“You could fly down there and check things out for yourself.”
“I don’t think so. That just might piss him off. I don’t even think he likes me calling. He acts like I’m gonna ask him for something, grill him about the books, or ask about the mess he left behind. I don’t know. It’s just a gut feeling I get. And if he’s like that over the phone, what would he say if I showed up on his doorstep? And who would I get to watch the store? It’s not like I’m a thriving chain store where I can go in and ask personnel for time off. I’m not a billion-dollar corporation like the big box stores. Seventy-five percent of the time, my skeleton crew does multiple duties. I have three part-timers, kids who are working their way through school. It’s all I could afford at the time.”
“I’ve seen them in the store. Two young guys in their early twenties and a woman just out of high school, right?”
“Novah Hensley. She’s in her third year at UC Santa Cruz. A real go-getter. But she’s cut down on her hours this summer to focus on her classes. She’s trying to finish up and graduate by December. Owen Kessler goes to the junior college in San Sebastian. And Mateo Cruz or Matty, as we call him, is the first kid in his family to go to college. He’s a sophomore at West Valley. I worry that all three of these kids have seen me struggle to keep a small business going. I don’t want to discourage them.”
“I’m sure you’re not. I bet you don’t want to be a chain store or a billionaire,” Bodie pointed out.
“No, I just want my little piece of the action to keep churning away, keep the bottom line going, be able to pay the bills,” Tucker admitted. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to go on about this. It’s just nice to sit here and eat a meal with someone.”
“It’s okay. Sometimes you just need to talk to somebody, get things out in the open, get stuff off your chest.”
Her hand was still resting on top of his. He turned it over, fingers touching, linked their hands. He tugged on her wrist, getting her to move closer and stared into her amber eyes the color of gold.
“Thanks for listening.”
“No problem. Do you intend to kiss me or just sit there staring?”
“You have gorgeous eyes.”
The electricity in the room changed when he captured her mouth.
The touch of his lips on hers had her mind blanking out anything else. For two full beats, she couldn’t think, losing herself in the connection, the touch, the feel of someone so close. Elation. Euphoria. That first tingle and pull in the belly didn’t disappoint.
Or it could’ve been the wine.
She pulled back. “Skilled. I’m impressed, Mr. Ferguson.”
“Same goes. Wanna go see a movie? Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is playing at the Driftwood.” When she didn’t jump for joy, he added, “It is Saturday night.”
“What is it about guys and Indiana Jones? Why can’t we just hang out here? Or…better still…I have a better idea. Why don’t we go for a walk to the beach? It is summer.”
“That’s a novel idea since we live next to the ocean.”
Her lips curved. “This afternoon I stood on that catwalk at the boathouse and realized that view is nothing short of spectacular…breathtaking even. I thought, ‘why don’t I do this more often?’ I’m living in this seacoast town, and I hardly ever spend any of my downtimes at the beach. Why is that?”
“I don’t know. Three jobs, maybe? Working from dawn to close might have something to do with it.”
“That’s no excuse, though. Not really. We put off things because we think they’ll always be there, and they’ll always be time to do them. That isn’t always the case.”
He stood up to deal with the mess on the table. “Then, we’ll take a walk on the beach, get some fresh air, stretch our legs.”
“Burn off the thousand calories of bread and cheese we just consumed,” she tossed out, getting up to rinse the plates off to go into the dishwasher. “Let’s do it. Instead of curling up like couch potatoes, let’s enjoy the sound of the waves.”
Two
They strolled along the pathway under a canopy of showy stars that glistened like pricey diamonds.
“You’re not what I expected,” Tucker admitted.
Bodie’s nose puckered in a wrinkle. “That sounds bad. What exactly have you heard about me?”
“That’s not what I meant. I’m always inserting my foot in my mouth and saying stupid stuff. You’re amazing. Some people let adversity knock them so far down they don’t want to get up.” He thought of his dad. “Instead of doing that, you started over.”
