“No, you wouldn’t.”
Zoey snickered. “You sound awfully sure of yourself for a man who won… how much? Twenty cents?”
“Forty,” he admitted. “But I meant you wouldn’t be able to buy a cone because Bleecker’s doesn’t open for the season until Saturday.”
Zoey groaned. “That’s torture. I’ve been craving their cranberry ice cream all winter.”
Dune Island was home to a commercial, organic cranberry bog. Local restauranteurs and eatery owners added cranberries to everything from lemonade and cocktails to ice cream and hot dogs, as well as in the usual things like stuffing, muffins and juice.
“Choco-cran or van-cran?” Nick used the popular abbreviations for the flavors.
“Choco-cran, of course.”
He hung his head, shaking it sadly. “Just when I was starting to like you…”
“You were onlyjuststarting to like me?” Zoey feigned haughtiness. “Kind of slow, aren’t you?”
“Why, when didyoustart to likeme?” Nick’s tone was light but his eyes were intense and Zoey felt startlingly self-conscious beneath his gaze.
“Mm… I’ll let you know when that happens,” she teased, breaking the spell.
“Ouch.” He slapped a hand over his heart as if he’d been shot. “That hurts because it’s true.”
She laughed and said, “Nah, I’m just kidding.”
“Seriously though, we’ll have to go to Bleecker’s on opening day. You know they have a tradition of giving the first hundred customers an extra scoop for free, don’t you?”
“That’s cool.” Zoey’s answer had been deliberately noncommittal. And now as she lay in bed, she pondered if he’d been suggesting all five of them should go? Or just him and her? As friends or on a date? She couldn’t decide how she felt about the prospect of going out with Nick.
On one hand, if her relationship with Erik had taught Zoey anything, it was that she could have saved herself—and her retirement fund—a world of hurt if only she had paid attention to the warning signs when they first cropped up. Although Nick was growing on her now, the fact that she’d started out with qualms about him, due to his friendship with Mark, was not a good sign. And emotionally, she still wasn’t ready to start dating.
On the other hand, as Ivy suggested, it wasn’t as if Zoey needed to make a lifelong commitment. And her best friend Lauren certainly would have been thrilled for her if she had a casual summer fling. After such a difficult couple of weeks—such a difficultwinter—hanging out with Nick tonight had been a pleasant diversion from the things that had been occupying her time and thoughts. Zoey wouldn’t mind repeating the experience.
The more she got to know him, the more she doubted that Nick’s interest in her aunt—and in her aunt’s house—was solely motivated by financial gain. Now that Mark was off the island and Zoey didn’t feel quite so uptight, she could better appreciate the ways Nick demonstrated real fondness for Ivy. Like by coming to Sylvia’s funeral. Or by not pushing her to remodel the kitchen. Even by helping her out of her chair or laughing at her jokes. Maybe the two things were both true: hewasfond of Ivyandhe wanted to profit financially from whatever renovation projects Mark convinced her she needed to do.
In any case, since he hadn’texplicitly asked her out, not even for an ice cream cone, Zoey figured she was getting ahead of herself, and she didn’t have to decide tonight whether to say yes or no. Obviously, Aidan hadn’t asked Gabi out, either, but that didn’t stop Zoey from worrying that a romance would develop between them.
She could tell by her niece’s giddy behavior that the evening had provided as much levity for Gabi as it had provided for her. She desperately wanted the young girl to be happy here. To feel stronger and more serene than when she’d arrived on Dune Island, just as Zoey always had. Which was exactly why she was concerned about the two teenagers becoming more than friends.
Granted, Zoey’s impression of Aidan was that he was well-mannered, diligent and smart. She couldn’t imagine many other guys his age who’d be so content to spend an evening playing cards with his dad and the elderly lady they worked for, even if it also meant he got to be around a pretty, winsome girl like Gabi. So there was nothing about him in particular that gave Zoey pause.
