Safe Harbor: A Cold Creek Homecoming

by Sherryl Woods

  “I’ll do it,” Drew promised as he followed her into the dining room where Mr. Kelly and Aunt Juliet were arguing heatedly about where to put her petunia bed.

  “Wouldn’t it be nice to have it right by your vegetable garden?” Juliet said, clasping her hands in excitement. “Then we’d be able to chat while we work.”

  Only an innate gentlemanly politeness kept Mr. Kelly from telling Aunt Juliet what he thought of that idea. Tina could see his gnarled fists clenching under the table, as he shot her an I-told-you-so glare.

  “Nope,” he growled, shaking his head adamantly. “You don’t want ’em there. Too much sun. They’ll wilt and die. I’ll make a border ’round the gazebo. That’s the place for flowers like that. Give it some color and all.”

  The gazebo did not need color any more than Alaska needed more snow. It had purple bougainvillea climbing all over it. But Tina knew exactly what Mr. Kelly’s clever reasoning was. If Aunt Juliet were clear out by the gazebo, not even with his hearing aid would he be able to pick up her running commentary on the weather and what it might do to “her damn frilly flowers.”

  “I wish one of you would tell me what you want for breakfast,” Grandmother Sarah inserted in the middle of the debate. “I’m not hanging around in the kitchen all day long. I have more important things to do.”

  “Like what?” Mr. Kelly retorted. “You gonna knit some more of those lacy things to put around on the tables so everything will slip right off? It’s a wonder there’s a lamp left in the place, way those things slide.”

  “They’re crocheted, not knitted,” Sarah replied stiffly, her blue eyes flashing. “And things wouldn’t slide if some people were more careful.”

  “I’ll have a cup of coffee,” Drew said above the din, earning a beaming smile from Sarah. Tina gave him credit for tactful diplomacy. Another two minutes of that familiar debate and Grandmother Sarah would have left the room in a huff. She made the doilies not because she especially liked them, but because she considered crocheting therapy for her arthritic fingers. But she wasn’t about to tell Mr. Kelly that, so she just suffered his gibes stoically.

  “Thank goodness,” Sarah murmured to Drew. “At last someone who knows his own mind. How about some scrambled eggs and toast to go with that?”

  “You’d better take it,” Tina urged with an impish grin. “Otherwise, you’ll end up with oatmeal like the rest of us. That’s what she gives us when she’s mad.”

  “I am not mad,” Sarah huffed. “If some people...”

  “Eggs would be great,” Drew interrupted, and Sarah bustled out of the room after scowling at Mr. Kelly one more time for good measure.

  Then Drew turned his gaze on Tina, who’d dressed in her very best corporate image—navy suit, white linen blouse, navy and white low-heeled pumps and a strand of pearls—for their meeting with the officials at the Department of Children and Families. He tilted his head and examined her from head to toe, his wicked eyes lingering and caressing as effectively as a lover’s touch. She had the distinct impression he’d liked her better in her sundress. In fact, she thought maybe he was stripping her right out of the clothes she had on. It made her heart pound a little faster, which was not the way she wanted to start the day. She wanted to be prepared for those state officials. She didn’t want to be so shaken up by Drew Landry that they slipped something past her. She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders.

  Suddenly Drew was grinning at her.

  “What’s so funny?” she grumbled.

  “You look as though you’re steeling yourself to go to war.”

  “I am.”

  “Want to talk strategy?”

  She glanced around the table pointedly and shook her head. “Not now. We’ll discuss it in the car on the way over.”

  “Over where?” Aunt Juliet immediately wanted to know. She was quick as a whip when she wanted to be. “Aren’t you going to work today, dear?”

  “Of course, but Mr. Landry and I have a meeting to go to first.”

  Aunt Juliet suddenly clapped delightedly, her brown eyes twinkling as though they’d just let her in on an exciting secret. “You’re meeting with the minister, aren’t you? Oh, Tina dear, that’s just wonderful. I do hope you’ll let me play the organ.”

