Saltwater Cove Page 9

  Amanda nodded. “Did you find anything?”

  “Not really. But I’m going to keep looking.”

  “Ah. Okay. Any orca sightings yet?”

  “Unfortunately not. We can go on the boat later this week and look for them.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “Are you hungry? I was thinking we can get dinner in town later. Whatever you like.”

  “I would love some tacos.” Amanda stood up and straightened her blouse. “There is no good Mexican food in London, I swear.”

  Hank laughed. “Perfect. Oh actually – do you mind if we stop at one place on the way?”

  “Fine with me.”

  They got into the truck and Hank drove towards Friday Harbor. Eddie lived just outside of town, so Hank thought it might be a good idea to pay him a little visit. When they got to the house, he asked Amanda to stay in the car before going to the front door and knocking. Eddie opened the door right away.

  “Hey Hank, good to see you man. Do you want to come in for a beer?”

  He shook his head. “No Eddie. I’m here as a favor for a friend.”

  “Oh yeah? Am I in some sort of trouble?” Eddie said with a laugh.

  “That depends. Do you ever plan on finishing the job that Margie Clifton paid you for?”

  Eddie took a small step back and put his hands up. “Whoa whoa, I don’t know what she told you –”

  “She didn’t tell me anything. I’ve been helping her around the barn, and every time I stop by, I can tell you haven’t even touched those bathrooms. What’s the matter, been too busy?”

  “No, I was actually going to go there on Wednesday.”

  Hank narrowed his eyes. “Wednesday?”

  “I meant Monday! Yeah, first thing Monday morning.”

  Hank smiled and placed a hand on Eddie’s shoulder. “That’s great to hear Eddie. Well, I’ve got to run, but you enjoy the rest of your evening.”

  Eddie nodded quickly. “You too Chief.”

  Hank turned and walked back to his truck. He tried taking some deep breaths. He really didn’t like that guy, but at least it seemed like he was able to get through to him.

  “What was that about?” asked Amanda when he got back in the truck.

  He shrugged. “Nothing really. Eddie was just stringing along a friend of mine.”

  “Margie, you said? I’ve never heard of her,” said Amanda slowly. “Is she new to the island?”

  He turned around to back out of the driveway. “Uh, yeah. Kind of new. You ‘member Mike? It’s his sister. He sold her his property.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  He thought about telling her more about Margie, but she wasn’t asking any more questions. And he felt strange talking about Margie. He put on some music and they got to the restaurant a few minutes later.

  It wasn’t until after they put their order in for tacos that Amanda started again. “So that’s where you were the other day? When I called?”

  “Messing with Eddie?” Hank said with a laugh.

  “No, with that lady. What’s her name.”

  He tried to keep his tone casual. “Margie.”

  “Yeah. Margie.”

  Hank could sense the shift in her mood. Normally, she’d be cheerful any time that there were tacos nearby, but she didn’t seem excited now. She wasn’t going to let this go. Hank decided it might be best to skim over some of the details.

  “Well, actually –”

  “Chief Hank? Is that you?” said a familiar voice behind him.

  Hank turned around. Morgan and Margie stood in the entrance of the restaurant.

  Oh boy. How could their timing be so impossibly bad?

  “Hi Hank!” said Margie, walking towards them.

  Hank felt like a trapped animal. He looked at his daughter, then back at Margie. “Oh, hey Margie, how’s it going?”

  Play it cool. Like Margie is just a friend. Well – they were just friends. That should be easy to act that way then, right?

  “It looks like Chief is with a younger woman,” said Morgan in a fake whisper.

  Not a good joke right now Morgan. Hank stood up. “Guys, this is my daughter Amanda. Amanda, this is Margie, and Morgan.”

  Amanda stood up and shook both of their hands. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  “It’s nice to meet you too.”

  He stood there for a second. It was not as easy to act natural as he’d hoped. He had no idea what to say, so finally he blurted out, “Tacos huh? Good stuff.”

