But…did she have to take a breather from sex itself?
When her sister and some of her hospital friends had suggested she go out on the prowl and have some revenge sex, she’d laughed. The idea had actively repulsed her.
But then there was Jake. Sneaking up on her. Strong, steady, gruff, kind, gorgeous Jake who also did not want a relationship.
The thing about Jake, though, was that in addition to all that, he was damaged. He was hurt, perhaps irreparably, by all that had happened to him. That wasn’t a recipe for a clean rebound fling. And, perhaps more to the point, he was her friend. He had never given her any indication that he thought of her as more than that.
So yeah, if there was going to be any no-strings-attached-ing, it wasn’t going to be with Jake.
Which was too bad, because she really, really wanted to jump him.
So all she could do was lean against him—in a totally platonic way—and sigh.
But that wasn’t nothing. And this cove felt like a perfect little secret the universe had deigned to reveal to her. She was sitting in maybe the prettiest place she’d ever seen, watching the October sun paint pink stripes across the sky, while her friend—a good, true man—cooked her fish he’d caught himself. She sighed again, but tried to make it a more contented one.
“You okay?”
“Yeah. I was just thinking that this is exactly what I imagined as a best-case scenario when I decided to come to Moonflower Bay.”
“Yeah?”
“I mean, not this exactly, but I had this idea of getting out of my own head, right? I had this romantic notion of standing next to a Great Lake—living next to a Great Lake—being a curative, somehow. Like, it would be beautiful but also…I don’t know, powerful. Capable of scouring me clean.” She lifted her head from his shoulder and shook it. “Listen to me, all hippie-dippy. I sound like Wynd.”
“No. I know what you mean. The lake can be pretty, like it is right now, but you should see it in a storm. It’s raw, merciless power then. You look at it for long enough, in enough different moods, and you do sort of start to think of it as a force. As something with the power to change you.”
“To heal you, you think?”
“No. Not that. It’s a sort of temporary comfort because it’s so indifferent. Whatever happens, the lake goes on.”
“Even when people don’t.”
“Even when people don’t,” he echoed.
She stood and walked to the edge of the deck, picking up her wine along the way. “So you used to fish commercially?”
“Yeah, my dad and his dad before him fished this lake. I grew up on my dad’s boat, and he formally cut me in when I graduated high school. I told you Kerrie went back to work when Jude was three months old?”
She nodded. She had wondered about that. Canada offered a one-year parental leave program, and most women took the whole year.
“Once she went back, we agreed that I’d take the rest of the leave and look after him until he was one,” Jake went on. “It just made more sense because she earned a lot more money than I did. So he and I were going to hang out until he was one, then he was going to go to day care, I was going to go back to work, and Dad was going to retire.”
“And then Jude died and so much for that plan?” He didn’t answer right away, so she turned back to look at him. “I’m sorry. That was too blunt.”
He shook his head. “No. I like blunt. Everyone always walks on eggshells around the topic. I was just thinking about how to answer. All I know is I didn’t want to go out on the boat afterward. I did, a bit, but when Sawyer and I started the carpentry business, it did well from the start. Also, when my mom died, she left her estate to me and my brother. You can’t tell from this”—he waved a hand back at the cottage—“but she did really well. Financially, I mean. She lived a modest life, but she had dealers in Toronto and New York.”
“Wow.”
“And I don’t have any expenses, really. I live here rent-free, though I keep trying to get my brother to take some kind of buyout.”
“And you get your hair cut for free.”
He chuckled. “Exactly.”
He turned to stare at the last of the sunset. “I never really thought about it this way, but I think I stopped wanting to fish because I always imagined Jude and I would do it together someday. He loved the water. You know how some people stick a baby in the car and drive them around to get them to calm down?”
“Yes. I’ve heard lots of stories like that both from my sister and from patients.”
