“Don’t get frustrated,” Gideon stated. “We’re just starting the process.”
“I’m not. I’m the one who said you never get everything you want.”
“House hunting is hungry work. Wanna grab a tuna melt at the Diner?”
“We could grab a sandwich at my place.”
“Let’s see, you’ve avoided going to the bar. Now you’re balking at eating a meal around people. What gives?”
“Fair question. I’m just not ready for scrutiny from people I don’t know.”
“But your solution of avoidance isn’t all that practical. And you won’t go in there alone. I’ll be right there.”
“What if you get called away?”
“Then we’ll both ask for a to-go box and leave together.”
“You make it seem silly.”
“I’m hungry. Let’s have lunch in a public place. The melt-in-your-mouth pancakes are wearing off.”
“Okay. Shouldn’t we take the keys back to Logan first though?”
“Good idea. I’ll swing by there on the way to the restaurant.”
As Gideon turned onto Tradewinds, Marley spotted Logan’s truck still parked in front of his office. She grabbed the ring with all the keys and went inside.
This time, Logan wasn’t alone. A couple of preschoolers were sprawled out on a rug on the floor sharing a huge shoebox full of crayons between them and a stack of paper for coloring. The boy worked on a dragon while the little girl put the finishing touches on a princess.
“These are my twins,” Logan announced. “Leah and Liam. Hey, guys, say hi to our newest neighbor, Ms. Lennox.”
Liam never looked up from his coloring book but kept his head down and his tongue out in concentration. His eyes were glued to his work as he added details to his dragon, a swath of fire bursting out of the creature’s mouth. Even though he was focused, the boy did offer up a quick “hi” and left it at that.
Leah, however, picked up the page she’d been working on and got to her feet. She brought it over to Marley, handing it off with a flair. “You can have my Cinderella. See? She’s wearing pink with purple and gold stars on her dress. It could use some glitter. I like glitter.”
Marley smiled. “Well, thank you. She’s very pretty, like you. You do good work. I especially like the purple and gold. I don’t think she needs a thing. Although I am fond of glitter, too. Are you sure you want me to have this?”
Leah bobbed her head. “Uh-huh. I have lots of others. Daddy prints off lots of stuff from his ’puter. That way we have plenty of pictures to color all the time instead of buying coloring books.”
“You get a better choice that way,” Logan explained. “If your kid likes Sleeping Beauty or cars, there’s lots more to choose from online than the stuff you get at the store.”
“And it’s cheaper than buying all those coloring books,” little Leah tossed out. “Coloring books cost money.”
That comeback had Marley cracking up. “You have a firecracker here, Mr. Donnelly.”
“Don’t I know it. She’s just like her mother. Thinks on her feet.”
“Are you gonna buy a house from my daddy?” Leah wanted to know.
Marley sent Logan an amused look.
He lifted a shoulder. “Hey, I never said you wouldn’t get hard sell tactics from my go-getter of a daughter.”
Marley grinned down at the pint-sized girl and realized she was still holding the keys. Fumbling the handoff, she dropped the giant ring, and Logan had to pick it up. “Sorry. I’m thinking about buying the Foursquare next to the Fanning place.”
Leah let out a little gasp. “Oh, the blue one next to the seals and the dolphins? I like that one.”
“That’s the one.”
Logan seemed pleased with that development as he lifted a hip to sit on the corner of his desk. “I’m having a hard time believing that’s your favorite.”
“What’s not to like? You were right about the little dollhouse on Athena Circle. It’s just too small. But the Foursquare was amazing. I liked it. A lot. The best room in the house is that sunroom off the back. There is one problem, though. The house is just way too big for one person.”
Logan nodded. “Almost twenty-five-hundred square feet. But if you’re serious, I’ll make you a deal. I’ll knock off fifteen grand and pay for closing.”
“Really? Wow. Now you’ve given me something to think about.”
