Читать книгу An Unlikely Family - Cynthia Thomason - Страница 9

CHAPTER THREE

SATURDAY NIGHT YAWNED ahead of Evie like the flat Florida landscape she’d driven through two days before. She’d spent the day at the school organizing her work space and adding personal touches. The small office was beginning to feel like home.

She wished she could say the same for Hester Poole’s frilly little haven. But Evie didn’t think she could stand sipping another iced tea from a flowery pink tumbler or bathing with another of the rose-shaped, quarter-size soaps Hester provided with a ruffled shower cap. And surfing the eight channels the outdoor antenna picked up wasn’t any more appealing.

If she were in Detroit, Evie would be spending Saturday night with one of her few remaining friends who still lived in the city, or going on a don’t-get-your-hopes-up date, or hitting one of the local cineplexes. A movie wasn’t an option in Heron Point. There wasn’t a single theater in town.

She supposed she could wander down Hester’s brick-paved walkway to the Gulf and watch the tide roll in, but she was starving. She decided to go into town to the Green Door Café for supper. Maybe she’d run into Pet Sweeney.

What Evie hadn’t counted on was the volume of traffic in town on a Saturday night. After two slow passes down Island Avenue, she finally spotted a car pulling out of a space. She did what she always criticized other drivers for doing—she sat in the street with her blinker on to nab the spot before anyone else could. And she did her best to ignore the drivers in the line behind her.

When she got out of her car, she noticed she was close to Wear It Again, the clothing store owned by her new friend, Claire. Evie walked up to the display window and looked inside. Claire had said she ran a vintage shop. All the selections Evie could see through the glass were elegant and unusual, and according to the tags within sight, some once belonged to Hollywood celebrities.

The store was crowded, but Evie ventured in anyway. She wouldn’t stay long, just say hi to Claire. A young woman signaled to her when she came inside. “Be right with you,” she said.

“Hi, I’m Sue Ellen,” she said a few minutes later, unnecessarily. She wore a name tag on the lapel of her shabby chic jacket. “Can I help you?”

“I stopped by to see Claire,” Evie explained.

“Oh, she’s not here. She’s hardly ever here on a Saturday night.” She nodded toward another girl who had pinned her name tag to a wide band around her hair. “We handle things on weekend nights.”

Evie thanked her and left the shop. Imagine not being present for what must be the biggest sales night of the week. Claire must have a lot of confidence in her employees or, more likely, she wasn’t as concerned about the income as many of the island’s shopkeepers appeared to be.

Evie walked the three blocks to the Green Door, dodging couples holding hands or families with strollers. She hoped she wouldn’t have to wait long for a table since it was nearly eight o’clock. The restaurant was busy, but Evie managed to grab a small table by the window. She asked the mature waitress if Pet Sweeney was working.

“Oh, honey,” the woman said, “Pet only works in the daytime. She vowed when she got married she’d never volunteer for a Friday or Saturday night again.” The waitress flipped open her order pad and pulled a pencil from behind her ear. “A lot of the local employees avoid the Avenue on weekends, which is fine with me. It gives us Micopee gals a chance at the biggest tips.”

Evie ordered a hamburger and a raspberry iced tea. So that’s it, she thought, when the waitress had walked away. The locals prefer Heron Point during the week when the tourists weren’t invading.

Since Claire and Pet weren’t in town, and since Helen lived more than an hour’s drive away in Gainesville, Evie had exhausted her supply of new friends who could teach her the fine art of livin’ easy. She bit into a juicy burger and smiled to herself. Unless I count Officer Billy Muldoone, she thought. He must be around town tonight. And I suppose I could call him my friend. She swallowed a sweet gulp of tea. He did find my earring.

She was still thinking about Billy after she left the Green Door and had resumed window-shopping. When she was opposite the largest building in town, the hotel where she’d had lunch yesterday, a commotion near the sidewalk café stopped her. In the middle of it was the tall, broad-shouldered Muldoone.

