the Beach Cottage, page 4
She slowed her pace to pull the boat into the marina at Blue Shoal, letting her hand drop back to her side, her hat safe. The boat idled through the marina, and she stopped in an empty space then tethered the boat in place.
“Penny St James? Seeing you twice in the space of a week can’t be a coincidence.” Rowan’s deep voice startled her and had her heart racing before she’d even turned to face him.
Her cheeks flushed with warmth at the sight of him standing beside a boat on the timber dock, shirtless and wearing a cap, his sweaty torso glistening beneath the sun’s warm rays. He held a rope in one hand. His abdominal muscles were tight and toned.
“Hello again,” she said awkwardly.
“What are you doing in my hometown?”
“You live in Blue Shoal?”
“Temporarily, of course.”
“I thought you lived in New York or something.”
“I did.” He shrugged. “I’m taking some time to rethink my career direction.”
“Is that code for being unemployed?” She shuddered at her own words. Why was she always so rude to him? He brought out the worst in her, and she couldn’t understand why.
“I suppose you could say that.” He laughed. “Unemployed and trying to figure out my next move.”
“Don’t you enjoy journalism anymore?”
He picked up a large rope and coiled it around his elbow and hand carefully. “Not as much as I did. There was a certain level of excitement to traveling and staying in hotels, chasing down leads and finding the story. But I’m older now, and I’d like to settle somewhere. Journalism doesn’t really allow for that. Although since I’m not qualified to do anything else, I suppose I’ll have to stick with it until I figure out what to do.”
“I never thought I’d see the day that Rowan Clements would settle down.” She shook her head. Next, he’d be saying he wanted to get married. And even though Penny had never taken the plunge herself, she’d always wanted to.
It’d been a source of immense frustration and disappointment over the years whenever long-term relationships had fizzled out or ended suddenly and without warning. Years that she’d dedicated to building connections, hoping it might end in a family of her own only to watch it all fall apart. She’d given up hoping and instead chose to be content with her animals and friendships these days.
He grinned. “I suppose stranger things have happened.”
“That’s true.”
“So, you didn’t answer my question. What are you doing in Blue Shoal?”
“I’m having lunch with some friends — Evie, Taya and Beatrice.”
“The whole crew back together again,” he said. “That must be nice.”
“It’s awesome, actually. I missed them for such a long time. Mostly it’s only been me and Taya here, and for much of that, she was dealing with a lot in her own life, so I didn’t see her often. But now we’re all back on the island, and unbelievably, all single.”
“Wow,” he said, looking surprised. “It would be great to catch up with them. I haven’t seen them in ages.”
“You should come swimming with us at Point Prospect in a few days.”
“Still marking the end of summer the same way?” He set the rope on the ground by his feet.
“That’s right. We’re going to swim with the dolphins.”
“Text me the details. I’d love to join you.”
“Perfect,” she said, waving goodbye as she walked across the marina. “See you later.”
She smiled to herself as she made her way through the quaint Main Street of Blue Shoal. That was the most mature and pleasant conversation she’d ever had with Rowan Clements. Maybe they were turning a corner. They were in their mid-forties, after all. If they couldn’t work through their teen angst now, they never would. She felt good about it. They might not be close, but at least they could be cordial.
He was ridiculously attractive these days. She didn’t recall him being quite so suave when they were young, but he’d grown into his looks very well. Of course, that was irrelevant—she wasn’t interested in someone like him. No doubt he’d be on his way in a few days or weeks, back to the jet-setting lifestyle he’d always had. And she’d stay here on the island rescuing native animals. She had no desire to get involved with a man who never sat still. Sitting still was one of her favourite things to do.
And besides all that, her brother had a rule about friends dating his sister. He’d made a bit of a fuss about it when they were younger, but perhaps he’d put it behind him by now. Anyway, she doubted Rowan would be at all interested in her when it was likely he had a woman in every port.
The Blue Shoal Inn was one of Penny’s favourite places on the entire island. It perched on a rise looking over a cozy cove at one end of the tiny village. It was in dire need of a paint job, but had a quaint and historic look that was popular with a certain segment of the tourist population who frequented this part of the island. Beyond the inn was a brand-new resort glistening white beneath the heat of the sun, apartments stepping up the hillside and turning the village into a modern complex with swimming pools, spas, palm trees and winding footpaths.
She found Taya, Evie and Beatrice seated in the private dining room at the back of the inn. They were already drinking their first cocktail. A grazing board sat in the centre of the table featuring various crackers, cheeses, breads and dips. Penny greeted them all with a hug and then reached for a piece of crusty bread, slathering it with camembert before collapsing into one of the chairs.
“It’s good to sit down. I’ve had the craziest morning.”
“Crazier than ending up in the mud with your high school crush on top of you?” Taya quipped with a wink.
The other two women laughed. Penny frowned. “He was most definitely not my high school crush—more like my enemy. And clearly, I should never have told the three of you about that. Now you’ll hold it over my head for the rest of our lives.”
“How long is he in town?”
