by Kay Correll
“She’ll be fine.”
“And here she is taking care of poor Warren, too. How will she manage?”
“Whitney will figure it out.” No way he was going to say he was here helping or even imply his sister needed help. No telling what that would turn into by the time Lucille had twisted it around to spread her gossip.
“Well, you be sure to have her just ask for any little thing if she needs it. I know her business has really grown, well just look how she was able to afford a decent place on Seaside Boulevard and move out of that tacky apartment she’d been living in. That’s not a nice part of town for a woman to live in, you know. We’re so glad she moved.”
He wondered who we were.
“Anyway, I just wanted to check when I saw the front door was open to Coastal Creations, knowing she was injured and all.”
“Thanks for checking.” He said with hardly a hint of sincerity in his voice, not that he figured Lucille would notice.
“Well, of course. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to poor Whitney’s shop.”
Poor Whitney, poor Warren. How about poor Will dealing with all of this?
“Well, I need to run along. Have a meeting with the Ashland Belle Society for the festival this weekend. You’re coming, right? Everyone in town will be there.”
“We’ll see.” Not a snowball’s chance in Hades he’d be there.
“Good, we’ll see you then.” There was that we thing again.
Willie stood in Whitney’s small kitchen working on the one dinner he knew how to make, spaghetti. Whitney had gone to rest for a bit after a brief foray to her shop this afternoon.
That hadn’t turned out like he planned. She tried to fix some pieces of jewelry and he kept yelling at her to stop using her hand. They’d both ended up frustrated, and he’d brought her home. He wasn’t getting any brother of the year awards this week.
He stood at the stove and stirred the spaghetti sauce, looking out the window at the view of the beach, lost in thought. If he’d walk down the beach just a bit, he’d get to the place where he used to meet Ashley. They called it their place, but it was actually a grove of palm trees on the property of some snowbird owners who only came to Indigo Bay for six weeks or so in the wintertime. The home had a gazebo, partially hidden from the house and the beach by overgrown bushes. That was where they’d sneak off to meet all those years ago. They’d pretend they weren’t two of the poorest kids at school, living in a horrible apartment complex. Ashley’s father had been a custodian at the high school. Ashley had gotten teased about that, but she always acknowledged him when she saw him and would often walk to school with him. He wondered if her father was still working the same job.
He turned at the sound of Warren rolling into the kitchen.
“Can I help with anything, son?”
“I’m not sure why every time you speak to me, you need to add the word son.” Okay, so he wasn’t going to get son of the year either, though he hardly considered Warren a father.
“I’m sorry.” Warren looked at him, and Will turned to stare at the sauce again.
“I know you’re angry with me, and you have every right to be. I was a terrible father to both of you.”
Will didn’t even dignify that with an answer.
“I was just so lost when Maria died. I loved her so much. She was my whole world.” His father rolled further into the kitchen.
Will spun towards him. “That much was obvious. That she was your whole world. Because you conveniently forgot you had two children who needed you. You know we lost our mother, you didn’t just lose your wife.”
“I know that. I’m so sorry for how I reacted. How long it took me to… well, to change. I know it’s too late to get back all that time. I know the burden of so much fell on your shoulders, and you were way too young to take on that responsibility.”
“There was no one else to take it on.” Will’s words were edged in ice and resentment.
“I admire all you did to hold things together for Whitney. I can’t ever thank you enough for that. I can’t repay you for all you did.”
“I don’t want anything from you.” Will turned his attention to stirring the sauce that didn’t need stirring.
“I don’t expect you to ever forgive me, son.” Warren paused, looked at Will, and continued. “But I hope we can somehow come to a truce of some kind where we can just move on from this point onward. For Whitney’s sake if for no other reason.”
“So, I’m just supposed to forget the past? Forget all I gave up because you couldn’t be bothered to be a dad and support us? Forget how you weren’t there for me, for us, when we needed you most?”
“I don’t think you’ll ever forget that, and I’m not asking you to.” His father’s words were spoken in a low voice. “I would just like to… get along civilly, if possible. For Whitney’s sake. Can you do that, s—? Ah, can you do that?”
“I honestly don’t know, Warren.”
A knock at the door saved him from having to continue the conversation. He brushed past Warren and went to answer the door.
“Ashley.”
“Hi, I just wanted to pop in and check on my patients. It’s your lucky day to have a doctor who makes house calls.”
His lucky day. Right.
Whitney came walking out of her bedroom. “Thought I heard your voice. Come in. Sit down for a bit.”
“I won’t stay long, I just wanted to check on you and Warren.”
“I’m fit as a fiddle.” Warren rolled into the family room. “Getting better every day.”
“Well, don’t overdo it. You’ll start physical therapy next week.”
“Looking forward to it. I want to get my strength back and some stability.”
“You’ll get there.” Ashley smiled at Warren and turned to Whitney. “Any pain today?”
“Not too bad. Aches a bit.”
“Because she tried to overdo it at the shop this afternoon.” Will rolled his eyes.
“There’s so much to do. I can’t be out of commission for very long.”