“You didn’t see me last summer. I was turning into a bitter person. I didn’t like myself very much. I don’t think anyone wanted to be around me, either. Not for very long anyway.”
“But you turned it around.”
“I guess I did. One day I woke up and realized everything Marley had been through—losing her entire family the way she did—my troubles seemed…not that big of a deal. Keva took me aside and read me the riot act. I mean, breakups are part of life, right? Keva went through a divorce, started over here. That left bitter me taking inventory. I’m no longer with an asshole…so there’s that. Keva has a new life so do I. And if Marley could pick herself up after tragedy and begin again, then I could do it. Huge difference. It makes my problems look small. Both of my friends were willing to try to make something out of life while I kept having this anger issue mixed in with a pathetic pity party. It sounds corny, but I found Marley’s optimism inspiring and Keva’s encouraging. So I took a page from theirs and finally allowed myself to move on.”
“Do you go for sessions with her? With Marley?”
“Nope. Like you said, when she started her practice, the woman was booked solid.”
“But you soldiered on and figured things out.”
She stopped walking to turn and stare at him. “You really need to hash this out about the past with your dad and talk to someone, don’t you? This thing with your dad has you bummed.”
“It’s not an ideal situation. My dad’s always been…let’s just say he keeps his distance. He doesn’t warm to people, even family. It’s almost like he goes out of his way to push people to the background.”
She noted the bitterness in his voice. “Even when it’s his son? That’s sad. Were you two ever close at all?”
“No. Dad sponsored my Little League team but never bothered to show up to a game. Mom was the one in the stands cheering me on. Eight years I played sports, and not once did he ever make it to a game, any game. Working, he’d say. Can’t close up the store just for a baseball game.”
They started walking again, so she looped her arm through his, casual-like. “Well, now that you’re running things, maybe you’d do the same thing. It’s tough being a working parent.”
“Nope. If I ever have a son or a daughter, they’d be my priority. I’d shut the doors when it got close to game time or let someone else handle the store.”
“You might have a girl. And it might be a dance recital.”
“That’s fine, too. Same thing goes for dance recitals. Kids need their parents involved in their activities, their lives.”
“Not to the extreme though where they’re duking it out on the field in front of the kids,” Bodie said, trying to make him laugh.
It worked. Tucker’s lips curved. “Well, no, not like in your face, punching each other over peewee football or going after the referees.”
When they reached the pier, Bodie veered off toward the boathouse. “How close is this thing to being finished?”
“Not even close. We just did the cosmetic stuff today to get the volunteers jazzed about being part of something. According to Logan, there’s still a lot to do like shoring up the pillars.”
“But, I saw them working on the pilings already.”
“No, you probably saw them taking measurements. They’ll replace the pilings with new concrete gradually. Shoring up the foundation underneath is the tricky part. There’s this bigger issue with remo
ving the old concrete and then re-pouring the new stuff for the pillars. Logan hired a reputable company to handle that chore. They’ll be here Monday with jackhammers and take away all the old concrete that’s crumbling.”
“Ah. All the crumbling concrete at water level and then below the surface, right?”
“Yep. They’ll pour an entirely new foundation around the perimeter using twenty-first-century technology. Logan checked out companies that have done this before in the Bay Area and around Morro Bay. They come highly recommended”
“That sounds expensive.”
“It’s not cheap. But left untouched, the base will continue to crumble into pieces, and then the entire structure is at risk of sliding into the ocean, taking the whole boathouse with it. It’s not just a preservation issue but a safety concern.”
Bodie gaped. “But I was on top of that catwalk today. So were a lot of other people. I counted close to fifteen. Are you telling me the whole thing could’ve collapsed under our weight?”
Tucker grinned at her reaction. “Do you really think Logan would let people near this if he thought it was in immediate danger of collapsing? He’s had a string of engineers out here since last winter running diagnostics. They’ve tested the weight several times. The concrete base isn’t in great shape, it’s showing its age, but it won’t fall into the bay…not yet anyway.”
