Sound of the Tide (6 page)

Wow! I was restored—at least as far as my tired eyes and pallid skin would allow.

Hesitantly, I stepped over to the window curtains and opened them.

Dammit! It was raining.

I mean, a bright sunny day would have worked so much better with my resurrection! And my flimsy skirt. For a moment my hands twitched on the curtains, wanting to reestablish shade and block out that gloomy day, and the thought of returning to bed briefly flared up in my head. But a knock on the door saved me.

“Piper? Open up, or I’m letting Smokey kick down the door!” Jenna’s voice warned.

I rolled my eyes, wondering what the two of them were doing here. If Jenna had called for backup, I guessed it must be very important.

Smokey—Kevin, actually—was Daniel’s best friend. Before Daniel and I met, Kevin and I had dated for a short while, but that was more than ten years ago. These days we were just really good friends.

He had worked with Daniel at the fire station, which was where he acquired his nickname. I only ever called him Kevin because I knew he didn’t like Smokey much, but everyone else seemed to enjoy using this nickname just to wind him up.

“What do you want?” I asked sullenly, thanking the Lord I had put on real clothes and wasn’t still wearing Daniel’s boxers.

“Let us in!” she demanded at the top of her lungs, pounding on the door again.

“Jesus Christ, Jenna! Enough with the yelling!” I called and opened the door.

“Hey, Kev,” I said, and asked them both to step inside.

“Jeez, Piper!” Jenna groaned and rushed into the living room, where she immediately yanked open a window. “What did you do with all the oxygen? I didn’t realize humans could live without it.” She looked me over and grimaced. “Well, I guess living is not the right word.”

Huh? What the heck? I had put a lot of elbow grease into this and thought I looked pretty darn presentable! But Miss America here seemed to have a different view.

At least Kevin was giving me a smile. He shrugged his shoulders as if to apologize for Jenna being so up in my face.

“So, what do you guys want?” I asked, feeling like I was allowed to be blunt. After all, it was nobody’s business how I decided to live.

“Jenna made me come,” Kevin confessed. “She said she needed bigger guns to make you get out of bed.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to hide how touched I was that the two of them were worrying about me.

“Well, as you can see, I am no longer
in
bed!”

“Yes, sweetie, but you’re also not where you’re supposed to be! Dr. Travis came to see me in the break room during lunch, and she said that she would cross your name off her list of patients if you keep making appointments and breaking them!”

Shit, the appointment! Feeling guilty, I put a hand on my stomach and pressed my lips together. I was being a terrible mom to this sweet little baby—even before it was born.

“I told her I would make sure that you’d show up in her office on Friday. Which means I have three days to whip you into shape!”

“Close the window, it’s fucking freezing in here,” I said, now in a foul mood, and escaped to the kitchen. It sucked if your friends held a mirror up to your face, and it sucked even more when you realized that they were absolutely right.

Kevin followed me, taking off his worn brown leather jacket, and sat down. “Are you okay?”

I could see the worry in his green-speckled eyes, but I didn’t want him to see how lousy I was feeling, and so I fixed my eyes on the black guitar pick hanging from a silver chain around his neck.

“Well, it’s harder than I thought. Maybe it’s the hormones and the inertia, but I just can’t really seem to get into gear.”

He ran his fingers thoughtfully through his short dark hair and attempted a little smile, which emphasized the tiny dimple in his chin. “I know, I feel the same way. This hole he’s left in our lives, it’s just too big.”

I nodded, spooning ground coffee into the machine, and poured in the water. For the first time since Daniel’s death, I was really talking about my feelings. Kevin’s calm, quiet manner gave me the reassurance I needed to finally open up. We’d known each other for too long for me to hide anything from him.

Jenna was busying herself in the living room. I could hear her complain about the general mess, and shook my head. As if I cared.

I sat down next to Kevin and reached for his hand. It was lovely and warm and comforting. There was a lot of misery and grief in his handsome features, and I wanted nothing more than to hug him. I was sure he wasn’t feeling a whole lot better than I was. He missed Daniel, too.