“You should take it easy for a few more days and try not to use that hand much. Give it time to heal up a bit.” Ashley gave Whitney a listen-to-your-doctor look.
Will was pretty certain Whitney would still do as she pleased.
“Hey, Ash, why don’t you stay for dinner? Willie made his famous spaghetti.” Whitney grinned at Will, and he shot her an are-you-crazy? glare.
“Oh, I don’t want to intrude.”
“Not at all. We’d love to have you.” Warren joined in on the invitation as if he had any right to be asking people to dinner here in Whitney’s cottage.
Ashley looked directly at Will, and he drew in a deep breath of oxygen-less air. “Okay. Sure, stay if you want. I made plenty.”
The night couldn’t get much better than this. Not only was he going to be forced to sit down to his first family dinner in he didn’t know how many years, but Ashley was going to join them.
Great. Just great.
Ashley helped Will with the place settings. The table was in a small alcove with a bench along one side and a view of the ocean. The table was small, barely enough room for the four of them.
Warren rolled his chair up to the table and Whitney sat beside him. That left the bench seat for Ashley and Will. He walked in carrying a big pot with the spaghetti sauce, and she watched him pause when he saw the seating arrangements. He set the container on a hot pad and disappeared back into the kitchen.
He came out with the bowl of spaghetti noodles in one hand and a tray of toasty bread in the other. She slipped onto the bench seat and made room for Will.
“Oh, forgot the salad. It’s just salad in a bag. Even I can make that.” He disappeared yet again.
Ashley wondered how many trips he could make back into the kitchen to avoid sitting next to her, which was just fine by her.
He came back with a bowl of caesar salad and set it on the table. He stood at the end of the bench.
“Sit down, Willie. Dinner will get cold.” Whitney motioned to the bench with her fork.
He slipped onto the bench beside Ashley, bumping gently against her arm. He quickly slid away from her, putting inches of space between them, but it did little to stop the thumping of her heart.
Whitney carried the majority of the conversation, seemingly oblivious to Will’s one-word answers to any questions she asked.
Will reached for the butter at the exact same moment Ashley did, and their fingers brushed. He jerked his hand back as if he’d been burned in a fire. She took the butter and placed a pat on her plate and handed it to him. He took it from her, careful to make sure their hands didn’t touch.
“So, Ashley, you going to the festival this weekend?”
“I’m planning to.” She hoped if she joined in with some of the town’s activities, that maybe the town would begin to accept her a little more.
“You should go with us. I’m going to have a booth with my jewelry.”
“I… ah…”
“Dad’s going, aren’t you, Dad?”
“I don’t want to be a burden.”
“Nonsense. There’s a wooden walkway out to the gazebo. We can push you out there, can’t we, Willie?”
“I wasn’t planning on going.” Will folded his arms across his chest.
“Sure you are. The whole town will be there.”
Ashley saw the deer-in-the-headlights look in Will’s eyes.
“Willie will help me get you to the gazebo, Dad. It will do you good to get out of the house.”
“I don’t want to be any trouble.”
“You’re no trouble, Dad, really. It will be fun.”
“I’m sure Willie wants to be there to yell at me if he think I’m overdoing it, anyway.” Whitney grinned at her brother.
“Okay, I’ll go. But only to keep you in line. And I’m going to be dragging you home if you start overdoing it. I mean it.”
“Sure, whatever you say. I always listen to my big brother.” Whitney laughed.
“As if,” Will muttered under his breath.
“Well, I’ll meet you there, Whitney. How about that?” Ashley wasn’t going to commit to any more time with Will than absolutely necessary.
“Sounds great.” Whitney returned to eating her spaghetti with gusto, pleased she’d gotten everyone to do as she wished. As usual.
Ashley had insisted on helping Will clean up from dinner. Whitney’s tiny kitchen seemed to grow smaller by the minute as Ashley worked beside him. She’d wash a dish and hand it to him to dry.
How the heck had they’d gotten so many dishes dirty? He was sure the dishwashing torture was never going to end.
He finally placed the last dish back into the cabinet. “All finished.”
Whitney popped her head into the kitchen. “Great, you’re done. Willie, why don’t you walk Ashely home?”
“There’s no need. I’m just right next door.” Ashley quickly jumped in.
“Of course he’ll see you to your door. It’s how he was raised.”
Will rolled his eyes. Who could refuse Whitney anything? “Come on, Ashley, I’ll walk the twenty steps it takes to get you over to your cottage.”
They slipped outside into the cool night air. The tangy scent of the sea surrounded them. Moonlight spilled down on the waves as they rolled to shore.
“It’s a beautiful night.” Ashley paused and looked up at the stars.
“It is.” He’d give her that. Whitney was lucky to live on the beach now, with the vast vista of stars, instead of the tiny slivers of sky they had been able to see out of the tiny windows in their childhood apartments. Of course, he’d tried to stay out of the apartment as much as possible when he was young. He’d escape to the beach whenever he got the chance.
“So do you like living back in Indigo Bay?” He was surprised the question just slipped out. What difference did it make to him what Ashley liked or disliked these days?
