CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER THREE
She walked back into June Manor feeling rather like a ghost herself. She’d had the wind knocked right out of her by some unseen force and felt as if she were simply floating as she made her way back up the porch stairs and into the house. She never stopped staring at the postcard, even as she unclasped Boo’s leash. She walked into the sitting room on legs that felt like rubber and sat in June’s old chair. With shaking hands, she held the postcard steady and read the back.
She had to start twice, as her rampant thoughts would not allow her to concentrate. Boo sat at her feet and stared up at her, perhaps sensing something strange was going on.
The postcard read:
June,
Sorry it’s been so long. I’m back stateside, out in Arizona visiting some friends I met along the way. I sense my adventure might be coming to an end and I’m thinking of settling down. Not sure where yet. I might go back to Maui. Or one of those little fjord towns out in Iceland. I miss you, June, and promise I’ll come back by to see you soon. I’ll be staying at the hotel on the address on the front of the card for a week or so if you want to write back.
Much love,
Abigail
Marie looked at the date one more time, just to make sure she had read it correctly the first dozen or so times.
There it was, plain and simple. Her mother was alive and still living some sort of vagrant lifestyle. Opting for a life of selfishness and adventure rather than the family she had started and apparently changed her mind about.
And while she wanted to hate her mother very badly, that primal emotion was overridden by the out-of-the blue certainty that her mother was indeed still alive. There was no more wondering, no more assumptions. She knew now, and she had to figure out how she truly felt about it.
It also provided yet another emotion to fall in on top of the excitement and nervousness she was feeling for Brendan. Suddenly, the sound of construction and the everyday busyness of the house was less like music and more like clatter. Before she was even aware that she was doing it, Marie got to her feet and headed for the front door. Boo followed, as if wondering if they were headed back out.
“Not this time,” she told him absently as she headed out the door.
She started down the stairs and realized that before her feet even hit the sidewalk, she knew where she was going. She hadn’t been to the Red Reef in over a week, and she couldn’t remember ever wanting to see Robbie so badly.
Robbie had become something of a staple over the past three weeks; she simply hadn’t seen him in about six days because when she had free time, he was busy and vice versa. When June Manor started filling up with guests, Marie had worked out a deal with Red Reef Diner. While Posey was still more than happy to provide a full breakfast for the guests, she also saw the benefit of having some extras here and there. That’s why Robbie brought fresh baked biscuits and their special brew of coffee three times a week. Granted, he was always hurrying back to the diner to help with the breakfast rush, but he made a point to spend at least five minutes talking to Marie before he had to leave. And while Marie had not grown close enough to him to fill him in on any of her odd secrets—the hidden room and her supernatural abilities, for instance—he
had
become a familiar voice and presence in her life, as someone she could trust.
As she rounded the corner off of Main Street and the Red Reef Diner came into view, she was reminded how beautiful the town was. It was even more enchanting in cold weather, when it wasn’t inundated with tourists. It felt special somehow, like some well-preserved secret shared among the locals. The small-town feel, the unique businesses, all held together by the instant churning sounds of the ocean beneath it. She was in love with the place and found it hard to believe it had taken her so long to end up here—the small town she’d iconized as a child and now planned to call home for the remainder of her days.
She wondered if she might go to Brendan with this sort of stress if he were in town. Thinking it made her think she might be betraying him, but that was plain stupid; she’d come to terms that the few kisses they’d shared had been nothing, and that any hope for a romantic future with Brendan would never work.
Robbie, however, always made her feel special. It was more than the schoolboy way he’d look at her from time to time. It was feeling that whenever he asked how she was doing, he really meant it. He wanted to know about her day, wanted to know what she was going through and what she was feeling. It wasn’t something she was used to in a man and it was quite nice indeed.
If she needed any further proof that Robbie would be the best person to go to with this overabundance of
yuck
(not the most sensible word but it summed up her mood quite well), she got it the moment she walked in the door. Robbie was standing behind the little diner bar, speaking to an elderly man. When he saw Marie step in, his face lit up and the smile he flashed at her was exactly what she needed. It didn’t hurt that he was looking quite handsome today, too; his dark hair was just a bit messy, making him look younger than he actually was. His eyes shone when he smiled at her, making her feel slightly giddy.
Robbie excused himself from the elderly man and waved Marie over to the far edge of the diner. It was nearing ten thirty in the morning, so the breakfast rush had cleared out and the lunch crowd was about an hour away.
“This is a pleasant surprise,” Robbie said.
“I’m glad you think so,” she said. “I just needed to get out of the house. I needed to…I need…hell, I don’t
know
.”
“Is everything okay?”
“No. Sort of.” She paused here, not sure how to answer the question. “Not really. I don’t know that either, I guess.”
“Want some coffee?”
“God, no. That’s the last thing I need right now—something else to make me jittery.”
“Tea, then? Maybe just an attentive ear?”
“Yeah, that.” She couldn’t help but smile. Robbie seemed like one of those men who was typically very good when it came to speaking to women, but didn’t quite know
how
good he was.
He smiled and wiped his hands on his apron. “Come on to the back, then,” he said.
“Into the kitchen?” she asked, confused.
“No,” he said, with a laugh. “To my office. I was just about to take a little break anyway.”
