Summer Rental (17 page)

Eventually, she closed her eyes and drifted into a dream. She was in a hospital nursery, full of dozens and dozens of beautiful, pink, pudgy babies. In her dream, she leaned over a pink bassinet and saw an infant with Dorie’s strawberry blond hair, freckles, and green eyes. The next bassinet held a long, slender baby with Julia’s perfect cheekbones and dark, almond eyes. And next to that was another infant—with familiar marble blue eyes, protruding ears, and the Greene thin upper lip. The little boy opened his mouth and screamed—well, yowled—as she leaned in closer to look. Ellis’
s dream self scurried away, and in the next bassinet, she saw the most beautiful baby of all: a little boy with a thick shock of dark hair like her mother’s, and her father’s calm, steady gaze. The baby was sucking his thumb, and when he saw dream-Ellis, he looked up and winked.

The wink startled Ellis awake. She sat straight up in bed, and for a moment, wondered if the dream meant anything. Eventually she decided maybe it just meant she shouldn’t drink so much wine late at night. She yawned and wished she could sleep again, but the loud hum of the air conditioner and the responding rattle of the window glass now had her wide awake. And hungry.

She went downstairs and out to the kitchen, opening cupboards and the refrigerator, trying to decide what she was hungry for,
and settling for a chunk of cheddar cheese. She ate half, and then pitched the rest into the trash. Not really hungry, not really sleepy. What a mood she was in. She turned off the kitchen light, intending to go back to bed, but when she glanced out the window, she saw the full moon and reconsidered. She was at the beach, wasn’t she? Might as well enjoy it.

It was still hot out, but a breeze rustled the sea oats on the dunes, and she smelled a hint of beach rosemary mixed with the salt air. The worn boards of the walkway were cool to the soles of her bare feet. When she reached the landing at the top of the walk, she was startled. Somebody was sitting in one of the beach chairs. Suddenly remembering how she was dressed, she started to back away, but it was too late.

The garage guy turned around in his chair, a cigar clamped between his lips. The lit end glowed in the deep purple darkness. He looked her up and down, and then turned back towards the ocean.

It pissed Ellis off, him dismissing her like that. Did he think she’d turn tail and run, like the last time? She had as much right to be here as him. Pajamas or no.

“Hey,” she said, defiantly sinking down into the chair next to his.

He grunted an acknowledgment and continued staring off at the twin moons, one hanging low in the summer sky, the other reflected in the ocean.

Ellis settled back into the beach chair. She wished she’d thrown a robe or something over the thin cotton tank top and baggy pink boxer shorts with their silly design of flying cupcakes. She crossed her arms over her chest, hoping Ty Bazemore hadn’t noticed her bralessness. Or the cupcakes.

The beach below was totally deserted. It was high tide, and the waves rolled lazily in over the spot where the three women had earlier spread out their umbrella and chairs. Ellis stared up at the stars and tried to relax. This was August, damn it. The month she’d been planning for and anticipating ever since Julia’s mother’s funeral. She had earned this vacation.

But there was a lot to think about. Dorie and Stephen. Dorie and the baby. Julia’s big secret. And what about her own life? She felt guilty worrying about herself when her best friend’s life was in such turmoil, but the truth was inescapable. She felt stuck. A lifetime of planning and living by the rules had
netted her a nest egg, a paid-off car and house—the safety net her father had always emphasized—and a life as dull and colorless as the sand beneath her toes. She was being strangled by that damned safety net. She would get another job, maybe move to another town if necessary, but would her life really be any different? She’d spoken glibly of reinvention to Madison, their odd new housemate, but that had just been talk, hadn’t it?

She glanced over at Ty Bazemore. His eyes met hers.

“How’s it going?” he asked.

“Not so good,” she blurted, instantly regretting her own candor.

He raised an eyebrow.

“Can’t sleep,” she said lamely. “Those window units make a terrible racket. And,” she rushed on, “I lost my job. And I don’t know what I want to do next. I don’t know if I should stay in Philly, or cut my losses and move on. But I don’t know if I could sell my town house in this market. And anyway, where would I go? Back to Savannah? I love my mother, but she drives me nuts sometimes.”

Ellis clamped both hands over her mouth. Had she really just dumped her whole life out in the open for this total stranger, the guy who lived in the garage and peed off the deck?

