“Because I kind of like being away from people. Remember when you and I were doing all that work to the house after I got here, we decided the remodeling job was for the best. You paid to replace a lot of rotted wood and bad plumbing and I got to live on the farm. If I stick with the caretaker’s cottage, at least I know what I’m getting. Any other house on the market might have issues.”
“Just think about it before you make a permanent leap like that. I’m not trying to talk you out of it. If it’s what you want, I could sell it to you. But I don’t have to tell you that a house is a huge investment. I think you need to take some time and make sure it’s what’s best for you and Delaney. Talk to Troy or maybe even Logan. They could help you find exactly what you’re looking for. They both know every house in town and all the problems that go with each one. These houses around here are all old and will need some tweaking to update wiring and plumbing, though.”
“But I’ve already done all that to the caretaker’s cottage.”
“Simon, that house isn’t perfect. There’s no garage, no storage to speak of, and no place for a kid to play outside. I suppose you could fence in the backyard to some degree, but it wouldn’t be an ideal location for a kid down the road. Not only that, it’s a working farm. The noise from tractors and those huge harvesters might be an issue for a toddler. And what about the dust the machines kick up?”
Simon scratched the side of his jaw where he hadn’t taken the time to shave. “I hadn’t thought of that. I guess I’m so used to the noise and the dirt it didn’t occur to me it might be a problem for Delaney. Okay, you’re right. I’ll see what other property is available out there. Thanks, Nick.”
Kinsey had set up an appointment for him to talk to a woman named Ophelia Moore who headed up the child care program at the Community Church. Ophelia was a recent graduate of UC Santa Cruz with a degree in early childhood education. According to Kinsey, the woman loved working with preschoolers, jumpstarting their classroom experience, hoping they’d succeed early on and continue through elementary school.
Simon liked the young woman’s enthusiasm, he just wasn’t sure about her approach. “Do you have a spot for Delaney for short-term day care? Because my days off are sometimes in the middle of the week. I sometimes don’t work a regular nine-to-five gig. The only time I’ll need a full day of care is when I take a tour out for eight hours. Most of the trips, though, usually last for five. Kinsey Donnelly seemed to think I’d have to put her on a waiting list even for a drop-in situation.”
“Since I’ve taken over the program, I’ve discovered there’s been quite the baby boom in Pelican Pointe recently. Because of that, everyone needs us at different times. We’re very flexible except for weekends. Our hours don’t extend to Saturday and Sunday. We have so many use the program during the week that we’re almost full up in every age group. I’m sure that’s what Kinsey meant. To prevent overcrowding, I’ve tried to maintain very small groups for better one on one, adding here and there, shifting when the kids move into a new group or when I think the classroom warrants a change. Right now, I can offer three very different programs. One for babies from newborn to one year. That’s my smallest group. Then there are the toddlers from thirteen months through twenty-four months, and then preschoolers up to the age of four. Obviously, Delaney would fit into the middle group. That’s Susan Hollenbeck’s classroom.”
“But a classroom? She’s only fifteen months old. How much space could she take up? And like I said, she wouldn’t be in here every day.”
Ophelia smiled, patient as a nun. “Even toddlers that young learn at a rapid rate whenever they’re in the right surroundings. Each age group uses one of the Sunday school classrooms. It’s out of necessity and space. We don’t make them sit at desks if that’s what you’re afraid of.”
“Oh. Okay. That makes more sense. So I just drop her off when the situation warrants it and this Susan will make room for her?”
“It’d be nice if you could give us a heads up. But we realize situations change on a dime and we try to be flexible as much as possible.” She handed him a business card. “You can also text us as soon as you know your plans so we can adjust accordingly.”
Simon left trying to calculate how he could take Delaney to work with him without putting her in such a structured environment. He didn’t object to school or learning new things. But he did think fifteen months was a little too early for even part of the day spent in a rigid setting.
From the church, he and Delaney stopped in to see Brent Cody, the chief of police. The lobby was empty, no one sitting behind the reception area, but Brent appeared in his office doorway right away.
