Driftwood Point

by Mariah Stewart

  “The store’s been in our family since it was built, right?”

  “That be true. Once they got over here, they looked around to see what needed to be done. Thought a store would be useful, since no one would be going back to St. Dennis to buy what they needed. That little bit in the back there, where my sitting room is, that be the first to be built. Built more on as they could.”

  “How did they get supplies in? Where did they get the items they sold?”

  “Come by boat,” Ruby said. “Old Sam—he was the one who built it up—had a brother over to Cambridge. Loaded up his boat and brought over what was needed. Became a merchant himself, by and by.”

  “So they really weren’t destitute.”

  Ruby laughed. “Only those who wanted to be. Fair to say that some like to be the victim.”

  “Like my father.”

  “He not be the only one, but yes, he enjoyed all that talk somehow. Others saw what was here to see and did the best with it.”

  “How did your family come to own the point?”

  “Never heard tell of that. It just was our place, much as this place is. Does it matter?”

  “Not really. I’m just curious about who decided to build out there. That’s the best part of the island to me. I would think everyone who came here would have wanted it. So it makes me wonder how your family got their hands on it.”

  Ruby patted Lis’s hands. “Your heart be set on that old place, Lisbeth?”

  “I’m afraid so. There’s just something about it . . . it’s mysterious and romantic, but there’s a practical aspect to consider, too, because it would make a great place for me to work.”

  “Until then—assuming the old place can be put back together—where will you work? Seems to me that it won’t be fixed up anytime soon.”

  “I have to think about an alternative. Alec said he has to look at the roof and some of the beams, the supports, before he can give me any estimates of time or how much it might cost. He thinks the house has termites. Frankly, he wasn’t very encouraging. And you’re right: Even if it can be repaired, it’s not going to be a quick fix.”

  “Lord knows what other critters been in there all these years. You give thought to what to do if the old place can’t be fixed?”

  Lis shook her head.

  “Maybe you should. Disappointment’s always easier to take when you have something else in mind. Sometimes it doesn’t pay to hang your hat on just one thing.”

  “Well, I certainly learned that where Ted was concerned.” Lis tried to laugh, but the sound that came out was anything but funny.

  “You missing him, Lisbeth?”

  Lis shook her head. “You’d think I would, wouldn’t you? Since we were together for almost two years? But I don’t miss him. I think the fact that it doesn’t bother me bothers me, if you know what I mean. It seems like I should care more than I do that he’s out of my life. Like I invested a big part of my life and it’s just gone, and I don’t feel much of anything. Except maybe relief, if you want to know the truth.”

  “Time will come when you see it for what it was,” Ruby said. “Maybe not meant to be part of your life after all.”

  When Lis didn’t reply, Ruby said, “You learn anything from him? From that time?”

  “I found out what I don’t want.” Lis leaned back in her chair. “I don’t want someone who hangs over my shoulder all the time. I don’t want someone who is dependent on me for everything, from doing his laundry to telling him how smart he is. I don’t want someone who looks at my paintings and tells me there should be a little more green there and a little less black there. I don’t want someone who doesn’t respect what I do. And I don’t want someone who slowly closes me off from everything except himself.” She thought about what she’d just said. “Sounds like Carolina wasn’t the only one who got involved with the wrong man.” She shook her head. “I don’t understand why I let that happen. It sure as hell won’t happen again.”

  “Well, then. Learned a lot, I’d say.”

  Lis sighed. “I guess I did. I hadn’t really been able to put my finger on it like that before. It took me awhile to admit that he wasn’t right for me.” She corrected herself. “We weren’t right for each other.”

  “Long as you know better now, should be easier to see who’s right and who’s wrong. Could be something right be on its way.”

  “Maybe. But I’m not really looking for anyone right now.”

  “Always find what you’re not looking for when you’re not looking for it.”

  The door opened and a woman came in holding the hand of a young child.

  “Well, now. Look who came to see her old friend Ruby.” Ruby pushed herself from the chair with both hands. She turned back to Lis and said, “Go on and take that vase up to your room while I have a visit with my little friend Charlotte. Then you go on over to the beach and take a dip in the bay before it gets too hot to sit out there on the sand. Get a little color, do you good. Don’t want to look pasty at that big party Carly be throwing for you.”

  Lis had been meaning to hit the beach. She knew she needed some color, but seriously, pasty?

  She carried the vase of flowers up the stairs. As she climbed, she could hear Ruby’s voice.

  “Now, Hedy, what you and this little peach be after this morning?”

  The voices faded as Lis walked down the hall. She placed the flowers on her bedside table, then changed into the one bathing suit she’d brought with her. As she put it on, she realized it had been over a year since she’d worn it. She’d had invitations to friends’ pools and beach houses, but Ted hated sand and found most of her friends boring and always said he was allergic to the sun.

  “That should have been my first clue,” she muttered. “What was I thinking . . . ?”

  Hindsight was always twenty-twenty.

