Chapter 8
Eight
Cretia couldn’t remember the last time she hadn’t known what to do with her day. Or if she ever hadn’t. Probably not.
As a kid there had been school and survival. Those were the only things she’d been able to focus on. There had been part-time jobs, a flurry of them, during high school. All overlapping. All to barely keep the swamp cooler running. Then that fateful trip—her first cruise. Nannying for twin seven-year-olds while their parents enjoyed the sun, surf, and casinos.
Those days on the boat had been scheduled down to the minute. But the few seconds she’d found to film the Mexican Riviera had changed her life. Every day since then she’d either been planning a trip or taking it, filming or editing her videos, building her platform or connecting with followers.
Every day had a plan.
Until this one.
Out of habit, she reached for her phone, only to have her fingertips skim the wooden surface of the nightstand.
Right. No phone. The reason for having no plan.
She fell back against the deliciously cozy pillows on the bed in her room at the Red Door and pulled a quilt covered with phrases from L.M. Montgomery’s books to her chin. She had to take Marie’s word on that since she’d never actually read a book by the island’s famed author. A few clothbound books on the bookshelf across the room suggested she wouldn’t have to go far to brush up on all things Anne.
But not today. Today she needed to figure out what to do with the week that loomed before her.
Okay, so she didn’t have a plan, but she had a plan to make a plan. That was a step in the right direction. Rolling out of bed, she stepped into the patch of sunlight coming through the gabled window and stretching across the floorboards. Its warmth seeped through the soles of her feet, up her legs, and stopped somewhere in the region of her heart.
She had a lazy smile plastered on her face when she caught her reflection in the antique mirror over the dresser. It disappeared as soon as she saw the wild tangle that had become her hair.
“Shower first. Then we make a plan.”
It didn’t take her more than a minute after stepping out from under the steaming spray to know what her first step needed to be. Clothes. Fresh. Clean. Never before worn.
She’d been tempted to order some things on Finn’s computer the day before, after placing her Apple order. But she hadn’t wanted to pepper his internet history with women’s unmentionables, as her grandmother used to call them.
Yesterday she’d been wearing freshly laundered clothes. Today was a different matter.
She’d clear Finn’s whole search history for a spare pair of underwear. Scratch that. “I’ll buy him a whole new computer,” she mumbled as she yanked a borrowed comb through her hair. Dripping wet, it looked blacker than normal, sleek and unhindered by any color. When it dried without the aid of more than a few products, it would probably be almost as wild as her morning hair, but at least it was clean. And she could always pull it back into a ponytail.
Turning her back on the reflection in the foggy bathroom mirror, she sighed. Clothes. Then ... Her stomach dropped. Her car. She’d been so charmed by Finn’s farm that she’d forgotten to call the rental agency the day before. She needed to either return the car today or extend her agreement. If that was even an option.
Maybe the extra expense wasn’t worth it, though. Especially not after the zeros she’d paid to the Apple store the day before. If she had a camera of any kind, it would be worth it to explore the island. But she could walk anywhere she wanted in North Rustico.
Or ask Finn for a ride.
Her stomach swooped again. For a totally different reason this time. One she refused to analyze.
Okay, maybe Finn was good-looking.
There’s no “maybe” about it, babe.
Fine. He was an objectively attractive man. Who just looked even cuter holding a baby goat or playing with puppies. And, yes, he was kind, helpful. She just did not have time to dwell on his finer qualities. Or how much she had enjoyed spending the day before with him.
As she headed toward the kitchen, young voices singing off-key greeted her. On the last stairstep, she spotted Julia Mae and Jessie sitting at the island, following along to a video on their mom’s phone.
Marie looked up from where she was wiping down the counter next to the stainless-steel stove. “Good morning, Cretia. How’d you sleep?”
“Good.” Really, surprisingly great. Maybe it was the excitement of the last few days or the walk in the sun or playing with puppies the day before. Whatever the cause, she’d fallen asleep almost as soon as she’d crawled beneath that quilt. For the second night in a row.
“What are you up to today?”