He saw her at the same time and greeted her in that booming baritone that muted every other sound on the street. “Hey, there, Evie. Come on over.”

She approached slowly since it was obvious Billy was on duty and, in fact, was performing one of his legal responsibilities at that very moment. She stopped a few feet from the entrance to the café. Billy propped his foot on a bench next to a man who was slouched forward with his hands behind his back. Billy rested his elbow on his bent knee. “What are you doing out tonight?” he asked Evie.

She couldn’t resist staring at the man she assumed was Billy’s captive. He was a scruffy-looking character perhaps in his mid-thirties. Though his head was down, she could see a scowl on his face. She noticed, too, a strand of white plastic sticking out from behind his waist. The new type of restraining device used by police forces.

“I’m, uh, just wandering.”

Billy smiled. “Nice night for it.”

She blinked a couple of times. This was the first apprehended criminal she’d seen that wasn’t on the eleven o’clock news. “So what are you doing?”

“Had to grab this guy,” Billy said. “And a couple others earlier. Been a busy night.”

The man looked up at Billy and barked an expletive.

“Watch it,” Billy said. “We’ve got ladies all around us. Maybe if I tighten those restraints, it’ll encourage you to mind your manners.”

The man stared at the sidewalk.

The knee of Billy’s uniform was ripped through, showing bruised flesh beneath. And when she looked more closely at him, she realized that his elbow had been scraped raw, too. “What happened to you?” she asked.

He shrugged one well-rounded shoulder. “It’s nothing. I had to use a Pensacola High School tackling move to get this fella to slow up.” He pointed down, and for the first time Evie noticed his criminal wore a pair of ragged socks on his feet and no shoes.

“Look under there,” Billy said, and Evie bent to see under the bench. “He was wearing those Rollerblade skates, which meant he had a good head start on me.”

“You caught him when he was on inline skates?” she asked, amazed that a man Billy’s size could churn up that much speed.

“The crowd slowed him down some,” Billy admitted. “That’s the thing about these weekend pickpockets. They don’t take into account that there are disadvantages to stealing in a mob.” He grinned at her. “Or the fact that my mother had a willow tree in her backyard, and avoiding her switch taught me a good deal about hauling a—” he paused “—running fast.”

He looked over her shoulder toward the street and nudged the man beside him. “Time to go, Eugene,” he said. “Our ride’s here.”

The glossy-white porch railings around the café reflected the blue and red cruiser lights, and Evie stepped out of the way with the rest of the crowd. When the car stopped, a young female officer got out. She walked up and grabbed the pickpocket by the elbow while Billy tugged him off the bench.

“Hey, Gail, say hello to Evie,” Billy said as he pushed the top of his captive’s head to lower the guy into the back seat. “She’s our new principal.”

Gail, a cute yet officious-looking brunette about Evie’s height, stuck out her hand. “Heard about you. Welcome to town.”

“Thanks.”

Billy called to a civilian on the porch. “You mind tossing me those skates and that pocketbook?”

The unsuccessful getaway wheels and a Louis Vuitton bag came sailing over to Billy. “Much obliged,” Billy said to the tourist. He handed the purse to Gail. “You’ll see that lady gets this back?”

She nodded.

“Tell her not to let this spoil her impression of Heron Point. The only reason this guy was able to grab her purse without somebody stopping him was because he was wearing those damn wheels. I’m going to suggest a new code at the next town council meeting. No skates after 8:00 p.m. on weekends.”

“Good idea,” Gail said. “You sure you don’t want me to ride into Micopee with you? I can call Jack to come in and spell me.”

“No. Don’t bother him. I’ll pick up Lou, and he can help me escort Eugene as well as those other two guys at city hall. We’ve just got one holding cell on the island,” he explained to Evie, “and that’s only because Jack insisted on having it built when he became chief of police. So when we’ve got more than one perp, we’ve got to take them to the county jail in Micopee.”