“Sorry,” she said, feeling her face flush. “TMI.”

“Huh?”

“You know. Too much information. Don’t mind me. Guess I’m a little wired tonight.”

“What do you do?” Ty asked.

“Huh?”

“Back in Philly,” Ty said. “What kind of job did you get fired from?”

“Not fired,” Ellis corrected. “Downsized. My bank got taken over by a bigger bank.”

“But you don’t work there anymore.”

“True.”

“And leaving wasn’t your idea.”

“No. I loved my job. Or so I thought.”

“You thought?”

Ellis shrugged. “It’s really a long story. But the bottom line is, it turns out bank marketing was not the stuff of fairy tales.”

He laughed. “But you still got fired.”

Ellis frowned. Who did this jerk think he was? “It was a downsizing,” she repeated. “My department was redundant. It’s really a very generous severance package. Anyway, what kind of work do you do?”

Ty considered a moment before answering. She already knew the answer to her own question, because Mr. Culpepper had told her. But he wasn’t supposed to know that, was he?

“I do a little day trading,” he said.

“How’s that going?”

“It’s up and down. Like the market. I do all right.”

He really was infuriatingly smug.

“Got any good stock tips for me?” she asked.

“Buy low. Sell high.”

“Gee, thanks,” Ellis said sarcastically. “Let me write that one down.”

“Sorry,” Ty said. “I’m kinda in a mood myself. But that was unnecessary. No, I don’t have any stock tips. You wouldn’t want one of mine anyway.” He tapped the cigar ash into the sand, and decided to change the subject.

“This your first time on the Outer Banks?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I grew up in Savannah. Which is kinda on the beach. But it’s totally different here. The dunes and all. It’s beautiful, in a wild kind of way.”

“You should have seen it when I was a kid,” Ty said. “Most of these houses weren’t here. It was mostly dunes and beach. You know, there are still wild ponies on the beach up in Corolla. It was an awesome place to grow up. Never put on a pair of shoes from the time school let out in June ’til the time we went back in September.”

“You grew up here?”

He’d said too much. “Around here,” Ty said vaguely. “I went to high school in Manteo. I practically lived on the beach. Got my first surfboard when I was ten.”

“So,” Ellis said, giving him a winning smile, “so, what’s the deal with you? Are you hiding a wife and children in this little garage apartment?”

“Nothing like that,” Ty said. “No kids, not married. Currently.”

Ellis tucked away the word “currently” for further thought.

“And have you always been a day trader?”

“No, that’s kind of a recent thing,” he said. “I was in law school, but I dropped out. I’ve always been interested in real estate and investing, so I decided to give it a shot. Of course, I would pick the worst time since the Depression to dabble in the stock market.”

“Tell me about it,” Ellis said. “Banking’s not so hot either. But you must do okay with the market, right?”

He flipped the lid on his cigar lighter and stared out at the water. “I’ve picked some winners, but seems like I’ve picked more dogs lately. To tell you the truth, I’ve been picking up some bartending shifts at a place down in Kitty Hawk to pay the bills. Cadillac Jack’s. You ever hear of it?”

“No,” she said. “We haven’t really been going out at night much.”

“You guys should come in and check it out. I’m actually working tomorrow night.”

“Maybe we will,” Ellis said, sounding uncertain.

“Been up to Jockey’s Ridge yet?” Ty asked.

“Not yet,” Ellis admitted. “We’ve been lazy bums, just kinda hanging around on the beach. But we’ve got the whole month, right?”

“Lucky you.” Ty gave her a questioning glance. “So, seems like the three of you have been friends for a while, right?”

She grinned. “Only our whole lives. We met in grade school, in Savannah. I was the new kid, since I went to public school until third grade. Dorie and Julia have been friends since kindergarten. And we’ve just stayed close, even after all these years. Of course, we don’t get to see each other that often. Dorie still lives in Savannah, but Julia lives in London. She’s a model. And of course, I’m in Philly. Or I was.” She frowned then. “Dorie’s older sister, Willa, was supposed to come with us, but she blew us off at the last minute. Willa can be a real pain in the butt, so we didn’
t really mind that much.”

“What about the new girl?” Ty asked. He’d seen her riding her bike up and down the beach road, but never with the other girls.

