Chapter Two

 

“Whatcha doing?” Eric asked, popping his head out his car as he pulled up in front of his place.

I lifted a can of paint from the rear of my Jeep and waved it in front of me. “Renovating.”

He walked over and retrieved a couple bags of supplies and the other two cans of paint, following me into the house. “Sorry I didn’t come and grab you for our supper date the other night. An emergency popped up with a friend, and by time I got back here your lights were all off.”

“It’s all good, I promise.” I hadn’t expected much anyway. Figured he blew me off like I had him so many times before. Besides, this wasn’t the right time in my life for a date-date. A friendly coffee, as wonderful as the thought was, was almost too much to handle. Especially since being back in the bay area.

“I’ve been working more with the incoming tourists.”

“Eric,” I paused and rifled through the bag of supplies sitting on the kitchen island. “Trust me, it’s okay.” Right at the bottom was the package of plastic tarps I needed.

A look of relief tugged his shoulders downward and pushed a smile into his cheeks. “Whew.” He mocked wiping his brow and turned to take in the change of scenery. “Wow.” A high-pitched whistle blew through his lips. “You’ve totally changed the looks of this place.”

I narrowed my eyes. As far as I remembered, I’d never invited him over, so how would he know?

He set a paint can down on the floor. “On occasion I’d pop over and make sure everything was okay – no water lines busted, that kind of thing. Your dad hired me to keep an eye on the place. By the way, is he coming by at all? I’d like to touch base with him.”

I froze in the spot for a heartbeat and swallowed down a rapidly forming lump. “No, he’s not coming.” Quickly, I averted my gaze.

“Ah, well, too bad.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “This looks amazing, and you’ve given it a modern spin. I like it.”

“Excuse its current disaster though.”

Normally, I was a neat and tidy person, but being here, there was the overwhelming urge to declutter, clean and repaint, and the result was a temporary pigsty. Sure, the walls were freshly painted in an interesting choice of grey, which wasn’t my first pick, but the floors were littered in nightmare of weathered books, knickknacks and items that desperately needed to never see the light of day again.

“I promise, it’s not permanent. I have big plans for this space.” I lifted the can of paint at Eric’s feet, twisting and debating where precisely to put it.

The main floorplan was open concept, and the sitting area only had three walls. One had an empty, but unpainted, bookcase from the 1950’s that took up the length of the wall and filled three-quarters of the height. The other two walls were half windows; one gazing out to green hilly seaside, and the other stared out onto the covered deck which faced the ocean. Painting those two walls had been easy. It was the bookcase wall providing some challenges since it was firmly attached to the wall and I couldn’t just slap a paint roller on it and be done. The wall needed to be painted, as did the bookcase, but I wasn’t sure if it should match the wall, or something different to make it pop. While I figured it out (and waited for a call from my best friend and interior decorator), I’d painted the kitchen but without her returning my call, I’d started painting the upstairs. And that’s when I ran out of supplies.

“Like everything else in my life, it was time for a change.” I set the heavy can down with a thud and leaned back against the counter, forgetting for the briefest of heartbeats that Eric was here. And he didn’t know all the things.

Had I thought it through, I would’ve rested in a way that didn’t speak volumes and announced my condition.

Eric’s eyes sailed over my body and focused, like everyone else had since my return, on my slightly protruding bump.

I fluffed my shirt and sighed. There was no point in hiding it, he was going to notice it soon enough and in a small town everyone seemed to know everyone else’s business, like it or not. Perhaps, if I came clean first, it would put to rest the rumours that eventually rose from the mistruths. Even if my reasons for moving here hadn’t yet become clear to me, there was no point in withholding the facts.

“Yep, I’m pregnant. Due September fourteenth to be exact.” I gave the bump a rub. “My twenty-two-year-old man-child of a boyfriend said he wasn’t ready to be a father, and after emptying his drawer in my apartment, he’s out of the picture. Dad had a heart attack just before Easter, but the damage was too much, and he passed away a couple of months ago. Then there’s my lovely sister who refuses to talk to me because she’s the oldest and she was supposed to have kids first. Her raging jealousy hit epic levels because I got knocked up, and she’s been trying for six years to have children.”

Despite the silent staring and slack jaw look, I remained on my mission of airing my dirty laundry and let the words continue to spew.

“Oh, right. To add insult to injury, the company I worked for was just bought out by a huge Asian firm, so I received a nice little buyout package, but I’m effectively jobless. Thankfully, the Wi-Fi here isn’t atrocious, and I can build my own company to help cover the bills while I figure out what the hell I’m doing.” I dropped my hands to the side and breathed out. Relief wasn’t even the right word to express the emotions that fell like a waterfall. It was refreshing to spill it all. “Imagine my surprise. I’m thirty years old and starting my life over, and it’s not quite how I planned. Not even close.”

Eric pulled out a kitchen stool and sat with a thump. “That was a lot of information in thirty seconds.” He wiped a hand across his forehead.

“Can I get you something to drink?” Without waiting for an answer, I filled a glass with water and handed it to him.

He gulped it all down. To his credit, he seemed to be handling the news much better than Dad had, and way better than Parker. “You’re telling me you’re all alone in this?” His gazed slowly dropped to my slight bump.

“Pretty much.”

“And your dad, he’s… he died?” The smidgen of hurt was unmistakable.

My voice softened. “Yeah. Had I known you were taking care of the place, I would’ve let you know. There was nothing in his journals that mentioned a property caretaker. I just assumed he came out once in a while.”

“Damn, I’m really sorry to hear of his passing. I always liked him.” His face fell, and somewhere in my heart an ache formed. It seemed Eric was closer to my father than I had been. “And you’ve moved here for the time being, to kind of sort out your personal situation?”

