The Boathouse (A Pelican Pointe Novel Book 14)

by Vickie McKeehan

  She reminded herself that this wasn’t San Jose, and people here made an effort to be friendly.

  “Not yet.” Amused that she’d think they were discussing power tools, Bodie decided to play along with the pitch. “Mostly owner error. I’m learning to do things myself. Once I got the hang of it, the drill worked like a charm.”

  “What was the problem? Or didn’t you read the instruction manual?”

  “Smartass. Eventually. I bought this planter pot for fifty cents at the thrift store. Someone had glued Styrofoam to the inside. I needed a drill to get it out. Or a pickax. Or maybe a sander would’ve worked better.”

  “Why would anyone glue Styrofoam into a pot?”

  “Beats me. But it was a perfectly good pot other than that.”

  “So…a fifty-cent pot ended up costing you the price of a drill?”

  “Sounds crazy, I know. But I could use the drill for other things, like hanging planters for other pots.”

  “Into plants, are you?”

  “I work at a garden center, so yeah. Plus, I used the drill to finally hang some pictures and put this bedframe together I bought…”

  “To go with the planter,” he finished with a grin.

  “Well. Yeah. You try starting over in a new place with little or no furniture.” She bit her tongue. She would not throw herself into a pity party with the first guy who showed interest or promise. “I’m on a tight budget.”

  “Aren’t we all?” When she gave him a look of disbelief, he added, “Don’t believe everything you’ve heard about me.”

  “Why would I do that? I like your store. I’ve picked up nails and curtain rods and a hammer. Although you really should add more selections to the shelving department. Everybody needs shelves. And most people want a choice between metal or wood, something between mid-century modern and contemporary. Your choices are too limited.”

  “I’ll make a note of that. I’ve seen you at the Diner.”

  “I’m hard to miss. I’m there a lot. Although the breakfast shift is usually mine, I sometimes work the lunch rush, too. You don’t eat breakfast there, or I’d remember. You must wait until after two to eat at all.”

  “I mostly eat at my desk. Or grab a cup of yogurt before unloading a delivery truck from a vendor.”

  “You do all that?”

  “You’re not the only one on a tight budget.”

  Her lips curved. “I like you.”

  “Enough to go out for a beer after we finish up here?”

  “Not a bad idea since I’m thirsty, but after leaving here, I’m heading to work. Saturday afternoons you’ll find me behind the register at Plant Habitat until it closes at eight.”

  “Another job, huh? Okay. How about afterward? By that time, you’ll be hungry. We’ll make it dinner.”

  She studied him and considered saying no. But it was getting tougher by the minute to tamp down that pull in the belly. Besides, if she didn’t take a risk or two now and again, how was she supposed to start a social life, especially in a little town with limited options. And hey, almost six hundred days of abstinence didn’t mean they’d end up sleeping together. But a girl could hope. “Sure. You’re on. Where?”

  “We could order a pizza at my place.” He rattled off the address. “It’s not hard to find. Go straight down Landings Bay and take a right on San Pedro. It’s the only ranch house on the circle. You can’t miss it.”

  “Okay, but I’m a vegetarian. I want my half with mushroom and spinach.”

  He made a face. “As long as that green stuff doesn’t touch my side, I can live with that.”

  She couldn’t lie to herself. Bodie counted down the hours until it was time to head to Tucker’s place. Feeling like a giddy teen about to go on her first date, she closed up the shop and went out to the parking lot. For a good five minutes, she sat in her five-year-old Mazda convertible with the top down, wondering if she should follow through. Right before cranking the engine, she almost decided against it. But if she intended to experiment with a little fling, she probably needed to dash home and take a quick shower first. One glance in the mirror told her she still had paint stuck in her hair.

  Decision made, she stepped on the gas, squealing the tires a bit and took a left onto Crescent Street, heading homeward.

  She took a right at Tradewinds and barreled her way through the neighborhood to her driveway. To her surprise, a four-door, silver Dodge Ram was parked at the curb. Behind the wheel sat Tucker.