Raised in an area where the jails were generally larger than high schools, Evie simply said, “Oh.”

Billy winked at her. “I’d ask you to ride along, but the front seat next to me will be occupied.”

She smiled uncertainly back at him. “That’s quite all right. I understand completely.”

He slid into the driver’s seat of the cruiser. “I hear you’re staying out at the Pink Ladies.”

“That’s right.”

“Maybe I’ll give you a call sometime, see how you’re doing. I’ve lived in Heron Point a good long while, and I can tell you about the area.”

From the backseat, a nasal voice mimicked, “Maybe I’ll give you a call sometime.” Billy glared over his shoulder through a protective screen. “You watch yourself back there. It’s a dark, lonely ride to Micopee. One more missing person along that stretch of roadway wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow around here.” He nodded to Gail. “You see Evie gets back to her car okay, will you? We’ve got some smart mouths in town tonight.”

“You got it, Billy.”

The two women watched him drive away, and Evie realized she hadn’t responded to his offer. Maybe it was just as well. She heard Gail sigh beside her and turned to look at her. “Is something wrong?” she asked.

“Isn’t he wonderful?”

Evie didn’t quite know how to answer that. She hadn’t decided if Billy Muldoone was any part of wonderful, though she now knew that at least one woman in town thought he was all that and more. “He seems to be an excellent police officer,” she said, confident that the man she’d just seen in action would have no trouble with the criminals he was hauling off to jail.

AT FIVE O’CLOCK Sunday afternoon Billy drove down Island Avenue in the squad car and convinced himself that it was quiet enough to go home. Most of the tourists had left, and the shopkeepers had pulled their merchandise in from the sidewalks. It had been a busy couple of days, even for an August weekend. The weather had been balmy with no rain, no doubt attracting last-minute visitors.

He rolled down the window and rested his arm on the car door, enjoying the warm refreshing air that flowed through the cruiser and erased the sour smell of cheap alcohol from the inebriated petty thieves he’d picked up. He didn’t know exactly when he’d become the unofficial second-in-command on the police force, but he was proud that Jack trusted him so much.

Thankfully they had a good crew. Gail was a competent cop even if she was sweet on him. Billy admired Gail, but he would never date anyone on the force. Personal relations didn’t mix with official responsibilities, especially for cops. Ricky, the transplant from the Orlando P.D. Jack had hired when he took over, was working out great. Lou was a willing and satisfactory service aide, and among the five permanent members of the Heron Point department and the couple of extras they hired on particularly busy weekends, the town was enjoying low crime and dependable service.

But now, as he was most times at the end of the tourist rush, Billy was tired and ready to settle back into his recliner and sniff whatever his ma was preparing for dinner. Mulligan stew probably, since it was Sunday and she never let her family forget they were Irish.

Beginning to sweat, Billy jacked the A/C another notch, taking advantage of the salty air outside and the cool, recycled air coming from the vents. He took off his hat and tossed it next to him on the bench seat. He could practically smell the roast beef simmering now. He may have some complaints about living with his mother after so many years of independence, but no one would ever catch him bad-mouthing her cooking.

As he approached the turn to Gulfview Road he considered detouring away from the middle of town, where he lived in a hundred-year-old clapboard house on what his mother called one of the prettiest little streets she’d ever seen. Billy would have much preferred the unobstructed view of the water from a property on Gulfview Road. Heck, with the price of real estate escalating in Heron Point, he doubted he’d ever own a piece of the Gulf shore now.

But Claire and Jack did. And so did Hester, whose fancy Pink Ladies cut a flowery trail all the way to the water. Where Evie Gaynor was renting.

Billy turned onto Gulfview Road. Maybe he’d stop and pay Evie a visit. On the other hand, he’d told her he’d call, so that’s probably what he should do.

Since he’d already made the turn and since the water looked so blue and endless and since dinner wouldn’t be ready for at least an hour at the Muldoone house, Billy veered into Claire and Jack’s driveway. He’d give Jack an informal report, maybe have a beer and talk for a few minutes—who knows? Maybe the conversation would lead to the new principal.

