That Summer Thing

“You don’t look so bad yourself,” she told him, returning his gaze with the same affection. “I see you cut your hair.” Ever since she could remember, his dark, wavy hair had reached the edge of his collar.

He rubbed a hand over his closely cropped brown hair. “Thought I should start looking like a thirty-five-year-old attorney instead of an aging rebel,” he said. “Besides, it’s easier this way.”

“I like it,” she stated sincerely.

“Has Grace been bringing you up-to-date with what’s been going on around here?” he asked, giving his wife an affectionate nuzzle on the neck as she stood next to the stove stirring a pot.

Grace replaced the lid on the pan and said, “I’ll let you do that, Ed. I’m going to set the dining-room table and get the kids washed up for dinner.”

“Let me help.” Beth started to rise to her feet, but Grace put a hand on her shoulder.

“You sit and visit with your brother,” she ordered, then grabbed a stack of plates and disappeared into the other room.

“So what’s wrong?” Ed asked as soon as they were alone.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Beth denied indignantly as he sat down across from her. “Have you forgotten that you invited me to come spend the summer with you?” She spread her arms. “So here I am.”

“It’s mid-July.”

“All right, so I missed the first part of summer.”

He smiled slyly. “You cost me a hundred bucks.”

“How’s that?”

“I bet Grace you wouldn’t come at all.”

Beth chuckled. “No wonder she was so happy to see me.”

“I’m happy to see you, too. You haven’t exactly been a regular visitor to Riverbend,” he reminded her.

“I have a very demanding job,” she said, then immediately added, “Or I should say I had a very demanding job.”

“Does that mean you’re still unemployed?”

She could see concern in her brother’s eyes and it touched her. Even though they were separated by distance, they had remained close over the years, and she had confided in him often about the difficulties she’d had getting along with the athletic director at the college for the past year. Ed had been a rock of support when she’d made the decision to quit her job, and he understood her anxiety about her uncertain future.

“Yes. I told them in the spring I wasn’t going to renew my contract,” she said, not wanting to rehash the betrayal she’d felt on not only a professional but a personal level. As an athletic trainer she had always put the well-being and safety of her students first. To have someone question her judgment, then overrule her decision to keep a player out of a game was a breach of professional conduct she couldn’t tolerate.

“I’m glad to hear that. I was worried they might have coerced you into returning to your position.”

She shook her head. “That won’t happen. I think it’s probably a good time for me to take a break from working in college athletics, anyway. I plan to do some clinical work.”

“I bet Julian Bennett would find a permanent spot for you if you asked him.”

“My home is in Iowa,” she reminded him gently.

He smiled. “I know, but you can’t blame a brother for trying.”

Their conversation was halted as Grace announced it was time to eat. Dinner turned out to be a bit chaotic as the five little girls chattered and giggled their way through spaghetti and meatballs. By the time it was over, Beth was convinced that her sister-in-law had her hands full and didn’t need to worry about another houseguest, even if that guest was family.

She brought up the subject as she and Grace finished cleaning the kitchen. “I think I should check into a motel—just for the weekend.”

“You will not,” Grace stated emphatically.

“She will not what?” Ed asked, coming into the kitchen.

“Beth wants to go to a motel for the weekend.”

“You already have a full house,” Beth told her brother. “You don’t need me.”

“Yeah, we do. To help clean up,” Ed teased.

“I can do that without putting someone out of a bed,” Beth said.

“This is really bothering you, isn’t it?” Ed returned.

“Yes.” She set her dish towel aside. “You’re not going to be offended if I go to a motel, are you?”

“No,” her brother replied slowly, “but it doesn’t make any sense to pay for a room when you have a place of your own at your disposal.”

She gave him a puzzled look. “What do you mean?”

“The Queen Mary. Thanks to Abraham Steele, it’s half yours.”

Beth shook her head. “Oh, no. I couldn’t sleep there.”

“Why not?”

“You need to ask?”

He gave her a look of disbelief. “Because of Charlie?”

