Chapter 18 #2
“Thank you. Our wedding was fifty years ago this fall, and if he’d lived, I’m one hundred percent certain we’d still be going strong. So yes, it’s possible to know at a young age that you’ve found your forever love. But it’s also possible to make a big mess of things.”
“I don’t want to do that, especially with Gigi.”
“You can’t do that with her, Cooper. You absolutely cannot. She wants us all to think she’s a tough-as-nails badass, but under her strong outer shell is the most fragile, delicate glass that shatters far too easily.”
Her words struck Cooper like a fist to the chest, knocking the wind out of him for a second.
“There’s nothing wrong with an end-of-summer fling,” Evelyn said. “As long as everyone is on the same page. If you want more than that with her, you’re going to have to step up big-time. You understand that, right?”
“I’m beginning to.”
She handed him the bouquet of roses she’d clipped as they walked. “Take these home for Gigi, but only give them to her if you’re prepared to make that step. Otherwise, I’d ask you to take a step back from her.”
“That’s the last thing I want to do.”
“Then maybe you have your answer, hmm?”
A wild feeling unlike anything he’d experienced before came over him as he stood in Evelyn’s garden, holding the bouquet of multicolored roses. His heart fluttered, and his knees felt a little weak.
“Are you all right?” Evelyn asked, looking at him with concern.
“I think I might be.” He smiled as he leaned in to kiss her cheek. “I appreciate your wisdom and insight more than you’ll ever know.”
“I’m glad you came to me, Cooper, and I hope you’ll come back again.”
“I will for sure.”
“Follow your heart, young man. You’ll never be sorry if you do.”
“I wish you were my grandmother.”
Evelyn laughed. “I’m a grandmother to anyone who needs one.”
“Consider yourself adopted.”
She held out her arms to him, and he hugged her. “I hope you and our Gigi can make a go of it. I have a feeling you might be just what she needs.”
“I’d like to be what she needs.”
Evelyn’s smile lit up her entire face. “I may be a silly old woman, but I find myself very excited for my sweet Gigi.”
“You’re not silly, and you’re sure as hell not old.”
“I do quite like you, young Cooper.”
“I like you, too, Evelyn. Thank you very, very much.”
“My pleasure, honey.”
Oliver waited until the morning meeting of the minds at McCarthy’s Marina had mostly dispersed for the day before he went looking for Luke, who’d wandered out to the main pier to land a boater. As he tied the last of the lines around one of the pilings, Oliver said, “You make that look easy.”
Luke turned to him, grinning. “It is easy when you’ve done it ten thousand times.”
“I suppose so.”
“Sometimes it’s not easy. We were standing right about here when a drunk captain threw his boat into gear and pulled Big Mac off the pier a couple of years ago.”
“Oh wow. Was he hurt?”
Luke grimaced as he nodded. “Pretty badly. Head injury, broken arm. Took him a long time to bounce back.”
“That’s scary shit.”
“It was a very bad day, but thankfully, he’s back to his old self now.”
“He’s a good dude.”
“He’s the best man I’ve ever known. I showed up here as a fatherless fourteen-year-old asking for a job. He gave me that and so much more.”
“He and his wife have been wonderful to us since we arrived.”
“That’s how they are.”
“All of you have been. We appreciate it.”
“How are things at the lighthouse?”
“Better than they were when we first arrived.”
“There’s something about this place,” Luke said, resting his arms on the piling and looking out over the vast Salt Pond.
The scents of seaweed, salt air, diesel fuel and fried food had become familiar to Oliver after spending part of every day at the marina.
“It cures a lot of ills,” Luke continued. “Some people find it too slow, too sleepy, too boring, and it can be all those things. But if you take the time to look beyond that, you’ll like what you see.”
“I already do, and Dara does, as well. She’s coming back to herself, if that makes sense.”
“It does. I saw it with my own wife.”
“I actually wanted to ask you about her,” Oliver said haltingly. “I hope it’s okay to say I heard about what happened to her first husband and children.”
“It’s okay.”
“I wanted to ask if we might get them together, Dara and your wife, that is. Dara and I… We’re, well, talking about maybe having another baby, and Dara, she’s struggling a bit with the idea.”
“Sydney would be happy to talk to her.”
“She would? Really?”
Luke nodded. “She’s very supportive of people who’ve been through things like what happened to her and to you.
” He gazed off at the pond again. “When Jenny Wilks came to live in the lighthouse, she was still reeling after losing her fiancé in the 9/11 attacks. It was years later, and Jenny would tell you she was still stuck in first gear. She’s since become one of Syd’s closest friends.
Jenny’s would-be sister-in-law, Erin, her late fiancé’s twin sister, who was the lighthouse keeper after Jenny, is also one of Syd’s good friends. ”
As Oliver listened to him, he realized there was a community of fellow travelers on Gansett. “Everyone has been through something,” Oliver said.
“Some worse than others.”
“Yes, for sure.”
“Why don’t you and Dara come for dinner tomorrow night?”
“I don’t want to invite myself over.”
“You didn’t. I invited you.”
“We’d love that, Luke. Thank you.”
“Of course. That’s what friends are for.”
Before Oliver had lost his son, he would’ve said he had all the friends he needed. Since arriving on Gansett, he was learning a man could never have too many friends.