  Margie nodded. “Yeah, Morgan convinced me to come here to get dinner.”

  “When are you coming to build the rest of the furniture Chief?” asked Morgan.

  Amanda looked at him; Hank could feel her glare and avoided it.

  “You know, whenever you need me,” he said. “I have that drill that would help. That I told you about.”

  “I’d really like to decorate in there,” said Morgan.

  Margie hushed her. “Well then, you can build everything yourself, don’t bother him. Hank is busy. We’ll let you two get back to your meal. We just ordered some takeout, and I’m guessing it’s the bag sitting there on the counter.”

  “Okay, it was nice seeing you. Enjoy your food.”

  “You too!”

  They picked up their food and in less than two minutes, they were gone. In the meantime, Hank and Amanda’s food arrived.

  Amanda leaned forward. “What was that all about Dad?”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” he answered right away.

  Never answer right away.

  Amanda sat back and crossed her arms. “That lady. Are you guys…dating or something?”

  “No! Not at all. We’re just – friends. She’s new on the island, and I’m trying to make her feel welcome, and I’m helping her out a little bit. She is Mike’s sister, so I feel like I really need to help her.”

  “And that girl? Is that her daughter?”

  “Oh. Morgan? No. She’s actually the daughter of that lady who passed away.”

  “Oh.” Amanda took a bite of her taco and chewed slowly.

  Hank stuffed most of a taco into his mouth. Amanda was onto him. She was more worldly than other young women her age – she never would’ve been caught snooping around Brock’s place like Morgan was. She was extremely successful, which he was proud of – of course. But she knew when someone was lying, especially when he was lying.

  “Because you know what?” she finally said. “I’d think it’d be pretty messed up if you started dating someone so soon after mom died.”

  There it was. He closed his eyes and rubbed his face. “We’re not dating, Amanda. I wouldn’t do that.”

  “Good. Because that would be ridiculous.”

  He softened his tone and reached out to grab her hand. “You have nothing to worry about. Okay?”

  She crossed her arms. “Okay.”

  He cleared his throat and took a sip of water. It was time to change the subject. “So, do you want to go out on the boat tomorrow?”

  Amanda picked a piece of lettuce out of her teeth. “Yeah. Fine.”

  He smiled. “Great.”

  They were able to finish their meal without any more issues. But Hank knew that Amanda was right – he’d felt the same way, but chose to ignore the feeling. It was too soon to date, even if it was someone as lovely as Margie. He would just have to…find a way to avoid her.

  Yeah. From now on, no more Margie.

  Chapter 15

  They were hardly out of earshot from the restaurant when Morgan spoke again.

  “Why was Chief being so weird? Did you guys have a fight or something?”

  “No, of course not,” Margie said, trying to keep her tone light. “He was probably just surprised to see us – you know, when he was with his daughter.”

  “Oh,” said Morgan. “Do you think he wasn’t ready for you to, like, meet her?”

  Margie laughed. “No – I don’t think – why are we even on this topic? More importantly, you ca
n’t just ask people to come over and build your furniture!”

  Morgan shrugged. “I don’t really want him to build the furniture, I just thought that you two had a nice time together, and…”

  “Thank you for that. But that’s not very polite.”

  They drove in silence. After a few minutes, Morgan responded. “I’m sorry. Sometimes I feel awkward I…overdo it. With the jokes.”

  “It’s alright,” Margie said with a smile. “I just – you know this is all very new for me. Spending time with a man.”

  “A nice man?”

  Margie’s heart jumped. Why did she say “nice” like that? Did Morgan know about Jeff? And that Jeff was not a nice man? Was she in on it this whole time?

  “I don’t know what you mean by that,” Margie responded. “But yes, he’s a very nice man.”

  “I just mean that your…never mind.”

  A Bonnie Tyler song came onto the radio and it was the perfect excuse for Margie to change the subject. “Oh! Do you hear that? Guess who!”