“I just saw him again at the marina, and he says he’s between jobs. But who knows what that means — he’s been career obsessed ever since he left the island.” Penny took a bite of the bread and enjoyed the soft, savoury flavour of the camembert as it flooded her mouth.
“You two sure are running into each other a lot,” Bea said with a grin, then downed the last of her cocktail.
Penny rolled her eyes. “It was pure coincidence.”
“How did he look?”
“He was shirtless.”
“Oh, my.” Bea laughed. “Is it getting hot in here?” She flapped the neckline of her shirt against her chest.
“He did look pretty good. I don’t think he’s been skipping arm day at the gym.”
“You should ask him out,” Taya said with a confident bob of her head.
“What? No. Definitely not. We drive each other crazy. And not in a good way. Besides, he’s Rob’s best friend, and you know he has a rule about his friends dating me. He was always going on about it when we were younger.”
“You’re not exactly a kid anymore. I don’t think the same rules apply,” Evie said.
“I don’t know. He was pretty adamant about that one.”
“Well, I don’t know about any of you, but I’ve had enough of dating for a while.” Bea sighed.
“Didn’t you only go on one date?” Penny took another bite of bread.
Bea nodded. “And that was enough, apparently.”
“So, Aidan’s sticking to the whole idea of needing time with his daughter?” Taya asked.
“Unfortunately, yes. I get it, and I completely support him in wanting to do that. He’s missed out on so much of her life—which was very unfair of her mother, in my opinion. But it’s not up to me to get involved or to have a say. Aidan has enough to cope with—he doesn’t need me horning in or getting my feelings hurt. And the truth is, I’m not upset at him. I’m upset at the situation — I want him to spend time with his daughter. I want them to have a connection. He’s always longed for children of his own, although he doesn’t often say much about it. And now that he has that chance, I’m not going to get in the way. I just hope there’ll be room in his life for me at some stage.”
Penny bit down on her lower lip. She felt an immense sadness for her friend, who seemed to have had a chance at happiness ripped away right when it looked as though things might work out. “Give him time. He’ll come around.”
“You’re probably right,” Bea agreed. “In the meantime, I’ve got a café to get up and running.”
“Yes, you do,” Evie added, her eyes glistening. “And it’s going to be amazing.”
“Thank you, my friend. I thought I should have a grand opening party. What do you say?”
“I say that’s a great idea,” Taya replied. “What can we do to help?”
Six
The day dawned early and bright. By four thirty a.m., the sun crept above the horizon over the dark ocean and birds swanned about outside the cottage, diving for insects and waking the world with their calls. Beatrice had forgotten to pull the curtains shut on her bedroom windows and was woken by a shaft of sunlight spilling across the covers and over her face.
She squinted and blinked a few times before stumbling to the window to close the gap. But by then, it was too late to go back to sleep. She lay still, staring at the ceiling for a few minutes before reluctantly crawling from bed with a sigh. A glance in the bathroom mirror revealed dark smudges beneath her eyes and a sheet crease down one side of her face.
She grimaced and massaged the skin above her eyes for a few seconds before splashing cool water on her face. It’d been a hot night—she’d had to leave the overhead fan on so she didn’t sweat through her fitted sheet. But now the humidity had lifted and the cool of the morning drifted in through the open windows, along with the shushing of the waves as they curled gently to shore.
She’d spent a restless night thinking about all the things that could possibly be wrong with her father’s health. The worst-case scenario kept dinging around in her head with nowhere to go. She had to force herself to push those thoughts back down into the dark recesses of her mind.
He was going to be okay. There was no point getting alarmed yet — they were running tests. She could freak out once the results came back. But until then, she needed to think about something, anything, other than that. Thankfully, she had a full day of fun planned at Point Prospect to distract her.
By the time she’d taken her morning walk, showered and eaten breakfast, Bradford had pulled into the cove in one of his yachts. He anchored, then rowed a small tin boat to shore to meet her. She stood on the beach with a picnic basket slung over one arm, one hand up to block the glare of the sun from her eyes, and grinned.
When he reached the shore, she helped pull his tinny up on the sand, then gave him a hug. “The yacht is amazing. The others are going to love it.”
He laughed. “It’s fun to take it out for us to enjoy for a change rather than simply ferrying tourists out to the reef.”
He helped her into the tinny, then motored back to the yacht. Bea smiled as she climbed aboard the yacht and got to work alongside Bradford as they set sail around the island. It’d been a long time since she’d been sailing. She’d competed as part of a club when she was young, and Dad had always taken them out in his small sailboat. But this yacht took sailing to a whole new level for her, and she couldn’t wipe the grin from her face.
“I can’t believe you do this for a living,” she shouted above the noise of the wind in the sails.
Bradford looked the part behind the wheel, steering around the edge of the cove. He smirked. “It’s a hard life, but someone has to live it.”
Bea held her hat in place and sat at the front of the boat. She breathed deep of the sweet, fresh sea air and let all her worries ease out of her mind. She focused instead on the seagulls hovering overhead, the splash of salt water on her skin and the beautiful blue of the water as the yacht sliced through it.
