Two Weeks in August (29 page)

“Yes,” she sighed, “I once stayed at Channel Haven. Your name is Heather, right?”

Heather twirled a loose piece of her platinum hair that always seemed precariously bound. “What’s your name?”

“Nina,” she replied, glancing around the park. “Where’s your mama, honey?”

“She’s at the water.”

Silence descended as they regarded one another. Finally, Heather seated herself on a second rock.

“You must be the one my Mema is in love with.”

Her heart thudding, Nina stared at the child but found her cherubic face unreadable. “Why do you say that, Heather?”

“I heard her telling Mama all about it,” she replied quickly, then, lowering her voice conspiratorially, she confided, “I wasn’t s’posed to listen but I have this place where I can hear real good.” She paused and squinted at her confidant. “You won’t tell, will you?”

“Oh no,” Nina hastened to reassure the little girl. “What else did you hear?”

“Oh, lotsa t’ings,” Heather said, her voice taking on a boastful quality. “I hear Sammie and Alice fight. They’re so stupid I can’t stand it.”

Nina’s mind had drifted and she wasn’t really listening anymore. If Hazy had told Mama New that she loved her…No, the quandary still existed. Was this what she wanted? A life with Hazy Duncan at the expense of the others?

“When did Hazy, your Mema, tell your Mama that she loved me?” Nina asked suddenly.

“Just this morning,” said Mama New coolly as she approached from Nina’s left.

“Well, there you are,” she said to her daughter as Nina gaped at her. “I thought I’d lost you.”

“Sorry, Mama,”
the child chimed automatically.

“Well, stay closer next time. Why don’t you go swing now, just over there, and let me talk to this lady.”

“Okay.” The child called to a watching squirrel and blissfully skipped after it.

Mama New settled herself onto the vacated rock and stared out across the channel waters. Several seconds ticked by. The woman seemed to be mulling over what she would say.

“I don’t mean to pry, Miss Nina, but for the life of me I can’t understand why you feel the need to hurt our Hazy this way.” She faced Nina. “Then again, maybe I can understand it. She doesn’t always put her best foot forward now, does she?”

“No,” Nina choked out in amazement.

She had expected anger, pain, accusations, but here was Mama New calmly asking why Nina was hurting
her
lover.

“Mama New, I—”

“I know, I’m a busybody,” Mama New exclaimed, holding up her hands, “but if you can’t help the people you love, what’s the purpose of bein’ on this earth?
 
Answer me that.”

“Well,” Nina replied, her head spinning from this astounding turn of events.
“
I suppose you’re right.”

“Yes, I reckon I am.” Mama New’s tone softened and she leaned forward, studying Nina’s face. “You don’t
seem
the type who cares only for the finer things of the world.”

She sighed and leaned back. “Hazy has been so good to me, Miss Nina. I know she comes across rough, but she’s such a heart inside. Give you the shirt off her back, she will. And so good with Heather too, teachin’ her the ways of the island and the sea. She’ll be a fine partner if she can find someone to get through the hull she’s built around herself. And I believe that’s what you did, little miss, you got right through to her in a big way.”

Again she held up her hands. “Oh, I saw she’d been acting so strange and I tol’ her that she just had ta tell me what ta trouble was. I’d it figured some, but the way she told it fair made tears start to my eyes. She thinks the world of you, Miss Nina, but neither of us can quite figure out exactly why you’re runnin’ from her. Did you really find someone else? Someone with more money?”

“But Mama New,” Nina protested, amazement in her voice. “It’s not that. I thought you and Hazy were together, that the two of you were a couple and Heather your child.”

Mama New appeared stunned at this revelation. “Hazy and me, that way? Oh, no, love, ye got it all wrong. Hazy and me just taken care of one
 
’tother. We’re like brother and sister.”

“But what about Heather? Isn’t she Hazy’s daughter? She’s the image of her,” Nina protested.

Mama New stared at her in astonishment. Realization dawned visibly and she chuckled. “Wait a minute,” she said with a secretive smile. “This should clear ta up.”

Glancing around to make sure they weren’t observed too closely, she reached deep into the bodice of her dress and retrieved a small rectangle. Passing it to Nina, she said, “This is my Seth.”

Nina took the small object, still warm and fragrant from Mama New’s body, and studied it. A man’s face stared back at her from a laminated photograph. His face was lined and ruddy from the elements but his wide smile and crinkled, twinkling eyes immediately bespoke a young, fun-loving nature. Atop his head was a shock of the same platinum, white-blond hair that adorned Heather’s head. And he could have been Hazy’s twin.

