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Her laugh sounded a little forced when she said, “Such a chummy place. Brooke loves being here with her dad.”
Zeke couldn’t tell if her tone was wistful or resentful. Not an area he’d probe, in any case.
“We had to limit the time Brooke spent with him last year because of the distance. She was here for weekends, except when he was away doing one of his talks. But Miles and I both ate up way too much time on the road shuttling her back and forth.”
“And now you’ve moved here.” Given her connection to people he knew, Zeke was even more curious about her.
She ran her hand down the back of her head, subtly fidgeting with her hair. “Yes, I moved, but for various reasons, I ended up leaving in kind of a rush. Brooke and I have been here a week.”
Zeke listened as she added a few details about hunting for a new job, too.
“So, I got my big idea about living on your boat because I can’t stay at the cottage. Miles and Lark will have visitors from out of town staying there soon.”
In a shot, her expression had gone from lively to troubled. She idly patted the back of a deck chair. “I’m sorry to have bothered you. I know this was kind of a wild idea.” She walked past him and stepped off the boat.
Now she was running off? “Wait a second, Andi. Where are you going?”
She put her sunglasses back on, but before her eyes disappeared behind them, he saw them change again. Now she looked upset, even sad. “I’ve taken up too much of your time.”
“Aren’t you going to wait for my answer?” Zeke had numbers running through his head, but they seemed meaningless. He’d never been a landlord before. If she wanted to live on the boat, what was to stop him from letting her? Well, given some time to think about it, he could probably come up with all kinds of good reasons why it was a bad idea. But he didn’t care. He and his dad could use a little life around the store.
“Answer?” Her sunglasses went back to the top of her head. She squinted in the bright sunlight.
“You asked what I’d charge.”
“Are you serious?”
“I was about to ask you that.” Some banter saved him from admitting he had no idea what kind of deal to make.
She folded her arms over her chest and tilted her head. “I was...am. But how do I know you won’t start salvaging all the valuable parts out from under me?”
He choked back a laugh at the teasing question. He didn’t want to scrap the boat, especially a finely built yacht like this one. “Seems the longer I’m on the boat, the more I like her. I bet she cleans up nice.”
“I’ve refinished my share of woodwork,” she said with a shrug. “It’s been a while, but I liked it. Loved it, actually. It was so satisfying to see the ugly transformed to beautiful again.”
She might be a stranger, but he understood a little about her already. Zeke pointed to the store. “As it happens, I have the tools and supplies you’d need to take on that job.”
“I just bet you do.” She patted a bronze fitting at the base of the canopy. “I’ll bet you have what I’d need to make this tarnished old bronze gleam in the sunshine.”
“Donovan Marine Supply at your service.”
She gave him a long look and stepped back aboard the boat. The air vibrated around him, like a low buzz. What? Zeke didn’t even believe in that sort of thing. Electricity in the air and all that. Except in a real thunderstorm. Or did he? As of this minute, maybe it wasn’t so impossible for the air to feel charged.
He cleared his throat to help him refocus. “We have power on the dock,” he said to bring himself back to practicalities, “so you wouldn’t have to run the engine to keep the refrigerator and lights on. And as you saw, the boat has a separate shower.”
She flashed an excited smile. “It’s got everything.”
“You can use the washing machines in the mudroom in the back of the store. The second floor is like an oversize storage shed now, but it used be an apartment. I grew up in that place above the store. My dad and I live in a house down the street.”
“Oh, so you live with your dad?”
“No, my dad lives with me.” He played that statement back in his mind, knowing how annoyed he’d sounded.
Her face registered frank surprise “Sorry...I guess.”
Zeke needed to explain, but that was complicated. Instead he waved her off. “Don’t mind me. Let’s get on with the arrangements.” Ideas were coming fast now. “How about a barter deal? You and Brooke live aboard Drifting Dreamer for the summer. You’ll make a start at getting the boat back in shape—cosmetically, anyway. I’ll keep you in supplies.” Grinning, he added, “And plenty of running water from Nelson’s dock.”
“You mean we could live here for free?”
“Of course, for free.” He paused. “Really? You thought I’d charge you?” He brushed his hand across peeling varnish on the cabin. “And I’ll certainly pay you for the hours you put in.”
“Pay me?”
“Well, yes. This is a big undertaking.” A new question came up. “I didn’t think to ask. Do you have a job now?”
“Nope. I thought I might look for something part-time. Maybe see if one of the shops needed extra help for the tourist season. Mostly, I’m concentrating on getting set up here in Two Moon Bay and making sure Brooke is adjusting and all that. But I’ll keep sending my résumé out as well, I suppose. The thing is...”