He pointed to a rack near the foot of the deck that contained a canoe. “I’d take him out in the canoe. I rigged it so I could snap the car seat into it. We’d get going, and he’d conk right out. I’ll admit I probably had a romantic notion of this unbroken line of Ramsey men fishing the lake. And then Jude was gone, and…I don’t know.” He shook his head like he was disgusted with himself.
“You lost your vision of the future along with your son,” Nora said softly.
“I never thought about it like that, but yeah, I think so. And Kerrie didn’t want me going out at first. She had this irrational fear that I was going to die, too, so she didn’t like it when I was away all day, especially out on the lake. And for the record, I don’t say ‘irrational’ like I’m dismissing it. We all reacted in our own ways. I respected it.”
She wanted to ask what had happened with Kerrie. She knew, intellectually, that the stats on marriages surviving the death of a child were not great. But it sounded like Kerrie had clung to Jake, at least initially. She also found herself intensely curious over what kind of woman Jake would marry.
“I really only go out on the fishing rig—it’s in a marina up the river a ways—once a week these days, and even that only because people expect it.”
“What do you mean, people expect it?”
“My dad used to pull the boat up to the pier on the little beach every Tuesday afternoon and sell to the townspeople directly. So I do, too. I don’t want to let people down.”
Wow, this guy was honorable to a fault. “I think people would survive without your fish.”
He smirked. “Yeah, but then they’d get their fish from the grocery store.”
“Again, I’m going to go with: I think they’d survive.”
He got up, went to the grill, and picked up a pair of tongs. “After you taste my fish, you’ll see.”
Chapter Nine
A few days later, Nora pushed open the door to Lakeside Hardware before opening the clinic. Four sets of eyes swung toward her as she made her way into the dim, old-school store stocked floor to ceiling with all sorts of hardware.
“Good morning,” she said, wishing she’d changed first. She had taken to getting up early, driving to the clinic, and going for a run before starting her workday. She was suddenly aware of how hot and sweaty and unprofessional she looked.
“Nora.” Karl greeted her. “Nice to see you. I know you know Pearl, but have you met everyone else?”
“Eiko Anzai.” The woman next to Pearl waved. “We met at the salon your first day in town.”
“You’re the newspaper editor.”
“And you’re the new doctor who was supposed to contact me about an interview.”
“Right. Sorry about that. I hit the ground running trying to get the clinic ready to open, and things have been busier than I expected now that I am open.” But actually, maybe now would be a good time for an interview. She and Amber and Wynd were starting to hit their stride, and work was feeling slightly less all-consuming. And the exposure a newspaper article would provide would be good.
But, thinking of Jake’s warning about the town busybody network, she kept her mouth shut.
Karl gestured to the other man sitting on the patio furniture display the group was occupying. “This is Arthur Ramsey.”
“Oh! You’re Jake’s dad!” He looked a little like Jake. They had the same green eyes and big build.
“You know Jake?” Art’s brow furrow
ed in a way that made Nora wonder if he didn’t approve of her.
“Um, yes. He’s doing some work on my house.” And my clinic. And my ridiculous vaccine-mobile.
And I was totally platonically cuddling with him at his house Saturday night.
“What can I do for you?” Karl asked.
“Well, I’m not here for hardware. I’m actually here to ask you a favor. I understand this is sort of the unofficial community center in town?” Karl flashed her a huge grin—he seemed to like that interpretation. “I’m planning a flu-shot clinic at the Anti-Festival, and I was hoping I could leave some flyers here to let people know about it.”
Karl started to take the stack of flyers, but Pearl laid her hand on his arm and halted his progress. “Dr. Walsh, did you know there’s a town bachelor auction as part of the festival?”
“I heard something about that.”
“This year it’s going to be a bachelor and bachelorette auction,” Eiko said mildly, but she looked at Karl while she spoke, and he retracted his hand without taking Nora’s flyers.
“Oh,” Pearl said. “And she’s a catch.”