  Morgan groaned but didn’t make any complaints. Margie turned up the music so she could be alone with her thoughts.

  Morgan wasn’t wrong – Hank was acting strangely. Did he know about Jeff? Maybe he actually did look up the birth certificate and saw that it was her ex-husband’s name as the father. But would he even know her husband’s name? That didn’t make much sense. But if it said “Jeff Clifton” he could obviously put it together.

  Part of her hoped that Hank did know. At least she wouldn’t be the only one with this secret. It’d only been a few days, but it felt like it was killing her. How had Jeff hidden this for so many years? Did he have no heart?

  No – Margie told herself not to think that way. It was much too easy to become the bitter ex-wife. And that was not what she wanted for her family. They were only three weeks away from Jeff’s surprise party, and they were expecting nearly sixty people. All of the kids were coming to the island and planning to stay for the week after the party. It was going to be lovely.

  If Margie came in accusing Jeff of – she couldn’t even think of the words. Having an illegitimate child? Cheating on her? Lying for all these years?

  No, something wasn’t right. It was hard to think about – hard to focus on. They got back to the house and enjoyed their dinner. It was Morgan’s idea – she said that she stopped in there for lunch and thought that Margie would really like it. She was right – the tacos were delicious.

  When they were cleaning up, Margie decided to broach an uncomfortable topic. “Have you told your dad yet that you’ve been staying here?”

  “No, not yet. I’ve been calling him regularly, but I just know that if I tell him the truth he’s going to want to know who I’ve been staying with, and then he may not believe me.” She paused. “Hey! Why don’t you talk to him for me?”

  Margie’s stomach dropped. What were the chances that her stepfather knew her name? Or that he remembered a Jeff Clifton from his wife’s past?

  “Oh, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Oh come on, please?”

  “You are an adult young lady, and this is your problem.”

  Luckily, that was enough for Morgan to drop the subject and they both turned in for bed. Just like the night before, Margie was unable to sleep. She tossed and turned in her bed and grew strained with every passing hour. For a while she’d feel hot, then she’d throw off the covers and grow cold and repeat the process. She didn’t know what to do; it felt like this secret was eating her alive.

  There was someone she could talk to about it, though she wasn’t sure if he already knew. Hank would understand. More importantly, she trusted Hank. He would know what to do – or at least, he’d be able to give her an idea of how to proceed. Hank went from being her only friend on the island to something more. A flutter took off in her stomach. Of course she could talk to him.

  What was it about him? He’d kind of snuck up on her. The thought that he was interested in her didn’t even cross her mind until he invited her on that boat! And then they had such a lovely time.

  Margie smiled to herself – he wasn’t a bad looking man, either. Sure, he was a little soft around the middle – but so was she. And she could close her eyes and see him chopping up that wood. He was so strong. So honest and sincere.

  So different than Jeff.

  The next morning, she stopped by the Sheriff’s Department to see if Hank was in. She was informed that he had taken the entire week off to spend with his daughter. That made sense. And Margie didn’t want to just pop over and surprise him. His daughter seemed a bit annoyed when she dropped in on their dinner.

  She sat in her car in the parking lot and sent him a message. “Hi Hank, I hope you’re having a nice visit with Amanda. I hate to bother you, but I want to talk to you about something. Something important. Can we meet for lunch this week?”

  He didn’t respond for a few hours, which Margie found surprising. Before when they texted back and forth, he answered right away. She reasoned he must be busy with Amanda.

  Then she read his response, several hours later. “Hey Margie, I’m sorry but that won’t be possible this week. I’m sure that one of the deputies can help you out if you’re having any trouble. Take care.”

  One of the deputies? Take care? What was that supposed to mean? That made it sound like he was saying goodbye forever.

  Margie felt beads of sweat collecting on her forehead. Was this a hot flash? Or did Hank already know about Morgan and Jeff, and he hated her for lying to him?