She followed him to the back of the restaurant where he did enter the kitchen for a bit. But before entering into the actual cooking space, he took a hard left down a small hall. There was an employee restroom and a single large office space at the back of it. Robbie opened the door to the office and allowed her inside first.
It was a little cluttered, but in an almost decorative way. There were a few pictures on the walls, mostly of Robbie and her father. She spotted one of a much younger Robbie Dunne, sitting on a swivel stool while his father flipped flapjacks behind him. It made her heart warm, as he was just about the age he’d been when Marie had visited Port Bliss with her mother, coming to see Aunt June. God, that was forever ago…
“Everything okay at the manor?” Robbie asked. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you look frazzled.”
“That’s a very good word for it,” she said. She ran through the checklist in her head. It wasn’t even eleven o’clock in the morning yet and she had already seen the ghost of her aunt, been told her very good friend was going to land a television show, and then found out beyond a shadow of a doubt that her estranged mother was alive. So yeah…
frazzled
was a very good word.
Without actually saying anything, she took the postcard out of her back pocket. Shoving it back there had wrinkled up the edges, which she regretted.
“I got this in the mail this morning,” she said as she sat down in a chair in the corner.
Robbie took it and leaned against the wall as he looked at it. Marie wasn’t sure why, but it meant a lot to her that he opted to stand beside her rather than sit behind his desk. He tended to always be mindful of the situation they were in. He was probably one of the most polite and caring people Marie had ever met.
“Yikes,” he said, handing it back. “And you’re upset because she’s still out there, doing her own thing?”
“Somewhat.” Marie had never gone deep with Robbie on her mother. He knew the basics—of how she had abandoned her family and lived a selfish life—but not about how obsessed Marie had once been over the postcards in the hidden room and how she’d tried mapping out a timeline of when and where her mother had traveled to. “I think it’s also because it means that she has no idea June died. It shows how self-centered she is. But at the same time…I’d be telling lies if I claimed I didn’t want to see her.”
“Do you think you’ll write her back?”
Although her mother had made the request in an offhanded way on the postcard, it was not something Marie had even considered. But as Robbie said, something about the idea of writing back was exhilarating and scary.
Sorry, but June’s dead. And by the way, this is Marie writing. Remember me? The daughter you left behind?
That could be the first draft, anyway.
“I don’t know,” she answered. “I honestly have no idea what I would say.”
“All this time without her, all this time thinking about her…you haven’t thought about what you’d say to her if she showed up?”
“Oh, I’ve thought about it plenty of times. But none of it is very nice.”
“Maybe that’s okay.” He frowned then, giving her an apologetic look. “Sorry. I don’t do life advice particularly well. I can offer you a joke, if that helps. Maybe a dirty rhyme or something?”
She smiled and got up from the chair. “No, that’s okay. Just having someone to talk about it with is a huge help—especially someone I don’t directly work with.”
“If I might be so bold,” Robbie said, “I could come by with some wine later today, sometime after dinner. We could drink it and take a walk on the beach if you still want to talk about it.”
It did not surprise her that Robbie would suggest such a thing, but it still took her a moment to process it when she heard it.
“That actually sounds lovely,” she said. “Does seven o’clock work for you?”
“That sounds perfect. I can—”
He was interrupted by the ringing of her cell phone. The number was local, but unfamiliar. Never one to ignore a call because as a bed-and-breakfast owner you never knew who might be calling, Marie gave a quick sorry and answered the call.
“This is Marie, of June Manor. Can I help you?”
“Hey there, Marie,” said a gruff male voice. “My name is Carl Melrose, the owner and sometimes caretaker of Boggie Lighthouse. I was sort of hoping you and I could have a meeting.”
Marie was confused. In the past when she thought of Boggie Lighthouse, she recalled memories of her mother driving them out to Port Bliss. Boggie Lighthouse had always been visible in the distance just as they passed by the city limits. But ever since moving to Port Bliss, she thought of Brendan whenever the lighthouse came to mind or was mentioned. When she’d first met him, he had been on assignment to investigate the rumored ghost stories surrounding the place. So, for a moment, she wondered if there had been a mistake; maybe Carl Melrose had intended to call Brendan Peck.
“What’s this in regards to?” she asked.
Carl Melrose gave the kind of chuckle that insinuated he felt foolish about what he was going to say.
“Well…the ghosts, obviously.”
“I’m sorry…I can’t tell if you’re being serious or not.”
“Oh, I’m serious.”
Hearing this answer, Marie was starting to understand that this was just going to be one of those days—one thing after another, a hellish snowball of a day that would not stop rolling downhill until it either smashed into a rock wall or plummeted right off of a cliff. Already, the sight of Aunt June’s ghost in her hallway earlier that morning seemed like a distant memory—maybe even just a dream.
“Well, what can you tell me about it?” Marie asked. “What’s going on?”
“I’d really like to discuss it in person. Can you come right away?”
She knew she didn’t have to accept. But even as she looked at Robbie, trying to convince herself to stay here with him and pretend to have a somewhat normal life, she knew she would not be able to say no. The supernatural and all things bizarre were quickly becoming a permanent fixture in her new life—a fixture she was learning quite quickly she found it very hard to say no to.