Chapter 2
“ E verything okay?” Tiffany asked when she appeared in the doorway.
“Oh wow, you caught me talking to myself.”
Tiffany offered a small smile. “I do it all the time.”
McKenzie noticed that Tiffany’s face was red and puffy from crying. “Are you okay?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel about this.”
“I’m sure it’s so confusing.”
“It really is.” Tiffany took one of the lighter bags to carry it for McKenzie. “You’re still planning to stick around, right?”
“Absolutely! I’m looking forward to getting started at the shop if you still need me.”
“I do need you. I’m in denial that my faithful Patty is leaving me right before this little one arrives.” Tiffany patted her pregnant belly. “I just need a minute to catch my breath after this news about Jim, and then we’ll get you started.”
“Take whatever time you need. I’ll check in tomorrow.”
“Sounds good.”
“Duke is here, so we’ll be getting out of your hair. You have my number if there’s anything I can do to help you.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that and everything you did to help me this week. You ended up saving me.”
“No way. I’ll never be able to thank you enough for taking us in during the storm and letting us stay this week.” McKenzie gave Tiffany a one-armed hug that put Jax between them. “Thank you again for your kindness, Tiffany.”
“Thank you for yours. I’m so glad we got to meet you and Jax. We love making new friends. I’m going to text my lawyer friend Dan Torrington about your situation with Jax’s father and see what he has to say about it. He and his wife had to go to Maine for something with her family, but he’ll know what you should do.”
“I’d appreciate it. Part of me wants to leave well enough alone, but the other part of me wants Jax to have everything he needs.”
“It’s the right thing to get a lawyer involved. You won’t be sorry. Sometimes all it takes is the threat of legal action to get someone to do the right thing.” Tiffany led the way downstairs. “Hey, Duke.”
“Hi, Tiffany. Not sure if I should say I was sorry to hear about Jim…”
“I was, too. I hope they find him.”
“If there’s anything I can do…”
“You’re sweet. Thank you.”
Duke shifted his attention to McKenzie and Jax. “Are you guys ready?”
“I think so.”
He took the portable crib from her and carried it out to his truck.
McKenzie followed him out and thanked him for holding the door for her so she could get Jax settled in the car seat Tiffany had loaned her.
His truck smelled like it had been freshly cleaned. Had he done that for her, too? So what if he had? It’s just that it had been such a long time since anyone had done anything nice for her, other than the Taylors, of course, that the smallest act of kindness felt huge to her.
Tiffany waved them off from the back porch.
Jax gurgled and played with his toes as Duke navigated winding island roads.
“He’s awfully cute,” Duke said with a chuckle.
“He’s obsessed with his toes.”
“I suppose babies like to chew on them while they can still reach them.”
“True.”
“Rosemary would’ve been crazy about him.”
“I know. I so wish she could’ve met him.”
“I’m sure she’s still around here somewhere, keeping an eye on things.”
“I’d like to think so.”
“Were you always close to her?”
“Very. She lived next door to us when I was growing up. I spent more time at her house than at mine. She taught me to cook and sew. She bought me my first glue gun and taught me how to make every kind of craft. We were best friends.”
“I can picture all that. She tried to teach me how to cook, but I never made it much past the basics.”
“Was she exasperated with you?”
“Highly.”
McKenzie laughed at the way he said that. “She wasn’t known for her patience. She’d often say, ‘MK, I taught you better than that!’”
“MK?”
“Yes, she gave me that nickname when I was a baby and never called me anything else.”
“I remember you as a teenager.”
Surprised, she looked over at him. “You do? We met before last week?”
He looked as stunned as she felt. “Once. She invited me to come to her house on the mainland for Christmas one year, and I remember meeting a granddaughter named MK.”
“I’m trying to remember meeting you. She was always inviting people to holidays and stuff.”
“I have a photo from that Christmas. I’ll show you.”
McKenzie wondered how old he was but didn’t want to ask. If she had to guess, she’d say late-thirties, which would make him at least ten years older than her twenty-six. Not that it mattered… She was just curious.
He took a left turn into a dirt driveway that led to a shingled two-story saltbox-style house with a two-story garage to the left side. The driveway circled around a firepit with lights strung above it.
“Home sweet home.”
