The Seacrest (3 page)

He glared at me. “Time for lunch. Let’s go.”

There was no arguing with his stern tone. She tossed him the ball and wiggled her fingers at me. “See ya ‘round, Finn.”

I grinned like an idiot. God, she was cute. “Okay, Sassy. See ya.”

I watched her link arms with her father and sashay away from me. The sun winked on the brilliant sand, almost blinding me. As if hypnotized, I stared with slack jaw until I could barely make out her figure among the crowded, colorful throng of beach-lovers.

Sassy.

Oh, Sassy. You’re the one for me.

Chapter 5

July 9, 2013

F
our days after burying my wife, I lay in the dark bedroom of our cottage, clutching one of her sweaters. It smelled like her. Beach plum blossoms. Wild roses. Tangerines.

I know. That sounds so lame. I really am a man’s man, most of the time. I work outside with sledgehammers and hole diggers and even have a cool leather tool belt. But this whole double death thing had just about killed me.

I hadn’t shaved or showered in days.

Guilt over neglecting my job hovered around the edges of my subconscious, but I didn’t acknowledge it. It could wait, like all the phone calls, invitations to visit and the three casserole dishes sitting untouched in the fridge.

I hadn’t eaten much since the funerals. A few tablespoons of peanut butter. A quart of milk with chocolate syrup squirted in it. A box of grahams.

I don’t like noodle casserole, anyway.

My eyes were swollen, and my stupid body kept heaving with grief. Embarrassing, really. I was glad no one was there to see.

Cora wasn’t there.

No. She’d never come back.

I sighed and rolled over on the bed. My German Shepherd, Ace, hopped up and realigned himself against the back of my knees.

He’s all I have left now. It’s just Ace and me.

He nuzzled me with his nose, then pressed his big body against me and started to snore.

I stroked his ears and along the side of his neck. “Good boy.”

My throat tightened again.

Had Cora really loved me in the end?

I didn’t know. Much as I cared for her, much as I tried to make her happy, she seemed to shy away from me over the past few months. She’d smile that faraway smile and answer my questions as if they didn’t matter anymore.

Why?

What had I done?

We hadn’t made love in weeks. She was always too tired after starting graduate classes. She studied every evening, and when I suggested a movie, she’d loose a quick laugh as if I were a child, practically shooing me away. I’d fall asleep before her, because I got up at five to feed the horses and start my day.

Once I’d caught her whispering in the phone when I got up to use the bathroom. The next day she said it was a classmate; they were working on an assignment.

Out of the blue, Cora wanted a Masters degree in music; and then a teaching certificate. All this came about quite suddenly, immediately following our final school loan payment. Now she’d started all over again, building up the debt and storming full force ahead without even discussing it with me before she registered and bought a dozen books.

I hadn’t resented her going back to school, not at first. Until it seemed I was no longer a part of her life. Then I resented the hell out of it.

Had I failed her somehow? Aside from not providing a luxurious living, I had never cheated, had never lied.

Well, there was that one lie. The thing I never told her. That thing I’d never tell her. That thing I’d buried deep down inside and didn’t let come up except sometimes in the dark of night. No, I’d never mentioned that one.

A knock came at the door.

Ace sat up and gave a soft woof.

“Who is it?” I croaked.

“Me. Open up, Finn.”

Libby sounded pissed off. Great. Just what I needed.  

“Hold on.” I dragged myself to my feet and went to the door, cracking it open, squinting in the late morning sun.

“Finn, for crying out loud. Put some pants on.” She pushed past me and flopped sideways on my overstuffed chair.

I looked down, realizing my shorts had opened, revealing far more than I wanted. I pulled myself together and shuffled over to the pile of clothes on the floor. I slipped on my jeans, zipped them up, and faced her. “Better?”

“Yes.” She fished around in her pocket and drew out her iPhone. She typed a short text and then shut it down. “Listen. I think you should get off your duff and get back to work.”

Silence.

“I mean it. Look at this place.” She got up and kicked at the pile of clothes on the floor. “I know you’re hurting. I know you have good reason, Finn. But this isn’t healthy. You need to keep busy. To get outdoors.”

