The Widows of Sea Trail (The Widows of Sea Trail Trilogy)

by Jacqueline DeGroot

  I tapped him on the shoulder, then ran my fingers through his hair. “Matt?”

  “Mmmm?”

  “You can uh, stop now.

  “Really?” I heard him answer sarcastically from somewhere within the folds of my dress. I didn’t remember letting it drop, but I must have. He gave a cursory kiss to the top of each thigh and then stood between my legs. As I watched he grew taller and taller, and then he was looking down at me, smiling.

  “Hi,” he whispered. He leaned down and kissed me lightly on the lips. He tasted of musk and salt and something indefinable that I attributed to me.

  I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to say thank you. Like a thousand times.

  “That sure didn’t take long.” He had a boyish grin that spread from ear to ear.

  “It’s been a while.”

  “You don’t do it for yourself?”

  “Uh, no. I’m nimble, but I can’t seem to get into that position.”

  He laughed and thrust his fingers into my hair. The wind had whipped it around so that it no longer was in the neat pile I’d had it in. Half was up, half was down. He raked his fingers through it until all the pins fell out and it was loose and flowing. “You are so beautiful Cat.” Then he added with a sideways smile, “inside and out.”

  I swatted his arm and almost fell off the bridge. He grabbed me, lifted me from the rail and pulled me against him, then he tucked me under his arm and began walking me back toward the beach house.

  “I have the key if you need to freshen up.”

  “No, I’m okay. Well, actually, I’m so much better than okay. Mmm.”

  He chuckled. We walked over the dunes and down the path back to his car. When he opened the car door, I looked into his eyes. “I guess it doesn’t matter how I get in. You’ve seen it all now.”

  “And I intend to keeping seeing it all.”

  I shivered as I slid into the seat and tucked my dress around me for warmth. As Matt walked around to the driver’s door I saw him take my underwear from his breast pocket and tuck into his front pants pockets. A thrill went through me that he intended to keep them before I wondered if he already had a massive collection of that particular type of souvenir.

  On the way over the causeway, Matt patted my thigh and said, “When can I see you again? The other half this time, I want to enjoy the top half.”

  My lips quirked into a self-deprecating smile, “If that’s what you want, you can see them now, you’re certainly entitled. Good God, what you did for me. And with no thought of pleasuring yourself. Matt, did you have a good time tonight?”

  He picked up my hand and brought it to his lips and tenderly kissed it. “The best. And I was pleasured just fine thanks. I loved hearing you let go.”

  “Why didn’t you just . . . you know . . .”

  “You weren’t ready. Maybe next time. If you’re a good girl,” he added.

  “Oh, I’ll be good,” I answered coyly.

  He laughed heartily. “Of that I have no doubt.”

  We stopped to watch the swing bridge inch across the water and lock back in place. Neither of us spoke, each lost in our own thoughts. Finally, I asked, “How was your golf game the other day?”

  “Oh, fine. I won the company.”

  “You won the company? I can hardly believe you gambled, nevertheless won a company.”

  “Well, it’s no fun if you don’t gamble a bit.”

  “But a company? A whole company?”

  “Just a tiny one really. More bother than anything else, I think Mason was trying to unload it anyway, union trouble. Never a good thing.”

  “But a whole company?”

  “It’s just a little factory. Makes some kind of ceramic stuff. I haven’t even seen it yet.”

  “A whole factory. You just won a whole factory?” I couldn’t get over it.

  “Yes, lovey, a whole factory. With antiquated machines, and unskilled people, and old desks and mountains of files and bills piling up that need to be paid and notes soon to be called in and trash collection problems and you name it. A whole outdated, dying factory.”

  “Oh. So he didn’t do you any favors.”

  “Oh yeah, he did. He just doesn’t know it yet.”

  “You can turn it around?”

  “Maybe, but no, probably not. But I can turn it over. I’ve got a few ideas I’m working on.”

  “Your work sounds fascinating. I want to hear more.”

  “Okay, how about going shagging with me Wednesday night? You do shag right? I thought I heard you say you did.”

  “Yeah. I do. That would be fun.”

