Page 3 of Sheltered By Love

Chapter One

Present Day, Ocean Grove, Blueskin Bay.

Felicity

Nine and a half months ago, I made a terrible mistake.

Now I’m sitting on an old rocking chair with springs that poke my butt with an itchy rug tossed over my legs, and I’m beginning to wonder if I’ve made another one.

Nicki Davis is supposed to be keeping me company before she leaves for the night, but she’s either been on her phone or like she is now, telling me things I don’t really want to hear.

She fluffs her dyed red hair and adjusts her low-cut top. “I think someone is moving in next door. I wonder if it’s a Flatlander like you?” she says.

I frown at that. Mostly because I’m still not sure if I’m supposed to be offended when someone refers to me as either a ‘Flatlander’ or someone from ‘Away’.

She might be excited someone from outside Maine might be moving in, but for me, it’s bittersweet news.

I loved living beside Nicki’s Grandmother. She might have been wildly inappropriate at times and had a terrible smoking habit, but she understood I needed a friend and not someone who’d spread gossip about me.

An ill-prepared woman from Arizona arriving in the tiny fishing village of Blueskin Bay had achieved that already.

If I have a new neighbor, it comes right on top of the other bad news I’ve been trying to deal with.

Two days ago, Deputy Chief Garrett Reid, who I’d known only by reputation knocked on my door and informed me that houses in Ocean Grove where I live were being targeted by burglars.

Despite his assurances, and having neighbors close by, I haven’t slept a wink since. Every creak and groan of the two-story cottage I rent now seems sinister.

What makes this news worse, is that if someone else is moving in, I can no longer pretend Viola Davis will return from what she assured me was a temporary stay in the Bay’s only nursing home.

“I hope it’s a nice family,” I say quietly. “With a big dog that barks.”

She pokes her head out the curtain and sighs. “I should have known. It’s just two of the Reid Boys,” she says.

I already know the name isn’t just the surname of the Deputy Chief, so I haul myself off the chair, push my glasses over my nose and take a peep, and flush from head to toe when I see who else has arrived.

“Oh no. That’s my landlord. I haven’t seen him since I moved in here,” I say.

Nicki scrunches up her nose. “Ayuh, Zane Reid. The last time I saw him was at his parent’s funeral. He kind of disappeared on his dad’s boat after that.”

While she’s telling me about how the Reid family has lived in Blueskin Bay for over a hundred years, I’m trying not to panic.

If Zane spots the alarm Nicki and I put up yesterday without anyone’s permission, he’s not going to be pleased.

I was too flustered to ask Garrett’s permission when he was here, and now I’m regretting it.

I squint at Zane, trying not to make it obvious we’re gawking as he unloads boxes from his Ford Explorer.

“Are you sure he isn’t moving in? Levi’s helping him off-load a leather couch and a TV,” Nicki says.

I cross my fingers he isn’t moving in. Characters like Mrs. Davis and her gossip-hungry hairdresser granddaughter, I can handle, a surly former soldier I’ve only seen once is another.

I gently elbow her out of the way and groan as he stops and looks at my house.

“He might just be furnishing it for the next tenant,” I mumble.

As we peer at him out of the window, he says something to his brother, swipes his brow, and stalks towards the fence line.

I duck behind the curtain just as Nicki does the same. “He looks kinda pissed off, want me to go talk to him? Tell him you were scared about the break-ins? The Reid family are all kind of protective about their house,” she says.

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