Читать книгу Secrets At the Cove - Honey Perkel - Страница 4

Elizabeth Windsor decided this was her favorite time of day, early morning when the sun first peeked its head over the Oregon Coast mountain range. It streamed through the large windows on the east side of the Loft House, its rays stretching across the shiny oak floor. Like yellow legs, they ran along the working canvas kept propped up on the wooden easel and scaled the windows opposite. The start to another day, she thought. Picture perfect, as they all had to be since the doctor’s diagnosis.

Picture perfect brought to mind that wonderful summer she and her parents vacationed here in Seaside. She was eight years old. Her father bought her a Brownie camera that she carried everywhere, snapping photos of beaches, lighthouses, and wildlife, candid shots taken of her mother leaning up against their big blue Chevrolet, and waving her straw sun hat in the air. Her mother and father — young, attractive, believing they had years ahead of them. Not knowing they’d be killed in a plane crash just ten years later.

Now living at Surfer’s Cove with its quiet solitude and beauty, Elizabeth found peace. The unpredictable weather mirrored her life. The cove was a good place. A good place to paint. A good place to die.

One never thought of dying here in this paradise. One came here to live, to be daring, to enjoy all the bounties this place had to offer. To surf, hike, walk its beautiful beach, get away from the hectic-ness of everyday city life. But it still happened by design, or by accident, or disease. And it would happen to her. Elizabeth was scared. She hadn’t counted on being alone at the end. Having discovered cousins in Oregon, she hoped to spend her last days with them, but that wasn’t likely to happen.

She thought of this as she stood at her easel. Mindlessly, her long slender fingers worked the sweeping brushstrokes. Swirling. Dabbing. Blending. Her loaded brush moved quickly, effortlessly, creating magic. At least she had her painting to occupy her. Getting ready for an art show always pumped her spirits.

The house in which she lived was a tall, three-story structure with a double garage on the lower level. A broad stairway lined with potted plants led up to the front door. Looking out the front windows, one saw the rocky curve of Surfer’s Cove and the ocean. The pale sea-blue walls of the space appeared illuminated in the shock of morning light. The windows had been cranked open; the white curtains billowed as though in play, tossing in the cool summer breeze.

Each morning, come rain or shine, surfers arrived as dawn approached. Parking their Volkswagons and SUVs along the road, they seemed oblivious to the fact there were homes at the cove. Homes from which eyes could watch them stand precariously on one foot, then the other, removing their clothes and donning black wetsuits. Elizabeth often laughed at the surfers’ lack of modesty. They were in a residential neighborhood after all, not a public restroom.

Normally, Elizabeth didn’t watch this ritual, but something had drawn her to the window this morning. She had felt it — a quiet, gentle force pulling her away from her easel towards the glass. She went with it, unquestioning, setting her brush aside and moving as if in a dream. There he stood against the backdrop of the sparkling, topaz sea.

This surfer was somehow different from the others she’d seen on previous mornings. Her heart skipped a beat as she peered at him there, naked, standing between two parked cars. He was tall and lean with shoulder length jet-black hair, parted to one side. His body was toned, as any well-trained surfer’s might be. Magnificent. Elizabeth had never seen him before. She would have remembered.

This wasn’t an attraction in the normal sense. Elizabeth was strangely pulled to this young man like a spiritual joining of one soul to another. Entrancing. Magnetic.

She continued to watch from her upstairs window as the handsome stranger stepped into his slick rubber suit. One leg, then another, pulling it over his firm lean thighs and buttocks. The muscles in his back and arms stretched tautly. Then he slid his torso and arms inside and zipped up his suit. Elizabeth’s heart seemed to stop.

She imagined how it would feel to press the length of her body against his. Rock hard, strong, young. What was the matter with her? she scolded herself. She guessed he was perhaps eighteen or twenty — nearly half her age. Could this strange connection she felt with the young man be a by-product of her illness? Admittedly Elizabeth was needy, afraid to be alone, but the last thing she needed was a man. The very last thing.

The young man grabbed his surfboard, paused, and looked up at her. His eyes were startlingly blue. As deep a blue as the ocean. Eyes which could see forever — hypnotic cobalt eyes. They appeared to reflect the pain and joy of every birth, the tragedy of every war, the hopes and dreams of mankind throughout the world. Elizabeth had learned in painting class that eyes were the heart of the soul. And never had she believed it to be truer than now. Beautiful. Blue. Piercing.

She held her breath as she ducked behind the white curtain. Her heart was racing. She pressed a finger to her lips and let out a small giggle of delight, but when she bravely looked again, the young man had disappeared.

Her eyes darted in and out of the parked cars and along the rocky shoreline of the cove. Where was he? she wondered. He couldn’t have gotten far in just a few moments. Through her telescope, Elizabeth searched the tide for the surfer, but she didn’t see him. Nor did she see him on the grassy knoll, where spectators came to watch the sea. He had, indeed, vanished. It was probably just as well, she realized.

She moved back to her canvas. Once again with tapered fingers, she loaded her brush with ruddy color. What had she been thinking of, mooning over a handsome surfer years her junior? A mere child. She’d be better off keeping her mind on her work.

Elizabeth uttered a sigh. It was Tuesday. With a quick glance at the clock, she realized it would soon be time to meet the women at Annie Rose’s. She wished she didn’t have to go.