She hated the way her stomach muscles tensed at the mention of her ex-husband. For fifteen years she’d been able to pretend that Charlie Callahan didn’t exist. But now, thanks to one legal document, the window to that corner of her memory was reopened. A beneficiary of Abraham Steele’s last will and testament, Beth was now in the uncomfortable position of being in a partnership with a man she hadn’t expected to ever see again.

“I told you I wanted to sell my half to him,” she said as calmly as possible.

“Yes, but right now that half belongs to you and you have a right to use it. Besides, Charlie’s not even going to be in Riverbend this weekend. I talked to him yesterday and he told me he was going out of town. Some builders trade show in Indianapolis.”

She chewed on her lower lip. Using the houseboat would solve the problem of where she was going to sleep tonight. And it would be nice to have a quiet room all to herself where she wouldn’t feel she was inconveniencing anyone.

“Why are you hesitating? You have every legal right to use the boat, Beth,” Ed assured her.

This wasn’t about her rights. It was about memories. Ever since she’d learned she’d inherited the houseboat, unwelcome images had begun creeping into her consciousness. Too much had happened on that houseboat, things best forgotten.

“I’m just not sure it’s a good idea, that’s all,” she told him. “I can go to a motel.”

“Trust me, Beth. The Queen Mary is nicer than any motel around here. Abraham completely remodeled it before he died.”

Which meant she might not even recognize the place. Maybe she could stay on the boat and not be plagued with memories of the past. “Don’t I need a key or something?”

“I have one.” Ed disappeared, only to return a few minutes later carrying a small key ring and a black leather-bound folder. “You’ll need this, too.”

“What is it?” she asked as he handed her the folder.

“All the information you’ll need to use the boat. I’ve already looked at it and it’s pretty self-explanatory. Basic stuff about the water and electricity. There are diagrams in there, as well.”

Seeing the amount of information in the folder added to Beth’s trepidation. “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea. I don’t know the first thing about houseboats.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll go with you to Steele’s marina and answer any questions you have. Do you remember the way, or do you want me to drive and you can follow in your car?”

“I remember where it is, but I’m not sure I should drive my car.” She went on to tell him about the engine light coming on.

“Why don’t you leave it here and I’ll take a look at it in the morning?” he suggested. “I can drive you to the marina tonight and pick you up in the morning.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

“Are you sure you won’t stay with us?” Grace asked as they prepared to leave.

Beth was tempted to take her up on her offer, but she knew she couldn’t. Like it or not, the houseboat was the best place for her to sleep this weekend. She would just have to do what she’d done for the past fifteen years. Forget about that other long-ago night she’d spent on the Queen Mary.

Forget about Charlie Callahan.

CHAPTER TWO

JUST AS IT HAD BEEN all those years ago, the Queen Mary was docked at the small private marina just south of town. As Ed’s Jeep traveled across the gravel road with nothing but blackness on either side of it, Beth tried unsuccessfully to suppress a shiver. She couldn’t help but remember the last time she’d been down this road. She’d been with Charlie, on her way to what he’d promised would be a night she’d never forget. Little had either of them known how true those words would be.

“Here we are,” Ed announced, turning into a small parking lot. “If you wait a second, I’ll get a flashlight and light the way.”

She did as he suggested, remaining in the Jeep until he’d retrieved a portable lantern from the back. As she climbed out of the vehicle, he aimed the beam of light toward the ground. “Watch your step.”

Beth stayed close to him as he led her onto the pier and over to the houseboat. “So this is it?” she said, thinking that it didn’t look as big as it had when she’d been a teenager.

“Like I said, it’s changed since you were last here. Abraham spent a pile of dough remodeling it. Wait until you see all of the conveniences he added.”

Beth saw what her brother was talking about when they stepped inside. The salon had a white leather sectional sofa that allowed occupants a good view of the water, as well as the big-screen TV built into a cabinet against one wall. Next to it was a stereo system and a VCR. All the windows had custom-made deep blue drapes that matched the carpet beneath her feet.

“This is nicer than my apartment,” she said, admiring the oak cabinetry in the galley. She fingered the shiny black front of a microwave suspended beneath one of the cabinets.

“The guy had the bucks to spend and he liked nice stuff.”