  A little warning flag went up. But it was replaced by a guy holding up a cardboard box and approaching her side of the car.

  “Pizza delivery. I figured you’d change your mind about coming to my house.”

  She scuttled out of the Miata. “I’m just here for a shower. I did intend to show up. I mean…look at me…I’m a mess.”

  He cracked a grin. And the gesture lit up his entire face. “You look fine, better than. Hungry?”

  “Oh, yeah. Starving. Come on in.” She went up to the front door and unlocked it, began flipping on lights on the way to the kitchen. “Don’t take this the wrong way or anything, but how did you know where I lived?”

  “I called Gilly. She owed me a favor. So take it up with her for giving out your deets.”

  “I certainly will. But after I’ve devoured my half of that pizza. I have some wine here somewhere. Or would you prefer beer? I have a six-pack of craft called American Red that my boss raves about.”

  “Sounds good. I’ll give it a go. Plates?”

  “Second cabinet from the fridge.”

  “Which boss?”

  Bodie guffawed with laughter. “That’s a good question. With three, it’s sometimes hard to keep up. But in this case, it’s Max Bingham. He’s not just a cook but a bit of a beer connoisseur.”

  “He is. Did you know he entered a homebrew competition several years back? Right here in town during the street fair. Came in second, as I recall.”

  “How could I not know? Max struts that trophy around the Diner like he won an Oscar, says he got cheated out of first place.”

  They sat down at the drop-leaf table in the corner of the kitchen.

  Tucker flipped open the lid to the pizza box and slid a veggie triangle onto her plate and a three-meat variety onto his own. “I like your house.”

  “Thanks. I like it, too. I’m comfortable here. That is when I’m home to enjoy the view.”

  “So, you don’t get many visitors I take it. I saw the panic on your face when you spotted an uninvited guest showing up. I realized I should’ve probably called first, but I didn’t ask for a number and…I’m sorry about not calling or texting first. I can see where it might’ve freaked you out. But I figured you’d probably opted out of coming over to my house.”

  “Wrong assumption. I stopped by to grab a shower. I’ve been on my feet all day. On second thought, I might’ve decided afterward that I’d just curl up on the couch instead of getting dressed and heading to your place. The fact is nobody’s over here much at all. Gilly drops in occasionally or sometimes Keva Riverton, occasionally Marley. But lately, Marley’s been too busy with her practice these days to spend any time with friends.”

  “I heard. I almost made an appointment to see Marley myself.”

  “You? Why?” She got up to get paper towels they could use as napkins and handed one off to him.

  “I thought talking about my mom might help me cope with her death. She died three months back. I miss her, miss calling and talking to her. My dad isn’t handling it very well. Although frankly, it’s hard to tell. He’s even more distant than he was when she was alive.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Did I mention my dad lives in Florida?”

  “No, but I sorta heard through the grapevine. Small town. Mine live in Arizona. But then I grew up in Tucson.”

  “Families are…a complicated mess. At least my situation is right now.”

  “How so? I get along fine with my dad. It’s my mom that drives me up the wall. Do yo
u not have siblings?”

  He twisted up his mouth. How to respond to that question? It was always tricky and required an emotional reply. He went with the simplest, less intrusive answer. “No. You?”

  “A sister. She’s the perfect one, special education teacher with the patience of a saint. Never makes a bad decision, never lets mom and dad down about anything. Despite her reputation as the picture-perfect sister, I get along with her just fine. Loire’s her name. Like the river in France. You wouldn’t know it by looking at my mother now, but she used to be quite the mother-earth type, a real free spirit, almost a flower child. Hence our names.”

  “And Bodie is for…?”

  “Mom and Dad were hoping for a boy. Bodhi. That was the name they’d picked out. When I popped out instead, Bodhi became Bodie. How about you? Where’d you get the name Tucker?”

  He winced. “My mother’s maiden name. I’ve hated the name Tucker my whole life.”