“I do. I enjoy working at the clinic, though I’m having a tough time winning the townspeople over. They miss Doc Browning. I’m not sure I’ll ever live up to his reputation. I’m trying to keep things running smoothly until he returns.”
“You were good with Whitney.”
“Thanks. She was easy. We’d already become friends. The rest of the town? Well, that’s a harder sell. I’m not sure they’ll ever think of me as someone other than that poor girl from the wrong side of town.”
“You’ll win them over, Ash.” He was certain she would, it just might take some time.
Ashley stopped at the base of the steps to her cottage. “Well, here I am. Home all safe and sound.”
Will grinned. “Yep, all the way from that deck right there to this one.”
She smiled back at him. “Thanks for escorting me to my door. Very gallant of you.”
“I’m a very gallant kind of guy.” Where was this easy banter coming from?
“Well, I better go in. I have an early day tomorrow.”
“Goodnight, Ash.”
“Night, Will.”
He watched while she unlocked the door and slipped inside. The cottage was quickly flooded with light, and she turned and gave him a little wave through the window.
He stared at his hand, raised in an answering wave to hers. She closed the blinds and just like that, she was gone from his sight.
Chapter 6
The next morning Will stood in front of the coffeemaker as it gurgled and hissed its way through brewing a pot. He wished he could silence the noise before it woke up Warren and Whitney.
When the machine finally finished its slow torture, he poured himself a steaming mug of coffee and slipped outside to the deck. He wrapped his palms around the mug and leaned against the railing, watching the sky lighten and waiting for the sun to break through the early-morning clouds. This he’d missed. Sunrise over the ocean. Belle Island sits on the west coast of Florida, so it provides sunsets over the ocean, not sunrises. Sunsets were great and all that, but he was drawn to sunrises, maybe because not many people were stirring yet. The new day stretched out before him, a new beginning, a new slate to draw on, each and every day.
He glanced over at Ashley’s cottage and saw her nestled on a chair, wrapped in a blanket, staring at the ocean. Without thinking, he stepped off of Whitney’s deck and crossed the distance to Ashley, another sunrise lover.
“Morning.” He spoke softly as he climbed the stairs to her deck.
She looked up and smiled at him, as if all those years had just slipped away and they were back in time, when things were easy between them, back when… she loved him. “Morning, Will. I see you still like to get up and watch the sunrise.”
“I do.” He rested a hip against her deck railing. “There’s nothing like a sunrise over the ocean.”
“You’ll get no argument from me there.”
They watched in silence as the sky turned pink and rays of sunlight broke through splits in the clouds. Suddenly the sun burst above the horizon and spilled its golden light across the waves.
“Ah…” Ashley’s voice was a whisper.
He turned to see the golden light bathing her features. She seemed so relaxed, in sharp contrast to the usual determined and intense look that usually adorned her face. She looked up and caught him staring at her.
She smiled a tentative smile. “I’ve missed these sunrises with you. I don’t think anyone else ever appreciated them like we do.”
“Maybe not.” He shrugged.
“Are you happy now, Will?”
Her question caught him off guard. Happy? He guessed so. “Sure.”
“I’m glad. I know we ended… badly. It was messy and hard and just… well, it was hard to finish senior year of high school without you. I was so disappointed when you dropped out.”
And she’d made that point abundantly clear. She’d yelled at him when he told her he was dropping out. She hadn’t wanted to hear his excuses, as far as she was concerned there was no excuse. She had pla
ns for her life, and he didn’t. She boiled their whole relationship down to that. He’d been so hurt and angry that he’d just walked away in stony silence. Besides, he’d promised Whitney that he’d never tell anyone that Warren went missing so often, and he’d kept that promise.
So, he’d just done what he had to do, left school to pick up a second job. Whit was six years younger, and he’d been determined to give her the most normal life he could. He also was determined to never let anyone have that kind of power over him. The power that when they left him, it crushed him.
He should remember that and quit staring at Ashley in the sunlight. She looked beautiful, and the sight of her took his breath away.
Ashley stood and turned to him, oblivious to the turmoil racing through him. “I’m glad you came over to share the sunrise with me today.”
“I am, too.” And he realized with a start he was glad he’d come over. He felt connected to her again in some way. Sunrise had always been their special time when they’d slip out to meet before the complications of their lives drifted down around them.
But he wasn’t sure he wanted to feel connected to Ashley again.
She smiled at him and held out her empty coffee mug. “All gone. I better finish getting ready for work.”
He nodded and watched while she slipped back into her cottage. He jogged the steps back to Whitney’s and took one last look at the sunrise. He went inside to start breakfast for Warren and Whitney before his sister had a chance to even think about making it herself. And by making breakfast he meant pouring some cereal and making some toast.
Will spent the next few days arguing with Whitney, imploring her to take it easy and quit using her hand, as if Whitney was going to listen to anyone when she had her mind set.
“Willie, do you think you should head back to Belle Island?” Whitney finally blurted out in frustration as they sat in the office of her shop and he’d told her yet one more time to put down the jewelry piece she was clumsily trying to put together.