“That only makes me feel marginally better. So, slapping paint on the walls today was just to get everybody here and excited about the rest of the construction? Is that it?”
“Yep, a big painting party. The people who live nearby aren’t exactly jumping for joy about listening to jackhammers for the next several months. Logan and Nick had to get them jazzed about something.”
“Clever. Logan’s good at PR. Nick’s not bad at it, either.”
“Definitely better than I am. The plan is to get the construction crew to do the entire base in stages, phase one, phase two, that sort of thing.”
Bodie leaned back to inspect the catwalk, thirty feet up from the ground. “I thought it was just a cosmetic fix. Going up there at night doesn’t seem like such a smart idea now.”
“You wanted to go up there now? In the dark? I suppose we could. Would’ve been nice to know so I could’ve grabbed a flashlight out of my pickup.”
Bodie put her head back and laughed. “At the time, I didn’t realize it posed a hazard. I can see the headlines now, ‘Boathouse collapses while hardware store owner makes out with local waitress.’”
His brow arched up. “Why make out in a damp, drafty boathouse when we could go back to my place?”
She marched her fingers up his chest. “Who says you aren’t clever?”
Just as they were about to turn around, Keva Riverton waved to them from the end of the pathway. She took a step out of the shadows and into the light from the streetlamp. “Bodie, over here! I thought that was you.”
Keva’s bright blue eyes surveyed Tucker up and down right before she grabbed his hand and tugged him toward the front door of the pub, where a group of people already stood waiting to get inside. “You. You’re just the person we need.”
“For what?” Tucker asked, looking back at Bodie for help.
Just as bewildered, Bodie trailed after them. “What’s going on? Keva, why do you need Tucker right this minute? Can’t it wait? We were about to go for a walk.”
The woman with the light brown hair gave Bodie an annoyed stare. “A walk? I guess you forgot. A bunch of us were about to go inside the pub to listen to Malachi’s band. But before he takes the stage, we’re having a serious discussion about presentation.”
Tucker looked confused but got pulled along anyway. “Who’s we? A discussion about what? What kind of presentation? What does that even mean? Why do I get the feeling I’m getting used for something I’ll likely regret?”
“Oh, stop being a man for two minutes and help us out,” Keva chided. “It’s just a group of women you already know. I promise I won’t feed you to the lions.”
“Wait a minute,” Bodie began. “Does this have anything to do with Ellie’s birthday party?”
Keva rolled her eyes. “Yes. And you said you couldn’t make it because you had to work. Shiloh and Geniece wanted to make it a girls’ night out. I told them if that was the case, then we should’ve run the whole thing by Hollis first. Because now he’s coming. And then Seth and Ophelia decided to join us at the last minute, sending everything topsy-turvy.”
Bodie already knew that some old-time parishioners of the Community Church didn’t like the idea of their minister and his wife hanging out at a pub. But she thought it was kinda cool that Seth and Ophelia acted just like regular people.
She turned her attention to Keva, who was still going on about the difficulty organizing Ellie’s party. “But if we’re all standing outside in a group, she’ll surely know something’s up. And there goes the surprise angle. You know how shy she is anyway. We have to spread out and make it look like we’re in line like everybody else, here to see the band, and not waiting for her specifically.”
Tucker lifted a shoulder. “Okay. But what do you want me to do?”
“Act nonchalant, like you’re waiting for the show to start…hanging around with one of us, so when Ellie walks up, she won’t suspect anything.” Keva snaked an arm out and nudged Bodie next to Tucker. “Stand closer together. We want her to think we got a big turnout.”
“But you just said you didn’t want her to know what was going on?” Bodie pointed out, putting her hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh. “Give you an assignment, and you get bossy. Look, I didn’t even bring a gift.”
“Neither did I,” Tucker echoed.
“Showing up counts,” Keva claimed.
“I have a better idea. Why don’t I run over to the nursery super fast and grab a nice plant for her birthday? I know just the one. I put it back for myself until payday. But hey, Ellie. Birthday. I’ll use my discount,” Bodie offered, already moving toward the curb.
