Page 32 of Sheltered By Love

I was in a state. More than even she knows.

“Oh. Thank you, I think?”

“He’s not so bad. You’ll see. He’s got a lot of his granddad in him. He was churlish but heavens above one smile from that man and girls were dropping their britches.”

I nearly choke on my cookie. “Don’t tell me…”

She shakes her head. “He only had eyes for his wife Mable. The boys’ grandmother. She was a spitfire and one of my dearest friends.”

She looks thoughtful as she chews. “Of course, his son Nate was the same. Married the boys’ mother Cynthia. She came down here with her family one summer when they were teenagers. He didn’t want her to go back to New York, so he asked her to marry him.”

“And she did?”

Viola laughs. “She was always impulsive. But yes, she did. Married him and moved into the house his father built.”

A dreamy look appears on her wrinkled face. “Terribly romantic. But it wasn’t easy on her. Raising three boys. Nate was a lobsterman like his father. Gone a lot.”

When I don’t say anything, she sighs. “I do wonder if that’s why the boys have all stayed single.”

I don’t mean to say it, but it slips out. “I’m not surprised Zane’s single. He’s rough and boorish.”

She waves her hand in the air. “Oh pish. He can puff himself up and put on a uniform, but underneath it, he’s still the boy his momma raised him to be.”

“I don’t think he likes me very much.”

She barks a laugh. “Give it time. You’re a beautiful girl and now he’s ashore the two rentals are his responsibility.”

“Maybe he’ll get me neighbors who don’t think I’m a moron.”

“I very much doubt he thinks you’re that. He’d never have let you move in if he did.”

I blow on my tea and wait for my glasses to un fog before I speak. “He’s really been at sea for the last six months?”

Viola wipes a cookie crumb from the corner of her mouth. “First thing he did, after the funeral.”

“And he’s been living on a boat all this time?”

She nods. “I imagine he had a few ghosts to put to rest. Spent most of his life at sea with his dad.”

I thrum my fingers against the cup, sure I’m tempting fate by asking. “What happened to their parents?”

Her lips turn downward. “Terrible twist of fate. Or bad luck depending on how you see things. Cynthia wasn’t feeling too well so Nate was driving her to the doctor. Truck took a corner too wide.”

I don’t want all the grizzly details, but she carries on seemingly unbothered talking about her dear friends’ gruesome deaths. “Mercy was it was fast. They never saw it coming.”

I put my teacup down, sure I’m going to spill the contents as she continues filling in blanks I wish I’d already known.

“Of course, we’re too small to have a traffic division so Garrett was first to the scene. And because Levi’s a volunteer firefighter, he was right there too.”

A shudder runs through my entire body. “That’s horrible.”

“That’s life in a small town,” she says quietly.

I can’t even imagine what that must have been like for the Reid boys. And for Zane.

“Was Zane at home?”

She shakes her hand. “On active duty. I don’t know how he did it, but when they refused him leave, he was still back before they were in the ground.”

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