He pressed the button on his cell phone that connected him home. “Hey, Daddy,” his daughter answered.

“Hi there, Gemma, what’s goin’ on?”

“Nothing much. Nana’s making me fold my laundry. She says I have to have all my clothes in order by tomorrow morning so she can take me shopping for new school things.”

Clearly detecting the irritation in his daughter’s voice, Billy said, “That’s a good thing, isn’t it? You want new clothes, don’t you?”

“Don’t care one way or the other,” Gemma said. “New clothes just get to be old clothes soon enough, and you end up starting all over again anyway.”

Billy shook his head. Sometimes there was no point arguing his daughter’s logic. “I’m over at Jack’s,” he said. “Tell Nana I’ll be home in time for supper.”

“I’ll tell her. Don’t be late or you’ll be in trouble.”

He could picture Gemma’s finger shaking at the phone—the same sassy gesture Brenda Muldoone had perfected raising Billy and his two brothers. No one should ever underestimate the value of a good finger-shaking. “I won’t be late.”

He stuck the cell phone in his pocket and walked up the few steps to the Hogan’s front porch. Tapping lightly on the door, he hollered, “Anybody home?”

He heard a youthful squeal and a voice calling out that she’d get it. In a few seconds, the door swung open and Billy stared down at Jane, Claire’s daughter. The girl’s deep brown eyes smiled right along with her mouth as she announced over her shoulder, “Billy’s here.” She opened the door wider. “Come on in.”

Jane was cute as a button. All sweet-smelling and sparkly in pink shorts with ribbons in her long dark hair. She was only a year older than Gemma, and Billy often regretted that the two girls had never seemed to hit it off.

“How are you, Jane?” When she assured him that everything was rosy in her life, he asked where Jack was.

“He’s outside.” She pointed through the rear of the house. “Go on out.”

Billy entered the kitchen where Claire and Pet Sweeney were concocting something that smelled delicious. “Ladies,” he said. “Hope I didn’t interrupt anything.”

Claire motioned to a tray of raw steaks on the counter. “You’re not going to be in our way, Billy. At least not until I can actually get Jack to put these things on the grill.” She paused and then said, “Why don’t you stay for dinner? We have an extra. I thought we were going to have company, but she turned me down.”

“She?”

“Yes. You met her—our new principal, Evie Gaynor.”

Billy leaned against the counter. “Evie was coming here?”

“Well, she never agreed to. But I invited her. She said she had some work to do before the teachers arrived for planning sessions tomorrow.” Claire glanced at Pet. “Actually, she didn’t say so, but I think Evie was afraid she’d be intruding. What do you think, Aunt Pet?”

“Maybe.” Pet delivered a mischievous look to Billy. “What do you think? You know her as well as anyone.”

“Me? I just met her…”

Pet continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “Surely you’ve formed an opinion about our Miss Gaynor.”

Normally, Billy could ramble for ten or fifteen minutes on most any subject. But in this case, he simply said, “She seems real nice.”

Pet smiled. “She does, doesn’t she?”

Billy stood straight, suddenly uncomfortable under Pet’s scrutiny.

Claire sprinkled seasoning on the steaks. “So what do you say, Billy? Will you stay?”

“Thanks anyway, but I promised Gemma I’d be home. She’s got my evening all planned out with video game challenges. But I’d like to have a word with Jack, if that’s okay?”

“He’s in the gazebo, avoiding the grill,” Claire said. “I’m pretty sure he and Finn have had enough girl chatter for one afternoon.” She pointed her spoon at the back door. “They’ll welcome another male.”

“Thanks.” Billy left and headed down the pathway to the gazebo, which stood near the shore. He hadn’t been pleased to hear that Jack wasn’t alone and, worse, that his company was Finn Sweeney. “That’s just great,” he grumbled to himself as he meandered through the herb garden Pet had maintained while she’d lived in the smaller cottage behind Claire’s bungalow. He never looked forward to seeing the gruff old fisherman.