“Hey, Simon. I already met the infamous munchkin yesterday. Delaney, right?”
“Yep. Then you also met Cruella de Vil, the Boston lawyer.”
“Not the warm and fuzzy type, huh?”
“Hey, she dumped a kid on a total stranger and seemed just fine with it. In case you or anyone else wondered, Delaney survived the night just fine. I’m here to ask a favor. Can you do a background check on a deceased person?”
“Sure. Come on in and have a seat. Got a name in mind?”
Simon plopped down in one of the chairs and adjusted Delaney on his lap. “Amelia Langston. Boston.” He reached in his jeans pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. “This was the last known address on the paperwork Cruella gave me. I want to know everything you can get on Amelia.”
“Okay. You want to sit there while I pull up a snapshot summary or do you want a full-blown, in-depth…?”
He didn’t let him finish. “I want to know where she worked, who her parents were, if she had siblings. I want to know what she ate for breakfast when she was ten.”
Brent bobbed his head. “For that to happen, give me three days. What do you know about her…exactly?”
“When I met her, she claimed to be a photographer, claimed to have sold her pictures to National Geographic. But after she left, I checked on that, found out the magazine had no record of her. So I already know that was a lie. If she lied about that, what else was she hiding? Then last night, I remembered that every time I pressed her for more information, she was purposely vague. I recall asking about her family. Again, ambiguous answers, like she was making it up on the fly. You need to understand that until yesterday afternoon I hadn’t given Amelia Langston another thought since that August she up and left. But when I think back to that summer, I realize now I knew very few facts or details about her that made any sense. I suspect she wasn’t completely honest with me over the course of that summer. We’re talking about a brief affair that didn’t have much of a shelf life to it. She didn’t make demands or anything like that. It was just the opposite. I woke up one morning the week before Labor Day and she’d packed up, left without so much as a goodbye. I thought it was odd then but shortly afterward Nick and Cord contacted me. And here I am. I never looked back.”
“What is it you suspect exactly?”
Simon rubbed the stubble on his chin. “This is gonna sound a little paranoid. But I think she wanted a child and was on the hunt for a sperm donor. I was it. Don’t get me wrong. The circumstances of how Delaney got here don’t matter to me. She’s here and I’m fine with that. But I need to know the truth. One day, she’ll ask about her mother and I won’t know what to say to her. I want something tangible.”
“All right. I’ll let you know as soon as I’m done with the criminal aspect of it. That’s what’ll take the longest, searching the different jurisdictions. Unless you just want the info that I find out from Massachusetts.”
“Nope. I want the entire U.S. Approach this like you’re hunting for a thief who just stole five million in diamonds.”
“I figured as much.”
“Something else. You were in the service, right?”
“An MP in Iraq.”
“Is there a way to locate a soldier without the Army knowing about it?”
“Is he still on active duty?”
Simon shook his head. “No, but I heard through the grapevine that the Army doesn’t much like civilians poking around in their databases. And I’ve lost track of him. From what I understand he’s been having a rough time. He may even be homeless. I tried finding anyone remotely related to him but got nowhere.”
“Give me a name. I still have a few contacts over there who can be trusted.”
Simon took another piece of paper out of his pants pocket and slid it across the desk. “I wrote down the information I need. Could you let me know when you hear back?”
“You bet.”
Simon made a few more stops, but Murphy’s Market had to be the last one so that he could pick up groceries. They got a few stares from people who knew him when he plopped Delaney into the cart. He could see it in their eyes. Were they wondering if he’d kidnapped a baby overnight?
The idea made him chuckle as he pushed the cart toward the produce aisle. Murphy, who was also the town’s mayor, stood in front of a large bin of honeycrisp apples, setting them in the display just so.
“Hey there, Simon. Who’s the midget?”
“Delaney.” He waited a beat before adding, “My daughter. We’re out of food.”
