Chapter 4
Chapter Four
M aude Harrigan groaned when she caught sight of the clock on the nightstand. Eight thirty-seven was entirely too early to be awake. At the earliest, she might open her eyes at nine, but ten was a much more reasonable time.
She was a night owl, not a morning…bird? Was that the saying? Seemed odd that the night bird would be a specific species and the morning bird would just be a bird. She groaned. This was too much thinking for such an hour.
She closed her eyes and lay there, wondering if she should attempt more sleep or just make the best of it.
It was sad that coffee robots hadn’t been invented yet. A robot that could sense when you were awake, make the coffee that instant, fix it the way you liked it, and then bring it to you.
If she invented that, she’d be a millionaire. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the slightest idea how to invent anything, forget building a robot. Which was why she still had a job.
Now an app was something she could definitely come up with. But an app still couldn’t bring her coffee in bed.
She yawned and opened her eyes, feeling like she was supposed to remember something. What was it? She didn’t have any appointments that she could think of. The new book club wasn’t until seven tonight. Was it trash day? No. She blinked as a mental light bulb went off. It was recycling day.
At least she had time to get the bin out.
Did women with husbands have to take the recycling out? Doubtful. They probably didn’t have to take out the trash, either. Or mow the grass, although that was covered in the monthly HOA fees.
Having someone around to do chores wasn’t a good enough reason to get hitched, but just once in her life, Maude would have liked to try the whole married thing.
That hadn’t been part of her life plan, though.
She wasn’t bitter about it. She had been, once upon a time, when all her friends were showing off engagement rings, and she’d been a bridesmaid more times than she could count.
And then, of course, there was the baby boom, when all her friends had somehow been simultaneously pregnant.
The baby showers had seemed endless. She’d eaten more cake and played enough diaper-related games to make her an expert.
But Mr. Right had never come along. Not since high school and the boy who’d gotten away. Her crush had been handsome, smart, and athletic. He’d been all hers. Until he hadn’t been.
For years she’d blamed her parents and been angry about the move to the Midwest, but it wasn’t their fault. Her dad had to go where his job sent him. And her first romance was never meant to be, just like getting married.
Didn’t mean she didn’t think about what could have been.
Of course, marriage hadn’t worked out for Robbie, her brother. But she liked to think she’d have been good at it.
She smiled sleepily up at the ceiling, imagining herself married. Her husband would greet her with a kiss in the morning. Pull her into his arms for a cuddle. They’d laugh at one of their many private jokes. Then he’d get up and make the coffee.
Now that might be reason enough to get married.
Except at fifty-five, what were the odds she’d meet a man? Slim to zip. Even slimmer she’d meet a guy who’d understand her lifestyle. Or be interested in a woman at this stage of life who didn’t spend her days baking cookies or knitting or whatever fifty-five-year-old women were supposed to do.
Maude lived her own kind of life. She ran her own company, designing and maintaining websites, she had a couple of (small) tattoos, she drove a muscle car, played video games, and generally did whatever she wanted.
It was why she’d moved into the Colony. Lots of great amenities, close to the beach, and more affordable than the oceanfront condo she’d been considering. Plus, tiny homes were hip and cool, and if Maude was anything, it was hip and cool.
At least, that was what she liked to tell herself.
She grabbed her phone and checked email to be sure there were no client fires to put out.
There weren’t. She rolled out of bed, fed Pixel, her gorgeous betta fish, then started a pot of coffee and went to put on a bikini while it brewed.
Since she was up this early, she might as well get a head start on the beach.
She’d load up her wagon with supplies and roll on down to the sand.
Over her bikini, she pulled on a tank top, tied on a sarong, and picked out her favorite straw cowboy hat.
Coffee wasn’t quite done, so she rolled her recycling bin to the curb, then went to her little backyard, where she had six large pots, three on either side of her patio.
Two had tomatoes, two had peppers, one had cucumbers, and one had zucchini.
On her front porch, she had pots of herbs.
Gardening wasn’t really her thing, but container gardening was super easy. She was already thinking about adding two more big pots next year for green beans.
There were lots of tomatoes coming on, some nearly ready to pick. Plenty of flowers and tiny, growing veggies on the rest of the plants, too. She smiled. Funny how such a small thing could make her happy.