“It’s already a good price. And it’s move-in ready. With stainless steel appliances, you won’t have to buy a thing. You couldn’t ask for a more beautiful piece of property with an ocean view, not for that price.”
“It’s a good offer. Do you mind if I think about it overnight? And would you mind if I went over there and hung out for a few hours inside the house for a bit to see if the seals would be a problem at night?”
“That’s a great idea. You should do that. See if the location will work for you. And come Monday, take a stroll around the school when classes let out. See if that’s something you can live with. Let me know if you have any other questions.”
“Buy the house,” Leah urged, taking Marley’s hand in hers. “Then we can come visit you after we see the seals.”
“There’s an idea,” Marley said, barely above a whisper, her throat locking up at the girl’s hand in hers. It was several seconds before she managed to speak up again. “Do you go there a lot, to the Rescue Center?”
“Uh-huh. Liam likes to pick up the little fishies from the bucket and toss them to the seals. The seals gobble them up. But fishies are all slimy and slippery, and I don’t like to touch them.”
Marley had forgotten just how adorable kids that age could be. She got tears in her eyes and didn’t want to let go of Leah’s hand.
Logan noticed her distress and tried to intervene the only way he knew how. “Leah, the nice lady has somewhere she needs to be.”
“Okay,” the tyke said, letting go of Marley’s hand. “But if you buy the house, I’ll color you another picture and bring you cookies. That’s what we do when people move in, Mama says.”
“That would be great,” was all Marley could manage before folding the picture of Cinderella in half and slipping it into her pocket.
Incredibly moved by Leah’s offer, tears came out of nowhere and trickled down her cheeks. Embarrassed at her display of emotion, she swiped back the tears and spotted a box of tissues on Logan’s desk. But she had to reach around him to grab one, immediately using it to blow her nose. Sniffling now, she breathed out, “I’ve got to go. But I’ll…I’ll call you later about…the house.”
Logan worked the key to the Foursquare off the ring and handed it to Marley right before she darted out the door. “You might need this...later…when you go back over there.”
“Oh. Sure. Thanks. See you all later.”
After Marley left, Leah went over to her dad. “Why was that lady crying?”
Logan swung his daughter up to his hip and gave her an extra tight hug. He stared out the plate-glass window as Marley got into Gideon’s car.
“Huh, Daddy? Why was that lady crying?”
He placed a kiss on Leah’s forehead. Hugging his girl tighter than he needed to, he finally fought past the lump in his throat. “Because some things happen in life that are too horrible to handle without tears.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I love you, Leah.”
Growing tired of coloring, Liam dashed over to his dad and wrapped his arm around Logan’s leg. “Can we get ice cream now?”
Logan ruffled his son’s blond hair. “You know good and well it’s too close to lunchtime for sweets.” But when he saw the disappointment come into Liam’s eyes, he changed his mind. After watching Marley coming undone, something tore at his heart.
“Tell you what. Why don’t we break for lunch and get us a pizza? Afterward, we’ll get us a couple of soft-serve cones. How does that sound?”
While Liam clapped his hands and jumped up and down, Leah gave him a
quick smack on the lips. For that one moment in time, Logan could only hope he never had to imagine what it was like being Marley Lennox.
Inside the Hilltop Diner in a cozy booth at the back, Gideon was stumped. Since they’d put in their order, he’d noticed Marley had gone into silent mode. But as he sat there, he realized she’d been acting strange since dropping off the keys. And if he really put some brainpower to it, she’d been fighting back tears when she got in the car. “What happened back in Logan’s office? Did he say something to upset you?”
“No. Why?”
“Because you’ve barely said two words since you came out of there.”
“Oh. Sorry. I met Logan’s kids.”
“Twins.”
“Ah. Cute kids.”
“Yeah. Another one at home, too. Eighteen months maybe.” The sadness in her eyes was enough to cause Gideon to lose his appetite. He stretched his hand across the booth and locked his fingers with hers. “Look, you’re talking about it without falling to pieces. That means something.”