When they approached Point Prospect, a large headland attached to a community with neighbourhoods, shops and a local surf life-saving club, Bea called Evie to find out where they were and discovered the rest of the group were waiting at the entrance to the beach. They anchored nearby and waved to their friends, and everyone hurried down to the beach to meet them.
The tinny motored to shore. Then Bradford ferried them all back to the yacht, and Bea helped set up a smorgasbord of picnic items and drinks in the galley. Aidan was there with his daughter. She offered him a smile and said hello to them both, but otherwise tried to stay out of their way. He’d asked for space, and she fully intended to give it to him although it was difficult, seeing him so close by with that smile tugging at the corners of his mouth in a way that set her heart racing.
They took turns swimming to the point, climbing the stairs and leaping off a rocky outcropping into the surging ocean below. Bea’s heart was in her throat when she took her turn, but she’d done it a dozen times as a teen and knew the best way to land and how to swim away from the rocks. When her head plunged beneath the cold water, a thrill of adrenaline surged through her body, and she couldn’t help laughing as her head broke through the water and into the sunlight.
When a modest pod of dolphins showed up, she swam alongside them, revelling in the beauty of the curious, intelligent creatures as they played around the swimmers. One of the dolphins eased slowly up to her, popped its head out of the water as if to greet her. She spoke to it, and it turned its head to the side so that one eye was fixed on her. Then it splashed its nose in the water, as though nodding. She laughed, and it ducked beneath the surface and swam away.
The dolphins didn’t stay long, but the encounter was even more invigorating than Bea had remembered. The older she grew, the more she appreciated the chance to connect with nature.
It was good to be alive. And she felt very much alive in that moment.
Afterwards, she climbed back into the boat to dry off under the hot sun. Penny was there, talking to Rowan. Bea couldn’t believe how much he’d changed since high school. He’d always been the tall, lanky, nerdy type. But he no longer wore glasses, he was athletic and tanned with a muscular physique, and even though there were a few strands of grey in his hair, he sported a thick head of it with luscious chestnut waves.
Penny clearly couldn’t take her eyes off him, and the feelings seemed mutual from where Bea was sitting on a towel laid out on the deck beside a half-sleeping Taya. Evie read a book next to her, wearing an enormous straw hat and oversized sunglasses.
“Can you believe Penny?” Evie whispered, eyes still tilted towards her book.
“She seems very interested in Rowan, if that’s what you’re referring to.”
“She’s always had a thing for him. I don’t know why she won’t admit it,” Taya murmured without moving.
“I don’t think Rob’s as thrilled with the idea as we are,” Evie pointed out.
Bea looked for Penny’s brother and found him standing to one side talking to Bradford, a beer in hand, his eyes drilling holes into the back of Rowan’s head. He wore a snarling expression on his face.
“Oh, dear,” Bea said. “Surely he can’t still think he should have a say in who his sister dates.”
“Maybe he knows Rowan too well and doesn’t want her to be hurt,” Taya offered, sitting up and adjusting her red bathing suit.
“I suppose that could be true.” Bea’s gaze had shifted to where Aidan was helping Grace into a snorkel and fins. He was already an attentive father. Bea had often thought he’d make a great dad. She was happy to see him finally getting to fulfil that role and knew how much it would mean to him. It brought tears to her eyes to watch them enjoying the day together. She might not be able to share the moment with them, but at least she was able to witness it.
At that moment, Penny screamed as Rowan threw her off the deck and into the ocean. She landed with a gigantic splash that soaked Aidan and Grace. Aidan shook his head, laughing, then helped Grace to climb down the ladder into the water below.
Penny came to the surface coughing and spluttering while Rowan leaned over the side of the boat to laugh at her. Rob glowered at them both, arms crossed.
When Penny climbed back onto the boat, she padded over to where Bea and the others sat. “Can you believe him? He threw me into the water like we’re still teenagers. I could’ve broken a bone.”
Bea laughed. “Hardly. It’s only water.”
“I wish someone would throw me into the water like a teenager,” Evie muttered.
Penny frowned. “Huh?”
“Nothing. Hey, Pen, I have those photos Bea found in her cottage with me. Remember how you said some of them were from your family? Can you point them out again? I want to write down their names and maybe figure out the approximate date the pictures were taken. Bea helped me with it, but we want to make sure.”
Penny sat beside her, wringing water from her ponytail. “Let me have another look.”
Evie pulled the photos from her beach bag and held them up for Penny to see.
“Yep, that’s my mother and my grandmother. This other photo has Dad in it.”
“We think it was forty-five years ago or something like that because of when the cottage was built. But what do you think?”
Penny chewed on a fingernail. “That makes sense. I’m not in the photo, and I’m forty-five, but my mum was very young when she had me. So it must’ve been soon after this one was taken. She wasn’t married to Dad yet, they were both still teenagers. But he was a friend of the family and used to go over there often in the summer holidays to fish and swim. His own parents worked on the mainland, so my grandmother took care of him.”
“How young?” Bea asked.
“Sixteen.”
“Wow, that is young. When did she get married?”
Penny shrugged. “Not until she was twenty-two. She married my step father — I call him Dad because he’s the only father I’ve ever known.”
