Page 53 of Drawing Home
“Let me ask you,” he said. “The house on Actors Colony Road that you mentioned—is it the one that famous artist left to your daughter?”
So much for discretion.
“Um, yes,” she said.
“We read about it,” Louise said, joining them. “How incredible. It’s like something out of a movie.”
“Must be an interesting story there,” Cole said, raising an eyebrow.
“I don’t know about that.” Emma shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “But I am hoping to at least put it to good use with the art auction.”
Louise’s phone buzzed; she checked it and then told Cole that the person he was meeting with at one o’clock was waiting on the dock.
“Ah, yes. Another friend of Sean’s,” he said to Emma. “Looking to buy a boat. Excuse me for a minute.”
While he was gone, Louise asked about Penny and spoke of their own grown children. “We see them more in the off-season.” The Hopkinses spent October through April in the Virgin Islands, where they ran a winter charter business.
“I should be going,” Emma said, though she didn’t want to leave. Even docked, theLouisefelt like a getaway. She could only imagine the serenity of sailing on the Peconic at sunset. Someday, she would like to see Sag Harbor through a tourist’s eyes.
Louise walked her starboard to the steps, where Cole was talking to his visitor.
Emma stopped in her tracks.
“You’rethe friend of Sean’s?” Emma said.
Kyle Dunlap smiled at her. “Emma! What a surprise. It really is a small world out here. I love it,” he said.
She crossed her arms.
Kyle looked around and let out a low whistle. “This boat is a beauty.”
“She was designed by Chris White,” said Cole. “Intended for private use for a family to sail around the world. But by the time I got my hands on her, she’d been sitting idle for years. It took my wife and me three long years to convert her from a recreational yacht to a U.S. Coast Guard inspected vessel.”
“Impressive. And Sean said you do more than a hundred and twenty charters a season?”
“That’s right. Up to three a day.”
“Since when are you a friend of Sean’s?” Emma asked Kyle. She couldn’t let it go. What the hell? Cole looked at her like she was a little off.
“I’ve been spending some time helping out on the launch,” Kyle said.
She didn’t know why this irritated her so much, but it did. “And you’re buying a boat? Yeah, you’rereallymore like me than Bea Winstead.”
“Nothing like this,” he said. “A fixer-upper. Right, Cole?”
“That’s the plan. So my guy at Coecles Marina has two things for you to look at.”
“You should ride over with us,” Kyle said to Emma.
“To Shelter Island?”
“Why not? It’s a beautiful day.”
“Yeah, and I have to get to work. For some of us, this town isn’t just a playground.”
Penny couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so happy. Sitting in the passenger seat of her father’s rented Jeep, she waited while he paid for the day pass for Coopers Beach, and then they drove up and parked. She could already feel the breeze off the ocean.
It was sunny and cloudless, an even better day than when she’d gone there with her friends. Up ahead, the beach was dotted with blue umbrellas; a few kids about her age tossed around a Frisbee. The whiteboard at the entrance to the beach announced that the water temperature was sixty-five degrees and the surf was one to three feet. This time, she wasn’t going to let her OCD ruin things for her. Nothing could ruin today. Her father had come back for her!
