The House on Mermaid Point (34 page)

“Did you hear what I said, Mad?”

“Hm?” She looked up and saw Steve watching her. His gray eyes were serious; his face intent. “Sorry. No.”

“I was saying I wish we could give it another go. That maybe we could start over. You know, try again.”

“What?”

“I’ve missed you and the life we had.” His voice rang with sincerity. “We could scale down together. Maybe take a condo in Buckhead or in Midtown. We could even just rent for a while and be, I don’t know, kind of footloose and fancy-free.”

“Why would we do that?” She looked more closely and saw the twitch in one eye, the trouble he was having keeping his hands still. “What’s happened to Kelly?”

“Oh, nothing. That relationship just kind of, I don’t know, ran its course.”

Their divorce had been mostly amicable. It had been clear to Maddie, at least, that their relationship had been far too damaged by everything that had happened to do anything but limp along. She had thought that being alone was preferable to being part of something so broken. She’d thought Steve had felt the same.

“So, let me see if I understand this,” Maddie said. “You were okay without me when you had a job and a girlfriend. But now that you don’t have either . . .”

“It’s not that easy to be single and alone, Maddie. If you haven’t figured it out yet, you will.”

“It’s different all right.” But making her own decisions and charting her own path? That might be frightening, but it was also exciting. With each new experience she felt stronger and a step closer to becoming the person she’d never even dreamed she might be. “But being single isn’t the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.” What they’d lived through and her loss of respect for him had been far worse.

“Pfft.” Steve waved his hand dismissively. “What kind of life do you think you’re going to have alone?” He honestly seemed to believe she couldn’t be happy without him.

“I’m not alone,” she said, glancing at her watch then signaling to their waitress for the check. “I have the children. And good friends that I know I can count on.” Lord knew, Avery, Nicole, and Deirdre had turned out to be the silver lining—and even the rainbow—that had come with the thunderstorm of Malcolm Dyer’s Ponzi scheme.

At Maddie’s continued protests Steve’s expression turned petulant; never a good look for him. They made the short drive to the MARTA station in silence. There she thanked him for the ride, wished him luck, and reached for the door handle.

“You know, the world’s not exactly sitting there waiting for you.”

“I’m sorry?” She turned in the seat but didn’t let go of the handle.

“I said the world’s not waiting for you, Madeline Singer. The world is not your oyster. You’re fifty-one years old. And you’ve spent your entire adult life driving carpools and serving snacks after Little League games. Who do you think’s going to even look at you, let alone want you?”

In her former life she might have turned the other cheek. Or at least gotten out of the car without even symbolically slapping his. But the taunting tone and accompanying smirk on his face were too much for her.

“Well, I wasn’t going to mention it but William Hightower did.” She smiled what she hoped was a Mona Lisa smile filled with mystery and sexual knowledge then got out of the car and retrieved her bag from the backseat. She leaned her head in the open passenger-side door. “I guess you’ve been too busy to watch the show or surf the Internet. Let’s just say I now know exactly why they call him ‘Wild Will.’”

His mouth was still open in shock when she slammed the car door shut and walked away.

When Maddie arrived at the Mermaid Point dock, the boathouse and the upstairs suites were already a bright tropical green with white trim. She’d seen Will’s skiff in the boathouse cradle and immediately braced for the moment she might run into him. She dropped her suitcase off on the houseboat, passed the newly refinished pool and palm-tree-edged deck, amazed at how much had been accomplished on the island in her absence.

Avery walked her through the main house like a proud mother showing off an especially talented child, stopping every minute or two to share a story or give an explanation. In the kitchen Roberto hung the upper cabinets while Fred Strahlendorf, back with a shiny new pencil protector, connected the new appliances. With the new glass composite countertops completed, a plumbing crew set toilets, hooked up faucets, and put in showerheads in the four guest suites. “They’ll finish all the bathrooms today then come back to hook up the dishwasher and kitchen sink once the zinc countertops go in. The refrigerator and icemaker under the stairs are operational as of about ten minutes ago,” Avery explained.

Nicole and Deirdre stood on tall ladders in front of the fireplace pressing shells, rocks, and chunks of barnacles and coral into the still-soft concrete that ran up the wall to the ceiling.

“Wow, that looks great!” Maddie moved closer to get a better look.

“Thanks.” Deirdre smiled. “Fortunately our technique seems to be improving. We did a smaller version in the garage guesthouse and found out the hard way that it works a lot better if you work your way up in sections.”

Maddie turned slowly, trying to take in the whole space. The plank floors shone under a light gloss of polyurethane. The acid-washed pecky cypress lightened the entire space, and the glass accordion doors that now stretched across the ocean side of the house maximized the view and allowed the sunshine to stream through unchecked.

“You just fold them open and push them to the wall when the weather’s good, and voila—it’s all outdoor space,” Avery enthused. “Just wait ’til you see how they open up the master suite.”