“Oh,” Nina said dumbly.

“The hair is common among the island folk here. Seth and Hazel been best friends since grade school,” Mama New told Nina softly. “Lots of people thought them brother and sister, they were so much alike.”
 

She chuckled. “And I had to come between their friendship some when Seth and me started courtin’ and let me tell you, it was a task with both of them charmin’ me off my feet. Or dealing with their devilment, I should say. I loved my Seth, though, and his friends became mine. Hazy, though I love her dearly, ain’t much like me. I have no love of books and readin’ and such as she does. It’s a lonely road she walks.”

She turned her face back to the water. “I miss my Seth. And my life was perfect up until he was taken from me.” She sighed audibly. “I’ve often wondered why the good Lord saw fit to take him away but I’m a good Christian woman and won’t question it more than a few times.”

 
Nina was stunned. Hazy and Mama New were friends only. Close, like siblings.

Her heart suddenly lurched in delight as the realization hit her. She could have Hazy. She no longer had to fight against the attraction that insistently pulled them together.

“So tell me now, was that the only reason you was puttin’ Hazy off,” Mama New asked, amusement shining in her dusky eyes.

“Yes,” Nina admitted. “I thought she was with you. If you were partners—well, I’d have no part of that. I like and admire you and wouldn’t dream of trying to lure her away from you. I felt so helpless. Hazy and I seem to have this attraction, some type of chemistry between us.” She grinned sheepishly at the admission. “I have a hard time behaving myself when she’s around.”

Mama New laughed and slapped one of her hearty thighs. “It was just that way with Seth and myself. Sometimes I felt as though I didn’t belong in polite society.”

“Do you think Hazy knows the way I feel?” Nina asked.

“Well that’s what’s got her so bamboozled. She’d been getting hot and cold from you, so never knowed exactly what was going on in that pretty head of yourn,” Mama New replied.

“I’ve got to tell her,” Nina said, leaping to her feet. “Is she at Channel Haven?”

Mama New’s face suddenly fell what looked to Nina like a half a mile.

“Oh, goodness,” Mama New said curtly.

 
Nina was alarmed. “What’s the matter?”

‘‘Hazy is gone.”

“What do you mean, gone. Where has she gone?”

Mama New stood abruptly and began moving toward the parking area. “Come on, Nina, maybe we can catch her before she shoves off,” she called over her shoulder as she scooped Heather from one of the swings.

In Mama New’s very old, but very tidy pickup truck, Heather ensconced between them, they bounced over the rough island back roads as Mama New explained that Hazy had decided the night before to leave for one of her week-long fishing excursions. And this was the reason Mama New and Heather were taking advantage of the park, because they knew they’d be tied down to the business until she returned.

“We’ve got to catch her,” Nina muttered as they gained the quiet village streets. “Hurry, Mama New, I don’t think I can wait a whole week to be with her.”

The older woman grinned and drove even faster.

Within several minutes they arrived at the same boarding dock on Chincoteague Bay where Aaron Clark lived in his houseboat.

 
Nina was out of the truck before it even came to a complete stop. She knew which boat was Hazy’s and knew exactly where it was berthed.

Chapter 44

Hazy was loading the final box of canned and freeze-dried food onto her thirty-five-foot cruiser,
Shepherd’s Moon
, when she heard the voice that had been etched into her heart.

Thinking she was hallucinating, she looked around and her heart leapt in joy when she saw Nina running toward her along the dock. Nina was wearing a long pale blue skirt and a lace blouse and Hazy thought she must be dreaming because she was so beautiful.

But within seconds she was clasped in her arms and they were holding each other close.

“Nina,” she said with a sigh. “I almost didna believe you were real.”

 
Nina pulled back and smiled up at her. “Of course I’m real. Are you glad I’m here?”

Hazy laid her hands alongside Nina’s face and pressed a firm kiss to her lips. “What do you think?
 
I’m…I don’ know what’s going on.”

 
Nina spoke rapidly. “Hazy, I thought you and Mama New were together, a couple, and that Heather was your little girl.”

Hazy dropped her hands and stepped back to study Nina with a mystified expression. “Wherever did you get that idea? She just lives in the cottage next to mine. What did you...”

Nina shook her head, shrugging her helplessness about the misunderstanding. “Several people referred to her as your better half and, since she was always there…”

“You thought…” A deep chuckle welled in Hazy’s chest.

“So that’s why I acted kind of…”