Cretia twisted the hem of her blue sweater. “I was thinking I might walk down to Finn’s.”
Marie’s head whipped around, a knowing glow in her blue eyes. “Oh really.”
“To borrow his computer. Maybe do a little more shopping.”
Marie offered only a click of her tongue and a saucy smile in response.
“It’s not like that. At all.”
“Not like what?” Julia Mae chimed in.
“Don’t you worry about it,” Marie said as she circled the kitchen island and ruffled her daughter’s hair. But she didn’t look away, and her smile didn’t dim.
Cretia scrambled for some way to change the topic. “Do you mind?”
Gently arched eyebrows slowly rose up Marie’s forehead, and the sparkle in her eyes turned positively wicked. “Do I mind if you spend time with Finn? Only if you don’t tell me about it later.”
A chuckle caught her off guard, and Cretia choked it out on a cough. “You’re ridiculous. I meant, do you mind if I have a few more things mailed here? I know you said last night that it wasn’t a problem for my electronics to come to the inn, but I don’t want to add any stress.”
Marie’s laugh was like sheer curtains blowing in a summer breeze. “You’ll be Jessie’s favorite person if you give her another chance to see Casper the mailman. He always brings her a treat when he stops by.”
Jessie looked up from the screen with round eyes. “’Nack?”
Her mom shook her head. “You just had breakfast.”
The little girl’s face fell just like Joe’s had the day before when Finn sent him to his pillow, and Cretia would have given anything to slip the girl a few crackers. Except she didn’t have any snacks on hand. If she had, they would have magically made their way into those chubby little fists.
Not that Jessie was hungry. Cretia had just promised herself that she’d take every chance to say yes to a child, regardless of the actual need. It had been that way with the kids she’d nannied. So much so that their mom had had to tell her to stop giving them gummy bears before dinner. Twice.
It wasn’t easy to turn off that switch in her mind, to forget the times she’d been hungry as a child. She’d begged her mom for a blue box of macaroni and cheese and been told to make do with ketchup on crackers. She’d asked for orange soda after tasting it at a birthday party. Her mom had said simply, “No.”
For years Cretia had thought that was her mom’s favorite word. It was certainly the one she said most often. Until all Cretia wanted to do was say, “Yes.”
Stamping down the slew of emotions those memories surfaced, she turned back to Marie. “Thank you. Really. I know you weren’t expecting a guest this week. I’ll pay you for the room. For your hospitality. For your—”
“Don’t even think about it.”
Without looking up from her video, Julia Mae chimed in again. “Mama says not to argue with her. And Daddy says ’specially not when she uses that voice.”
“Julia Mae Sloan.” Marie’s barely stifled laughter took the legs out from under her reprimand.
The three-named child in question shrugged. “What? He did.” Then she went back to her cartoon as though completely unaware that she’d thrown her dad under the bus.
Rolling her eyes, Marie shook her head. “You know what? I didn’t know I needed another adult around here so much until you showed up. Seth is remodeling a house near St. Peter’s Bay this month, so you can stay as long as you like. And please make yourself at home. Whatever leftovers are in the fridge are fair game.”
Cretia was still smiling over that invitation as she reached Finn’s house. She was already staying longer than she would like. But at least she had a comfortable bed and a safe place to sleep. And maybe she didn’t mind being teased about going to see Finn.
She’d almost forgotten that feeling of knowing someone well enough to laugh and joke with them. Marie treated her like a lifelong friend. And Cretia didn’t have any of those anymore. Not that she’d ever had really close friends, except her high school boyfriend Carlos. It was hard to build friendships when she couldn’t invite anyone over, and her friends’ houses only served to remind her of what she didn’t have.
Like a bedroom that wasn’t filled to the ceiling with trash bags and stuffed animals. A kitchen free of rodent droppings. A parent who cared enough to give their kid a home .
After the car accident when Cretia was nine, her mom had lived off disability assistance until Cretia was old enough to work. The government checks had barely been enough to cover the rent.