“I actually talked to her…Leah…the little girl. She’s delightful, full of energy and…life. Sparkly eyes just like Riordan’s. My girl would’ve loved playing Barbies with Leah. Or chase. Or spending an afternoon putting glitter on everything in sight.”
He let her talk without interrupting. There was no reason to comment or add anything to her memories of Riordan, memories that eventually segued into remembering all the funny things Leo had done over the years.
When Bodie, the waitress brought the food over, it was like Marley perked up. Not from the sight of the Saturday special but more like a realization that she’d let go of a chunk of grief.
“How’s the chicken and mashed potatoes?” Gideon asked.
“Surprisingly tasty. How’s the tuna melt?”
“It’s always good here. I’ve no idea why. The meatloaf is also worth a try.”
Marley glanced around at the 1950s décor. She might as well have been sitting on the set of Back to the Future dining out in the fictional Lou’s Café. It was that nostalgic, hitting the tone perfectly from another decade. Which might have been why she suddenly got a craving for cheese curds, a Wisconsin staple. But before she could ask if the Diner had such a deep-fried delicacy, she eyed Gideon’s side of onion rings. “Are those any good?”
He pushed his plate so she could sample one. “Go ahead. See for yourself.”
She crunched her way through the first bite. “They’re delicious.” But trying to wave down the waitress and get her back to the table proved a challenge.
Bodie Jardine had been fidgeting with the Wurlitzer, an old-time jukebox that sat in one corner of the dining area. She shoved a quarter through the slot, pushing several buttons to get her money’s worth. When Pat Benatar’s powerhouse voice began chanting love is a battlefield, she seemed satisfied enough to push back a strand of her massive whiskey-colored hair. That’s when she caught sight of Marley’s hand waving in the air.
Bodie wandered over, giving Marley her undivided attention. “Sorry about that. But Margie just added a few new songs to the playlist, and I had to liven up this joint. What did you need?”
“Onion rings.”
“You got it. I’ll be right back in a jiff.”
While she waited, Marley continued to eat her fried chicken. “When did you first know you wanted to be a doctor?”
“That’s easy. The summer I turned fifteen. The idea so impressed Felice Hewitt, a busty cheerleader at the time, that she let me get to third base.”
“Oh, for God’s sake,” Marley intoned, sputtering with laughter. “Typical doctor mentality. While the hardworking nurses run around taking care of patients, doctors are in the supply closet feeling up the staff who’ll let them.”
“Total bunk. A stereotype perpetrated by soap opera fans,” Gideon fired back between bites of his sandwich. “When did you know you wanted to be a therapist?”
Licking the grease from her fingers, she blotted the rest with a paper napkin from the dispenser at the end of the table. “I started out planning to become a social worker. That changed when I summer-interned at a clinic, and the backlog started overwhelming everybody—rookies and seasoned staff were drowning in caseloads. They kept me on. But by that fall, the burnout took over. So before my sophomore year, I switched gears and focused on mental health counseling. Looking back, maybe I should’ve taken that as a sign of things to come.”
She picked up her glass of pop. “I think now I’ll become a canine counselor.”
Bodie arrived and slid a plate of onion rings in front of her. “I’ll get you guys refills, too. House hunting is thirsty work.”
Marley’s mouth fell open. The minute Bodie had scooted behind the counter again, she leaned across the table. “How does she know that I’ve been looking for a house?”
“Small town,” Gideon said as if that explained how the news had traveled fast as lightning.
“But I didn’t know until this morning that I intended to look. Not until you mentioned going to see Logan.”
“What can I say? It just takes one person along the route where we stopped to help spread the word. Why a canine counselor? I’m curious how you made that leap.”
“Because yesterday I taught Merlin this cool trick. We practiced the entire time we were in the park on walking backward. It’s not easy.”
“I’m sure that should come in handy.”
“You’re being facetious, but one day Merlin might put his backward walking skill to good use. You never know. It might get him out of a jam.”