  She grabbed her sunglasses from her bag and a towel from the linen closet in the hall and slipped her arms into a button-down shirt to wear over her suit until she reached the beach. She went downstairs and took a bottle of water from the cooler.

  She was halfway out the door when Ruby stopped her. “Sunscreen,” Ruby called to her.

  “You have sunscreen?”

  “Never go out into the sun without it. Some think I don’t look a day over ninety-five. That be the reason.” Ruby pointed to her living quarters. “In the cabinet in my bathroom.”

  “Thanks, Gigi.”

  Lis retrieved the lotion and passed back through the store.

  “For the record, I’d have said ninety. Maybe, on a good day, eighty-eight.”

  “I think that be more like it.” Ruby nodded, a twinkle in her eyes.

  Lis headed over the dune, stopping midway to take off her sandals. She paused at the edge of the road, where one car was speeding in her direction. She stepped back onto the sand as it passed in a flash, way too fast for the island.

  That same white Cadillac again. At least she thought it was the same one. What were the chances there’d be two different but identical cars this week on Cannonball Island?

  She frowned as it rounded the curve near one of the old chapels, wondering if he was headed toward the point again, though she couldn’t imagine what business the driver might have there. Alec had said the man was a client of his, and she’d assumed that meant for a boat or some sort of renovation, neither of which explained his presence on the island again today. She’d ask Alec about him when she saw him.

  Lis crossed the road, recalling that she had noted once before that there were no speed signs posted, and wondered if drivers took that to mean there were no limits. She’d have to look into that, though she wasn’t sure who was responsible for law enforcement on the island, since they had no police department of their own. In the meantime, she had sand and sun and the Chesapeake at her fingertips—and at her toes. She walked onto the hard-packed
sand of the beach and tossed her water bottle and towel onto the ground and took off her shirt before slathering on the sunscreen. She picked her way around the dark helmetlike shell of a horseshoe crab as she headed for the water.

  The bay was calmest on this side of the island, the waves barely registering as blips as the water rolled onto the beach and brushed against her feet. She knew that a mere three feet from the shore, the sea grass grew thick enough to hide crabs and small fish. She’d walked there as a child once, and never did again. Lis could still feel the slippery fronds of the seaweed as it undulated around her legs, and the sharp pinch of the crab that had grabbed one of her toes when she disturbed it. From that moment on, if it was swimming she was after, Lis headed to the point. For walking along the shore, or for sunbathing, this narrow stretch of beach would do just fine.

  She tried to recall the last time she’d brought a towel down and soaked up some sun, but she couldn’t say for certain if it had been last summer or the one before. It was a shame, either way. It was quiet here and peaceful, with no crowds to fight for a place to sit. She placed the towel out flat on the sand and folded the shirt for a pillow, then lay down on her back and closed her eyes. She could relax here, clear her mind and let her thoughts drift as the tension lifted from her shoulders and her back. She imagined herself on a raft, floating aimlessly on the bay, no destination, no worries, no deep thoughts to mar the peace of the moment.

  For a while, the sun was delightfully warm, but before too long, she began to feel like she’d been basted and put into an oven. She got up and walked to the water’s edge to wet her arms and legs to cool off. Ruby had intimated that she was pale and could use some color in her cheeks, but Lis figured she probably had that covered by now. She’d had enough for that first day out in the sun, sunscreen or no.

  Lis gathered her things and started toward the road, but had to stop for another car. She was just thinking how at one time seeing more than one car in the same morning would be notable when the car slowed to pull up next to her, then stopped.

  “Hey.” Alec leaned over the seat.

  “Hey yourself.” She walked to the passenger door as the window slid down.

  “How’s the water?”

  “Here?” She pointed back toward the bay. “I don’t go in past my ankles along here. Too much seaweed. Reaches out and wraps itself around your legs.” She pretended to shiver. “Creepy.”

  “You could always take a dive off the pier up at the point.”

  “Not today. Hey, I’m pretty sure I saw your client go by awhile ago. He was headed in that direction.”

  Alec shrugged. “Who knows? By the way, I looked at the cottage roof this morning. There’s no way to salvage it. The entire thing is rotted. I can’t believe it hasn’t blown off.”

  “I figured as much. What about the beams? You were worried about them, too.”

  “I called a termite guy but he can’t come out until the weekend.” Alec paused. “Speaking of which, you have a big day coming up next Saturday.”

  “I do. My debut in St. Dennis as an artist.” She tried to make light of it.

  “Hey, it’s a big deal.” He put the car in park. “People take their art real serious around here. Everyone I know is going.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Sure. You’re famous. Celebrities buy your paintings and talk about them in TV interviews. Everyone who ever said hello to you back in high school is claiming BFF status now. Last I heard, two TV stations from Baltimore are covering the opening.”

  “Oh my God.” Lis put a hand over her face. “I didn’t realize this was going to be such a big production. Carly didn’t mention anything to me about media coverage.”

  “Hey, St. Dennis is a happening place. It’s a tourist destination these days. Carly is expecting a packed house. I heard Beck is bringing in a couple of part-time officers from Ballard to help control the traffic and make sure no one parks in front of anyone’s driveway.”