While she was back there, she got her beach wagon out of the small, attached storage closet. She unfolded the wagon to its full size, put her chair and canopy in it, then rolled it into the house to finish filling it.
The coffee was done, so she fixed a big cup and walked around the house with it while she gathered her things for the beach.
She took a big towel from the linen closet, then went back to the kitchen to pack a cooler.
A bottle of water, a diet Snapple iced tea, some cheese sticks, an apple, a granola bar, and one frozen Peppermint Patty went in, then she ate a single serving container of Greek yogurt for breakfast and finished her coffee.
She turned off the coffee maker. When she got back from the beach, she’d drink the rest of the pot over ice. She stuck her feet in flipflops, put on her sunglasses, and added her beach bag and her cooler to the wagon. She paused, trying to think if she’d forgotten anything. Nothing came to mind.
“Back in a couple hours, Pixel.”
She locked the door behind her and started for the beach.
She lived as far away from the beach as you could in the Colony.
Not because she wanted to be far from the beach, but this lot had been the most she’d been willing to spend.
The upside was it bordered the strip of preserve that separated the Colony from any areas of future development.
At this hour, things were quieter than when she usually made this trek. Maybe there was something to getting up earlier.
Her nose wrinkled at the idea. Early was not for her.
As she walked the path that led to the Colony’s section of beach, a rather long stretch, she couldn’t help but notice how uncrowded the sand ahead of her was. She had her pick of real estate.
She chose a spot closer to the water, knowing she’d be getting in and would want to keep an eye on her stuff. Not that she had anything worth stealing outside of her ereader, and not that there was any real chance of someone taking anything, but it was just one of those things.
That was another nice perk of living in the Colony.
The beach in front of it was generally not swamped with people and because it was a fifty-five-and-up community, there were rarely any kids.
She had nothing against kids, but they could be noisy.
Unless someone had their grandkids visiting, the Colony’s stretch of beach was pretty chill.
Also, the community was gated and had great security. From what she understood, the place had been built on a golf course that had gone under due to the owner not paying taxes or something.
The developers had wisely built as many homes with Gulf views as possible, leaving the more centrally located sections for the pools, tennis and pickleball courts, clubhouses, restaurants, fitness center, and other amenities.
Maude never thought she’d live in a place like this in a thousand years, but here she was. And after only a few months, she could honestly say she loved it. It was nice to pay one monthly fee and have it cover everything from yard care and trash pickup to simple home maintenance.
It let her spend more time on the things she wanted to do, instead of the chore-type things that needed to be done. The things a husband would have done, if she’d had one.
She set up her chair and canopy, spread her towel over the chair, then shucked her tank top and sarong, stuffing them into her bag.
She settled in to enjoy the morning and get some sun.
A light wind brought the tang of salt off the water.
She left her headphones in her beach bag.
It was already quiet, and the sounds of the water and the gulls were really nice.
She opened her ereader, leaned back, and disappeared into her book. She was only a few pages in when her lids began to drift. Giving in to the tug of sleep, she closed her ereader, pulled her hat down and reclined her chair.
The warm Gulf breeze drifted past, lulling her further. This was the life. Moving here had definitely been a smart decision.
Laughter woke her sometime later. She blinked, eyes still shaded by her sunglasses, and adjusted her hat so she could see. The beach had filled in a bit. Still not overly crowded, though. Not far from her, a man was FaceTiming with a young woman. He laughed again.
She smiled, his laugh contagious and giving her a weird sense of familiarity.
It wasn’t polite to eavesdrop, but she wasn’t doing it intentionally. Seemed like he was talking to a young woman, then Maude heard her call him dad. His daughter. That was sweet. He must live in the Colony, too.
Obviously, it was a big place, and she didn’t know everyone, but from what she could see of him, she’d have thought she’d remember a body like that. He definitely kept fit.
He said goodbye to his daughter, then hung up and tucked his phone away. He stood up, stretched, and stared out at the water, his back to her.
She slouched in her chair and pretended not to be watching him. Definitely worked out.
Then he turned to get something and pushed his sunglasses to the top of his head.
Her stomach dropped and she gasped, making him look up.
She recognized him instantly, not sure how it was possible, but there he was. She’d know that face anywhere. She swallowed. “Ollie? Ollie Keen?”