AllFreeNovel
Share Us
BETWEENTOURGROUPSthat afternoon, Oliver pulled his pickup truck in front of the local hardware and outdoor store. Every year, he helped Carly with her float base for the Sealena Festival parade. Except the first year after Alison and Catherine had disappeared. It had been too hard, too soon. That year, breathing had been difficult, getting out of bed had been nearly impossible, and moving through the motions of everyday life had felt almost futile. Only Tess and the support from Carly had pulled him through.
So as difficult as it was for him to get on board with anything to do with the sea serpent queen, he wouldn’t let Carly down.
He climbed out of the truck into the bright, warm July sunshine and headed across the busy parking lot. Residents took advantage of the milder, more agreeable weather to perform home repairs and garden maintenance, and the store was always running out of supplies. Better to grab the stuff he needed now.
No matter what kind of design Carly was planning for that year, he’d need the basics. He’d get started on the new, larger platform that week between tour groups. It was almost a relief that he had to construct something new instead of just reconstructing the old one. He didn’t have much else to occupy his thoughts and time, the lighthouse repairs and new paint having been done weeks before in preparation for the high tourist season. It would be good to stay busy that week.
Pushing through the front door, he entered the store and headed for the hardwood section. Taking his measuring tape from his pocket, he double-checked Carly’s dimensions and shook his head. He hoped she knew what she was doing. He filled a trolley with supplies and, ten minutes later, headed to the counter.
The woman behind the register barely noticed him as he unloaded the supplies, deep in hushed conversation with another cashier. “Apparently, he’s twenty-nine and has a marketing degree from Alaska Pacific,” she was saying.
Marketing degree from a private university? They could only be gossiping about one man.
“All I know is that he’s gorgeous,” the other cashier said. “And if I wasn’t happily married with my fourth child on the way...” She laughed, patting her pregnant stomach.
“He’ll definitely be turning some heads,” his cashier said, finally noticing him. “Oh, hey, Oliver,” she added.
“Hey,” he mumbled, but nowhewas distracted by thoughts of the newcomer. Had Carly thought the guy was attractive too? He’d noticed her cheeks flush when Sebastian had approached. She’d obviously met him before, but the man didn’t seem to be her type. That slick, charming, polished salesy type. Not that Oliver could truly say he knew what Carly’s type was. He couldn’t remember the last time she’d dated someone. She’d been in a serious relationship years ago, but since that breakup, she hadn’t mentioned anyone special in her life, hadn’t introduced him to anyone. He hadn’t really given Carly’s dating life much thought before.
He suddenly was now and it caused an odd feeling to wrap around him.
He still didn’t understand the green hair comment, but the way the guy had looked at her and the casual familiarity he’d addressed her with had rubbed Oliver the wrong way. As if they shared an inside joke or something. Was the new man in town attracted to her?
It didn’t matter. Or at least, it shouldn’t. He and Carly were best friends. They had a history... She had been his wife’s best friend and part of their family. There were some lines you just didn’t cross.
Not that there hadn’t been times when he’d been tempted to.
Carly was beautiful and smart and caring, and she’d not only been a source of support and a shoulder to cry on, but she’d also stepped in to help him with Tess when he’d been so lost in his own grief that he’d struggled to raise his then seven-year-old. He didn’t know what he would have done without Carly.
But a deep friendship was as far as the connection went. As far as it could ever go. He’d never risk losing her by doing something stupid like giving in to the urge to kiss her that came out of nowhere sometimes when he saw her laugh...or watched her with Tess...
“A hundred and fifty-three dollars,” the cashier said, interrupting his thoughts.
Oliver handed over the cash, and gathering the supplies, he headed back to his truck.
An hour later, he unloaded the items in the large woodworking shed behind the lighthouse, refusing to read too much into his newfound motivation to get to work on the float base right away.
Before someone—Sebastian—could replace him.
The man was good with a hammer. Yeah right. Those manicured hands didn’t look like he’d done a day’s hard labor in his entire twenty-nine years.
Oliver got to work clearing a large enough space to build a bigger platform. It meant moving around a few other things he was working on. A birthday gift for Tess—a stand-up paddleboard he’d recently started—and the covered sailboat that had sat unfinished for three years.
Would he ever finish it? Every time he was in there, he asked himself the same question, and every time, he didn’t know the answer. He had an existing contract that demanded that he did...if he ever wanted to get paid for it.
But the sailboat side business had been Alison’s idea. Alison’s dream. After they’d built her sailboat together, she’d had the idea of starting the family business. She came up with the most beautifully elegant yet practical and cost-effective boat designs and Oliver was the one wielding the hammer. They’d even recruited Catherine and Tess, and within three months, they’d built and sold their first sailboat to a cruising company in Anchorage. Then more orders had arrived. They’d fulfilled three and business was actually starting to look like a really lucrative side hustle, something they could build a new family legacy on—until Alison and Catherine went missing and the fabrication of the current project had been permanently on hold.
Manslaughter due to poor construct...
The hurtful accusations on social media years ago still rang in his mind whenever he saw the covered ship hull in the corner of his shed. The investigators in the missing persons case had actually contemplated the idea that Oliver had purposely sabotaged Alison’s boat...
When they hadn’t found it, those suspicions had faded away, but not from his own mind. Oliver knew he hadn’t purposely been negligent in the sailboat’s construction, but what if he had accidentally—an oversight? What if there had been a defect that had contributed to the disappearance that day? He knew in his gut that wasn’t the case. But his lack of confidence combined with the ache he felt in his chest whenever he even tried to lift that sheet was reason enough to abandon the project. Tess was disappointed that they’d let their family’s plans—Alison’s plans—fade into the past, but Oliver just couldn’t find the passion for it anymore.
Small woodworking projects were what he filled his time with now.
And this yearly float.
He sighed, grabbing his tool belt and getting to work. The physical labor in the thick humid heat of the shed actually made him feel better, or at least silenced his thoughts about the past, about Carly...about this new Sebastian guy.
