Penny Serenade (12 page)

“You dumbass,” he said aloud. “She was always out of your reach. And she always will be.”

He had no other choice but to stay away from her.

An hour later he finished up the first coat of paint and stood back to admire the warm color. He’d made a good choice with the butterscotch color. It would bring out the dark wood in the furniture and soften the chocolate of the sofa. He climbed back up the ladder and started to work on the second layer, glad he’d gotten quick drying paint.

His adrenaline still pumped, only he figured out that he was pissed at himself, not at Audrey. He’d be grateful for the brief time they spent together, and leave things the way they were. They each had their own issues to work out with their pasts, and didn’t need the added baggage.

Dominic finished up the second coat and already some of his tension had gone away. At this rate he’d need to paint more than the basement to work things out in his head. After dinner he’d ask Julie if she wanted him to paint the rest of her house.

*****

Audrey made the mistake of leaning too hard on the closet shelf of her bedroom and everything crashed down. She jumped off the stool and grabbed the box with the winking moons wrapping paper before it got crushed by an avalanche of shoes and purses. It was a special box to hold her prized treasures in. If she remembered right, she’d been about eleven when she came across the decorative paper in a craft shop. The moons seemed fitting, and though she’d since outgrown the design, she didn’t have the heart to change it. Maybe someday she’d put a more grown up spin on it.

She carried the box into the dining room, and set it on the table. The week she moved into her house was the last time she’d gone through the contents inside, and even then she’d done so in a hurry, not wanting anything to stir her emotions. If she left the past buried, it couldn’t hurt her, or so she liked to think.

Audrey removed the lid and set it aside. She gazed at her treasures and felt the tears start. Her favorite book lay at the top, its cover worn from multiple readings. Beside it were a few small jars of pennies—the shiniest ones from her father, along with some rare coins she’d found among the rocks out by the sea. Beneath those she came across her necklace made of miniature seashells that her father had brought home to her. The clasp had broken several times, but her aunt always fixed it for her. She’d worn it just about every day that last summer with her father.

Audrey carefully pushed those mementos aside and dug deeper. A smile crept across her lips as she reached for the stuffed lobster, tomato red and no bigger than her hand. She’d named it Charlie, though she couldn’t remember why. It had been her special companion when she read her books or took a nap in the afternoon. She clutched the stuffed animal to her chest and breathed in the faint hint of bubblegum. Her heart clenched. She’d been away a long, long time.

She always imagined her first house would be near the water, having grown up in
Maine
near
Penobscot
Bay
. Her father worked on the Dark Harbor Boat Yard or
Acre
Island
as the locals called it, an island that could only be reached by ferry. It was a beautiful place, almost enchanted, especially when the morning mist crept through. As a child she loved the name Dark Harbor, thinking along the lines of a place where faeries resided. After everything that happened, the name gave her the chills. To her it was a place of death. A place where people you loved didn’t return. In reality it was a haven for boat lovers and fisherman.

Her father had owned a large fishing boat that he’d named after her. She loved the way her name looked on the side of the boat, all big and in bold blue letters. Once in awhile, when the sea was calm and not many people were out, he’d take her out to Cradle Cove. They never went far, just out enough where it was peaceful. They’d fill a picnic basket with peanut butter and grape jelly sandwiches and little snack-sized cartons of fruit punch with the striped straws. During the summer they’d sit out and watch the wooden sailboats called Dark Harbor Twenties, which the island was famous for. Her father had always wanted to own one, but with finances slim on a fisherman’s salary, it could only remain a dream. She’d told him that the day she turned sixteen, she’d have collected enough pennies to buy him one. At Christmas the only boat she could afford to buy for him was miniature and came in a bottle.

On a clear day they’d play checkers out on the dock, though she always believed her father let her win. Other days the fog was so thick she could hardly see her feet in front of her. There were the occasional days where her father acted strange, almost like she was invisible. She hated those days. Her aunt Colleen said it had nothing to do with her, but that he missed her mom. She never understood why. Her mom had made the choice to leave them, even when she’d cried crocodile tears and clung to her skirt. Audrey refused to waste another day crying over the woman. She had her father, and he loved her enough to help fill that small space of emptiness inside. She’d never missed her mother.

Audrey did however miss the smell of fish in the air, and the taste of sea salt on her lips. And she had yet to find clam chowder that tasted better than her aunt Colleen’s.

The final item in the box was a faded picture of her father holding a large bass in a net. He’d caught the largest one the island had ever seen. Pride exuded from his deep-set eyes and she’d never seen him smile bigger. She brought the picture to her lips and kissed his face. On most men she hated facial hair of any kind, but on her father his mustache and beard had made him look stately. It never bristled against her skin or caused her to wince away in pain. She couldn’t imagine her father looking any other way.

The sound of the mail truck leaving drew her attention away from the photo. Audrey wiped a stray tear and set the photo down. Unable to find her sandals, she hurried outside barefoot, making little grunts from the hot cement against her tender toes. A package the size of a thick magazine took up most of the room in her mailbox. After several tugs she was able to pull it out along with the rest of the mail. Her feet breathed a sigh of relief when she returned inside to the soft plush carpet. Not caring about the gas and phone bills, she tossed all but the big envelope onto the counter and went back into the dining room. Curious to the contents of the package she sat down and tore the envelope open. Audrey smiled. It was the catalog she had printed up a few weeks ago showing off all the beautiful items she sold in her shop.

