The Boat House (Twin Lights #2)

Prologue

It started with a dead body and a dilapidated marina.

We return to Smuggler’s Cove on the Navesink.

It’s Memorial Day weekend at the shore, and the Seafood Festival is in full swing.

Madison Wainwright and her brother Lincoln have just finished renovating the dilapidated boat house they inherited.

It had belonged to their estranged uncle, Kirby Taylor, who won the boat house in a bet.

Kirby always loved the outdoors. He grew up on his aunt and uncle’s farm, where he developed a love for fishing.

Later, he developed a passion for conservation and pursued a career working for the national park services.

When he retired, he landed in Smuggler’s Cove, and when he came into possession of the boat house and its small dock, he happily settled into the community.

Taylor Marina served as a local marina for crabbers and clammers, and Kirby became a beloved fixture in town, always willing to lend a hand, either on or off the water.

Unfortunately, several nor’easters had slammed the coast over the past two years.

Kirby would begin repairs and another storm would blow in, setting him back.

Before he could begin working on the most recent damages, he passed from a heart attack on his final boat ride to watch the sunset.

Kirby was Madison and Lincoln’s father’s brother.

Jackson Taylor couldn’t have been more different than his sibling.

He wanted nothing more than to leave his humble beginnings behind.

He went to college on a quest to recreate himself, hoping to pursue a career on Wall Street.

His dream was to make millions; meet a beautiful, lithe, “perfect hostess” for a wife; and live on Sutton Place, where the highest-echelon residents of New York City lived.

Jackson had a talent and thirst for making money, and before long, he was climbing up the social ladder.

He married Gwen Wainwright, a dead ringer for Audrey Hepburn, had two kids—a boy and a girl, and started his own financial advisory firm.

He had acquired the wife and family, the Sutton Place address, and was making more money than he could have ever imagined.

Life couldn’t have been better. Until it all came crashing down.

Jackson Taylor was arrested for fraud in a massive financial scandal.

All of the Taylors’ assets were seized, but not before Gwen could take all of her jewelry and whatever cash they had in the house and leave the country.

En route, she contacted her children, who were at college—Madison at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and Lincoln at Pace, where he was studying business.

She told them what had happened and that the family lawyer, Sidney Rothberg, would contact them with further information.

She had a secret bank account that she had added to over the years; in the account was over $20,000, which the siblings could split equally.

Gwen told them she loved them very much and would try to be in touch soon.

Madison and Lincoln were left to fend for themselves.

In a flash, their luxurious lifestyle was gone.

Feeling ashamed and betrayed, Madison and Lincoln dropped the surname Taylor and set about creating a new life for themselves as Madison and Lincoln Wainwright.

Madison left FIT and enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), while Lincoln finished out the year at Pace before transferring to Baruch, a public college that was much cheaper.

Despite these circumstances, or perhaps because of them, Madison was determined to create a good life for herself.

Upon graduation, she got a job at a fashion house and eventually started her own fashion website.

From there, she was recruited by the highly regarded fashion magazine La Femme, and was named editor in chief before she was forty-five.

Lincoln also fared well. He earned his PhD in finance and became a professor at a small college in New Jersey. He married Madison’s best friend Olivia, and had a daughter, Giada, who was currently in college.

When they first inherited the ramshackle building with the decrepit docks, Madison’s first instinct was to sell it.

And quickly. But a dead body had been found floating under the planks, forestalling any plans Madison had for dumping the dump.

It would be weeks, maybe months before the investigation would end.

However, the floating dearly departed was soon identified as a local scavenger, Dennis Farrell, who owned a dive shop with his brothers Mikey and Arlo.

The Farrells were a dubious crew, but his death was ruled an accident.

There was also the question of who had the water rights.

They had to go through an arduous process with the Tide Resource Council, who only met once a month.

And on top of that, before they could even put the place on the market, it needed a good deal of rehabilitation.

Maybe this inheritance was more trouble than it was worth.

But Lincoln ran some numbers and realized if they invested in a renovation, they could turn a small profit.

And another factor was influencing the decision.

Madison had lately been feeling adrift. Her life was comfortable; she had a job most people would kill for, a great loft in Soho, and a small but tight circle of friends.

Yet she felt something was missing. Maybe it was because she was approaching fifty.

Was she having a midlife crisis? She felt her creative spark was dying.

Her job was routine. There was no more passion, no fire burning inside.

Madison thought maybe this renovation was a divine gift.

It could be the new challenge she was craving, and she would be doing it with her favorite people—Lincoln and Olivia.

Plus, spending time in Smuggler’s Cove would provide some quiet time for reflection, a reexamination of her life.

They rented a house so they could oversee the project.

It was within walking distance of the small town, provided you didn’t mind walking up a few hills, and had a spectacular view of the cove, the barrier island, and the ocean beyond.

With school over, Lincoln could stay there full time, and since it was only ninety minutes away by car or a forty-minute ferry ride from Manhattan, Madison could easily get there on weekends.

She could even work remotely from the house, if she wanted a change of scenery.

The renovation couldn’t have happened without the help of Charlie and Crusty.

Charlie was Kirby’s best friend. He worked part-time at the marina, and he and his wife Hannah ran a food truck called Clams on Wheels that they parked across the street.

Charlie and Hannah were high school sweethearts and lifelong residents of Smuggler’s Cove.

They knew everyone in town, and Charlie was able to bring the best workers on to the project and keep things running smoothly.

Hannah’s clam rolls fueled the crew and also kept things running!

Crusty was always the “third wheel,” even as far back as high school. He wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he was loyal and reliable. A talented handyman, he could fix almost anything and tackled many of the boat house repairs.

The three locals would do anything for Kirby, and although his niece and nephew were city folk, they quickly grew to like them, too.

During the renovation, Madison found an old map thumbtacked to the wall.

It was rudimentary—one notch up from a third-grade drawing.

But there was something about it. Why would Uncle Kirby keep it?

She consulted a historian, who confirmed what she’d anticipated: it was simply a very rough sketch of a winding river and a few bushes.

She decided to have it framed, intending to hang it in the boat house as a tribute to her late uncle.

As the weeks went by, Charlie and Crusty, with the aid of some of the locals, were able to transform the rickety boat house so that they could have a grand reopening by the start of the summer season.

The annual Seafood Festival took place every Memorial Day weekend.

Folks would start arriving at the shore on Thursday, but the real festivities kicked off on Friday.

Lincoln and Madison would have an official ribbon cutting for the renovated marina, with music and food trucks all along the docks.

Every year, during the festival, they would honor a community member for their contribution to the town, and this year, they were honoring Uncle Kirby.

An awards ceremony would take place on Saturday night, and Madison and Lincoln would accept a plaque on their uncle’s behalf.

Madison was looking forward to the event.

In a few short weeks, she had fallen in love with the charming town of Smuggler’s Cove.

It was more than just a respite from the rat race of New York City.

There was a down-to-earth authenticity to the community; it’s no wonder that Uncle Kirby loved it.

A handsome Coast Guard captain might’ve also had a little something to do with her infatuation with this small town.

She had first met Viggo Eriksson during the investigation into the dead body under the docks, and she often ran into him at the jobsite during the renovation.

At first, Madison didn’t want to admit to the growing chemistry between them, but as the weeks went by, she let down her guard and even went on a date with Viggo, the first she’d had in years.

She was gladder than ever that they were renting the house for the entire summer.

She didn’t know what the months ahead would bring, but she was eager to find out, even though she feared that Viggo would be less available during high season.

Still, she had a good feeling about their relationship.