Page 10 of A Chance Love

As Melonie walked back to the kitchen to put in April’s order, she walked past the men at the counter and smacked them both on the back of their heads with the menu. April couldn’t help but laugh to herself.

This is the kind of environment she remembered about Sandcrest. The people were friendly, but they had their own big personalities. In the city, you can find any kind of person. But here, the people were special, each bringing something different and unique to the table.

April sipped her coffee and watched as a few more patrons walked in. She didn’t recognize a single person that walked through the doors. If she had to guess, it was because her family didn’t talk to many of the locals. When they were here, they were on the beach, in the woods, at the few restaurants they loved.

The café was never one of those places they went to frequently. Maybe that was why she’d felt so at home, yet everything was unrecognizable.

Chatter filled the small café. April caught snippets of conversation here and there, but nothing important. She ate her soup in quiet reflection of the love she had for the town.

When she was done and only sipping the last drops of her coffee, Melonie showed up to slide her a bill and take her dishes. “You want any more of that coffee?”

April shook her head. “No, thank you.”

The waitress turned, about to walk away but stopped herself. “And April? What was your last name? Just so I can tell all the people about the new resident in town.”

Though her smile stayed plastered across her face, inside April felt conflicted. Had she lied earlier when she said she wasn’t a tourist? She wasn’t staying forever, but her family had owned a house here for ages. “I’m technically not a new resident.”

Melonie just stared at her, blinking, and waiting for an explanation. “Well what are ya then? You seem awfully mysterious. You going to tell me what you’re doing here?”

April struggled to find the words to explain. She stuttered when she first spoke. “I… I used to… My family had a vacation home here for generations. I’m going to stay in it for a little while. Or a long while. I’m not actually sure yet. This whole trip was kind of on a whim.”

She was so used to being well-spoken. She was a lawyer, a strong woman in the courtroom. But here, she was just another person staying in town. And she was confused about her own intentions.

“Ah, I see,” Melonie said, eyeing April up and down. Her body shifted weight onto her back foot as she tried to place a face with a name. April smiled as if that would make it easier for her to identify her. “What’s your family’s name?”

“Faith.” It was her maiden name and not one that slipped easily off her tongue anymore. Though she thought she’d better get used to saying it. “We own-”

April was interrupted by an eruption of laughter from Chuck and Barry. It was so jarring that even Melonie turned to look at them, surprised. They were halved over in their seats, barely able to catch their breaths. As Melonie turned around, April was expecting another apology on behalf of the men, but instead of annoyance, April saw a smile across the woman’s face.

“Did you say Faith?” Chuck managed to get out between guttural roars. When April nodded her head, the boys laughed even harder than before, which she didn’t realize was possible.

“Now, boys,” Melonie said with a smile. “Give the girl some time to adjust before you lay into her.”

“Lay into me? About what?”

Melonie opened her mouth to say something, but then stopped herself. April almost began laughing, just to feel like she was a part of the joke somehow, instead of feeling like everyone was making fun of her.

“What?” she asked. “What is it?”

They all looked at her, smiles wide across their faces. Something was telling her that this trip was going to be more than she bargained for.

CHAPTER SEVEN

As April stood in the front yard of her family’s property, she couldn’t believe her eyes. It wasn’t exactly how she’d pictured it. In fact, it felt like a completely different house.

The home that was once a magnificent vacation home now sat looking like an abandoned ghost house. A breeze passed through the island, bringing a chill up her spine. Even the island thought this place was cursed. She now understood everything that Chuck and Barry had said at the café.

“It’s an old legend around here that somebody from the family would come back and live in it once again.”

“Yeah, and we’ve been telling it for years. No one ever showed up to fix the place. So we called it the abandoned mansion.”

Chuck and Barry had slapped their knees until they stopped chuckling at her. “We created a myth that the people who used to live there are ghosts now. Or the new owners would come back and avenge their deaths by tearing the place down. But I guess, that’s you. So if you’re going to fix it up, just be careful of the sounds coming from the attic,” Chuck had said.

Their words echoed in April’s head. She’d scoffed at the word ‘mansion’ at the café, but looking at it now, she certainly realized what they meant. It was larger than she remembered it, with intricate carvings now dusty and grayed.

The empty fields to her left were once over two hundred acres of farmland. Years and years ago it was taken care of by Richard’s family. It was a long line of owners on her father’s side, all the way to her great-great-grandparents. It was only when her parents got divorced that her mother received it, for no other reason than neither one of them cared to have it.

Her father had become too much of a free spirit to be tied down to a house and her mother hated to look at anything that her father had stepped foot in. So it had all come down to April, the only one who still cared about the place even in its fractured state.

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