  “Great, I’ll pick you up at six and we’ll eat first at The Official West Virginia Rest Stop.”

  “You want to take me to West Virginia?”

  “No, it’s on Main Street in North Myrtle. It’s actually called The Clubhouse. But the owners are huge Mountaineer fans. You’ll like it.”

  “It’s a date,” I said.

  “That’ll be number four,” he said.

  “Momma will be so pleased.”

  “What are you going to tell her about tonight?”

  “That her dress was a hit.”

  “Not going to tell her you lost your underwear?”

  “Hell no! First of all at this juncture, she’d probably be pleased as punch, second, she’ll send replacements, and they won’t be the thong-type.”

  “You look good in a thong, real nice in fact.”

  We were back in my driveway now and he got out and walked me to the door.

  “I’m not kissing you, you’re deadly with those kisses. You make me want to bury myself in you.” I could see the stark hunger is his eyes and I was immensely buoyed by it.

  “And I gather we’re waiting for that?”

  “Yeah, but not too much longer. I’m taking you in sections. By the sixth date I’ll have no mercy.”

  “Promises, promises.”

  Despite what he had said, he pulled me to him and kissed me hard. “I promise you, I’ll have no mercy. Count on it.”

  I watched him run down the steps and slide into his car. He backed out of the driveway then roared out onto the road and completely ignored the stop sign.

  I touched my fingers to my lips. I was counting on it.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The Domino Group Icalled Mom early the next morning to check in and to let her know how much I appreciated her buying me that dress. Of course, I didn’t say why, exactly. She was immensely pleased that I’d had a good time on my date. Then I had to hold when her phone clicked alerting her to another call.

  I managed to fold a whole load of laundry before she came back. I had almost given up, thinking she had forgotten about me when she came back on the line.

  “My hair appointment got canceled, there was death in the family and my hairdresser is closing the shop for a few days. I never know what to say when someone’s just lost a parent.”

  “I can’t imagine what that would be like. You and Daddy are the world to me. I don’t know how I would have survived the last few years without you.”

  “You’ve had some really hard years lately, but I am so glad to hear the smile in your voice.”

  “You can’t hear a smile,” I chided.

  “I can hear yours, even from this far away. I can hear that you’re smiling and it sounds wonderful. I am so glad you’ve found a new friend.”

  I almost choked on my orange juice. She made it all sound so innocent, but I rallied. “I am too, Mom, I am too. Sorry about your hair, why don’t you go buy me another dress like the last one?”

  “Okay, maybe I will.”

  “It’s my turn to switch over, someone’s clicking in on me, I gotta go. Love ya.”

  It was Tessa, confirming our dominos game. But she couldn’t fool me, it wasn’t about the game, it was about last night and how things had gone. I made her wait, saying simply, “Yup, we’re still on, see you at noon. Gimlet’s whining to go out, see you soon.”

  Tessa
and Viv came over for lunch and ostensibly to play Mexican Cardinal Train Dominos—our own wacky version. But I knew what they were really there for. They wanted to pump me about my dinner date with Matt.

  “What I want to know is, did we make the right decision about the dress?” Viv, eager to get to the heart of the matter gave me a wicked wink while clicking her dominos on the glass table inside my screened-in porch.

  My mind instantly went to the moment when the dress in question had been cinched around my waist and Matt had clamped his mouth on my nether region and sent me into oblivion. The speed of the blood flowing through my body increased and everything headed south to help me relive the memory.

  “Uh, I’d say yes.” I couldn’t imagine having lost that moment to the chance wearing of a pair of capris. In just one day, it had already become a cherished and much often visited part of the history Matt and I were building—on my end at least.

  “I think the choice of a dress was perfect. I should probably wear one more often,” I said remembering the way the breeze coming off the ocean had fanned my thighs while my hands had fisted in his hair. My nervous fingers belied the poise I was trying to pretend. I knocked over one domino and in succession it took down my whole row of them, revealing the dreaded double blank to my opponents.

  “You seem a bit antsy this morning,” Tessa said. “First you overflowed the champagne for the mimosas, then you dropped the grapes and had to rewash them, and you cut your finger slicing the cheese. Now, look at you, knocking over all your dominos. What’s making you so nervous?”