Uh-oh. “It’s nice of you to think of me, but I’m not really looking for—”
“It’s very casual,” Eiko said. “Entrants have lunch with the suitor who wins them. So you don’t have to do anything but stand there and watch the gents compete for your favor. And then they feed you!”
“Suitor”? “Gents”? Had she time-traveled back to the nineteenth century?
“Or ladies,” Pearl said. “You tell us which, and we’ll do our thing.”
So maybe not the nineteenth century.
“The auction is how I met my wife,” Art said.
“I’m so glad we took Maya’s advice and widened the proceedings to include bachelorettes,” Pearl said. “She was right last year when she said we were being sexist.”
“I totally agree, Pearl,” Karl said. “And I happen to know that Dennis Bates is already working on his lunch hamper.”
“I’m not going to be in the auction,” Pearl said. “I’m running the whole festival. I don’t have time to be in the auction. Anyway, I’ve told you a thousand times, I will never date anyone in this town.”
“Dennis Bates has an enormous crush on Pearl, but she continually rebuffs him,” Eiko explained matter-of-factly to Nora.
“Dennis Bates who runs the lift bridge?” Nora asked, though she wasn’t sure why. Her aim here was not to get sucked into the town gossip network, merely to leave her flyers. “Anyway,” she said before anyone could answer, “could I leave these here?”
“You can leave those here if you stand in the auction,” Karl said.
Uh, what? She blinked. Was this sweet old man bribing her?
“He’s bribing you,” Art said helpfully. “He does that.”
“You really won’t let me leave these here?” Nora said.
“I will let you leave those here if you stand in the auction,” Karl said.
So much for a simple favor.
“It’s for a good cause,” Art said. “It raises money for the town library and food bank.”
“Still, I—”
“Who doesn’t love a picnic?” Eiko said. “You could meet some nice local boy.”
“Or girl,” Pearl said.
“I’m really not looking to get involved with anyone. I’m only planning to be here two years.”
“I’ll give you a free ad in the newspaper if you stand in the auction,” Eiko said.
Oh, for God’s sake.
Although she was a little bit impressed. She’d thought she was playing these people. That she would come here and exploit their goodwill and their desire to keep her in town and get them to give away her flyers.
But who was playing whom here? Jake had been right to tell her to watch her back.
“It’s just lunch,” Pearl said.
Nora sighed.
Pearl, correctly interpreting it as a sigh of capitulation, clapped her hands. “Yay! You are going to be our crown jewel.”
“Well, thanks, I guess, but I think you overestimate my draw. I just got here. No one knows me. Who’s going to bid on me?”
The chimes on the door tinkled, and in walked Jake.
Everyone said hello to Jake, who raised his hand silently in greeting and gave his father an extra nod. “I was hoping one of you knew how to get in touch with Harold…” He trailed off when he noticed her. “Oh. Hi.”
“Hi.”
“Hi,” he said again.
Nora’s skin started to prickle. She could feel everyone’s eyes on them—she felt like they were zoo animals. She just couldn’t figure out why. All they had done was greet each other politely.
“Harold Burgess?” Karl finally said. “Was that what you were asking? How to get in touch with Harold Burgess?”
“I know how to get in touch with Harold Burgess,” Nora said slowly, feeling like she was missing something. “Assuming we’re talking about Harold Burgess my landlord?”
“Right.” Jake shifted his weight from one foot to the other, none of his signature steadiness in evidence. “I actually need to talk to you, too.”
“You do?” Eiko asked, glancing at Pearl, who coughed.
“Yeah, it’s about your house.” Jake stopped shuffling, but his eyes darted around like he was looking for an escape. Maybe he had the in-the-zoo feeling, too?
“Well,” she said, “I have my first patient in thirty minutes. I have to get out of these gross running clothes. You want to walk with me to the clinic?”
He nodded and held the door for her. As she followed him out, Pearl called after them, “Be good, kids.”
“Gross running clothes” was not how Jake would have described what Nora was wearing. She had on form-fitting, black running tights and a bright-green tank top. She looked like an ad for an athletic magazine.