“For now, yes. I still have my place downtown, but I guess I’ll see what becomes of things here.” I gave my tummy a rub.

The little one was slowly moving around. Guess the verbal diarrhea pumped my heartbeat and woke someone.

Eric rose and offered me the stool. “You should be the one to sit.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m pregnant, not elderly. I’m fine.” Instead, I filled another glass of water, this one for me, and I took a few sips. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to dump on you. I forgot how small some towns can be and all the looks I got, especially from the hardware store after they recognized me, they all rubbed me the wrong way.”

“Yeah, you look pretty much like how I remembered.” He huffed and took another drink of water, walking over to the sink and refilling it. “Sorry about the hardware store. Guess some people never forgot who you are.”

I lifted a shoulder and sighed. “Who I was.”

The joys of small-town life. It was nice being anonymous in the big city. No one knew me, no one knew about my past. Thirteen years distance should’ve been enough of a gap. Boy, oh boy, was I wrong.

“Where’d you go get your stuff?”

“Stewart Surf.”

He rocked side to side. “You probably got hosed.”

I laughed and tilted my head back. “Oh, most likely. But it was better than the hardware store here.”

The joys of island living included a higher cost of living. However, living on the beach, I wouldn’t need as much as I did in the city. Ironic. I finished my water and put my glass into the sink. Grabbing an armful of supplies, I headed upstairs and into my childhood bedroom. It didn’t have the amazing view of the Pacific Ocean like the master bedroom, so I was readying it as a guest room.

Eric followed me upstairs and came armed with a can of paint. “You doing all grey up here as well?”

I looked around my former bedroom with the large window easy enough to sneak into, if a certain sister left the window open after I’d climbed up the lattice. “Yeah, think so.”

Currently, the room was a sand colour, but it was faded and very dated as the last time it was painted was before Mona was born.

I read the colour on Eric’s can. “Give me a sec, I need the other one.”

Inside the freshly painted master bedroom was the other open can I needed to finish first. All rooms had undergone a transformation, and yet none of them were even close to being finished. A bad habit of starting projects and not seeing them all the way through, even though I promised myself, this time would be different.

I set Eric’s can – the tag called it Stormy Seas - along the windowed wall. It was a deeper blue grey. Once I painted the window trim in white, it should have a nice contrast, which was the vision I had for my old room. Some people didn’t like the grey palette, but I found it comforting and modern once I got beyond the initial institutional feel.

“Need some help?”

“Nah. I’ll need to wash walls in here first, but I don’t mind.”

All the personality had been stripped off the walls years ago. The posters had long been taken down, our N’Sync years behind us. There was only a bed and dresser, and I could easily still move those into the centre of the room. I’d managed in the master bedroom on my own.

“I feel like I can’t leave you to do this.” He unbuttoned his cuffs, and rolled them up, exposing his taut arms.

Damn. What was it about guys in dress shirts with the sleeves rolled up? I shook away the lustful feelings. It was a sweet gesture on Eric’s part to help, but I couldn’t accept.

“Would you have insisted on helping had you not discovered I was pregnant?”

He looked down and shuffled his feet. “No, I still would’ve helped.”

“Honestly, I’ll be fine.” I put my hands on my hips. “It’ll be therapeutic in a way. Cleaning and changing everything. At least this is a part of my life I have some control over.”

He checked his watch. “Fair enough. I can respect that.”

Playfully, I swatted his arm - his strong, muscled arm. Damn. “Pretend like I didn’t dump my woes on you ten minutes ago about my wildly unhinged life and pretend I’m still a cantankerous and rebellious seventeen-year-old. When my mind is made up, there’s not much you can do to change it.”

“Sounds like some things haven’t changed.” A gentle grin formed on his tanned face. “Well, if you don’t need me?” He waited, and I shook my head. “Then I should get back to the airport. Just had some time between flights, and I needed to grab something from the house.” He walked to the door and hesitated, opening his mouth and closing it just as quick.

I followed him out and walked ahead of him down the stairs. I needed a bucket and my phone for music, wishing I had brought my sound bar. It would’ve come in handy.

“Thanks for the help.”

Eric hung by the door, a debate warring on his face, and I couldn’t tell if he was perplexed or offended.

I leaned against the frame, stalling as I wasn’t ready to let him walk away just yet. The interruption had been pleasant. “Hey, is our section of beach still private?”

“Sure is. Both towns worked to clean up a long stretch of public beaches, including long beach. This way, this stretch of beach remains private to the homeowners.”

“Cool.”

Years ago, there had been talk about making the beach public property, at least according to Dad. He and a few of the other homeowners must’ve fought hard to keep it to the residents only.

Eric opened the screen door and stepped on to the front porch. “Tonight.” The word hung in the air for a few heartbeats. “Why don’t you come over for supper?”

“Supper?” My heart pounded in anticipation.

“You do eat, right?” He scanned me up and down, that grin of his widening into a mega-watt smile with enough power to launch the butterflies into my gut at high speed.

“I’ve been known to have a bite here and there.” Suddenly, I was fifteen again and the cute boy was asking me out for ice cream. Had my hair not been piled on my head, I may have grabbed a piece and twirled it around my finger while batting my eyes.

“Perfect. I’ll have dinner ready for seven. Does that work?” He cocked his head to the side.

“I’ll set a timer.” I winked.

This side of the island was so relaxed, time was meaningless. Always had been.

With a wave, he walked away, and I studied his behind until it was rounding his vehicle. Yep. Time had done wonders for Eric. Did he think the same about me?