She opened the catalog and ran her fingers over the smooth glossy pages. The font was clear and wouldn’t require squinting to read over details about items, or the cost. Each of the pictures were beautifully photographed and showed off the products in a professional style. She felt it was time to look for other venues to help increase her sales. In the beginning she hadn’t planned to take mail orders, but for all the wonderful and loyal customers who frequented her stores, she hadn’t hit her sales goals.

It would make for more work on her part with shipping and delivery, but she’d find a way to manage. What else did she have to occupy her time?

Her attention fell back to the box still open on her dining room table. She wondered if her father would be proud of all she’d accomplished. They never had a chance to discuss her future. She’d considered being a ballerina, envious of the grace the dancers possessed, a grace she herself didn’t possess. Her father had never suggested she get into the fishing business, or expected her to follow in his footsteps, unlike Dominic’s father.
 
It allowed her to find her own path, though she still didn’t know if it was the right one. She picked up the picture of her father again and studied it.
The crinkle of his blue-gray eyes, so much like Dominic’s.
Audrey groaned. Why was she thinking about
him
again?

In exasperation she put the picture back into the box and secured the lid on top. She placed it back in her closet and put everything else back in. For the first time she could remember, she felt homesick. In moving to
Oregon
she’d gone as far away as possible, away from the pain and people she knew, and now she longed to return. Her aunt Colleen asked in every letter when she planned to visit. Never had sounded like a good answer, until now. She longed for closure but feared what it would take to get it. A two or three day trip might be the place to start, and she could see her aunt, maybe take a stroll down the dock to see how much had changed. It sounded like a good way to gather her thoughts and be near her father, and at the same time she could get away from here and hopefully all thoughts of Dominic. She could fly down, rent a car, and then take the ferry over.

Audrey closed her closet door and grabbed the phone beside her bed. In a couple calls she’d secured a flight for two o’clock, the earliest she could get, and a rental car. Afterwards she phoned Heidi. The young woman picked up on the second ring, her calm sweet voice coming over the line. When Audrey asked if she could manage the store for a few days on her own, she had to pull the phone away from her ear. The excited whoops and hollers nearly made her deaf. She made plans to meet Heidi in the morning and go over store stuff before she headed to the airport. Audrey opened the closet back up and pulled out her luggage, not caring that another pile of stuff spilled out. A little mess every once in awhile wasn’t all bad.

Now came the fun part of a trip.
Packing.

Chapter Six

Heidi was already in front of the shop balancing two cups of tea on top of a large binder when she arrived. The petite ginger haired woman wore a smart linen skirt and jacket in ivory that had professional and elegance written all over it.

“Thanks so much for covering for me on such short notice,” Audrey said, pulling out keys from her pocket.

A warm smile spread across the young woman’s face. “Are you kidding me? I’m happy to do it.”

“Well, it’s appreciated. Everything came together at the last minute or I’d have phoned earlier.”

Audrey unlocked the door and pushed it open, turning the lights on with her elbow. The scent of patchouli lingered in the air from the previous day. She dropped the her purse and the envelope with her catalog inside onto the counter and hurried around to light the candles, incense, and turn on the music. Heidi set down the binder and trailed behind her, still holding two cups in her hands.

“I got you a vanilla chai tea,” she said, handing it to her. “I hope you don’t mind.”

It sounded perfect.
“Not at all.
Thank you, I could use one. I’m kind of nervous about travelling today and my stomach is all knotted up.”

Heidi’s brow pinched in worry. “Why? Where are you going?”

“Back home to see my aunt.” The knot tightened just saying the words. “She raised me as a child and I haven’t visited her since I left.”

“Sounds like it could be fun.”

Audrey shrugged. In six hours she’d be on a plane and the thought terrified her. “Not sure this trip is for fun, but it’s time to go back.
Unfinished business.”
Dread flooded her belly and she quickly changed the subject. “How is school going?”

“I finished classes last week, so it’s perfect timing that you called. I still have to take a big exam in a few days and give a final presentation, but after that I have three months off before my last year.”

“How are you enjoying university?”

Heidi’s sea green eyes sparkled as she answered. “For the most part I love it. I’ve taken a few classes that were grueling, but overall I’m pleased. I wish I hadn’t taken a couple years off, though. I found it hard to get back into the daily grind, but I got to travel and see some neat places, so I suppose it wasn’t a bad tradeoff. I could’ve graduated when I was twenty-two. Now I’ll be twenty-four.”

“Yeah, you’re such an old hag,” she joked.

They laughed in unison. Audrey didn’t want to share how jealous she was. She’d missed out on many experiences growing up, all her own fault. College would’ve been a welcome change. She just didn’t have the drive or ambition at the time.

Not wanting to bring down the mood she asked, “Any plans for the summer?”

“Nothing solid right now,” Heidi replied with a casual shrug. ‘There’s something, rather a few business related things I wanted to discuss with you.”

Audrey flipped the welcome sign in the door. “Ooh, sounds ominous. What did you want to discuss?”

Heidi set her tea on the counter. “Is now good? Because if you need to get going, it can wait until you return.”

“Nah, plenty of time.
My flight isn’t until later.” Anything that distracted her from the impending trip was more than welcome. “What’s on your mind?”

“I’ll be gone for two weeks to show off my amulets at a new age convention in
Seattle
. I’ve reserved a booth and found an affordable place to stay.”