“It isn’t
healthy?
” I felt anger building. “Are you fucking kidding? Not
healthy
? My wife and brother just died. It’s only been a week.”

 For a moment, a soft look crossed her face. Her mouth trembled. “I know.” She turned to me, her pretty eyes bright with purpose. “I understand how hard it is.”

I dropped onto the side of the bed and looked down at my hands. All emotion suddenly drained from me. “I know you do.”

She returned to the chair and perched on the edge of the seat. “I never thought it would happen to both of us.”

“I know. Me, neither.”

“It’ll be three years, next week, since he went MIA.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m pretty sure he’s not coming back, Finn.”

“I know.”

“You and Cora were so good to me when I heard about it. I’ll always be grateful.”

“He was a brave man, Lib. A good man. Served his country, and all that.”

Tears filled her eyes. “That’s the problem.”

“What do you mean?” I sat forward with my hands on my chin. “I thought the problem was he disappeared in that wretched war.”

“That was just
part
of the problem.”

“What else was there?”

“He wasn’t a good man, Finn. He was a…a monster.”

I stared at her. “What?”

Tears ran down her face, flooding her cheeks. She bent her head and covered her face with her hands, shoulders shaking. “Ian hurt me. It started a few months after we were married.”

My heart splintered in two. “He
hurt
you?”

“All the time.”

I leaned forward and touched her hand. “Oh, Libby. Why didn’t you tell me? Or your father?”

She stared at me through reddened eyes. “You?” A harsh laugh burst from her lips. “Of all the people I longed to tell, you would be the
last
person on my list.”

My brain swam in confusion. “I don’t get it. Why?”

She shot me a dirty look. “I don’t
believe
you.” With that, she leapt out of the chair and stalked to the door. “Get yourself cleaned up and get back to work. The lawn needs mowing.”

I stared after her, wondering what the hell she was talking about.

Ace nosed my hand, standing beside me. He uttered a low whine, as if he were trying to understand what just happened.

“Me, too, buddy. Me, too.”

Chapter 6

July 9
^th
, 1997

12:30 P.M.

I
loved my brother, but there was always something wrong with him. He was a little bit “off,” if you know what I mean. He drove me crazy.

We worked the blueberry farm every summer, starting when we were just kids. This summer—I was sixteen—I’d been allowed to drive the trolley back and forth through the acres to drop off and pick up customers who filled their baskets with plump blueberries in the hot sun. My father would do one run, then I’d do the next. While my father took his turn, I’d weigh people’s berries, helping my mother at the stand.

Jax had been running the picking machines that morning, and I had just stopped to collect a group of customers who were ready to head back to weigh in and pay for their berries, when I spied her.

Sassy stood in white denim shorts and a red halter top with her father, a lady I assumed was her mother, and a gaggle of older ladies and kids with blue teeth. My heart nearly stopped when I pulled over to pick them up.

All lanky and lean, she looked beautiful, and she found my eyes before I could prepare myself, shooting me a smile that almost flattened me from its sheer magnitude. Flustered and deliriously happy, I hopped down and helped folks up the aluminum steps. Her father did a double take when he noticed me, snorted, and heavily climbed aboard. I guess he hadn’t expected to see me there. She extended one delicate hand to me, and I helped her up.

Electricity shot between us, and I knew she felt it, because I swear I heard her gasp.

Before she let go, she squeezed my fingers. “Finn. I didn’t know you worked here.”

I smiled like a goof. “It’s my family’s farm.”

“Nice,” she said, nodding to the surrounding fields of berries. “I love it.”

“Thanks,” I said, not sure what I was really thanking her for. Maybe it was for standing there in the bright sunlight, her frank eyes searching mine, her skin glistening in the heat. Maybe it was for the shockwave of love that surged through me. Or the way my legs turned to jelly when she was near. Could it be her velvety voice that trilled a looping dance up and down my spine?

A querulous snarl came from the back. “Sonny? Stop dawdling and get us out of here. It’s too hot for flirting.”

Sassy covered her mouth and laughed, and I grinned back at her. “Yes, ma’am,” I shouted to the lady. “I’m on it.”