Beth sat down on one of the high-backed stools next to the bar and twirled around. “It’s hard to believe all this was someone’s toy, isn’t it?”

“It’s your toy now,” he reminded her.

She shook her head. “It doesn’t make any sense. Why would he leave something like this to two people who haven’t seen each other in fifteen years?” The question had been nagging her ever since she’d received the letter from the attorney stating she was one of Abraham Steele’s beneficiaries.

He sighed. “Who knows what motivated him to leave any of the River Rats anything? Whatever the reasons for his bequests, the fact remains you own half this place.”

“Yeah, me, who never liked the river,” she stated dryly.

“Well, lucky for you, Charlie does.”

Beth knew all too well how much her ex-husband enjoyed the river. The memory of a fifteen-year-old boy splashing in the water surfaced in her mind. She had gone down to the river to look for Ed, who was supposed to be fishing with a couple of the other River Rats. To her surprise, the boys weren’t dangling their lines in the water. They were skinny-dipping.

There had been four naked bodies frolicking in the river that day, but Beth’s eyes had only noticed one. Charlie’s.

At thirteen, she’d had a limited knowledge of male anatomy, gained mainly from science textbooks and baby-sitting ten-month-old Billy Benson. The shock of seeing a nude teenage boy had frozen her to the spot.

She wasn’t sure how long she had stood there staring at him, but as she raced back to her house on wobbly legs, she knew that from that moment on, she could no longer regard Charlie as the boy next door, the boy who was good friends with her older brother, Ed, the boy who walked her and Lucy to the school bus stop. Things had changed.

To the rest of Riverbend he might still look like her second big brother, but to Beth he had become something more. Every time he smiled at her, she’d felt warm inside, and when he casually touched her, she’d gotten all tingly. It had been the beginning of an infatuation that would last through high school.

She shook her head, hoping she could toss the memories aside as easily as she flipped back her hair. “He must be remarried by now.”

“Do you really want to know the answer to that question?” Ed asked with a lift of one eyebrow.

Beth didn’t. For fifteen years she’d avoided asking any questions about Charlie Callahan. Ignorance had been bliss while living in another state. But now she was in Riverbend and she needed a few answers. Only a few.

“I think I should know his marital status, since we’ve inherited a boat together, don’t you?”

Ed sighed. “All right. He hasn’t remarried.”

So he was single. The rumor she’d heard a couple of years ago hadn’t been true. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her jangled nerves. “Maybe I should just give him my share of the boat. It’s not like I will have any use for this place after this weekend.”

“Now, that would be foolish.” He spread his hands. “Look around you. Abraham Steele wanted you to have a share in all of this. As your brother and your lawyer, I can’t let you give it away. Especially if the only reason you’re doing it is to avoid a confrontation with your ex-husband.”

“I’m not,” she fibbed. “I just don’t want the hassle of dealing with this right now.”

“You get bequeathed a boat we used to call the floating palace and you don’t want it.” He shook his head in disbelief.

She looked about the place in bewilderment. “What would I do with something like this?”

Ed shrugged. “Take off on a river adventure?”

“No, thank you. I’d probably get seasick. Remember that time Dad took us out on Lake Michigan when we were kids?”

“Everyone was a little queasy on that trip because the waters were rough. You won’t have to worry about any motion sickness tonight. You’re docked. This boat isn’t going anywhere.” He pulled open the door to the built-in refrigerator. “This is on, but it looks like there’s nothing inside but a few cans of mineral water. Should I take you to a convenience store so you can pick up a few things?”

She shook her head. “It’s all right. As long as there’s mineral water, I’ll be fine. Besides, if I have food here, you might forget to come get me.”

“I won’t forget,” he assured her. “Do you need a tour of the boat, or do you remember where everything is from all those parties the River Rats had here?”

“I didn’t party with the River Rats, or have you forgotten?”

“Ah, yes. You were always afraid we were going to get caught sneaking onto the boat, weren’t you?”

“I wasn’t officially a River Rat.”

“No one was officially a River Rat, Beth. You lived in the neighborhood and you hung out with the rest of us.” A faraway look came into his eyes. “Gosh, we had some great parties on this boat. Do you suppose Abraham knew what went on when he was out of town?”