  “Aren’t we a pair? Bodie and Tucker, sounds like two old men sitting on the porch, complaining about life.”

  “Exactly. So, are you and Loire close?”

  “We are. Loire’s a lot like me, only less of a screw-up.”

  “I bet that’s not true.”

  “I’m beginning to think it is. I’m okay with who I am these days. I’m done beating myself up about my decisions. Who says you need mom’s stamp of approval every time you make a life change that doesn’t work out, right?”

  “Or a father’s seal of approval.”

  “Exactly.”

  “No men in your life? You didn’t mention a man earlier.”

  “God, no. I’ve been, shall we say, put off by the entire male gender lately. You’re the first male I’ve let into my humble domain since going through a nasty breakup. You?”

  “Bad breakups are part of my resume. Just ask Drea sometime. If you give her five minutes, she’ll unload, bit by bit, about all my bad qualities.”

  “The florist who just tied the knot with Zach Dennison? Hmm. Sounds like you might still carry a torch for her.”

  “No, no torch. But we did go through an awkward split.”

  “Pffft. Awkward is nothing. Talk to me when you get taken to the cleaners. Unless Drea cleaned out your bank accounts, there’s no contest.”

  He sent her a scowl. “Your ex stole your money?”

  The pizza she’d been savoring balled in her belly. “Some of the cash I gave him willingly and have no hope of ever seeing it again. But the rest…the asshole stiffed me out of my shares of a business I’d helped him start from the ground up, totally left me high and dry right before he took the company through an IPO. I mean…I lost the whole package. Days before the company was due to go public, he put distance between us, moved out of our loft, the one I’d leased, leaving me to pay for it on my own. Admitting I was such an idiot is hard. No one much likes feeling they got ripped off. I mean…who does?”

  She laid a hand on her stomach. “I don’t want to talk about it. Makes my stomach hurt to think I was so stupid and didn’t get any of the loans I made to him in writing. That’s on me. Some of the loans were in my name. The lease on the loft, too. It’s like he set me up from the start. I look back and see the red flags were all there. I ignored them all just to be with the person I thought he was, the person I’d made him out to be. I don’t recommend doing that since he turned out to be a real asshole.”

  “You’re not over him yet, are you?”

  Bodie bristled. “Sure, I am. How could you say that? Think it? I’ve done everything to put the whole experience behind me. Kinsey is even suing him for some of what he owes me. Before moving here, I paid off the loans with my savings. So there’s the legal angle that’s nott done yet. All I want out of him is what’s rightfully mine. Are you over Drea?”

  “Yeah. But I’ve dated since we ended things. You haven’t.”

  “How do you know that? For all you know, I could be the town tramp.” Bodie let out an anguished sigh. “What am I supposed to do? Put a sign in the window, advertise that I’m available to go out to dinner? What are my prospects exactly?”

  Tucker held up both hands. “I can see I hit a nerve. Not my intent.”

  He pushed back from the table and looked around the house. She had a floor to ceiling shelf in the front window lined with at least thirty plants. Tucked around the living room were more.

  “Change of subject. Is it neutral enough ground to talk about what you’ve done with this place? I can tell you like plants.”

  She followed the track of his eyes. “My first house, even if it is a rental, needed a homey touch. Plants are my weakness. I’ve got this thing for them. You’re staring at my Christmas cactus.”

  “Whoever heard of a Christmas cactus putting out white blooms in June.”

  “Rose white. That’s the color. It’s crazy like that. I love weird plants. See that one hanging over the mantel? That one’s called a fishbone cactus. The first time I saw the long flowing stems, it just called to me, not to mention the fact that it flowers every spring and only lasts for twenty-four hours when it does.”

  “Like an orchid?”

  She gave him a strange look. “I’d say you know a thing or two about plants yourself.”

  “Me? No. But I’ve listened to my mother and grandmother sit around and complain about their ornery flowers not blooming at the right time of year.”