“I’ll go with her,” Tucker said, relieved to be getting out of line.
Keva let out a sigh. “Getting you guys together is like herding cats. Okay. Fine. But hurry up. She’ll be here any minute.”
Bodie looped an arm through Tucker’s as they hurried across the street. “If we cut through the alleyway, it’ll save time.”
“Did you bring your keys to get into the store, or do we need to run back to your house?”
“No, I’m sure I locked my front door.” She stopped walking long enough to pat the pockets of her jeans down and smiled when she pulled out a key ring that held her house keys. “Yep. We’re good.”
“What specific plant did you have in mind?”
“Caleb ordered a pallet of Rhaphidophora tetrasperma.”
“What on earth is that?”
“Not a plant guy, huh? That’s okay. These plants are easy to grow. Some people refer to them as a mini Monstera or a philodendron Ginny or even a Piccolo. But they’re a different genus than philodendrons. The Rhaphidorphora originates in Malaysia or maybe it’s Thailand, I forget which. These guys aren’t even out on display yet. They’re pricey, but with my discount, it’ll be a good birthday present for Ellie, don’t you think? The woman is like me. She adores plants.”
Tucker scratched his chin. “As I said before, I’m a newb. All I know is when my mom moved to Florida, she left me some kind of ivy that has these weird green leaves with white splotches on it. She told me to water it whenever it gets dry, and it’d be fine. That’s the extent of my plant knowledge.”
Bodie tossed him a somber look. “White splotches as in variegated or white splotches as in some sort of disease?”
He grinned. “Beats me. I’m picking up on major judgment here, though. It sits near the patio doors. There are white spots all over the leaves. It’s not sick, or at least I don’t think it is.”
“Hmm. Sounds like a pothos. Could be a marble queen or an N’Joy. So you’re saying it’s still alive?”
/> “Seems to be. I give it water every three weeks, marked it on my calendar. You’re welcome to take a look for yourself.”
“I might just do that.”
When they reached the back door of The Plant Habitat, she let them inside the warehouse then flipped on the lights as she made her way into the greenhouse. “This is Caleb’s private domain back here, the place where he works his magic tinkering with different cultivars.”
“How does Landon feel about that?”
“Landon? He’s ready to pass the torch. Maybe not right this minute, but he’s been grooming Caleb to take over this place for years now. I got that much out of Shelby when I started here.”
“See? That’s what my dad should’ve done. At least given me some sort of running start.”
She reached out and put a hand on his arm. “I know. As soon as I said it, I realized my mistake.”
“It’s not your fault. And I’m sorry that I’m bitching about it again.”
“I’m listening, aren’t I? I haven’t suggested it’s getting to me, have I? Talking about what’s bothering you is part of getting to know each other, getting to know how you think, the things that are eating you. It’s better to get it out in the open than keep it bottled up. That’s my opinion for what it’s worth.”
Bodie walked past the forklift to stand in front of Caleb’s workspace, a long metal table where a considerable amount of green plants lined the top. She peered around the back and reached down to pick up a stunning plastic pot of greenery. “This is my hiding place. Caleb promised to keep it safe for me.”
She held up the pot. “See, it looks similar to a monstera deliciosa, but the leaves are much smaller. Isn’t it cute? Look at all the new leaves shooting out of the top, leaves that haven’t even unfurled completely yet.”
Barely eighteen inches in height, it looked like any other ordinary plant to Tucker. But he could see Bodie had a soft spot for it. “Are you sure you want to part with it? There are at least twenty other plants in here you could give to Ellie.”
Bodie’s lips curved. “I like Ellie. She showed me the ropes to cleaning houses in the most efficient manner. Sure, I could give her an ordinary pothos, but this plant is guaranteed to show her she’s special. It’ll cheer her up.”
The Boathouse (A Pelican Pointe Novel Book 14) Page 4