is playing an appalling joke."
His mother sighed. "Baxter, I hope you don't blow it again. Faith is a wonderful woman who is just now recovering from some terrible ordeal and–"
He interjected softly, "I know that, Mother, and I promise I won't hurt her again. If she wants to believe she's talking to a ghost, I'll not discredit her."
Gabby stood to leave. "I think this has been the strangest summer of my life."
"Yeah," Baxter murmured in agreement.
32: Sorry
At precisely three o'clock Baxter pulled to the front of Faith's house. When she opened the door at his knock, once again he was overwhelmed with both desire and compassion. He wanted to hold her, kiss her, and offer comfort for the sorrow she had suffered. Instead, he handed her the bouquet of roses and lilies and said, "Especially for you."
She appeared flustered. "Oh, my goodness! They're beautiful! Thank you! Please come in. I've been unpacking boxes from my storage unit in St. Louis that my sister was kind enough to ship. Have a seat while I put these flowers in water."
The house didn't have a foyer so he entered directly into the living room. He was impressed by its simple beauty and the stunning view beyond the glass slider. A circular area rug woven to depict sail boats with masts of many colors on a deep blue ocean covered the center of the hardwood floor. A tan sofa facing the view rested on the rug, and aqua chairs complemented either side of it. Pillows a shade lighter than the blue in the carpet were placed on the sofa and chairs. And other than two paintings showing different perspectives of beachgoers, there were no other pictures. Baxter walked to the slider to enjoy the view.