“I didn’t realize you were a runner.” He’d known she was getting up and out early these days—he had been seizing the opportunity to do some early-morning work on her house before other jobs, so they sometimes said a quick hello as he was arriving and she was leaving—but he’d thought she was just going to the clinic.
“I’m not. I’m doing this couch-to-5K training system that’s supposed to train you to run a 5K. But I’m so out of shape, I’m winded after like five minutes.”
“Out of shape” was another phrase he would not have used to describe Nora. Her legs weren’t long—she was short enough that nothing about her was long—but he was pretty sure he could span the entirety of one of her thighs with his hands. Theoretically. And he was going to hell, but as she strode up the sidewalk ahead of him, her ass, which was small and round and perfect, bounced.
“I have good genes, and I’m petite, so I pass for a fit person. But I’m actually not. One of the goals in the whole life-change thing was to work less so I could exercise.” She wrinkled her nose. “I hate running.”
“You should take up kayaking, or canoeing, or something that involves the lake. You like the lake, right?”
“I was thinking that. Or even walking on the beach.”
“What happened to the Tigers?”
She paused in unlocking her clinic, her brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
Yeah, that had been a non sequitur from her point of view. “I was just thinking that had also been one of your goals in moving here. You wanted to go to Tigers games. But isn’t the regular season almost over?”
“It’s totally over. I dropped the ball on that one.”
Well, crap. In his quest to fix Nora’s house and build her vaccine van monstrosity, he’d forgotten about the Tigers. He would happily have driven to a game with her.
Whoa. He would happily have driven to a game with her?
That was more than a little weird. He didn’t follow baseball. The last time he’d been to the States had been before Jude was born, when he’d tagged along with Kerrie to a law conference in Cleveland. He hadn’t even been as far as Toronto
in recent memory.
She ushered him into the dark clinic, and he followed her to the back, where she had an office.
She rummaged through a bag and pulled out a dress. “So you want to get a hold of Harold? Why wouldn’t you just ask me?”
Right. “I have some bad news.”
She paused, holding a stick of deodorant she’d unearthed from her bag. “Okay.”
Nora struck him as the kind of person who didn’t like things sugarcoated. So he just came out with it. “There’s black mold all over your bathroom. And probably beyond. I knocked out the tile in the tub this morning to see how far it went, and I think it extends past the bathroom. The only way to be sure is to start taking down walls.”
She blinked rapidly as she set the deodorant on her desk. “I thought you were just recaulking the tub.”
Yeah. Even though he’d worn her down on the topic of interior improvements in her house, he’d only done so by downplaying how much he was actually doing. “I’m sorry. I should have called you. But there was a cracked tile. I found a stack of spare tiles in the basement, so I was just going to replace the one. I pulled it up, and…”
“And now I have no tub.”
“Yeah, but more to the point, now you have a house that is not habitable. I think it’s behind the wallpaper in the hallway and your bedroom, too.” She seemed like she was going to argue with him, so he said, “Come on, you’re a doctor. You know you can’t live in a house with black mold.”
She deflated. Actually physically slumped forward in place. It pained him. Probably more than it should have. It wasn’t the end of the world. It was just a rental. But he felt bad that she was going to lose her yard where she could sometimes hear the lake.
“So you were just going to call Harold and not tell me?”
“No. I was going to tell you.” He was. He was just…“I don’t know. I wanted to speak to Harold myself.” He wanted to punch Harold’s lights out, actually.
She flashed him a wry smile. “Well, I guess the upside is I don’t have much to pack.” She looked at her watch. “I have to kick you out now. I do this poor man’s shower in the mornings here now that I’m a ‘runner.’” She narrowed her eyes. “And, Jake, you’re the best, but I’ll battle Harold myself.” He nodded and had begun to leave when she called after him. “Actually, there is one thing you can do, if you don’t mind.”
Paradise Cove Page 10