“It’s lovely.”
“It’s not much, but it’s mine.”
“You own property on Gansett Island. That’s quite something. Gran always talked about how crazy the prices are out here.”
“She helped me buy this place by making the down payment, and I paid her back every month for ten years.”
“Oh, I love hearing that! She was so generous.”
“She changed my life by showing me what it was like to have someone in my corner.”
McKenzie looked over at him. “You’d never had that?”
“Not until I met her.”
Duke was reeling from the realization that he’d met McKenzie years earlier, when she was still a teenager. He remembered her. She’d been a beautiful kid who’d grown into a stunning woman. She was probably far too young for him to be dazzled by her. Out of respect for his dear friend Rosemary, he would keep his distance from her lovely granddaughter while helping her the way Rosemary had once helped him.
“Can I carry that for you?” he asked of the baby seat, which looked heavy.
She handed it over to him. “That’d be great. Thanks. He’s a load all of a sudden.”
Duke made a goofy face at the baby, which made the little guy giggle. Having never heard a baby giggle before, he was briefly stunned by the flutter in his chest at having been the cause of such a joyful sound.
So naturally, he did it again and again.
“He likes you,” McKenzie said as she followed him up the stairs to the apartment over the garage.
“He’s a cutie.”
“I’m so lucky that he’s such a good baby. He slept through most of the storm.”
Duke had so many questions. Where was the baby’s father? How had she not heard about the hurricane before it was too late? What was she going to do about the cottage next door that’d been flattened by the storm?
Now was not the time to ask any of that, however. He wanted to get them settled and comfortable. “So this is it. You’ve got a living room-kitchen combo, a bathroom and a bedroom.”
“It’s all we need. And it smells so clean. Thank you again so much, Duke.”
“I’d like to lie and say it always smells clean, but I spiffed it up a bit for you.”
“That’s very nice of you.”
“Least I could do. Is there anything else you need to get settled in?”
“I’ll take a walk into town to get some groceries and diapers.”
“Let me know when you want to go, and I’ll drive you. No need to walk.”
“I’m sure you have other things to do.”
“I’ve got time. Just let me know when you want to go.”
“Thank you again for everything. I feel like I’ll never be able to thank you enough.”
“You don’t need to thank me. I owe your grandmother so, so much. This is how I can repay her. You know?”
“She’d never want you to feel like you had to repay her kindness.”
“Believe me, I know. I had to force her to accept my monthly reimbursements. She said she didn’t want it, but I told her I needed to believe I’d bought this place myself.”
“That also sounds like her.”
“You were lucky to have her in your life, as was I.”
“I guess we may as well go to the store now, before Jax’s bedtime.”
“Let’s do it.” He carried the baby carrier back to the truck, realizing he should’ve offered a trip to the store when they were still in town. But he’d been so flummoxed by having her in his truck that he hadn’t been thinking clearly.
Duke drove them back to town and went with her into the grocery store in case she needed help with the little guy. He was amazed by how she propped the seat on the shopping cart like an old pro and wheeled him into the store.
“Nice to have the power back,” he said as they entered the brightly lit space. It’d been like a cave in there while they relied on generators.
“Sure is. I’d never given the first thought to how this place would function without power.”
“We had a days-long blackout last summer. A lot of people bought generators after that, myself included. I had one running on my fridge all last week.”
“Blaine and Tiffany had one going, too.”
“We’ll get you some ice just in case the power goes out again. The grid is old, and the storm identified new vulnerabilities.”
“Is that why it keeps going on and off?”
“Yep. I heard they’re looking for parts that are hard to find because the system is so outdated.”
“Is it weird to be more anxious after the storm than I was during the storm?”
“Yes, that’s very weird.”
She laughed, as he hoped she would.
“You were in much greater danger then than you are now.”
“I know, but it’s just so sobering to realize how isolated we are here.”
“You want to know a secret?”
“Sure.”
“I love when things go askew out here. It’s fun figuring out how to cope without the basics.”
McKenzie rolled her eyes. “I prefer a more sedate kind of fun than living without the basics.”
“You need to tap into your sense of adventure.”
“I don’t have much of a sense of adventure. Never really have.”
“Well, this is a good time to get one because you never know what’s going to happen out here from one day to the next.”