Sassy settled herself just behind my driver’s seat. I climbed back up and started the engine, slowly meandering between the rows and up the dirt path leading to the farm. Halfway there, Jax hailed me from a patch of berries he’d been harvesting. “Hey, bro. Give me a ride.”

I stopped and he climbed aboard, sitting beside me in the front.

“Hot as hell out here,” he said. “We should go to the beach later.”

“Yeah,” I said, glancing back at Sassy. “Maybe you could come with us?”

She giggled. “I’d have to ask permission. But maybe.”

Jax turned and noticed her, his eyes practically bugging out. To my horror, he got the way he did around pretty girls, practically swaggering in his seat. “Hey, beautiful.”

I glanced back at her, wondering if she’d smack him. I didn’t think she’d like being treated that way. And I worried. Oh, yes, I worried. At seventeen, he’d stolen girls from all his friends. My mother said it was his devilish good looks, his undeniable charm. I worried some more. “Sassy, this is my brother, Jax. Jax, this is Sassy.”

She didn’t say much, just nodded and mumbled hello.

He swung around over the seat and plopped down next to her. “Sassy, huh? You go to our school?”

She didn’t answer.

He sneaked an arm around her shoulders, leaning too close to her face. I looked back and saw her slide away from him.

Good.

From the back of the trolley, her father curled a finger at her and patted the seat beside him. Her mother called out. “You come over here, girl. Sit with us.”

With flushed cheeks, Sassy stood, locking eyes with me. “I’ll try to make it. Paines Creek? Seven o’clock?”

“Seven’s great,” I whispered, almost driving off the track because I couldn’t stop staring at her.

She carefully made her way to the back of the trolley.

Jax guffawed. “I see how it is. Little Finn’s got a girlfriend. Oo-la-la.” He did a stupid hula dance and climbed back into the front. “Wait’ll I tell Mom and Dad.”

 “Shut up,” I said. “Just shut up.”

Chapter 7

July 9, 2013

Noon

L
ibby did drag me out of my cocoon of woe that day. I’d stumbled into the shower and let the warm water soothe my bruised soul. She’d done me a good turn, and I needed to thank her for it.

After working outside all day—I’d mucked stalls, mowed the mansion grounds, and trimmed and fed all the roses in the garden—I realized how hungry I was. Those dried-out noodle casseroles just didn’t do it for me, so I headed to the local market in my noisy Jeep, eliciting stares from tourists and hoping Police Chief Kramer or Deputy Lowell didn’t catch me. I’d been warned about the muffler twice now, but I still didn’t have the cash to fix it.

Food came first.

Cars second. Long as they got you where you were going.

Right?

I jumped out of the Jeep and lunged for a rogue grocery cart that rolled toward me, threatening to add another dent to my vehicle.

“Whoa! Good catch, Finn.”

I turned to see Doc Fillmore, who I’d always known as Stinker from elementary school. The man had the ability to clear a room when he was in sixth grade.

“Hey, Stinker.”

He stood behind his Land Rover, loading a mountain of groceries into the back. The man had eight kids, all growing fast.

He came around to shake my hand. “Nice day, huh?”

A brilliant coroner, yes. Conversation? Not his forté.

“Yeah. It’s a nice one.”

I thought that would be it. Usually we didn’t talk a lot, except maybe when I asked about his family or he mentioned The Seacrest or Libby’s horses. He had a mad passion for horses and often followed us around to her dressage events.

“Er, Finn. I wanted to say…” His face turned reddish. “I mean…”

“Thanks, Stink.” I figured he was trying to say he was sorry for my losses.

He cleared his throat. “I am sorry about your wife and brother. But I wanted to say I’m also really sorry about the child.”

That stopped me in my tracks. I pushed the cart against my Jeep so it wouldn’t roll down the incline, and took a few steps toward him.
“What?”

He shuffled his feet, then summoned his professional demeanor. Straightening, he locked eyes with me. “As I’m sure you know, Cora was about four months pregnant. I’m really sorry.”

The blood drained from my face and I swayed. Catching myself, I leaned over the hood of the Jeep.