“How’d you learn to teach dogs tricks?”
“Other than the fact I owned one? Fieldwork in behavior. As a grad student going toward my master’s, I started with dogs, volunteering at a local kennel. I studied problem behaviors, cognitive processes, underlying reasons for how they behaved. After that, I eventually graduated to people and social behavior. I don’t have to tell you that dogs were a lot easier.”
“If you’re into dogs, that blue house might give you room to set up a place to train them.”
“I’m going over there tonight to see if the Rescue Center is too noisy.”
“Wait. What?”
“I want to see if the harbor seals get to me. The only way to make sure is to spend some time there before I can eliminate the place. To be on the safe side, I told Logan I’d like to go over there at night and get a feel for the place, the location, the noises, the view. And he agreed.”
“I didn’t think you were serious.”
“Not serious about the house or checking it out at night?”
“Both I guess.” He glanced at his watch. “Are you ready to look at a few more houses?”
Before she could answer, his cell phone rang.
After checking the number, he swiped the bar to answer. The blood drained from his face. “I’ll be right there. Yep. Leaving now.”
Gideon reached in his back pocket for his wallet and took out enough money for lunch and a tip. After ending the call, he looked at Marley. “Sorry I’ve got to go. Someone’s had an accident onboard the Orion’s Song. Or maybe it happened in the water. Sydney wasn’t clear on the details.”
Marley grabbed her bag and headed for the door. But when they got to the car, the idea of walking into the hospital again, even under her own power, bothered her. “I think I’ll head back to Gilly’s. You go on. I’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure? After all, this could be quick. I could be in and out.” He knew it was a lie, but he couldn’t tell her how serious the accident sounded.
But Marley was no fool. “Or it might take the rest of the afternoon. It’s okay, Gideon. Go.”
Placing a quick kiss on her hair, he opened his car door and started the engine. “I’ll see you tonight then.”
“Sure thing.” Marley watched as he took off down Main Street. A pang of emptiness hit her. Suddenly she wished she’d gone with him and started walking that way. But by the time she reached the intersection, the B
uick had already disappeared out of sight.
Several people tooted their horns and waved as she strolled along the street. One person even offered her a ride which she turned down, politely explaining that she needed to walk off the big meal she’d just eaten.
The driver, a young woman, seemed amused. “You had lunch with that hunky doctor, didn’t you? I saw you guys on my lunch break sitting in the corner booth. I’m heading back to the garden center for the afternoon crunch.” She let out a long, drawn-out, dreamy sigh. “Gideon Nighthawk. Wow. He’s my kind of guy. You’re a lucky girl.”
After getting a better look at the driver, Marley realized the girl couldn’t have been any older than twenty. “You know Gideon?”
“I do. He did my granddad’s heart surgery. He’s so gorgeous. I wanted to ask him out but Shelby, that’s my boss, told me he was too old for me. He’s not, you know, too old.”
“He might be,” Marley quipped. “He’s kind of a grump. Plus, he’s a neat freak. And let’s just get this out now. His taste in music is suspect.”
It took a full minute before the girl realized the woman was kidding and tittered with laughter. “My name’s Shiloh. Jones.”
“I’m Marley. Lennox.”
“You get those bruises in a fight on a drunk night out?”
“Mud wrestling,” Marley fired back, wiggling her eyebrows. “I won.”
The girl muffled her laughter. “You’re all right. I need to get back to the grind. Saturdays are super busy. And spring is our Christmas. I’m new in town and don’t know too many people outside work. But we should go out sometime.”
“Yeah? I’m new in town, too. Let me know if your boss is hiring.”
“You looking?”
“Yup.”
“I’ll tell her. You stickin’ around for a while?”
“Seems like.”
“Okay then. I’ll see you around.”
“Yup. See ya.” Marley continued walking until she reached the automatic double doors at the hospital. The lobby was more crowded than usual with what looked like a concerned family huddled in one corner.
The Coast Road Home Page 15