  “Beck? Do you mean Gabriel Beck?” Lis rested her arms on the open window.

  Alec nodded. “He’s chief of police now.”

  “Is this the same Gabriel Beck who used to spend most of his time in the principal’s office back in the day?”

  “The same. Hard to believe, right? He’s married and has a sweet baby girl and another one on the way. His wife, Mia, is a former FBI agent, works for the state police now.”

  “It is hard to believe. My mother always blamed him for leading my brother into trouble.” She realized Alec’s gaze appeared to have drifted to her cleavage. Pulling the shirt closed and buttoning it, she said, “It’s not nice to stare.”

  “Sorry.” He looked like he was about to make a wisecrack but decided better of it. “Wait. How do you know what I’m looking at? I’m wearing superdark glasses.” He took them off and held them up to make a point.

  “A girl always knows, Alec.”

  “Sorry, but it’s sort of hard not to notice . . . never mind.” He slipped the glasses back on. “So I was wondering if you’d like to have dinner with me after the whole thing at the gallery is over.”

  “I’m going to have Ruby with me.”

  “She’s welcome to join us,” he said without hesitation. “I don’t mind having your great-grandmother come along on our first date.”

  Lis laughed. “Well, in that case, sure.”

  “Great. Do you have any preferences?”

  “I don’t even know what restaurants are in town, other than Lola’s and Captain Walt’s and the inn. They’ve all been around forever.”

  “I’ll choose, then. Unless Ruby wants to.”

  “She’ll be fine, whatever you decide.”

  “Great. Well, I’ll see you before then, I’m sure.”

  She stepped back from the side of the car and waved as he drove on. It didn’t occur to her to wonder what he was doing on the island—again—until she got back to the store.

  “Alec wants to take us to dinner after the gallery exhibit,” she told Ruby.

  “Well, that be nice of him.” Ruby was busying herself refilling the sugar jar at the coffee station.

  “Ummm.” Lis disposed of her empty water bottle. “Is he always on the island so much? I don’t remember that he was around so much the other times I’ve been here.”

  “Guess he has business ’sides me. Heard he was helping Abby’s boy fix their garage door.”

  “I guess.” That would explain it, of course, but still, something felt off to Lis.

  “I’m thinking about lunch right now.” Ruby finished filling the sugar jar and opened a new box of tea bags. “You have anything in mind?”

  “I’ll go see what we have.” Lis started to the back of the store. “Gigi, how do you get groceries?”

  “From the grocery store in town. How else?”

  “How do you get there?”

  “I don’t get there. I make a list, and when I go over to visit with Gracie at the inn, she gives my list to someone to go to the store for me. Andrew down to the market sends me a bill every month and I pay it.”

  “That’s a nice arrangement.”

  “It is. Been doing it that way for a long time now.” Ruby looked across the counter at Lis. “Funny you’re just asking now.”

  “It didn’t occur to me until now.”

  “That’s just another way of saying what I said.”

  Ouch. Another reminder that Lis has been MIA for too long.

  “I think I’ll just go into the back and fix lunch now.”

  “Be a good time to do just that,” Ruby murmured.

  RUBY CLOSED UP the store around eight and turned off the lights.

  “Can we sit and talk now?” Lis asked. “I’d like to record you talking about the island and how your family came here.”

  “You know all that already,” Ruby reminded her.


  “I don’t have it on record in your voice.” Lis set her phone to record and placed it on the table between them.

  “All right, then.” Ruby rested her head against the back of her favorite chair in her sitting room. “Where you want me to start?”

  “Start where you know.”

  “Well, that would be the War of 1812. Everyone taking sides. Mind, now, America be new then. Some stood with them, some with the British. My folks be English, through and through. Thought that England going to win that war and we be under the crown again. Thought they be cutting their losses by standing with the British.” She smiled wryly. “We know how that worked out. People in town didn’t take kindly to those folks who were helping their enemies, so they run them out of town. Right across the river where it’s shallow there, right around where the bridge is now. Took what they could carry, clothes on their backs. Ended up here. You know the rest.”

  “How’d they survive? There were no houses here, right?”

  “Built their own. Some had kin in Baltimore or Virginia who brought in wood, supplies, things they needed here on the island. It all worked out.” Ruby closed her eyes. “Things always work out . . .”

  “Oh, I forgot to tell you. Wait right here.” Lis got up and ran up the steps to her room, grabbed the wooden box, and was back downstairs in a flash.

  “I found this in one of those cubbyholes upstairs in the cottage.” Lis placed the box on the table in front of Ruby.

  “Well, well.” Ruby’s smile lit her face. “I wondered what happened to that.”

  She picked it up and studied the lid, one finger tracing the painted figures.

  “Where did it come from? Was it yours?”

  “Came from my great-aunt Louisa. Said her mama brought it with her when she came from Fauldhouse. That be a little place outside Edinburgh.”

  “That’s in Scotland.”