Chapter15
Winnie sat in Sally’s cramped office behind the main general store floor, watching her oldest friend sort through the week’s receipts.The small space was cluttered with inventory lists and vintage photographs of Starlight Shores, including one of Sally’s grandfather standing beside Winnie’s grandfather at the old dock.
“You’re quiet today.”Sally set down her pen and studied Winnie over the top of her reading glasses.“More quiet than usual, anyway.”
Winnie traced the rim of her coffee mug.Through the office doorway, she could see customers browsing the aisles, their voices creating a low hum of activity.She’d come here seeking the comfort of Sally’s welcoming presence, but the thoughts she had been wrestling with taunted her.
Sally looked at her.“Spill it.”
“What?”
“Whatever is bothering you.After all these years, I can tell when you’re trying to sort something out.”
Winnie’s lips curved into a small smile.Her friend knew her too well.She sighed.“Cassidy found something in the lighthouse archives.A photograph.”
Sally’s hands stilled on the papers.“What kind of photograph?”
“My grandfather with some men.”She paused, choosing her words carefully, even here, even with Sally.“Academic consultants, according to the label.They were standing around equipment that looked too sophisticated for standard lighthouse operations.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That my grandfather was dedicated to preservation, and he sought expert advice on maintaining the light.”She had delivered that practiced explanation smoothly to Cassidy, her voice calm and matter-of-fact.She shrugged.“I was vague.”
Sally removed her glasses and set them on the desk.Sally only put away her glasses when she was about to say something important, something she wanted Winnie to see clearly in her eyes.
“But we know there was something going on at the lighthouse all those years, don’t we?”
The question hung between them, gentle but unrelenting.She looked down at her coffee, watching the surface ripple slightly from the vibration of someone’s footsteps in the main store.How many times over the decades had she deflected similar questions?How many conversations had she steered away from the truth she herself only partially understood?
She nodded.
Sally leaned back in her chair, and it creaked softly.“Your father never told you the whole story.”
“No.He said some things were better left in the past.That knowledge could become a burden I didn’t need to carry.He said he’d explain when the time was right.”
“But he died, and you’ve been carrying it anyway.”Sally’s voice held no judgment, only the understanding of someone who’d watched Winnie shoulder invisible weights for fifty years.“The not-knowing weighs just as much as knowing would.”
She thought of the logbooks with their careful notations, the financial records that never quite added up, and the modifications to the lighthouse structure that served purposes she could only guess at.Her father had been meticulous in his duties, precise in his record-keeping.But there were gaps in those records, deliberate blank spaces where information should have been.
“I feel like my grandfather and father both believed they were protecting something important, something bigger than themselves,” she said slowly.
“And you’ve been protecting whatever that was ever since.”
“I’ve been protecting the lighthouse.That’s what my father asked of me.Keep it standing.Keep it private.Don’t let anyone dig too deep into its history.”
Sally was quiet for a moment, her expression thoughtful.Through the doorway, Winnie could hear Jan from Harbor Brew chatting with a customer about the upcoming festival, her cheerful voice a reminder that life in Starlight Shores continued its normal rhythms regardless of old secrets.
“You know what I think?”Sally finally said.“I think your father was trying to protect you, not just the lighthouse.”
She ran the statement through her mind.She’d never considered it quite that way before.She’d always assumed her father’s reticence was about duty, about maintaining operational security even decades after whatever operations had ceased.But what if it had been simpler than that?What if he’d simply wanted to spare his daughter from complicated truths?
“Maybe.”Winnie’s voice was soft.
“But now you want to know what was going on?”
A deep sigh slipped out.“I’m not sure I want to find out.”
“Why not?”