  “The minister?” they both said blankly.

  “About your wedding, of course. I’ll start today practicing ‘Oh Promise Me’ or would you rather have something else? I’m sure I could find a lovely ballad.”

  Tina struggled for composure and absolutely refused to look Drew in the eye. She knew they’d be sparkling with laughter. She reached over and patted Aunt Juliet’s hand. “We’re not getting married.”

  “You’re not? Did something happen?” Aunt Juliet’s expression was so thoroughly woebegone that Tina looked at Drew helplessly.

  “What Tina means is that we’re not getting married right away,” he said, ignoring Tina’s gasp of dismay. “We thought it would be better to wait until we know each other a little better.”

  “I suppose that’s wise,” Aunt Juliet agreed, then she regarded Drew sternly. “Just don’t you go breaking our Tina’s heart or you’ll have us to answer to. Do you understand me, young man?”

  “I would never hurt Tina,” he said gently. He gazed directly into Tina’s eyes. “I promise.”

  While Drew ate his scrambled eggs, Tina stirred her oatmeal around in the bowl and wondered just when he’d gotten so sure of himself. He’d kissed her once. They weren’t living in the Middle Ages, when that kiss would have been tantamount to a proposal.

  She was still wondering about that when they left for the local DCF office in West Palm Beach. The drive seemed to take forever, and Tina was on the edge of her seat all the way. She wasn’t sure if she was more nervous about the meeting or Drew’s intentions, which were apparently far different today than they had been less than twenty-four hours ago when he’d regarded her as nothing more than a questionable neighbor.

  “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather let me handle this?” Drew asked again as he pulled into a parking space. “I’m the one who started it.”

  “I have to be there,” Tina insisted, marching briskly up the walk and into the building. “If anything happened and I wasn’t there, I’d never be able to forgive myself.”

  “Or me?”

  Tina sighed. “Or you.”

  “What do you plan to say?”

  Tina was already halfway down the hall toward the office of the man who’d sent the official letters. She stopped in her tracks and stared at him.

  “I have no idea,” she said blankly. She shook her head and started to turn back, muttering, “I’m not ready for this. I’ve never gone into a meeting without reports and statistics and graphs to prove my point.”

  Drew squeezed her hand. “You don’t need all that stuff for this. Just tell your story. No one could ever doubt your sincerity.”

  “You did.”

  “That was before I got to know you.”

  “And you think this Mr. Grant is going to get to know me in the fifteen minutes he’ll probably allot for this meeting?”

  “If he’s any good at his job, he will.” He scanned her face closely. “Ready now?”

  Tina managed a tremulous smile, then reminded herself that she’d handled difficult board members and corporate negotiations with aplomb. There was no reason she couldn’t deal with one overworked DCF official. “I’m ready,” she said firmly.

  “Then let’s do it.”

  Once Edward Grant had agreed to see them without an appointment, the meeting started out well enough. Mr. Grant was a tall, thin, bespectacled man in an ill-fitting suit that was just as gray as the few remaining strands of his hair. His smile was harried and his desk was cluttered, giving the impression of a man caught on the brink of chaos.

 
Tina described each of her houseguests in a way that captured Mr. Grant’s full attention. He was chuckling when she finished recounting the morning’s battle over the location of the ill-fated petunias. She concluded with a heartfelt little speech about how much having Grandmother Sarah and the others in her home meant to her.

  “They’re my family,” she said simply, as Drew nodded in agreement.

  “It’s true, Mr. Grant. I’ve had a chance to spend some time with them recently, and it’s a wonderful thing Mrs. Harrington is doing for these people. They would be out on the street or wards of the state if it weren’t for her generosity and affection. She’s not taking advantage of them, as I first feared.”