And the things . The figurines and magazines. The Tupperware and unused workout clothes. The baby shoes and cardboard boxes. Cretia still didn’t know where it all had come from. Sometimes it seemed to multiply, showing up on their doorstep. Another pile on top of a pile. Always more.
Until there hadn’t been room to even breathe. Until she’d had to leave.
She eyed Finn’s house with a bit of caution, knowing she’d have to go back inside to use his computer but praying he was out in the barn again. It had been a little easier being inside his home with Joe by her side. And after a bit of goat therapy.
Without a phone, she had no idea what time it was, but maybe she’d made it in time for bottle feeding again.
The sliding barn door was closed, but she bypassed the house and strolled right up to it. A series of barks from the other side greeted her as she pushed it open just far enough to slip in. “Hello?”
She waited for Finn’s response, but the barking behind the chain-link fence only grew more frenzied, joined by a few bleats from the goats. Cretia stopped a few feet in as the cow stared her down. Again. She tried to offer a smile, but one big brown eye just looked on unblinking as the cow chewed her cud and stamped her front hoof a few times.
Maybe it was a warning. Maybe it was just an itch. Either way, Cretia took a circuitous route to the goat pen. The gate inside the barn was locked, but Finn must have opened the back door that morning for Jenna to trot out into the pasture. She didn’t even look up as she snacked on lush grass in the bright sunlight.
Sonny and Cher, however, jumped and pranced around their pen, not so eager to go outside. When Cretia leaned over the gate with an outstretched hand, they ran right up to her. Sonny’s ears were like silk, and he nuzzled into her hand as she ran her fingers over them. “You’re a good boy, aren’t you?”
“I like to think I am.”
Cretia jumped at the voice behind her, stumbling back a foot and falling right against a familiar form. Strong hands caught her shoulders, and Finn leaned around her to look into her face.
“Morning. I wasn’t expecting you to fall for me again today.”
Chuckling up at him, she pulled back just a bit, caught in his grip but trying to get a clearer picture of his face. Something had changed. She blinked to focus but couldn’t put her finger on it. He still had those bright blue eyes framed by full but not bushy eyebrows. If his nose had been a touch shorter, it would have been too small to balance his wide jaw and blunt chin.
Which she had never noticed before. Because they had been covered.
“You shaved your beard.”
The corner of his mouth ticked upward as he let her go and stepped back. “Very observant.”
“No, I mean, I like it. It makes your whole face brighter. And you have a little dimple in your chin. It’s really very cute. And—” She literally bit her lips together. She had to quit talking so much around him.
But something about Finn invited all of her inside thoughts to pour off her tongue.
“Should have been internal processing?”
She nodded. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to make things uncomfortable.”
He waved her apology off like a bee on a sunny day. “Seriously? That’s the nicest thing anyone’s said to me in a while.”
“Maybe you need new friends.”
Throwing his head back, he let out a laugh that came from deep in his chest, all joy and humor. The sound was like the opposite of the LOLs or silly-face emojis she received in the comments when she posted a blooper video. Those were obligatory, nearly paid for. They were hardly real.
Finn’s laughter was filled with life and heart and truth. He didn’t hold back, and he didn’t seem to want to. It wrapped around her, warm and sustaining. And suddenly she wanted to say something funny again, just to get it to continue.
But her mind was blank, and she could only watch the cords of his throat slowly relax as the sound died down and his Adam’s apple stilled.
“Seeing as most of my friends have four legs, I guess I can’t blame them.”
Flames licked at her cheeks, and she pressed her fingers there to cover them.
Finn reached for a flake of hay and threw it into Roberta’s stall. “I doubt you came here to compliment my lack of facial hair, so what can I do for you today?”
“Right, yeah ... though it is very nice.”
He gave her a quick wink but didn’t comment on her lack of verbal control.
“I was hoping I might be able to use your computer again. I really need some more clothes.” With a little flourish of her hand, she showcased the same cropped jeans and blue sweater she’d been wearing for three days.
Finn, on the other hand, was wearing his third outfit in the same amount of time. Another Henley with its super-soft checked texture, sleeves pushed up to his elbows. The one the day before had been stormy gray, but today’s shirt was a bright blue that made his eyes nearly glow. And the navy fleece of his vest looked warm enough to cuddle against.