For a brief moment, a thought entered my head:
If I hadn’t split up with Kevin back in the day, my life wouldn’t be on the line right now and I would still be happy.

Quickly, I brushed such nonsense aside. Kevin and I would never have worked. When I was only seventeen, my heart was already beating for Daniel—and Kevin’s for his music.

It was always him and his guitar—on many nights, I felt like a third wheel with the two of them. I didn’t want to spend all my time in a basement music studio, and I also didn’t want to see all the groupies after each performance of the band he had back then. That was why things hadn’t worked out between us. Kevin and I, we’d only been good together for a few weeks, and in the end, our relationship had led me into Daniel’s arms.

That love triangle could have turned into a real mess because Daniel and Kevin were best friends. I didn’t want them fighting over me, but I shouldn’t have worried. After all, Kevin and I had been split up for a while before he introduced me to Daniel. And even though Kevin and I didn’t work out as a couple, we liked each other too much to give up our friendship.

“How is it going at the station?” I asked to change the subject and pull myself out of my memories of our turbulent youth.

“It’s not the same anymore. Everybody is still shocked that—”

“Piper, are you aware that you have plates full of leftover food sitting on the floor next to your sofa?”

Jenna held the plates in question as far away from her as possible, like bombs ready to explode, and wrinkled her pretty powdered nose with exaggerated disdain. She really was too funny. I let go of Kevin’s hand and immediately missed his warm touch.

“I put it out for the cat,” I replied, deadpanning.

“The cat? You don’t have a cat!” she said, sounding annoyed.

I slapped my forehead, pretending that a lightbulb had just turned on. “Well, that explains a few things!”

We laughed, and the sound of it startled me. I barely recognized the feeling, but a pleasant warmth started spreading inside me. Jenna poured us all coffee before she joined us at the table.

Well then! Obviously something was up, and I was anxious to find out what my two friends had in mind for me.

Jenna looked at me wide-eyed, but it was Kevin who started to explain. With a mischievous grin on his face, he said, “Jenna told me that an incident took place a few days ago on account o
f . . .
some paint.”

I buried my face in my hands. Dear Lord, an
incident
? Was that really how she had described my going completely off the rails and having a meltdown? I nodded, deeply ashamed of myself, and decided not to ask what the two of them thought about that.

Kevin nudged me amicably.

“Well, we’re here today to close that chapter. Jenna says your living room is in dire need of a coat of paint.”

Jenna whipped out a color fan deck from the hardware store, on which she had already marked a couple of hues.

“Pick a new one,” she said, pushing the fan deck my way. “And remember, green apple is totally
in
right now.”

That wasn’t hard to see because both her tight top and her fingernails were that bright, crisp shade of green. For the house on the beach, on the other hand, I couldn’t imagine a less suitable color than green apple.

I didn’t want to make her mad, and so I pretended to consider it as one of the options.

“How about sand?” Kevin suggested.

That was a bit more like it. I was sick of bright, vibrant colors ever since the debacle with red, and I actually felt drawn to the more muted tones.

“Jeez, Piper, you don’t want to turn the beach house—our party shack, remember?—into a nursing home, do you?”

“I’m having a child, Jenna. It’s not going to be a party shack, it’ll be our
home
. So, I will need to like the color scheme even when I’m sober.”

Again, Kevin laughed, and there was that dimple again. I pointed at two very similar-looking beige hues.

“Sand or eggshell? What do you think?”

Kevin pointed at the warmer one of the two and nodded, while Jenna shook her head in protest.

“Piper,” she begged, tapping with her perfect fingernails at the green apple color chip, but I had made my decision.

“All right, so eggshell it is. What’s the next step, you guys? Are you going to magically paint my walls?”

Jenna nodded vehemently, grinning from ear to ear.