  Edward Grant sighed heavily. “It’s true that the state has more than enough cases to deal with,” he acknowledged, shuffling through a huge pile of folders on his desk in search of Tina’s. When he found it, he flipped it open to Drew’s letter and scanned the contents. He peered over the top of his glasses at Drew, his expression puzzled.

  “But I have your letter right here, and you did seem very certain that there was a problem. These are serious allegations. Didn’t you check into them before making them, Mr. Landry?”

  Drew and Tina exchanged glances. His expression was every bit as guilty as it should have been. “I’d been informed about what was going on by some individuals who obviously did not have complete information,” he admitted. “Unfortunately, because of my own emotional reaction to situations like this, I’m afraid I reacted without checking out the facts. I take full responsibility for the mistake.”

  “And now you’re satisfied that there’s no problem?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Certainly I trust your judgment, Mr. Landry. I’ve done some checking. You have an excellent reputation, as does Mrs. Harrington. Still, we can’t be too careful. We can’t risk overlooking something. You wouldn’t believe how many times we visit our clients, check to see that their living conditions are adequate, only to find later that something was amiss. We can’t afford to have another black mark against our reputation. The media...” His voice trailed off and he shook his head. “Well, you both know how things can get distorted, and with a case like this, they would have a field day.”

  “But Mrs. Harrington is hardly operating a traditional state-regulated facility. She simply has a few friends visiting for an extended period of time,” Drew argued, as Tina stifled the urge to chuckle at his blatant theft of her own words.

  Edward Grant tapped the folder on his desk and stared at the ceiling. Tina guessed he was torn between getting one more case off of his obviously overcrowded desk and doing a tedious, time-consuming investigation. His brow puckered with a little frown and finally he pursed his lips and gazed at her sternly.

  “You do understand that we can’t have unlicensed facilities operating in this state. We have a large elderly population and we must protect their rights against unscrupulous people.”

  “Of course. I’m not operating such a facility. These people truly are my friends. I would never exploit them in any way. If a prominent family invited friends to spend the winter at their home a few miles away, you wouldn’t question that, would you?”

  Mr. Grant looked startled just as she’d anticipated he would. “Of course not!”

  “This is virtually the same thing.” She didn’t point out that her friends were staying a little longer than the typical houseguest. As far as she could see, it shouldn’t even be relevant.

  “And you agree with what Mrs. Harrington is saying, Mr. Landry?”

  “Absolutely.”

  He smiled, and Tina thought she also heard a sigh of relief. “Then perhaps we could put the case on hold for the time being.”

  “That would be wonderful,” Tina said. “I promise you my guests will be well taken care of.”

  “If we get another complaint, though, I will have to take action,” he said sternly. “The penalties can be quite severe.”

  Before he could go on, Aunt Juliet, Grandmother Sarah and Mr. Kelly came barging in, ignoring the protests of the harried receptionist. Tina stared at them with a horrified expression. Drew groaned.

  “What are you doing here?” Tina gasped, hoping by some miracle she could make them vanish.

  “We came to help, dear,” Grandmother Sarah said. “We found that letter and just put two and two together and figured out where you and Mr. Landry must be.”

  “That’s right,” Mr. Kelly agreed and gave Mr. Grant a fierce scowl. “Can’t go putting a woman in jail for what she’s done.”

  “Nobody’s going to put Tina in jail, Mr. Kelly,” Drew soothed.

  “What’s that?”

  “I said nobody’s going to jail,” Drew shouted, then muttered, “Oh, to hell with it.”

  Aunt Juliet was clinging to Mr. Kelly’s arm and staring around with frightened eyes. “I don’t like this place,” she announced.

  Tina stood up and went to her, putting an arm around her plump shoulders. “You don’t have to stay here, Aunt Juliet. You can all go back home now. Everything has been taken care of.”

  “Wait a minute,” Mr. Grant said. “As long as these folks are here, we might as well hear from them. Have a seat ladies, sir.”

  When chairs had been drawn up and everyone was seated, he leaned back and said, “Well, now, why don’t you all tell me a bit about where you live. You all reside with Mrs. Harrington, is that right?”