She stopped talking and with her forehead knitted in a deep frown, she stared off into space. He didn’t know how to finish her sentence, but apparently, neither did she. But this woman he barely knew was fired up to make a change. He wasn’t sure what she had in mind specifically, but somehow, he understood.
The sound of his cell phone interrupted his train of thought. He looked at the screen. His dad. Not a crisis, just a customer with questions. “I’ll be right back. Don’t go away.”
She glanced at him with a faraway look in her eyes, as if the phone had startled her out of her private thoughts. “I won’t.”
He hurried off the boat, but Teddy stayed curled up out in the sun on the deck. Zeke smiled. That dog had found his second home. As he opened the door to the shop, he was still in a daze. From the looks of things, it wasn’t going to be the same old kind of summer.
* * *
THE LIST-MAKER SIDE of Andi was fully engaged. Almost too much so. Jobs swirled through her head looking for a place to land on her priority list, starting with happily canceling the reservation at the Sleepy Moon Inn. Minor decisions about what to pack and move aboard, and what to stash away in storage, were mixed up with the details of the gigantic job of making Drifting Dreamer livable in the next couple of days.
Ready to jump out of her skin, both excited and nervous, she warded off the questions coming from inside her about the wisdom of her decision. How could she explain the impulse to dive into a job like this? Until this surprise had come along this morning, she’d all but forgotten the buzz and tingle in her body that an unexpected stroke of luck could bring. It filled her with so much energy she had to do something to burn it off.
After downing half a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, Andi put her bike in the rack on the back of her car and drove south down Night Beach Road until it curved and merged with the county road that led to the beach at Sibley State Park, only a quarter mile away. The line of cars on the side road provided plenty of company on the perfect seventy-degree day. She walked her bike out of the parking lot and started pedaling at the start of the dirt bike path that wound through several miles of dense forest.
She inhaled deeply, nearly euphoric from the damp earthy scents filling her nostrils that were the opposite of the stale odor that had permeated the boat. Drifting Dreamer may have been closed up for decades. As Andi slowed her pace, her body buzzed from exertion, but she was also filled with the energy of hope. In her small way, she’d bring Drifting Dreamer to life, starting with airing the boat to banish the stale smell. She’d fling open the portholes. Right. She smiled at the image of herself flinging bronze portholes wherever. But she’d certainly open them as wide as she could. Her mind jumped ahead to the process of restoring the wood, the fixtures—everything. Like Zeke had said, he had the tools she’d need for each job.
Zeke. Now he was a puzzle. An appealing, attractive puzzle. And none of her business. But she couldn’t deny the unfamiliar feelings he’d brought up. The sense of fun, teasing, joking about Teddy. She’d had trouble keeping her eyes off of him. Even at five-ten, she’d had to tilt her head back to look him in the eye—light brown and very warm eyes. His full head of unruly dark blond hair suited him, somehow matched his casual jeans and the T-shirt with the store’s logo on it.
Their time together that morning had been interrupted by a call on his cell from his dad and Zeke has asked her to wait while he hurried off to help deal with a customer. When he’d come back, he’d brought an outdoor electrical cord and tested the interior lights and the fridge. They’d started a list of mundane items, like light bulbs and ice trays. Together, they’d motored to Nelson’s fuel dock and flushed the water tanks,and Zeke showed her how to fill them. He’d checked all of the equipment on the boat against the spec sheet. A couple of exhilarating hours flew by, not only because she saw proof that Drifting Dreamer would be a fun temporary home, but, with her imagination clicking along, she also saw the yacht’s potential to make a comeback. Kind of like an old band getting back together to relive the glory days. Grinning at her comparison, she realized she was eager to dive into the work.
Watching Zeke, listening to him explain the controls on the hot water heater, she’d wondered about his other work. Restoration, he’d said. That piqued her interest. And why had he drifted away from it? Her word, not his.
After about five miles on the deserted dirt path, the woods ended and the paved path set back from the beach started. The cooler air now carried the slightly fishy scent of the lake and the beach. She shared the trail with walkers and adults and kids zipping along on Rollerblades. A few brave souls, mostly kids, had waded into the cold water and squealed as they bounced up and down to keep warm. She watched a couple of adults scurry back to the warm sand.
Andi could have shouted with joy herself. She’d taken on a big job, but for a couple of months, she’d wake up every day and do something that didn’t involve a medical file, test result, patient inquiry, or insurance paper. Never had she imagined living on a motor yacht—in any condition.
By the time she stopped at a turnout to rest her legs before finishing the loop back to the parking lot, she’d burned off not only the nervous energy, but also any lingering self-doubt, too. Instead, she was filled with overwhelming confidence that she’d done the right thing. Rather than struggling to create a normal life for Brooke from a hotel suite, the summer with her little girl stretched long and sweet on the water.