  No, she couldn’t let that stand. He deserved to hear the full story before he could hate her for it. When she first saw the picture, she went into a sort of shock. It was even worse than when Morgan appeared at her door. When she regained her senses, she thought about telling Morgan right away and just coming clean. Telling her that she hadn’t known for sure until then.

  But that left a lot of open questions. Why had Jeff done what he’d done? She needed a chance to talk to him in private. It was too awful to accept that he could have been so cruel and knowingly abandoned Morgan.

  If he knew all along, then the man that she chose to be the father of her children was a terrible person. It meant that she put up with his endless traveling and mood swings for nothing. It meant that she was the biggest fool in the world.

  What she wanted to know most dearly was if Kelly ever told Jeff that she was pregnant. There was a chance that her visit to the house on that fateful night was her first attempt to tell him, and her last.

  What if she hadn’t expected to see Margie there? Or, what if she’d just found out that Jeff was married, and heartbroken, she showed up at the house?

  Truth be told, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that Jeff had some sort of a fling when they were young. Margie hated to admit it – to face it, really – but clearly, something like that occurred. It seemed impossible, though, that he would have knowingly abandoned Kelly and Morgan. It just…couldn’t be.

  She needed a chance to talk to Jeff first, to show him Kelly’s picture. If she told Morgan that Jeff was her father before knowing exactly what happened, she ran the risk of hurting Morgan more than if she waited to get the full story.

  She’d hoped she could wait to do it in person, but now she saw how foolish that was. Margie took a deep breath and pulled out her phone. She dialed Jeff’s number.

  No answer.

  She decided to leave a voicemail – something light, but making it clear that they needed to talk. Hopefully he’d call back soon and they could have this very difficult conversation.

  Until then, Margie decided to focus on getting the house and the barn ready for the party. That was all she could do to not go crazy with the secret hanging over her.

  Chapter 16

  “I don’t see why we have to spend the night there,” said Brandon, arms firmly crossed on his chest.

  He was tired, and the last thing he wanted to do was be forced to make pleasant conversation wit
h his mother-in-law and that annoying girl.

  “I thought it might be easier, so we didn’t have to rush to catch the ferry. My mom is going to make dinner. Plus, I told Morgan that I’d go on a hike with her and…” Jade’s voice trailed off.

  Brandon sighed. It didn’t seem necessary to him for them to have to sleep on San Juan Island. He’d planned to relax and watch a movie that night.

  Ever since Jade started going over to her mom’s more often, it was actually really nice for him – he had a lot more time to himself. But when he had to do things like this – go all the way to San Juan for no reason – he wondered if it was worth it.

  Jade spoke again. “I mean, we don’t have to stay the night if you don’t want to. I just thought that it might be nicer.”

  “No, we’re already going, so it doesn’t matter. I don’t know why you always run with these ideas and don’t tell me about them. It’s really not fair.”

  “I did tell you, I thought you agreed it was a good idea too.”

  Brandon sat up. His back hurt, and the seats on the ferry were uncomfortable. “Yeah, I was kind of okay with it before I realized that you wanted me to DJ your dad’s party for free. Now I’m just losing valuable time that I could be working.”

  Jade laughed. “Oh come on, you didn’t have anything booked for that night.”

  “But maybe I could have.”

  “Listen, I never said that you were going to do it for free, but I just thought…well, it’d be a nice gift for my dad if you did.”

  Of course. What was she getting him? That would be like her setting up a whole website for free or something. “Jade, I’m an artist. I can’t just give away my services for free.”

  She sighed. “Fine. Then I’ll pay your normal rate.”

  He tilted his head. “What’s with the attitude? Why have you been acting like this recently?”

  “Like what? I just think that –”

  “You’re being so manipulative, making me do your dad’s party.”

  “I thought that you said that you wanted to get in on the ground level, so that you could be the DJ for all of the events that my mom will have at the barn.”