Maddie smiled gamely, still braced for the first encounter with Will. Though surely whatever William’s reaction might be to her, it was hard to imagine anyone could have a complaint with the renovation. The kitchen cabinetry was clean lined and the new commercial appliances fit perfectly with the Wolf range’s huge stainless steel hood. A railing had been run down the new stair and a collection of wooden boat paddles of various shapes, sizes, and colors stood nearby. Avery held one up to demonstrate how they’d be screwed in to serve as spindles.

“Those are going to look fabulous,” Maddie said. “Although I was kind of hoping never to see one again after we had to paddle back that morning.”

“Well, you don’t want to be up a creek without one,” Nicole joined in from the other side of the room.

“Or on a flat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean at low tide,” Avery added.

“Everything looks so great. I’m sorry to have left you shorthanded.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Avery rearranged the paddles against the wall. “It’s okay. I told Lisa Hogan that we were down a worker and she could either provide extra money for additional crew, push back our deadline until after Labor Day, or let me know which buildings she wanted to leave unfinished. We got an extra painter.” She laughed. “But you’re back just in time to help us finish the interior cut-in work tomorrow and the next day. We’ll move outside to do the same after that.”

“Avery was just waiting for it to get as hot as possible before we moved outside.” Nicole pressed a large rock into the concrete and held it there.

“Hey, there’s no getting around the heat,” Avery replied. “We’re lucky there’s still no rain on the horizon—we just have to finish the exterior painting, get the furnishings and accessories barged in and set up, and help get the landscaping finished. Then it can rain all it wants as far as I’m concerned.”

Maddie fell asleep early that night. It might have had something to do with being back on the gently rocking houseboat, or the sunset toasts with the people who seemed to best understand her and who gleefully trashed Steve and his cruel barbs as soon as Kyra went below to put Dustin to bed. Or it could have been all that bracing and unbracing each time she thought she was about to run into William Hightower. She fell asleep trying to convince herself that she wasn’t disappointed that she hadn’t even laid eyes on him.

•   •   •

Romeo crowed just after dawn the next morning. Maddie pulled on clothes then made a pot of coffee. She was taking her first sips when Avery appeared, sniffing her way toward the coffee like a hound on the scent. Together they carried their mugs up on deck to watch the sunrise.

Maddie could hear the sounds of swimming from the pool. Part of her ambivalent self wanted to run inside so as not to risk seeing Will; the other wanted to head right over there so she could watch him emerge from the pool in all his bronzed, bare-chested glory. She did neither.

“I’m not sure what’s going on with Romeo.” Avery nodded to the clearing where the rooster and his harem pecked at the ground. “Every day you were gone he got closer and closer to crowing at dawn. By the time we’re ready to leave he’ll probably be right on the money.” She smiled fondly at the fowl. “I’m going to kind of miss him and the girls.”

Maddie kept an eye on the sun and the strutting rooster and his adoring entourage, but she was picturing the flash of William Hightower’s arms cutting through the water, the wake produced by his strong flutter kick. A fish jumped nearby and she looked up to see Troy filming them from the deck of the other houseboat. There was no sign yet that Roberto was stirring.

Maddie closed her eyes and raised her face up to the still-gentle morning sun, but her ears pricked at each new sound from the pool.

“He was kind of moping around while you were gone,” Avery said. “I think he might have missed you.”

“Romeo?” Maddie asked.

“No, Will.”

“I doubt it.” Maddie sighed, took a sip of her coffee. “It was just sort of something that happened. I . . . can’t say I had any expectations. But I wasn’t really prepared to be blown off so quickly or completely. And it did get kind of ugly when he found me cleaning up the studio.”

Avery drew her knees up to her chest and sipped her coffee as the sun inched up the sky. “I’m sure you can sleep with him again anytime you want to, Maddie. But I’m not sure that’s the kind of thing you’re looking for.”

“That’s what he said.”

“Then you might want to listen to him.”

“Probably. But I can’t help noticing that listening isn’t exactly a two-way street for him.” She tried to keep the disappointment out of her voice; yearning for William Hightower’s attention was kind of like wishing that the sun would shine only on her.

“He may be famous but he’s still a guy.” Avery’s arms were wrapped around her legs. “Listening to the woman you dragged back to your cave in order to propagate the human race apparently didn’t rank all that high on the evolutionary scale.” She held the cup with both hands. “I haven’t been all that successful with men. Sometimes I think Chase is only still around because he’s too stubborn to give up. But I’d rather have someone be honest with me even if it hurt than tell me things that aren’t true just because it’s what I want to hear.”

The sun was appreciably higher in the sky by the time Maddie and Kyra headed over to the main house with Dustin in tow. Avery and Deirdre were in the midst of screwing the paddles into place and Kyra unstrapped her video camera to shoot them at it, mirror images with their blond heads bent toward each other, their capable hands holding and affixing the unique spindles. “Where did you find those?”

