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“Calm yourself. I’m only pulling your leg. Please, call me Thomas. I may be eighty, but hearing you say Mr. Degan still has me looking for my father.”
Mack smiled and decided it was probably a good idea to change the subject. “Okay. Do you have the keys?”
“No need,” Thomas replied. “The door’s open.” He walked to the cottage with Lucas, who seemed instantly at ease with the older man as he slipped his hand into Mr. Degan’s. For her part, Mack didn’t really know how to take Mr. Thomas Degan.
Mack caught up to them in the kitchen, which was huge. Not at all like she had imagined when she read the description of the cottage online. But it was a pleasant surprise. It was large and airy with white cabinets that looked to be older than she was but were still in good shape. The countertops looked to be a fairly new beech wood.
As Mack approached the stove for a closer look, she decided a bit of caution would be used before she so much as turned it on.
Turning back to Thomas, she asked, “Have you always lived around here?”
He scratched his chin, appearing to be deep in thought. “My parents settled in this country around 1924 after sailing from Ireland. They went to New York first but moved here into Rose Cottage in 1927. Of course, back then, and as a child growing up, it was known as ‘Degan House.’ They gave their place a name, like the houses had back in Ireland.”
“Perhaps you could spare some time and tell me more about your parents? Maybe come over for coffee and homemade cake?” Mack hoped the food offering would tempt Thomas, especially since she saw him frown and guessed he was about to refuse.
He took his cap off. “Maybe.”
Thomas seemed like a nice enough old man, especially since he didn’t seem to mind Lucas hovering. In fact, Lucas had made a new friend by the look of things.
“Thomas, I have pizza in the cooler, and there’s plenty of it, too much for just the two of us really, if you’d like to join us?”
As Thomas sat at the kitchen table, Lucas begged him to stay, as he climbed up onto his lap. “Please stay, Mr. Degan.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” Thomas answered, grinning at Mack. “I’ll keep this little jumping bean occupied while you unload, if you’d like.”
“That would be great, thanks. We don’t have too much with us, really, so it shouldn’t take that long.”
Outside, she just stood and looked around her, noticing, for the first time, the clear view of the ocean and the cliffs with the lighthouse perched on the edge of the headland.
The cottage was bordered by the exploding colors of beautiful and fragrant plants, some even climbing the gazebo wall while others covered the ground in various displays of summer. It looked very pretty. She hoped there would be a bench inside the gazebo so she could sit sheltered from the sun to keep an eye on Lucas while he played and she read or just relaxed with a cup of coffee.
There was also a small cottage, similar in style to the Rose Cottage, sitting alongside their own, but it looked empty. If she remembered correctly, it was also available as a summer rental.
Mack looked up at the crystal blue sky and took a deep breath of fresh, salt air. With relief, she didn’t inhale a lungful of car fumes in the process, like she did most days in the city. Not only did everything smell fresh, it was also blissfully quiet. No car horns and no noisy neighbors; just the sound of the waves on the shore, the wind in the trees, and the birds singing around them. It was simply paradise to Mack.
She began emptying the car, taking short trips back and forth, as she carted Lucas’s toys, their clothes, books and food into the quaint cottage.
The last trip inside was with the food. It was only after she’d put it away in the cupboards and refrigerator that it dawned on her how quiet the cottage was. Lucas was six. He didn’t do quiet.
Mack listened and heard voices upstairs. With the lid snapped on the cooler and ready to be thrown back into the car, she collected a box of clothes from the bottom of the stairs and headed up. After quickly placing the box in what she presumed to be the master bedroom, Mack opened one of the doors and found them both sitting down on one of the twin beds in the bedroom. Thomas was reading what looked to be a very old comic to Lucas.
Thomas caught sight of Mack and waved the comic up in the air. “Lucas found it underneath the closet, along with some spiders.” He chuckled.
Mack looked nervously around her. “Spiders?” she questioned a laughing Thomas and Lucas.
“I think I’ll leave you two alone for now. I’ll give you a shout when dinner’s ready.” She was still looking for spiders as she shut the door and could hear Thomas and Lucas laughing.
God, she was such a wimp!
“Thomas! Lucas! Dinner is ready. Please wash up,” Mack shouted from downstairs.
After fiddling about with the aging but clean oven, she finally produced a nicely warmed pizza.
Mack sliced the pizza into small, evenly sized triangles and arranged them on a serving plate. She placed the pizza alongside the potato salad and coleslaw on the table just as Thomas and Lucas appeared.
“Hi, take a seat. What would you like to drink, Thomas?”
“Water’s fine,” he replied while helping himself to pizza and potato salad.