  “Yes, indeed,” Sarah replied, her hands folded primly in her lap. “She took me in off the streets...or rather the beach. I don’t know what I would have done if she hadn’t come along. They were about to tear down the rooming house where I’d been living, and on my income you can’t find too much, just a room with a hot plate most times. I never dreamed I could live in a house like Tina’s.”

  “And do you pay her?”

  Sarah looked wary.

  “Well, do you?” Mr. Grant persisted.

  “Not exactly.”

  “What do you do...exactly?”

  Sarah scowled at him. “I give her my Social Security check every month, if that’s what you mean.”

  “Why do you do that?”

  “Why to pay for things, of course. None of us takes charity, young man. We all do what we can. Mr. Kelly does a lot of work around there. I don’t know how he manages everything. You should see our vegetables. We should have brought you some. The green beans are especially good now.” She beamed at Mr. Grant then and added brightly, “And he keeps the grounds absolutely beautiful. Why there’s not a golf course in town that has prettier, greener grass.”

  “Well, don’t give me too much credit now, Sarah,” Mr. Kelly said. “You do a bang-up job in the kitchen, and Juliet here, she works around that house like a regular white tornado. There’s not a speck of dust in the place.”

  “And does Mrs. Harrington pay you for taking such good care of her home?” Mr. Grant inquired with a decided edge to his voice. Tina did not like the sound of his tone or his frown. In fact, she had a feeling the direction of this meeting had just taken a sharp turn toward trouble.

  “Of course not,” they said in chorus.

  “Let me get this straight then. You turn all of your money over to her and take care of her home, but she doesn’t pay you a dime?”

  “Oh, my God,” Tina mumbled and rolled her eyes heavenward.

  “I don’t know what you’re implying about Tina, young man,” Grandmother Sarah said, “but I don’t like the sound of it.”

  “I’m not implying anything. You’ve just admitted that this woman is ripping you off.”

  Tina groaned and three pairs of eyes widened in dismay as the allegation sank in. Sarah was the first to recover and her eyes flashed.

  “Fiddlesticks!” she exclaimed angrily. “That is not what we said, young man, and don�
�t you go trying to put words in our mouths. Tina doesn’t have a mean bone in her body. She certainly isn’t capable of ripping us off. She’s like a daughter to all of us. Except Billy, of course. She’s more like a mother to him.” She turned her blue eyes on Drew and pleaded, “Mr. Landry, do something.”

  “It’s okay, Sarah,” he soothed. “We’ll straighten this out. Mr. Grant just misunderstood.” He got to his feet and leaned over the desk until he was practically nose-to-nose with Edward Grant. “Didn’t you?”

  “I understand perfectly,” Mr. Grant said defiantly. “I will be over tomorrow morning at eight to check into this further.”

  Ignoring their protests, he ushered them out the door, clucking his tongue disapprovingly. Tina felt more like a criminal than ever.

  Next the five of them stood in the foyer of the building, their voices raised in a babble of questions until Tina felt like screaming. Why had Sarah, Juliet and Mr. Kelly come storming in there just when she and Drew had everything under control? True, she’d initially thought having them with her might be a good idea, but she had decided their words would get all twisted around. Drew had certainly realized it.

  Now what? They had only wanted to help. She knew that. But now they were in worse shape than ever.

  “Okay, everyone, calm down,” she said at last.

  “Tina dear, we’re so sorry,” Grandmother Sarah said. “Everything really is a mess now, isn’t it?”

  “It will be okay. You go on home. I’ll think of something.”

  “We’ll think of something,” Drew corrected. Sarah and Juliet beamed at him as though he possessed some magic wand and had offered to wave it around in their behalf. It irritated the daylights out of Tina that they were relying on Drew rather than her. Why did everyone always just assume that a man could solve anything? Especially this particular man?

  “What’s that?” Mr. Kelly asked.