“You’ve put a lot of time into preparing this picnic.”
“After almost poking my eye out, I decided your maple tree could use a pruning. That’s when I got the idea for hot dogs.” He held the rolls in front of the fire, close to the embers. “Bram and Grammy Rose used to take us boys up to theAdirondacks every summer after we came to live with them. It was just the five of us—no staff, no chauffeur, no cook. We’d fly up, and Bram had a big old rusted van he kept at the airport. We’d transfer all our gear into it and pile in, then drive to the ricketiest old cabin you’ve ever seen.”
He turned the rolls over to toast the other side. “Grammy would assign us each a chore on the way to the cabin. My job was usually spider eradication. Ben had to lug firewood, and Jesse always helped Bram drag the old fishing boat down to the water to see if it was still seaworthy.”
He glanced over at her, then back at the rolls. “We didn’t have an outboard motor, just oars. It took a full week for our blisters to heal, but by the end of the summer, we all had thick calluses.” He shook his head. “No electricity, no running water, and an outhouse that still gives me nightmares.”
“How come Abram didn’t update the cabin?”
“If we’d had all the modern conveniences, we might as well have stayed home. We were roughing it, and those summers were the best times of our lives after our parents died.”
Willa jumped when her hot dog exploded and fell off the stick into the fire. Without saying a word, Sam shoved another hot dog onto the charred tines, then held it over the flames.
“We tried going to the cabin the summer after Grammy died, but we only stayed a few days. It just wasn’t the same.” He glanced at her. “I guess you own the cabin now.”
Willa took a shuddering breath and looked down at her lap. Depression was contagious.
“Levi fired me yesterday.”
“He did? Why?”
Sam turned her hot dog over and lowered it to start burning the skin. “He claims I’m all thumbs when it comes to working with power tools. But I think it’s because he found out I’ve been going to the coffee shop most mornings.”
She started filling the toasted rolls with ketchup and relish and mustard. “What makes you think that’s why he fired you?”
Sam slid her hot dog into one of the rolls, then put another one on the stick and held it over the flames.
“Keelstone Cove is in the middle of a geriatric gang war.”
“A what ?”
“There’s the Grand Point Bluff gang and the coffee club gang, and they went to war when Bram died.”
“Oh for the love of—these are civilized people, Sam, not gang members.”
“No, it’s the away people versus the locals . Most of your workers retired here fromNew York andBoston , didn’t they? It’s also the haves against the have nots . The coffee clubbers think the Grand Pointers throw their money around like confetti.”
“Your grandfather went to that coffee shop and he was friends with my workers. And he was from away and rich. So how come the coffee clubbers let him into their club?” She eyed him suspiciously. “For that matter, how come they let you in? Not only are you rich and from away, but you’re not even old enough to be a member.”
He started to slide his hot dog into its roll but stopped. “I don’t like mustard.”
“Oh, just eat it,” she snapped. “And answer my question. How come Levi was willing to work with Abram, but he fires you for cavorting with the enemy?”
“Because before I arrived, both gangs had the same agenda.”
“And that was?”
“To see you happy.”
Willa stopped with her hot dog halfway to her mouth. “See me happy? As if it’s any of their damn business to begin with. But wait a minute—are you saying they don’t have the same agenda now? Does one of the gangs not want to see me happy?”
He took a large bite of his hot dog, made a face, and swallowed. “No, they both still want you happy; they just don’t agree on how that should happen.” He started dishing out the potato salad. “The coffee clubbers want you to marry me, like Bram thought you should. But the Grand Pointers think you should marry a local man.”
Willa gaped at him. “You’re funning me, right? I know this town is filled to its eyeballs with bored senior citizens, but they can’t possibly be that invested in my life. Besides, you’ve got it backward. If anyone would want to see me married to you, it would be the Grand Pointers. They’re retired executives and would want me to marry a businessman. The locals would want me to marry a local.”
“Nope.” He shook his head. “Silas, Maureen, and Levi cornered me in the break room the other day and told me point-blank that if I tried blackmailing you with that bequest, I could find myself inside a burlap sack on a lobster boat on a one-way trip out to sea.”
“They threatened you?”
“They told me not to take it personally, just seriously.”
“But they liked Abram.”
“They claim they like me, too, just not as your husband.” He shrugged. “At first, they thought Bram’s plan was a good one, but after he died, they started thinking over the part about forcing you to get pregnant and decided he’d taken things too far. In the five days it took you to sail home, they’d persuaded themselves that the whole thing was a bad idea. They believe you should find a nice, easygoing local man to settle down with and that if you don’t want babies, you shouldn’t have any.”
Her workers, her friends , were deciding whom she should fall in love with? And marry? And not have babies with?
Sam lifted her chin with his finger. “They love you, Willa. They may be misguided in their thinking, but they love you.”
“And the coffee clubbers? What’s their excuse?”
He smiled. “They’re equally sincere, honey. They want to see you happily married, too—just not to a local man.”
“But why not?”
He slid his arm around her shoulder. “One, they’d like to have some fresh young blood move into town.
And two, they told me there’s not a local man within a hundred miles who would marry you. You’ve got a bit of a reputation for stirring up trouble. Then there’s the fact that you’re a wild woman at sea. There aren’t many coastal men who can live with a woman who can outsail them.”
Willa was shocked senseless at how everyone had an opinion about what she should and shouldn’t do.
“You know what I think?” Sam asked.
She refused even to hazard a guess.
“I think I should open my own business and put the coffee clubbers on my payroll.”
“What?” she yelped, pulling away to face him. “Are you nuts?”
“I doubt they’ll put their paychecks back into my business, though. I have a feeling they could use the money. Paul Dubay needs a new lawn mower; the one he drives to coffee is on its last leg.”
“Paul Dubay drives a lawn mower to the coffee shop?”
“Right downMain Street . He claims the ‘damn government’ wouldn’t renew his license because his eyesight is bad.”
“Paul Dubay is more than ninety years old! He shouldn’t drive anything that goes faster than a walker. And don’t kid yourself; your new best buddies are a long way from living hand-to-mouth. They simply can’t bring themselves to spend any of their money, because they worked too damn hard to get it.” She shook her head. “We’re getting off track, Sam. You are not setting yourself up as Keelstone Cove’s social welfare system, and you’re not opening a business just to give the coffee clubbers something to do.”
“Why not? You started Kent Caskets to give your people something to do.”
“I needed a job. I hired them because I didn’t know anything about running a business.”
“You told me you had a job at Grand Point Bluff.”
“I decided I wanted to be my own boss. After Levi built a casket in the wood shop, the manager at Grand Point wouldn’t let me do anything creative with the residents anymore. He made me dismantle the wood shop and turned it into a bingo parlor. So I quit.”