“For the record, I’m putting in a protest vote as far as the color is concerned. But yes, Smokey and I will do the painting.
You
will take care of your heating system, because Marcus has got the contractor coming. In an hour!”

She emptied her cup and pushed it away. “The two of us will pick up the paint and come join you later. What do you want for lunch?”

I felt a little overwhelmed, and Kevin jumped in. “We’ll bring it.”

“Pizza or Thai?” Jenna asked.

“Piper prefers pizza,” he said immediately and got up from his chair. “See you later, then. As for you, Miss America, get a move on before the hardware store has only green apple left!”

With that, he grabbed his jacket and pulled Jenna with him out the door—leaving me behind by myself, completely dumbfounded. It seemed that my friends had decided to end my period of depression. Well, at least they’d tried.

I put the coffee cups in the sink and tried to mentally prepare myself to drive up to the house. It really couldn’t be any worse than burying myself for an entire week inside Daniel’s sanctuary, surrounded by all his things. And perhaps I would breathe a little easier in the soothing air of the sea.

E
WAN

November

B
rrr
, it really was freezing inside the house. I contemplated getting back in the car and staying there with the motor running to wait for the contractor, who, according to Marcus, should have been here fifteen minutes ago. But then the doorbell rang. Finally!

I hurried to open the door.

“Hi! I’ve been waiting for you.”

The cold wind that rushed in blew my hair into my face, and I quickly brushed it out of my eyes. With clear vision at last, I swallowed hard. The guy who came in was a heating system professional, for sure, because I could feel heat all over my body.

Holy shit, he was handsome!

He was tall and dark blond, with cornflower-blue eyes and a prominent chin. His teeth seemed perfect as he offered a confident smile.

“Um, I’m here because
. . .
”

Feeling awkward, I ran my hand over my belly and turned away because I didn’t want his devilishly handsome looks to distract me any longer. Did he realize he was flustering me, making me lose my cool? I tried to put on a stern voice to cover my confusion, in case he had noticed it. “Good, you’re finally here!” I motioned toward the furnace room. “I’ve been wondering what the holdup was, Mr. 
. . .
”

I looked at him again, but he wasn’t wearing a uniform or a name tag.

“Ewan. Ewan Palmer.” He gave me a nod but remained standing in the doorway, surely because I’d been ogling him!

“Very well, Mr. Palmer. Please, come on in, because I’m not letting you leave until you’ve taken care of business.”

“I beg your pardon? I don’t understand.”

I put my hands on my hips and put on the sternest nurse face I could muster. Using the same tone of voice I frequently used to put patients in their place, I said to Mr. Handsome, “Mr. Palmer—”

“Ewan—please, call me Ewan,” he interrupted and reached out his hand.

I shook it until he looked satisfied.

“Well, Mr., uh, Ewan, I realize you’re not going to be able to fix the furnace right away. But you need to take a good look at it before you leave and then get right back here. No taking several days to show up again. It’s way too cold for that!”

Now he seemed completely out of his depth. Maybe he wasn’t used to a woman telling him what’s what. Another stern look, and I held the door to the furnace room open for him.

“The furnace?”

He looked at me with large, bright-blue eyes.

I had to swallow hard. Yes. My boyfriend had just died and my grief was killing me, and I was also very visibly pregnant with my boyfriend’s child. But I was utterly powerless against those eyes. It had nothing to do with affection or love. It was a purely chemical reaction on the part of my brain, nothing more.

“This way, please!”

He followed my instructions hesitantly, but not without shooting me a funny look. Maybe he was afraid that my water would break if I got even more worked up.

“I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” Ewan offered, but I knew full well what he was getting at. Sure, Marcus had agreed that the contractor would take a quick look at the problem, but hell—it was way too cold for me to let him leave without sealing the leaky pipe. It couldn’t be that big a deal!

“No, no. Please, spare me the explanation. I insist that you take care of it right this instant!”

I pointed toward the furnace and awkwardly ducked under the old pipes.