  She leaned back in her chair, enjoying herself. “Same here. My mother took pride in growing her prize rose bushes. For my grannie, it was azaleas. So when I moved in here, this place was so different from anywhere else I’d ever lived as an adult that I wanted it to reflect what I liked for a change, my tastes, my interests. I went exploring one day and discovered The Plant Habitat…and fell in love with all the plants they had on hand. It was the Friday after Thanksgiving, and they had all these Schlumbergera truncatas in stock.” She saw the confusion on his face. “The Thanksgiving cactuses. They were in bloom, and I went straight for the cheapest one because I didn’t have a lot of money at the time. That one was marked down because it didn’t have any buds on it. But it turns out that it prefers blooming in the summer instead of winter.”

  “What if it just likes its new home better than the garden center?”

  “Could be. I know I like it here just fine. I love the house. I’m comfortable here for the first time in a long time.”

  “Maybe Logan could sell it to you.”

  “Depends on how my lawsuit goes. But that’s an idea.”

  “Logan’s pretty flexible when it comes to down payments. He’d rather have families living in his houses than have them sitting empty.”

  “Yeah. Gilly mentioned that. Not your typical greedy landlord like I’m used to. Did you grow up here? In Pelican Pointe?”

  “I did. I only went away long enough to get my degree in finance and my MBA. Then I got a job when it was offered at a company down in Los Angeles. I was there for about two years when Dad called. Out of the blue. He wanted to let me know he intended to retire and move to Florida. He expected me to run the hardware store.”

  “Just like that? Weren’t you expecting him to make the offer? Didn’t he ever talk to you about taking over one day? After all, it is a family run business.”

  “That’s just it. He never mentioned it. Not once. I knew better than to expect anything from him. I was surprised when he called about retiring. Which shows we weren’t exactly a close father and son team if you get my drift. He wasn’t one to confide in his wife, either, let alone his son. Mom knew that he didn’t talk much about anything, kept to himself a lot. I just grew up accepting the way he was.”

  “But surely you had an inkling what he intended to do?”

  “I didn’t. One day I was sitting at my desk looking out at the LA skyline when the phone rang. I picked up the phone. It’s him making his big announcement. Next thing I know, I’m being pressured by my mother to hurry up and quit my job, move back home, take care of things here. They were ready to pac
k up the house and go, had already contacted a moving company. They were ready to start retirement, and I was the clog holding them up from enjoying the next phase of their lives.”

  “Wow, that wasn’t fair to you. Talk about a major guilt trip and the full-court press wrapped up in one package.”

  “Oh, it was. I gave up a six-figure salary, health insurance, and a great benefits package to come back here. I moved into their house, the house where I grew up. Then I walk into a mess of a business and a PR nightmare. Turns out, the whole town hated the way my father had done business over the years. His strongarm tactics might’ve worked in the early days or with the little guy, but once Nick Harris took over running the bank and Logan started renovating most of the town and needed lumber, those two turned the tide.”

  “You can’t blame them for wanting to improve a system that only benefited your father.”

  “Ah. I see you have heard people talking. No, I don’t blame them at all. Something had to crack. The bad practices caught up with my dad. I’m not sure he ever thought things would change because he’d always had the upper hand. He had to come to terms with a whole new attitude, and he couldn’t do it, couldn’t face the mess he’d created.”

  “That’s why he moved clear across the country?”

  “I believe so. Yeah. That was before my mom’s breast cancer diagnosis. She beat it once…”

  “But it came back,” Bodie surmised.

  “It did. And this time, it had metastasized. She didn’t last another eight months after that. Moving across the country surely didn’t help her situation any.”

  “I’m sorry,” Bodie said again, reaching out to squeeze his hand. “You’ve been through some tough times of your own.” The look on his face said there was something else. “What?”

  “I’ve tried since the funeral to get him to talk to me, to open up…my dad. I thought since it was just the two of us now that things might change. We could get a little closer.”

  “How often do you call him?”

  “Twice a week. He just grunts at me for five or ten minutes, and then we say our goodbyes. Grumpy old man.”