“Oh. Madison?” She gave Ty a furtive look. “Do me a favor, okay, don’t mention her to Mr. Culpepper. We don’t want him to jack up the rent any more.”

“My lips are sealed,” Ty said, clamping them together to keep them from twitching in amusement. “So, she’s not one of your regular posse?”

“Not hardly,” Ellis said. “Dorie met her in a restaurant, and they got talking, and Madison mentioned that she was looking for a motel room. Dorie’s been pretty worried about money, and one thing led to another, and she offered to rent her a room at Ebbtide.”

“Just like that?” Ty raised an eyebrow. “Seems kinda risky to me, inviting a stranger to live with you. What do y’all know about her?”

“She’s been living in New Jersey, but she just broke up with her boyfriend. Or so we gathered. Madison says she’s ‘in transition.’ She’s sort of odd. She keeps strictly to herself, usually won’t even eat with us. But she pays her share of the bills—with cash, so I guess it’s working out okay.”

“Yeah,” Ty said cautiously. “It must be pretty expensive, taking that big house for a whole month. How much is old man Culpepper getting for the place, anyhow?”

“Too much,” Ellis said. “The place could be nice, you know? It’s a gorgeous old house, but the furniture’s really ratty, and the house itself could use a lot of maintenance. I’ve had to really keep after Mr. Culpepper to take care of stuff like the stove and a leaking faucet. And don’t even ask about the flea situation.” She shuddered and held out an ankle. “Look—it looks like I’ve had the measles.”

Ty considered her ankle. It was a pretty ankle. Ellis had nice ankles, and good legs, and the outfit she was wearing—a tight-fitting tank top and some kinda girly boxer shorts with ridiculous cupcakes printed all over them—was an excellent look for her. It didn’t hurt that she was obviously braless, another look Ty was highly in favor of.

She caught him taking in more than her ankles, and quickly tucked her feet primly under her chair, all the while blushing furiously.

“Mind if I ask you something?” Ty said quickly, hoping she’d forgive his ogling.

“Depends on what it is.”

“What is it about women? I mean, the three of you are scattered all over the place—but you still take the trouble to rent a house and spend a whole month together. What’s up with that? I mean, I have buddies, old friends, but I can’t imagine any of us spending a weekend away together, let alone a month.”

Ellis shrugged. “Why wouldn’t we want to spend time together? These are my best friends in the whole world. We’ve been through a lot together. You know, all that teenage drama, and then college, and family stuff. Dorie’s parents had a nasty divorce when we were in middle school, and then I lost my dad a few years ago, and both Julia’s parents are dead now. And don’t get me started on the men stuff.”

She hesitated, and then plunged ahead. “I don’t know if I could have gotten through my divorce if it weren’t for Dorie and Julia. It was an awful time for me, but they were totally there for me. Julia took the train down from a magazine shoot she’d been doing in New York and actually moved in with me for two weeks. I was a pathetic mess. I eventually took a leave of absence from work, but Julia refused to let me wallow in my misery. She made me eat, get my hair cut and colored, and go back to work. And Dorie—she’s a schoolteacher, so she couldn’t just drop everything, but she called me eve
ry night and every morning, for months, just to see how I was doing.”

Ty raised an eyebrow. “You’re divorced?”

She blushed again. She really was good at it, too.

“It was a long time ago. I got married right out of college. I was young and dumb. It lasted all of three months. Crazy, huh?”

“What happened?”

Ellis gave it some thought. “We worked at the same bank. He was different from the guys I’d dated back home. He was the same age as me, but he seemed older, you know, very sure of himself, and he gave me this big rush. I didn’t really know him. He didn’t really know me. I guess I was in love wi
th the idea of being in love with him. And then, after the big wedding, when we were actually living together, away from our families and friends and everybody, it turned out he wasn’t such a nice guy. In fact, it turned out he was a total shit.”

Ty frowned. “What, he hit you or something?”

“Nothing as dramatic as that,” Ellis said. “One night at dinner, he just announced the ‘marriage thing’ wasn’t working, and that he’d discovered he didn’t actually love me.”

“That must have sucked.”

She turned and leveled a gaze at him. “Why am I telling you all of this? I never, ever talk about my divorce, except to the girls. And here I am, spilling my guts to you.”

“And you don’t even like me,” Ty said helpfully.

“You didn’t make a very good first impression,” she reminded him.