“You see? Right here—ouch!” Shit! I hit my head. “Please, why don’t you take a look for yourself?”

I crawled out from under the mechanical monstrosity and motioned for the contractor to come and take my place.

“You want me to crawl in
ther
e
?” he asked while I busied myself dusting off my skirt.

“Of course! How else are you going to identify the problem?”

This was getting annoying! This guy would probably bill me by the second. “Jeez, you could be done by now. So now, if you please
. . .
”

He shrugged his shoulders and bent down toward the pipes.

“And what exactly am I looking at?” he asked, giving me a sassy smile.

Dear Lord, that smile! Jenna would die if she saw this. Maybe I should stall him until she and Kevin return from the hardware store.

I stepped closer and tried to point out the leak in all the confused mess. “There, don’t you see? Right there!”

I bent over him, trying very hard not to touch his incredible butt right in front of me—or stare at it, for that matter.

He took a step back and turned around.

“Looks like there’s a leak,” he declared, matter-of-factly stating the obvious, and nonchalantly brushed his hair from his forehead, leaving a streak of dirt on his skin.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

I was angry—and not only at him, but also at the fact that I was noticing how hot this guy was, in spite of my crappy mood.

“It
looks
like there’s a leak? There’s rust all around the hole! Of course there’s a leak!”

Very calmly, he wiped his hands on his pants. “I think there’s a big misunderstanding here. I don’t know who you think I am, but—”

The doorbell rang.

I glared at him, afraid he would use the interruption to make his getaway. Like hell would I let him go before the house was nice and warm!

“No buts! You stay here. I’ll be right back!”

I ran to the door.

“Hi, Piper, we’re back! And guess who we found? The heating guy!”

Jenna pushed past me into the house. Following behind her was a man with a receding hairline, maybe in his fifties, wearing blue overalls and carrying a toolbox in his hand. He definitely looked like a handyman. Behind him, I saw Kevin carrying cans of paint.

Somewhat baffled, I turned toward the furnace room.

If
that
was the contractor, then who wa
s . . .

Ewan had followed me and was now standing, as confused as I was, in my living room. He looked from Jenna to me and back to Jenna, who had turned to stone.

“Dr. Palmer!” she called out finally, clapping her hand over her mouth. She looked at me, then at him. Me. Him.

She registered the dirt on Ewan’s forehead, on his pants, and on his hands. I knew Jenna and that look! I knew what she was thinking, but what did she mean when she said Dr. Palmer?

Ewan nodded in Jenna’s direction, looking relieved. “Miss Jones? What? Me? I just wanted to introduce myself.” He looked me in the eye again, smiled, and motioned toward the front door. “I’m the new neighbor.”

“What’s going on with the furnace, then?” said the real repairman, only amplifying the prevailing chaos. I threw a pleading glance Kevin’s way, and he came to my rescue by escorting the contractor to the furnace room.

By the time the door closed behind the two of them, my new neighbor was already standing by the front door with his hand on the handle. I got it: Who could blame him for wanting to get out of here as quickly as possible? Jenna had turned lobster red and was still not moving, which was really quite amazing—normally, she was one of the bubbliest human beings I have ever known.

Oh, how embarrassing! I just wanted to bury my head in the sand.

“Dr. Palmer, I
. . .
” Were there any words that would let me travel back in time? I guessed not, and so I would have to get through this some other way. “I am so, so sorry.
I . . .
”

He gave me a sympathetic smile. “I know, an innocent mistake. It’s all right, really, and, please, do call me Ewan.”

I felt like a horrible dope as I nodded submissively.

“Right. So, I’m sure I’ll see you around sometime, Ewan,” I stammered, wondering why he wasn’t leaving already. Open the door, step outside—it was an easy thing to do, but he was still standing there.

“I hope so. Good luck with your furnace.”

He turned to Jenna. “And I’m sure I’ll see you at work, Miss Jones. Have a nice day, ladies.”