From the minute she’d met Zeke, she was as curious about his dad as she was about him. For one thing, why had Zeke snapped at her over her question about living with his father? His only prickly moment. None of her business, of course, but Zeke had learned about Brooke and Miles. She might have known he’d already met them both, especially since Miles and Lark were part of the waterfront community in Two Moon Bay.
Did Zeke need to know about her second ex-husband? Of course not. Why had she even thought of it? No matter how much time had passed, whenever Roger came to mind, a heavy sensation settled into every muscle in her body. Those memories still had the power to make her feel bad about herself.
Andi walked her bike to an empty picnic table in the turnout and pulled her tablet out of her backpack. A few minutes later, she had a new document with to-do lists side by side on her screen, each with items under the headings Before and After, in reference to the move. It took no time at all to create a couple of long lists.
Done with her lists for the time being, Andi texted Miles, telling him she’d found a place. She added, Details later, want to surprise Brooke.
And what a fun surprise it was.
And mysterious, she thought, as she got on her bike and began pedaling back to the parking lot. But if Drifting Dreamer was a classic design and had been built in a well-known boatyard, there would have to be some record of her somewhere. A boat registry? Or boatyard records? It couldn’t hurt to do a little online research.
* * *
IT WAS LATE that night before Zeke had a chance to do even a quick search. And it was a fluke that a notice in a Duluth newspaper led to the first mention of the boat that was bobbing in the breeze at his dock. It seemed that someone named Charles Peterson had thrown a launch party in September of 1939 for Drifting Dreamer. He must not have had much time to use it that late in the year, not up in Lake Superior.
Zeke’s first thought was how many Charles Petersons probably lived in Minnesota in the 1930s.
“Well, we have one clue, Teddy,” Zeke said to the dog snoozing at his feet. “Are you impressed?” The dog opened one eye. Zeke laughed. He bet Andi would find this news quite intriguing. It wasn’t much, but it was a start.
He sat back in the chair, staring at the man in the photo standing on the dock next to his boat. Now, almost eighty years later, a woman he didn’t know was moving onto a boat he’d never heard of forty-eight hours ago. It made him wonder what would happen next.
CHAPTER THREE (#u3e785a17-5d53-5827-b5f2-6a7a86340a67)
“JUST TELL ME where we’re going. Why can’t you let me in on your big secret?” Brooke asked in a crabby tone.
Andi was more than a little crabby herself. She frowned at her pouty little girl. “You’d think I was punishing you. I told you, this is a surprise.”
Andi shook her head. A surprise that showed every sign of landing with a thud. The rain had started in the middle of the night. It had let up a little in the last hour or so, but not much. It wasn’t the rain that bothered her. She’d put a couple of umbrellas in the car and they had rain jackets, although Brooke’s barely fit anymore. Andi had already added buying her a new one to her expanding list of things to do.
Brooke squirmed under her seat belt. “I wish my riding camp was starting today.”
“I know you do, sweetie, but it’s not much longer. Right after the Fourth of July. Then you’ll get to ride horses every day.”
When had Brooke started talking about horses and longing for one of her own? Maybe five years ago. She’d already named her horse-to-be. Magic was the first name she picked, and Magic it had stayed. Andi and Miles had agreed to wait until she was twelve before letting her have a horse of her own. By then she’d be old enough to take on the responsibilities of owning a horse, and could earn money doing chores to help pay the boarding fees at one of the nearby stables. Two more years.
“Just think, by the first day of your camp, we’ll be settled in our new place.”
“Did you find us a house like Dad’s?”
Andi shook her head. “Nope.” Naturally, Brooke would compare everything to Miles’s huge new house.
“Then it must be a cottage like Lark’s,” Brooke said confidently.
Keeping the spirit of surprise and intrigue going, Andi shook her head again.
“I know, I know,” Brooke said. “You rented a cool apartment above one of those stores downtown. Maybe on top of the bakery or the ice-cream shop.”
Great, that sounded appealing, even to Andi. “I’m thinking you’ll never guess. But it’s lots of fun.”
Brooke had come home last night full of stories about Sue, the dinosaur at the Field Museum of Natural History. And the bus ride to the zoo? The most exciting ride ever. Who knew public transportation could be so exotic? One day, Brooke announced, she would move to Chicago and live in a building and ride an elevator up to her apartment, where she could see the whole city from her huge windows. Andi hoped her daughter would have everything she dreamed of. It was a nice idea. Maybe that idea would stick, just like Brooke’s desire for a horse had lasted.
