Chapter 5 #2
“This island was first settled by Spanish explorers, and it's rumored that the name Sanibel came from one of the explorers who wanted to name the island after the woman he loved. The woman he left behind in Spain but never forgot.”
“Really? I didn’t know that.”
He nodded. “The rumors were never confirmed, but I think it’s a very plausible explanation.
It’s not like he’d have been the first to name something after the woman he couldn’t stop thinking about.
That particular settler, the one who named the island, was also rumored to spend a lot of time on the little private beach connected to this property, writing letters to his beloved and praying that he would get to see her again one day. ”
“Wow. That’s so romantic.”
“That’s why later, the American settlers who built the two lighthouses, nicknamed this one ‘Lovers Lighthouse’. Before your family bought the land, a lot of people used to come here to proclaim their love or propose to their partners.”
Ruby inhaled deeply, her face falling.
“What?” Dominic asked. “Does that make you sad?”
“No. Well, yes. A little. But only because my great-aunt always seemed so somber when she looked at the lighthouse. She also never wanted anyone to talk about it; I might’ve already told you that.”
“I remember you mentioning that she got upset one time when you went near it.”
“I know it might not seem that strange to you, since she was known for being a bit… grouchy. But that summer I stayed here, she’d been pretty nice to me.
We had found enough common ground, and I think I sort of broke down some of her walls.
That is, until I asked about the lighthouse.
She got so closed off after that, and it took two full days for her to cool off. ”
“Yikes. That must’ve been a long two days.”
She snorted. “It was. But I learned my lesson, and since I never brought it up again after that, everything was fine.”
“Do you miss her?”
Ruby frowned. This was a complicated question.
“In a way, yes. I wasn’t that close to her and hadn’t seen her in such a long time, so I think what I’m really feeling is regret for not having spent more time here with her.
Now that I’ve found some of her old diaries, though, I feel a little closer to her for sure. It helps.”
“You know, those sorts of primary source materials are greatly beloved by the society,” he said.
“I don’t want to donate them!”
“Oh, no. Of course not.” He shook his head. “That’s not what I was suggesting. Just that if you want to get on the society’s good side before asking them for funding, you could start by giving everyone a tour and letting them flip through some of the diaries. That’s all.”
“Ah.” She thought about handing the diaries over to strangers, who might not be nearly as careful as she had been with the delicate, faded pages.
“I’ll—I’ll think about it. Showing them the diaries, I mean.
Not the tour. They can come for a tour whenever, as long as they are all aware that we’re still very much in the middle of fixing everything up. ”
“They know,” he confirmed. “But I’ll make sure to tell them that they can come for a tour sooner rather than later. I think that’ll really help you out whenever you decide to ask for funding.”
“Right… About that.” She started walking once more towards the main house.
“After we finish cleaning out the greenhouse and getting inside the lighthouse, I’m going to be done with all the small restoration efforts that I can do on a budget.
Everything else is going to take more money than I have, so it’s sort of crunch time. ”
“You need money fast? Even if the society agreed to give you funding, it would probably take a few weeks for the money to be sent over.”
“Well—I could take out a new credit card,” she said.
“But I would only do that if I knew that funding was definitely coming at some point. Really though, what needs to happen first is that I decide how long I’m going to actually stay in Florida and how much of my time and effort I want to put into restoring the property. ”
“You don’t already know the answers to those questions?” He sounded genuinely surprised, which made Ruby feel a bit guilty. Did he think it was selfish of her not to stay and see this project through?
“It’s just a little more complicated than saying yes or no,” she explained. “I have a job that I sort of up and left back home in St. Louis. If I take too much time off, they might not let me come back, you know?”
He stopped and looked at her for a few seconds.
It seemed as if he wanted to say something, but then thought better of it.
Nodding a little, he kept moving once more.
“You’re right. I wasn’t really thinking about the logistics of staying here longer.
I guess I just greedily wanted to spend more time with you, but I wouldn’t want you to do anything that might jeopardize your career back home. No way.”
Ruby kept her feet planted where they were for a moment, noting that this was the second, or maybe even the third, time that day Dominic had said something she clocked as being a little flirty.
Had he meant to? Was this how he talked to women in general?
He was a handsome, single doctor after all.
This might have been just how he interacted with the opposite sex, and that it had nothing to do with her.
Then again, it was also possible that he liked her.