Her hesitation was that Gabi was sensitive, easily influenced and had a tendency to be a people-pleaser. Plus, her birthday was in August, which meant she was one of the younger students in the ninth grade. Although in some ways she was mature for a girl who wasn’t quite fifteen, she was still nearly three years younger than Aidan, who mentioned he’d turn eighteen in October. At those ages, a few years made a big difference. And Gabi had already demonstrated, through her antics with her father’s car, that she didn’t exercise good judgment when she was involved with a boy. Zoey wanted to prevent her from making any more mistakes like the kind she’d made at home, as well as from getting her feelings hurt.
I’ve already hurt her feelings enough myself, she lamented, recalling their conversation on the beach. Although she’d been trying to model openness, Zoey regretted ever telling Gabi about her financial situation. She hadn’t expected her disclosure to affect her niece the way it did. Inwardly, she resolved to be more careful about what she shared. She wondered how often Gabi worried about her father’s and Kathleen’s problems, too.I’m glad she has some distance from them right now. I hope the longer she’s here, the freer she feels.
Still sleepless, Zoey reluctantly contemplated Gabi’s theory about Sylvia and Mr. Witherell. She would have preferred to dismiss it out of hand, but that was the problem with gossip: once the seed was planted, it took root, no matter how inane it was.
One thing Zoeydidknow for certain was that it would have been completely out of character for her aunt to execute a scheme like the one Gabi suggested. Sylvia was too kind and frankly, too mild-mannered. Zoey couldn’t imagine her plotting to deceive anyone—especially not Ivy, who loved her like a sister. Furthermore, Ivy often described how tender Sylvia had been to Marcus, patiently nursing him through bout after bout of illness. From her own experience, Zoey understood how much love and compassion that must have taken. No, Sylvia hadn’t married Marcus for his money—Zoey was sure of that.
However, she kept thinking about the curious exchange Mr. Witherell had with Mark at the funeral. She was still 99.9 percent confident that Mr. Witherell had been trying to rile her cousin in retaliation for his arrogance. But if Zoey allowed herself to entertain Gabi’s theory—as implausible as it was—that Mr. Witherell was Marcus Jr.’s father, then his comment to his “grandson” made abitmore sense.
If he was able to hear Mark’s rude jab about quitting tobacco, then he might have been able to hear him bragging to his friends that one day he’d inherit the house,she speculated. According to Gabi’s classmates, Mr. Witherell resented being shut out of Sylvia’s and the baby’s lives. If that was true, it might explain why he’d want to take Mark down a notch. To let him know that carrying the Winslow name didn’t necessarily make him a Winslow. Maybe after keeping his son’s paternity a secret all his life, Mr. Witherell felt more at liberty to disclose it after Sylvia died.
“That’s absurd,” Zoey said aloud.
And yet… what about the fact that her aunt delivered Marcus Jr. more than a month early? She’d never heard any stories about him being underweight. One explanation for thatcouldhave been that she was pregnant before she got married. According to Ivy, whenever she and her sister-in-law went shopping or out to the bank, all the men vied for her attention. What if Mr. Witherell had been one of them? Sylvia and Marcus had had a very short courtship. It was entirely possible that on the day they wed, she wouldn’t have known for certain that she was already pregnant by someone she’d dated earlier—or pregnant by Marcus, for that matter.Maybe Marcus Jr.’s paternity was always a question in her mind,Zoey hypothesized.In Mr. Witherell’s mind, too.After all, he didn’t tell Mark he absolutelywasn’tMarcus Winslow III. He only said he wouldn’t be too sure of that.
Which brought Zoey to her cousin’s reaction—rather, to hisoverreaction—to Mr. Witherell’s remark. Not only had he harangued the old man long after he’d hobbled out of view, but he’d instructed Gabi to cross the street if she saw him, too. It was understandable that Mark didn’t appreciate what he’d said, but why not shrug it off? And why go to the lengths of telling his young cousin to avoid him? Was he afraid of what she might find out once they started talking?It makes me even more sure that when Mark attended school here, he heard the same rumors Gabi heard—but it seems as if he’s not entirely sure they’re baseless.