Unruffled, Murphy nodded. “You came to the right place. Toddler food is on aisle 6 along with Pampers. We carry the economy size in sensitive.” When he saw Simon’s blank stare, he added, “Most requested kind.”
“Thanks for the heads-up. Might as well start there.” He headed that way, stocking up on boxes of diapers and baby wipes. In the produce section, he tossed in bananas and apples, picking up jars of applesauce, just in case. After getting eggs, frozen waffles, yogurt, and of course, Cheerios, he was loading up on Graham crackers when the cute nurse approached from the opposite direction, a little boy sitting in the child seat.
“Fancy meeting you here,” Gilly said, amused at the sight of father and daughter. “I see you survived the night. How’s my patient doing?”
Simon grinned, the wheels turning in his head to come up with the nurse’s name. “She’s fine. I’m a little embarrassed at how I overreacted. This must be your boy.”
“Jayden, say hi to Delaney and Simon.”
Jayden stuck his finger in his mouth, turning bashful. Delaney reached over and patted the boy’s face.
“Aren’t you a friendly girl?” Gilly remarked. “Jayden can be shy on Wednesdays.”
“You have a knack with kids,” Simon commented, stalling until the woman’s name popped into his head. “Gilly.”
Even more amused at his demeanor, Gilly tipped up Delaney’s chin. “You look a lot better than the last time I saw you. I have an idea. I have to be at work soon, but I’m off tomorrow. Why don’t you guys come to my house for dinner tomorrow night?”
“I’d like that. What time?”
“Oh, sevenish or so is fine. If you get hung up with the doodle-bug, I’m flexible with the time.”
Delaney yawned.
“Now see, Daddy. That’s a sure signal right there it’s nap time,” Gilly pointed out with a wink. “I’ve gotta run anyway. I just came in here to pick up some milk and cereal, and maybe something for lunch.”
“Before you go, would you happen to know where I could get a baby monitor?”
“Ferguson’s Hardware stocks them.”
“They do? I’ve been in there dozens of times before and never once noticed that.”
Gilly snickered. “Now why would you go down the aisle with the baby stuff. If you’re going, though, don’t forget to pick up the childproof locks for cabinets and drawers.”
“Good idea. One-stop shopping.”
“I really do have to run. See you and Delaney Thursday night.”
“What can we bring?” Simon asked as she darted down the aisle.
“Just bring yourselves.”
She’d taken off like a spitfire, leaving him wondering where she got her energy. She had a marathon shift ahead of her. If she could endure twelve long hours on her feet, Simon could take care of one small bundle.
Nap time came and went for both of them. After catching up on sleep, he took Delaney out to his boat, getting her used to the sway of the water. He’d slathered layers of sunscreen on anything exposed to the sun or the wind and stuck a hat on her head that he’d picked up at Reclaimed Treasures, a little pink thing that tied under her chin to keep the sun out.
That’s where Jordan found them, sitting together on the dock, looking out over the cove.
“This is a pretty spot for thinking,” Jordan said as she plopped down beside them. “Nick said you might need help picking out a few outfits for Delaney.”
The baby wanted down to run around with Merlin, but Simon held firm. “I’d really appreciate it. No idea what she needs as far as clothes. She didn’t come with a lot.”
Jordan nodded. “We’ll wade through the choices together.”
“I don’t mean to bring this up, but before I went to bed last night I could’ve sworn I saw Scott. I know I was tired, but I even thought I had a conversation with him. I’m pretty sure it never happened. I’m certain it was all in my head.”
“But it did,” Jordan stated matter-of-factly as she took the squirming child out of his arms. “You weren’t dreaming.”
“How is that possible?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. Scott…he just refuses to leave. He loves it here. He watches over Hutton every day of her life.”
“Hutton is Scott’s?”
“I thought you knew.”
“No, I didn’t. It never occurred to me.”