McKenzie put a bunch of bananas in the cart. “You don’t see mention of that in the tourist brochures.”
Duke laughed. “Nah, it’s our little secret. The year-rounders take care of the tourists when need be.” He put two jugs of water into the cart. “They’re recommending bottled water for a while longer.”
“Right, Tiffany mentioned that.”
“It’s fun the way the community comes together to take care of each other at times like this. It reminds me of why I love it here so much. People are always willing to help.”
“That’s a nice way to live.”
“I’d never experienced true community until I came here,” he said.
“How long ago was that?”
“Eighteen years ago. Been here half my life now.”
“So that makes you…”
“Thirty-six last week,” he said with a grin.
“I never have been able to do math in my head.”
“Me either. I also can’t spell out loud. I’m always sure it’s wrong.”
McKenzie laughed. “Me, too! Spelling bees were a nightmare for me.”
“Same. I refused to do them after sixth grade because I was sick of coming in last place.”
“I came in last place in sixth, seventh and eighth grades. Thank God they didn’t do them in high school.”
“What were you good at in school?”
“You’re going to laugh.”
“Hit me,” he said.
“Math—as long as I didn’t have to add in my head—and wood shop. I loved it.”
“That’s cool. Have you done anything with it since then?”
“A little. Some home improvement stuff. That sort of thing, but I want to get more into it again someday.”
“It’s good to have a dream.”
“That’s all it is at this point. Right now, I need to focus on supporting myself and Jax. Tiffany offered me a job at her store, which was a huge relief.”
“That place stays busy all year.”
“That’s what she said. I’m excited about it, and she said I can bring Jax to work, which is huge.”
“So you’re planning to hang here for a bit?” he asked, hoping he didn’t sound like he was fishing for info.
“I think so. I was really liking it here until the storm hit.”
“I kept meaning to get over to say hello, but work was insane on top of storm prep, and when I got home, it was usually dark over there. Didn’t want to freak you out.”
“You would have.”
Grinning, he said, “It’s the tatts, right?”
“Nah, they don’t bother me. Just any guy showing up out of the dark would’ve given me pause.”
The more she told him, the more he wanted to know about her. Woodworking, of all things. He never would’ve guessed that. He would’ve said art or music or something much more cerebral. Although learning she couldn’t do math in her head or spell out loud made him feel like less of a dummy next to her.
“I was good at the art stuff.” He held out both arms to show off the sleeve tattoos. “My own original design.”
“It’s incredible. I thought so when you first came by Tiffany’s.”
“It’s the one thing I’ve ever been good at. Used to drive my teachers crazy that all my papers were covered in drawings. They told me I needed to focus on more serious things, but to me, that was as serious as it got.”
“And now you own your own art-based business. I’d say you showed them.”
“I doubt they’d be impressed.”
“I think anyone who finds a way to support themselves through their own business and talents is hella impressive. That’s the dream come true, in my opinion.”
“It’s pretty cool.”
“Sure is.”
She added a box of diapers, pouches of baby food, some powdered formula and other items for the baby—things he’d never noticed on the shelves before now.
“Babies need a lot of stuff.”
“ So much stuff.”
He was further surprised by how much it all cost. A hundred and twenty bucks, and she’d barely gotten any food. Should he offer her some money? Before he could decide about that, she’d whipped out a card and was collecting her receipt.
On the ride home, she gazed out the window at the sun setting over the beach. “I’d forgotten how beautiful it is here.”
“Did you get out here much as a kid?”
“Not as much as I wanted to. My mom sort of resented how much time I spent with my grandmother, and the minute Gran left for the summer, Mom thought I should spend all my time with her. Except that wasn’t what I wanted.”
“What did you want?”
“To come to Gansett with Gran for the summer, but my mother wouldn’t have it.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know. I never have been able to explain her to people. Gran used to say she’s a narcissist. Everything was about her, all the time.”
“Your mom is Cecelia?”
“Yeah. I guess she probably told you about her.”
“She mentioned that she was difficult.”
“That’s putting it mildly.”
He wanted to ask her to elaborate, but it seemed like a sore subject, so he left it alone. But even though he’d decided he was way too old for her, and she was way out of his league, he wanted to hear more of her stories.
Much, much more.