When he finally closed the door behind him, I breathed a sigh of relief and scratched my head.

“Shit, Jenna! What the hell was that?
Who
was that, and wha
t . . .
Oh, who cares! He must think I’m a complete idiot!”

Jenna laughed hysterically, pointing at her clothes.

“He must think you’re an idiot?” She snorted with laughter, and tears ran down her cheeks. “Look at
me
! Look at the state I’m in! That’s it, sweetie, it’s over. He’s never going to be the father of my future children. Not after seeing me like this!”

She glared at me in mock outrage, prowling around the room.

“How did he even get here? And why did you let him in? And, for goodness’ sake, what did you two get up to in here?”

I grabbed her arm because her constant pacing up and down was making me nervous.

“First of all, nobody got up to anything in here! And second of all, he was standing in the door, an
d . . .
and I thought he was the heating guy.”

Jenna shook her head incredulously.

“You mistook Dr. Ewan Palmer—the man of my deepest sexual longings—for a heating contractor? Honey, you’re off your rocker!”

I smiled at her. Jenna was adorable. So outspoken.

“Don’t tell me that you’ve never fantasized about a sexy plumber,” I teased her, earning a stuck-out tongue in return. It did me good to kid around with her—it felt so carefree, so unburdened.

“And now, nice and slow so that my grief-ridden brain can take it all in. Who is Dr. Palmer?”

“Oh, this is bad, real bad! I’m afraid I’m going to have to quit my job!” Jenna lamented. “Dr. Palmer—or Ewan, as he so generously said you could call him, in that charming way of his. He’s the new guy in surgery. Don’t you remember? He was the guy who was unloading boxes from his car when we drove past him last week.”

I wrinkled my forehead.

“I never got a good look at him, and besides, how was I supposed to know that he’s working at the hospital? I haven’t been back since
. . .
”

“Tut-tut, that’s what you get for leaving your lovely coworkers high and dry.”

“That’s not true, and you know it! In case you forgot, I’m grieving and trying to get over a loss!”

The door to the living room opened, and Kevin returned, accompanied by the repairman.

“So?” I ventured.

“There was a leak in the pipe. I put a temporary seal on it, but I need to come back in a few days to replace the pipe. Your system is quite old, you know. I’ll have to order the pipes because we don’t normally carry them. But it should work as is for a while. You should feel it getting warmer within the next hour or so.”

“Awesome! I mean, that’s great news!”

“I’ll give you a call once the part comes in.”

Okay, not a man of many words, I supposed.

I walked him out and stared after him as he hurried over to his van, where his employer’s name and logo were clearly painted on the sides. A van, blue overalls, a toolbox. Really, how could I not have noticed that my first visitor didn’t look like a heating contractor!

My eyes wandered over to my neighbor’s house. His lights were on, and the silver car was parked on the street. Dr. Ewan Palmer was probably
still
laughing about me!

Three hours later, it was relatively warm and cozy inside, the living room walls shone like new in their fresh coat of eggshell-colored paint, and I felt better than I had in a long time.

Kevin had to tease us over and over about the “handsome doctor,” and my belly was hurting from laughing so hard. My baby had to be wondering what was going on out there. After all, it was only used to crying fits these days. I hoped it could feel the change taking place.

Cheerfully we polished off the last slices of our pizza. Jenna contemplated stopping by Frank’s bakery for a bit, but rejected the idea because she wasn’t dressed appropriately to show herself “in public” (meaning to a certain guy with a slight Italian accent).

“Jenna, why don’t you take my car, go home, get all dolled up, and then go and see him? Piper and I will take care of cleaning up,” Kevin suggested and shot me a glance as if to ask my permission.

I nodded.

“Of course, and I’ll drop Kevin off at your house later so he can pick up his car.”

“Are you sure?” Jenna hesitated but eventually jumped to her feet, gave us both a big hug, and skipped out the door. “Thank
youuuuuu
,” we could hear her chirp until she climbed into the car.