“You and Nick never talk about what happened over there. You’re both so much alike in that regard. While you may think you know everything about Nick, I bet there’s one thing you don’t know. When Nick first came here, when he first got out of the Guard, he was all messed up in his head for reasons I didn’t understand. It took a few weeks before I realized he was suffering from guilt, PTSD, you name it. I think you have a lot of that inside you, too. Am I right? Nick mentioned to me once right after he got in touch with you that you’d been an Army sniper assigned to protect convoys. I can’t even imagine what you’ve seen and the things you’ll never be able to forget. I suppose those kinds of memories never quite go away.”
Simon gave her the faintest of smiles. “Not when people keep bringing it up.”
“Sorry. But you’re so like Nick, unwilling to talk about what your life was like over there. Almost haunted. Is it really that surprising when any of you see Scott?”
“When you put it that way, I guess not. Wait. What do you mean? Has Nick seen him, too?” But he already knew the answer. “Cord. Ryder. Eastlyn.”
“Notice a pattern?”
“It’s eerie that we all ended up here.”
“Not really. Not when you consider you all have super-bad memories from war. You all looked out for each other while you were over there. Why is it so out of the norm you’d still be doing it? You ended up here because Nick thought you might benefit from living in a town where people care about each other. Do you like living here, Simon?”
“I do.”
“Why?”
“Like you said, people here seem to care. Just look at what happened yesterday. I was overwhelmed, knocked on my ass over the news. I was scared. But you guys rallied, stepped in, stepped up, and got me through the shock. I mean, I’m still in shock just looking at Delaney, but you guys were there for me. Nick and Cord putting up the crib. You sending over food for a toddler, knowing I had no clue what I needed to do for her. Where else would people do that?”
“Pelican Pointe hasn’t always been like that, Simon. The day Nick drove up on that motorcycle of his, I was ready to give up, pack the house up that Scott had loved so much, and go back to the Bay Area to be with my family. I was that unhappy. I hated it here. I’d given up, so much so that I might’ve been on the verge of a mental breakdown. Living out here all alone, I suffered from a combination of depression and anger. I didn’t know it at the time but some o
f the rage was aimed at Scott. I felt like he’d dumped me here, pregnant, and taken off to be with his Guard unit. I wasn’t exactly the perfect military wife back home. I tried to be, but I was too miserable living out here in an unfriendly environment. The town was a huge disappointment for me. Scott had built this place up to be Paradise, which it definitely was not. But I couldn’t afford to break down or give up because at the time Hutton was Delaney’s age. What would’ve happened to her if I’d just buckled?”
“Then you know how I feel.”
“I do. Nick’s showing up when he did turned all that around, turned me around. He saved me, Simon. Do you understand what I’m saying? Nick came here because he was haunted by memories of Scott, by some stupid promise he made the day Scott died. That one decision saved my life. Because of him this Bed and Breakfast exists. And because it exists, you’re here. We’re all somehow an integral part of a dream Scott had for his hometown. And we’re making it happen after his death, one person at a time. You’re here for a reason. Don’t ever forget that.”
“I had no idea.”
“Why would you know any of it? You’ve been here two years, had dinner with us at least a dozen times. And afterward, you play with the kids, build Lego sets, do puzzles, you laugh and carry on with them like you were their great-uncle, but you always hold something of yourself back. You’re never totally, completely engaged. I see it in your eyes. You never say much about yourself, making sure to keep anything of a personal nature to yourself.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I was so distant. Maybe I have my reasons. Maybe I didn’t want to bring my troubles into a house that’s so…filled…with so much love. It seemed out of place. I seemed out of place being here, like I didn’t belong.”
Jordan reached over and laid her hand on top of his. “You’re not out of place. Not here. Not ever. You’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.” She took a shaky breath, thinking maybe she’d said too much, gone too far. “I’m not trying to interfere in your life, Simon. But something’s bothering you deep inside. Don’t let it get in the way of enjoying Delaney. That’s all I’m saying. And if you want me to babysit tomorrow while you do your Treasure Island run, I will.”
Keeping Cape Summer (A Pelican Pointe novel Book 11) Page 6