Lark’s cottage was only a few blocks from Donovan’s, Andi’s shorthand for Zeke’s store and docks. With Brooke sitting next to her with her forehead wrinkled in thought, only the slap of the windshield wipers broke the silence. Please, please don’t rain all day, she begged the gods of weather. Yesterday, she’d opened hatches and portholes to air out the boat and cut through the stale odor clinging to everything. She’d used her hand vacuum to clear away the first layer of dust and then wiped away the grime stuck on the woodwork in the staterooms. Then she’d finished up her workday by making up both bunks in the second stateroom, Brooke’s room. Satisfied she’d put the boat in suitable living conditions, she’d gone back to the cottage to wait for Miles to drop off Brooke.
Before leaving the cottage this morning, she encouraged Brooke to pack up a few of the wooden and ceramic horses in her collection, hoping the smile she sent Brooke’s way conveyed the air of fun mystery she intended. “There’s a perfect place for them in your new bedroom,” she’d said.
Andi was eager to share her excitement about restoring Drifting Dreamer. She’d explain to Brooke that the two of them would always remember the year they lived on a yacht all summer. It would be their special adventure. She’d tell her that even this run-down boat could be made beautiful again, just like she’d made their house in Green Bay beautiful. Not that Brooke could remember the months stretching to years of hard work that had made that happen.
Andi pulled into a parking place at the Bean Grinder and took Brooke inside with her to pick up coffee, a carton of milk and two blueberry muffins. “We’ll have our treat at our new table.” Or if the rain and wind let up, they could sit under the canopy at the deck table.
Brooke, distracted by all the pastries in the glass case, nodded but said nothing.
It was still drizzling when they parked at Donovan’s. “I’ll take the bag and coffee, you take the milk carton. Put up your hood and follow me.” She tried to keep her voice upbeat and light, but seeing the boat in the rain threatened her good mood, never mind Brooke’s impatience cutting into her positive attitude. Andi winced at the sorry sight of Drifting Dreamer. She didn’t look pretty under a clear sky, but in the rain, she was a real shipwreck.
When they reached the dock, Andi jolted, surprised to see Zeke appear on deck and lift his hand in a greeting. He was dry under the deck canopy.
“What’s going on?” Brooke asked.
“Well, this is Drifting Dreamer, our new home. Only for the summer.” Andi stepped aboard, looked behind her and pointed to the deck. “Just take one step and you’ll be aboard.” She nodded to Zeke. “I hear you’ve already met Zeke. He and his dad own the marine supply store and this dock, and now he owns this boat, too. I’m going to help him fix her up.”
Greeting her with a big smile, Zeke said, “Nice to see you again, Brooke. I met you at a party at the yacht club.”
Brooke stared at him, frowning.
Andi turned to Zeke and, keeping her voice low, asked, “Did something happen?”
“When the rain started in the night I got to thinking that I’d seen a couple of signs of leaking, so I came to check it out.”
Andi looked inside. Rolled-up towels were catching water landing on the counter. The source of the steady drip was a row of portholes on the port side. Buckets were catching water coming through cracks in the cabin roof and housing.
“Oh, no,” Andi muttered under her breath.
“I don’t want to live on a leaky old boat,” Brooke said with a quick shrug.
Andi laughed nervously. “I know it doesn’t look so good now, but it will. You’ll see.”
“We can get these leaks taken care of in no time. Before the boat was brought up here, she was covered up with a canvas tarp,” Zeke said with his focus on Brooke. “She’s been out of the water a long time. When that happens, the wood dries out and even the hull takes in water through the seams. But we’ll seal up everything. The place where you’re going to sleep is dry.”
“This isn’t the surprise I had in mind, Brooke.” Andi put her coffee and the bag on the deck table. “But, like Zeke says, the leaks can be fixed right away.” Desperate to sound bright and optimistic, she added, “I didn’t get to tell you the rest of the plan. This summer, I’m going to strip off all this old yellow varnish and sand the wood and make it gleam again. I can do this while we live here. We’ll even eat outside on the deck all the time. Like a picnic every day.”
Zeke nodded, his expression encouraging.
Brooke looked at the milk carton still in her hand. “I don’t care. I don’t want to eat outside. This isn’t a house.”
The rollout of her big surprise had gone so wrong, but Andi struggled to keep her voice steady, even firm, when she spoke. “That’s true, Brooke, but lots of people live on boats just like this. It’s a special kind of adventure. Some people live on motor yachts and sailboats and move from port to port, always exploring something new.”
“You have everything you need here,” Zeke said. “Even a shower and plenty of hot water. And your room has two bunks and a closet.”
“You can have a friend here to spend the night,” Andi said, flashing a grateful look to Zeke. She needed all the help she could get and was quickly running out of ideas. “Let’s go see the inside.”
“My friends are in Green Bay. Remember? We moved.” Her mouth tight, Brooke pivoted halfway around and stared off the stern into the distance. “There’s no one to invite.”