“Probably.”

“Jacob never got into any trouble—at least none he told us about.”

The image of a fair-haired boy popped into Beth’s head. Jacob Steele had been the unofficial leader of the River Rats, the golden boy of Riverbend. Even though he was Abraham’s son, he wasn’t allowed to bring any friends onto the boat that Abraham considered his private retreat. That hadn’t stopped the River Rats from using it when he was out of town.

“That’s another thing that bothers me about this bequest,” she told him. “Besides the fact that we’ve been divorced for fifteen years and shouldn’t be sharing anything, Charlie and I shouldn’t get the boat. It should go to Jacob. He was Abraham’s son.”

“A son who didn’t even come home for his father’s funeral,” Ed reminded her.

“Whatever happened between him and his father must have hurt him deeply. Jacob’s not the kind of guy to turn his back on his family without good cause.”

“None of the River Rats are, Beth. Sure, we got into a few scrapes when we were growing up, but we were all pretty good kids.”

“Abraham must have thought we were special. He included all of us in his will,” she said, running a finger along the shiny countertop.

He chuckled. “Yes, I now have a vintage 1957 Chev and you have half a houseboat.”

“At least your gift will fit in your garage. I don’t have a lake or a river for mine.”

“Then it’s a good thing you’re spending the rest of the summer here.” He waved a hand at her. “Come. I’ll show you a few things.”

She followed him around the cabin and listened as he explained the water system and electrical circuits. “If you get too warm and don’t want to open the windows, you can turn on the air-conditioning. The control’s next to the instrument panel,” he said, slipping into the captain’s seat to point out the various gauges.

“For someone with no experience of houseboating, you sure seem to know an awful lot.” She eyed him suspiciously.

He gave her a sheepish look. “I have a little experience,” he admitted. “I was here with Charlie one day recently and we took a ride on the river.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Without asking me?”

“I only went because I wanted to protect your interest. It was my duty as your legal representative.”

Beth thought it was more likely that he went along because he wanted to spend time with Charlie. She didn’t tell him that, however. She might not be able to stop her brother from remaining friends with her ex-husband, but she certainly didn’t have to hear the details of their friendship.

“The master bedroom’s in here,” Ed told her, opening a door on the other side of the bathroom.

“It’s all right. You don’t have to show me.” The last thing she wanted was to look inside the room where she and Charlie had made love—even if it had been remodeled since.

“Where are you going to sleep?”

“Aren’t there beds below?”

He led her down a small flight of steps to the lower cabin, which had two bunks, both covered by brightly patterned quilts in a kaleidoscope of colors. There was also a small cedar chest and a built-in wardrobe.

“This isn’t quite as fancy as the master bedroom,” Ed commented as she opened a narrow closet.

“No, but it’s cozier.” She sat down on one of the beds to test its firmness. “I think I’ll feel less like an intruder down here.”

“You have every right to be here, Beth,” Ed stated firmly.

“So you keep telling me, but for whatever reason, I still feel like I’m sneaking onto a houseboat that’s off-limits.” She stretched her arms over her head, then sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m just tired. What time should I expect you in the morning?”

“How about if you give me a call when you wake up? That way if you want to sleep in a bit later than usual, it won’t matter. You have your cell phone, right?”

She nodded. “It’s in my purse.”

“Good. Now lock the door behind me and get a good night’s sleep.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek, said good-night, then headed back to his Jeep.

After twelve hours in the car and with a headache throbbing in her temples, Beth wanted to follow her brother’s orders, but ever since she’d stepped on the boat, she hadn’t been able to shake the uneasiness that lingered from her past. Even though remodeling had made the Queen Mary barely recognizable, it was still the place where she’d made what had turned out to be the biggest mistake of her life.

She squeezed her eyes shut, refusing to give in to the temptation to remember that night fifteen years ago. She was tired, she needed sleep, and she would not let the past haunt her. Not now. Not here.

Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes and put an Enya CD in the stereo system, allowing the soothing sounds to flow around her. And just in case Enya failed to lull her to sleep, she pulled a bottle of pain-relief tablets from her purse. When she opened the refrigerator to get a can of mineral water, she saw one lone beer on the bottom shelf. Michelob. Charlie’s favorite.

Seeing that can was a reminder that he had been on the houseboat only a few days earlier. He’d walked barefoot on the carpet that was beneath her feet, stood on this very spot with the door open, contemplating the contents of the refrigerator.

“We’re not trespassing, Beth,” he’d told her when she’d expressed reservations about being on the boat the night of the spring formal. “Abraham said I could use the place if I wanted. That’s why I have a key.”

She remembered the smile on his face, the gleam of desire in his eyes as he’d pulled her along the wooden pier. It hadn’t taken much convincing to get her to spend the night with him on the boat. Little had she known that that one night would bring so many changes to her life.

Her dress had cost a small fortune—a sapphire-blue satin off-the-shoulder gown that had swished when she walked. And after two hours at Clip Curl and Dye, she had never felt more confident. One of the stylists had managed to make her short boyish curls look glamorous and chic, her makeup as professional as a cover girl’s. But it was the glitter that Beth had loved. It had dusted her bare skin in a most enchanting way.

She remembered the look on Charlie’s face when he’d picked her up for the dance. She’d fantasized a guy looking that way at her—as if she were the only girl in the world for him.

Then her dad had barked, “Don’t forget she’s only sixteen, Charlie.”

She could have died of embarrassment. Because she’d been accelerated, she was the youngest in her class. All the other girls were seventeen and eighteen. Academically it had been easy fitting in with the older girls, but socially she’d had problems. Having eighteen-year-old Charlie Callahan as her date for the dance was her chance to be accepted, and she didn’t need her father to throw a bucket of cold water on the evening.

Not that he really could have. Charlie made sure she had a night she’d never forget. Any worries she’d had about what people would think were cast aside when they were voted the cutest couple at the dance. At midnight, when the chaperons had chased everyone home, Charlie hadn’t taken her to the pizza party at Josh Parker’s house. Instead, the two of them had gone down by the river for a moonlight picnic.

Beth knew now they should have gone to the party with the rest of their classmates. As her father used to say, hindsight is twenty-twenty. If they hadn’t been alone in the moonlight, they would never have kissed, and if they hadn’t kissed, they wouldn’t have touched, and if they hadn’t touched, they wouldn’t have…She shook her head, not wanting to think about that night.

She wouldn’t think about it. She closed the door quickly, leaving those memories in the cold. She opened the can of mineral water and poured its contents into one of the crystal goblets she’d found in the cupboard. Then she shook two of the pain-relief tablets from the bottle. They were extra strength, with an additional ingredient to induce sleep.

It was time for her to stop worrying about what she would encounter in Riverbend. She knew that if she took the pills, she’d be a bit groggy in the morning, but she didn’t care. At least her headache would be gone and she wouldn’t toss and turn in an unfamiliar bed. With a long gulp of the sparkling water, she swallowed the tablets.

Then she turned up the volume so the Enya music could be heard in the cuddy. As she lay flat on her back staring up at the dark ceiling, she closed her eyes and waited for the music to calm her active mind.

But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t stop thinking about Charlie. When she closed her eyes, she saw him. Shirtless. Drinking a beer. Staring at her with that look that used to make her feel as if she was standing on the edge of a steep cliff. The last thought she had before she fell asleep was to wonder why he had never remarried.

“JEEZ, CHARLIE! The sun’s not even up yet!” fourteen-year-old Nathan Turner grumbled as he carried his duffel bag out to the pickup.

“Best time of the day. Wait until you see what sunrise looks like on the water.”

“I only got five hours of sleep last night. Isn’t there a law against dragging kids out of their beds without the proper amount of sleep?” the boy muttered belligerently.

“Not when it’s the kid’s fault because he stayed up half the night playing video games,” Charlie tossed back at him.

Nathan was uncharacteristically uncooperative as they loaded the pickup with fishing gear and supplies. He was not happy to be up so early. Actually he hadn’t been happy since Charlie had seen him sitting in the courtroom yesterday morning.