Billy and Finn had never gotten along, especially since Billy had once pursued his daughter Helen. Finn had always criticized any guy Helen went out with, and yet she’d ended up with the son of the one man the old grouch had sworn never to forgive. Yet Finn had gotten over his grudge with his decades-old enemy, proving again that life could take some odd turns.

“Look at you,” Billy said to himself. “Who’d have ever thought you’d actually ask your mother to move in with you?” But when Gemma had shown up on his doorstep four years ago, and Billy hadn’t known the first thing about kids, he’d seen Brenda as the answer to his prayers.

Widowed and with no family members who needed her anymore, Brenda Muldoone had willingly come to help her eldest son. Now she strived to keep all of them on the straight and narrow. Though no longer one of her weapons, that now-legendary willow switch reminded Billy every day that she was the woman who could do it.

Jack looked up when Billy stepped on a dry twig. “Hey, look who’s here.”

Finn frowned. “You write your quota of speeding tickets for one day, Muldoone?”

Billy stepped into the gazebo and shook his head. “I’m not getting into an argument with you, Sweeney.”

“It’d be the first time.”

Apparently, Finn was never going to get past all those reckless driving tickets Billy had given Helen, even though the old man knew darned well she’d deserved every one of them. At least motherhood had turned Helen into a conservative driver—something half a dozen fines hadn’t been able to do.

“I’ve come to talk to Jack,” Billy said, sending a pleading glance to the man who was both his boss and his friend.

“I’d like to give you some privacy and take a hike, Billy,” Finn said, tapping the arms of his wheelchair. “Unfortunately my hiking days have been somewhat limited the last forty-odd years.”

Jack motioned for Billy to sit on the bench built into the wall of the gazebo. “What’s on your mind? Is this something you can’t discuss in front of Finn?”

Billy studied the old man’s face for a moment. “I suppose he can hear.”

“Then go ahead and spill it,” Finn said. “Since there’s no way I’m going to end up with you as a son-in-law, I don’t dislike you half as much as I used to.”

“That’s a relief,” Billy mumbled. He clasped his hands between his knees and looked at Jack. “I’m just wondering what you know about the new principal, Evie Gaynor. Have you met her?”

“Not much, but Claire likes her. She was going to suggest Evie move into Pet’s old cottage. It’s been sitting vacant since Pet and Finn got married.”

“That’s a great idea,” Billy said.

“So what’s your interest in her?”

Billy shrugged. “I was just thinking of being friendly.”

Finn snickered. “So that’s what they call it these days.”

Jack scowled at Finn. “Never mind,” he said and gave Billy his full attention. “That’s a good plan. If you like this lady, take things a bit more slowly. She’s new in town. She’ll need friends, and, speaking from experience, I don’t know of a better one than you.”

“So you don’t think I might be reaching too high?”

Jack draped his arm around Billy’s shoulder. “Buddy, I don’t think the Queen of England is beyond your reach. I feel about you like I would a brother, but that doesn’t mean I’d marry you.”

“Well, thank God for that,” Billy muttered.

Jack laughed. “Evie’s not going anywhere. I have it on good authority from the mayor that she signed a two-year contract to stick it out down here. That gives you plenty of time to sweep her off her feet.”

“Right. If I don’t step on her toes in the process.”

Claire hollered at them from the house.

“Oh, Lord,” Finn said. “She’s waving that spatula like it was a battle ax. I’d suggest you take the hint.”

Jack went behind the wheelchair and pushed it toward the ramp he’d installed when Finn and Pet married. “Stay for dinner, Billy?”

“Can’t. Ma’s got stew cooking.” He went down the steps, walked briskly toward the house but called back to the other two, “Thanks for the advice. I know what I’m going to do.” And he did. He’d wait until tomorrow to call Evie and let her know how good a friend he could be.