  “I’m not nervous. I’m just . . . well, I’m just excitable. I had a great time last night, and it’s a bit unsettling that I can’t keep my mind off that man for more than a few minutes.” There, I’d said it.

  Both women emitted long, knowing whoo-whoos through pursed lips. Viv was the first to let up and reach over to pat my hand while she softly and with feigned seriousness chanted: “Oh wise Merlin, mighty wizard of Pendragon, magical defender and wise enchanter of the sword Excalibur,” Tessa joined in and together they finished with, “use your power to bring a love that is true to the woman holding the pin and pricking your skin.”

  “This is not true love,” I said with disdain. But I already thought that it might be, could be—if given the necessary time. My thoughts of Stephen had stopped being accompanied by the sharp stinging pain I’d become accustomed to. Like a surgeon’s scalpel it went to vulnerable tissue, always opening fresh wounds when I was least able to deal with it. The last few days though, I’d actually been comforted by thoughts of Stephen, not decimated by them. But I couldn’t tell my friends that, because now I was protecting my heart against a new threat. When had I surrendered control so that now Matt could possibly hurt me more than Stephen had?

  “How do you know? True love has to start somewhere.” Tessa, pragmatic as ever, munched on a celery stick, waving it between bites. “I mean, true love, geez, what exactly is that at our stage in life?”

  Viv laughed and played a domino on her train. “Honey, at our stage it’s any man willing to put up with us!”

  I smiled. “Yeah, any man willing to feed us and to listen to us extol the virtues of the men who came before.”

  Viv swung her head and looked at me with wide, shocked eyes, “Tell me you did not spend the evening talking about Stephen.”

  Sheepishly I shrugged my shoulders. “He asked. And I didn’t talk about him all night, just for a few minutes. Matt wanted to know what Stephen was like, so I told him.”

  “Did you tell him you still sleep with his pillow, and that you haven’t changed the case in over two years?”

  “No. I did not.” I had just that morning taken it into the guest bedroom and put it in the cedar chest at the foot of the bed. I still wanted to be able to retrieve it in case I needed it, but I thought I was ready to say goodbye to the deteriorating pile of fluff, all lumpy and saggy, that had cushioned Stephen’s head. It had been like a security blanket, comforting me with whiffs of Stephen’s acrid smell from his night sweats, long after my rooting nose could find a trace of him.

  “That was mean, Viv.” Tessa said. She reached over and ruffled my hair. “I still wear Tom’s pajamas, those old surgical scrubs he used to love to lounge around in.”

  I reached for her hand and gripped her fingers with mine. “Doesn’t mean we’re not ready to move on, does it Tessa?”

  “No, it just means we’re dealing with things in our own way. You got anything like that Viv?”

  She shot us both a disgusted look, then drew a domino from the pile. “Dale slept nude and his family descended like piranhas right after the funeral. And if memory serves, I think I had to buy new linens just to make up the beds after they were gone.”

  We watched as she closed her eyes and leaned back as if trying to remember something. Then she suddenly sat up and with a perky voice said, “I found four hundred dollars in his sock drawer though. None of his kids wanted to be caught dead wearing Dale’s white socks.” She gave a hoot, “And I have his tuxedo. It was at the dry cleaners. I found the ticket and redeemed it.” She gave Tessa a glare of some significance, “But I don’t sleep in it.”

  “Yeah, but you still eat liver every Thursday, even though you hate it.” Tessa was going to defend her right to wear her husband’s pajamas, no matter how she had to make the point. “And I don’t drive my husband’s pickup truck just so I can smell his stinking cigars.” She placed a domino on her train.

  “They were not stinking cigars, I’ll have you know they were the finest Cohibas money could buy.”

  “And you still smoke one every once in a while just to smell like him, don’t you?”

  Viv gave her a steely look, then broke into a big smile. “Yeah, I guess I do. Dale’s boys looked all over the house for them, too. Even asked me where their father kept them, but I pretended that I didn’t even know he smoked them, just like I had pretended with Dale.”