Not that she was considering that.
His wardrobe wasn’t exactly going to land him on the cover of GQ , but he sure knew how to pick clothes that showed off his broad shoulders and athletic arms.
Moreover, he had enough clothes. Even if they were mostly Henleys.
Finn glanced over his shoulder toward the house, his eyebrows pinching together. “Yeah, sure. Of course you can ... but won’t that take a few days? You probably want them—need them?—sooner.”
Her internal processor finally kicked in, and she bit back the words just before asking him if she smelled funky. Though maybe the smell of the barn and its inhabitants covered whatever was still lingering in her outfit.
“I wish I could, but I don’t have any credit cards, or even a phone to do an electronic payment in a store.”
Blinking owlish eyes, he chewed on the middle of his lip. “But you have enough money?”
“If you’re asking if I’m broke”—she paused to put her hands on her hips—“the answer is no. If you’re asking if I have easy access to the money I do have, the answer is also no.”
His mouth twisted into a frown, all trace of his earlier merriment gone. “No, I wasn’t—I didn’t mean to imply—I just—” He heaved a big sigh. “I could buy you some new clothes. I can take you shopping. Today.”
“I don’t need you to—”
“Here’s the thing. I could use some help putting together a whelping bed, and in exchange—”
“No, that’s not the problem. I have the money. It’s just stuck in my account until—” She stopped and tilted her head, really looking at him. “But I could transfer it to you.”
“What? No. I don’t need your money.”
That wasn’t what she’d glimpsed the day before in the letter from the bank on his desk. She hadn’t been trying to read it. But it was hard not to see a big old “We regret to inform you” on the top line. And curiosity had gotten the better of her.
And now she knew he had been denied a loan.
Only, she wasn’t supposed to know that. And she had no idea what the loan had been for.
But the man clearly did not have money to buy her new clothes.
Still, he insisted. “I’m offering to help you get some new clothes—in exchange for a little manual labor.”
“And I’m telling you I’ll transfer the money to you in advance.” And maybe throw in a little tip for his troubles.
“And I’m telling you that I don’t need it.” His voice rose.
Hers dropped low. “Quit being so stubborn.”
“I’m trying to do something nice.”
“You are.” She couldn’t keep the huff out of her words. “You’re going to drive me to somewhere I can buy clothes.”
“Yes. And I’ll buy them for you.” His eyes flashed and his tone took on the same note that Marie’s had carried earlier that morning. The one that said an argument would not be welcome, at least according to Julia Mae.
But the little girl was nowhere to be seen. And Finn wasn’t her boss or giving her a roof over her head. “Then I’ll pay you back for them.”
He rolled his eyes. “You don’t have to.”
“I get that. But I am more than capable.”
“I’m sure you are.” His tone directly contradicted his words.
He clearly didn’t understand that she had brought in a healthy six figures the year before and the one before that. In profit. That didn’t include her travel, new gear, or other expenses. That was money going into her savings account. Money not going to pay for a house or any of the things to fill it. Money that was invested and growing. Money that meant she didn’t have to work for a while if she didn’t want to.
Except that she liked what she did. She liked having a plan for her day and her week and her year. She liked seeing the world, finding hidden treasures.
Besides, if she wasn’t traveling, she’d be in one spot. Stuck. Collecting only God knew what.
So she was going to keep doing this as long as she could.
And she didn’t need anyone’s help. Least of all Finn’s.
The problem was, if they kept arguing, they weren’t going to get anywhere near a clothing store today—let alone this week.
“Fine. You win.” She held up her hands in surrender.
“Really?”
Pasting on the sweetest smile she could manage, she nodded. “Really.”
If she decided to send him an anonymous donation after she left the island, so be it. He wouldn’t be able to argue then.
He still looked doubtful but simply said, “Let me feed the dogs. Then we can drive down to Charlottetown.”
“Maybe I could return my rental car?”
“Sure. You don’t need it as long as you’re in North Rustico.” With a wink, he added, “I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”