“Oh, here and there.” Deirdre rubbed her eyes and then the back of her neck. “I love being able to reclaim and repurpose things. It’s kind of my way of being eco-friendly.” She reached for an open bottle of aspirin and downed several with a long sip from a bottle of water.

Dustin pulled a toy screwdriver from his tool belt and went over to “help.” All of them pulled out their camera phones to snap pictures.

“Ready to head upstairs and get started on the painting?” Maddie asked.

“I’m going to grab a few more shots down here. Do you mind taking him up with you, Mom? I’ll be right there.”

“Up-tairs, Geema!” Dustin grabbed Maddie’s hand and climbed the new stairs beside her with his screwdriver at the ready.

They were on the upper landing about to make the turn to the new front suites when Dustin dropped her hand. The master bedroom door was only open a crack but Dustin pushed it open with a gleeful “Billyum!” and raced inside.

Maddie hesitated only briefly. Fear that the accordion glass might be open forced her through the door, prepared to look away if William was . . . indecent . . . or . . . whatever. The bedroom was empty and the accordion glass was, fortunately, closed but the changes that had taken place while she was gone were impressive. The new glass wall made the already large space feel even more a part of the natural setting. The walls were now a toasty beige; the wood trim had been stained a warm coffee color. The bed hadn’t been made yet but a two-cup coffeemaker was in the midst of a brew cycle on the counter of the new kitchenette. Maddie’s idea for a personal haven for Will had come to fruition.

She heard a muffled squeal and glanced into the closet. Dustin had recently discovered hide-and-seek and she hoped to hell he wasn’t hiding behind Will’s clothes, which had been rehung in the newly painted closet. That was the last place she wanted to run into him—with or without his underwear in her hands. “Dustin! Come here right now!”

She pulled aside shirts and jeans—whoever had rehung his things hadn’t cared about grouping color or type. Stepping out of the closet she contemplated the closed bathroom door: the only place left to look.
Damn it.
She’d lifted her hand to knock when the door flew open. William Hightower stood there bare-chested, clad only in blue jeans, his dark hair wet. Her grandson was wrapped around one leg. “I think you lost someone.”

He didn’t sound angry, but he didn’t sound particularly glad to see her, either.

“Sorry.” She reached down to retrieve Dustin and practically shoved her face in William’s abdomen in the process. She straightened quickly and may have inhaled a little more sharply than was required; it was a heady scent of sunshine and soap and . . . well, the sex part was most likely in her mind. “We were just headed over to the upstairs suites to, um, finish painting.” She propped Dustin on her hip while jerking her head toward the front of the house in a move that undoubtedly made her resemble one of Romeo’s female companions.

“That’s good.”

She blinked and waited for more but that was it. No question about how her trip had gone, no comment on it being nice to see her back. Not even a snide remark about having caught her molesting his studio the day she’d left.

“Maddie?”

She realized her eyes had gotten kind of tangled up in his chest hair and she yanked them up to his face, where she noticed an odd glint in his eyes. She was too nervous to determine if it was irritation or amusement. She suspected it might be both. “You all right?” His tone was the polite one anyone would use with someone they’d run into unexpectedly when they were on their way to something more important. If the man had in fact come anywhere close to “moping” as Avery had indicated, he was clearly over it now.

“Mom?” Kyra’s voice sounded behind her. “Are you in there?”

“Coming!” She started to turn but Kyra had already come up behind her. Between them they’d pretty much blocked off any means of escape.

“Hi, Will.” Kyra reached to take Dustin from Maddie. “How’s it going?”

“Good.” He nodded and they stood and stared at one another for a long, uncomfortable moment.

“Right.” Maddie swallowed. “So. I guess we’d better get to work.” She managed to turn and kind of push Kyra along in front of her. She could feel William behind her bringing up the rear. And so although she did her best not to look at the bed or anything else that might feel remotely personal, she heard herself saying, “The view is unbelievable through the accordion glass. I bet you can lie in bed and . . .” Heat rushed up her cheeks and she was ridiculously grateful that he couldn’t see her face. “Well, anyway, everything looks great. You must be happy with how things have turned out!”

They were in the doorway and almost into the hall when he grunted what she guessed was his agreement. She turned and saw his eyebrow go up. “Did you say something?”

“Um . . . no.”

“So the grunt and the eyebrow. That wasn’t actually an attempt to pass judgment or communicate?”

“Not intentionally, no.” His expression had turned . . . well, she couldn’t actually read that expression any more than she seemed able to understand the thoughts and emotions currently zinging through her.

She reached in, grasped the doorknob, and began to pull his door closed. “I just wanted to be sure I hadn’t misunderstood anything.”

She drew a deep, embarrassed breath as soon as the door clicked shut. She dug the heel of her hand into her forehead as she followed Kyra into the first guest suite.