  “Where were they?” I asked, putting a domino on the Mexican train.

  “In the cookie jar. All those lard butts were always on Atkins, I knew they’d never look there for them.”

  “How many you got left?” I asked.

  “Oh, a good dozen or so.”

  “Bring one next time we go golfing, and we’ll share. I understand they keep the bugs away,” Tessa said.

  Viv placed a domino and snorted, “You are one gullible ditz! And by the way, uno, I’m down to one.”

  Both Tessa and I looked down at our own dominos. We’d been caught unaware and damn if I hadn’t got caught with that dreaded double blank! That was fifty points right there. Well, lucky in love was better than being lucky at anything else. Even though I really wasn’t ready to credit the wizard of Pendragon with my good fortune, I had no doubt that Matt could make me whole again. Somehow he was already doing it. I felt better than I had in years.

  While clearing the dishes sometime later with Tessa, she mentioned that the purse-snatcher was on the prowl again. Jenny, who oversaw the goings on at both the homeowner clubhouses, had left her keys on the counter at the Pink Palace while she was checking out the supplies, and when she came back for them, they were gone.

  “Whose anniversary party did you say it was?” I asked.

  “Bill and Marie’s, sixtieth I believe.”

  “Were those the master keys to the clubhouses?”

  “Oh, no, she doesn’t let them out of her sight. It was her car keys. Dee had to drive her home to get her spare set.”

  “Isn’t that odd? Who could be doing such a thing? It sounds like petty, malicious stealing, as if someone had a vendetta.”

  “Yeah, you’ve got a point there. All kinds of things are suddenly going missing: sweaters, umbrellas, purses, earrings, jackets, and now Jenny’s car keys.” Tessa was wiping the counter now and turned back to look at me. “You don’t think . . . nah.”

  “What?”

  “That someone’s a klepto?”

  “Well if there are, the
y’d better watch out. The P.O.A. won’t stand for this. Next thing you know, they’ll be installing cameras and we’ll have a plantation courtroom drama.” I smiled at the thought, “That would surely liven things up around here.”

  She smiled back at me, “I believe most of us moved here for the peace and quiet.”

  “Yeah, but we all love a good drama.”

  “True, true,” she said as she picked her own purse up off the counter. I noticed it was the latest thing, probably from Island Breeze just around the corner, her favorite shop. It was tiny, just enough for a small wallet, maybe a compact and some keys. It had a beautiful tropical scene with palm trees outlined in sequins on the smooth silk and was so colorful it would be hard to find an outfit that it didn’t go with.

  I walked her to the door and gave her a quick hug. “Better hurry home, it looks like it’s going to storm.”

  “That’s when I miss Tom the most, snuggling on the couch watching the lightning bolts come out of the sky.”

  “They come from the ground,” I informed.

  “No way! I can see them coming down from the sky.”

  I was in no mood for a science lesson, so I just let it go. “Go get into a pair of Tom’s P.J.s and snuggle up with a good book.”

  She huffed at me, “Easy for you to say now that you’ve got a beau.”

  I smiled at the thought of Matt. “Yeah, well, maybe . . . but remember, soon it’ll be your turn and then I can come over and grill you all day about your first heavy date in more than an eon.”

  She laughed and I closed the door behind her. I watched her sashay down the steps and slide into her cute little VW convertible.

  When Stephen and I had first moved to Sea Trail almost everyone drove a sensible car—a Buick LeSabre, Pontiac Bonneville, Chevy Caprice, or even some old Americanmade clunker—there were remarkably few foreign cars on the plantation at that time. But now all you saw were highend cars with Corvette, BMW, Jaguar, Lexus, and Mercedes models leading the line up. And many homeowners had restored vintage cars in their three and four bay garages along with Harleys and full-size luxury pickups. Sea Trail had definitely turned the corner; it was no longer a retirement community for sedate, white-haired grandmas and grandpas. With the advent of the stock market boom had come huge 401K distributions and annuities. Those, combined with hefty lump payments from the sale of homes in the north had led to a new type of retired couple—younger, more active, savvy, and still on the fast track. Some even chose to work, if only part-time, after a few years of idle play.