Zoey figured that thanking Nick for carrying Ivy upstairs would be a good ice-breaker and went downstairs. But when she got halfway down the hall, she heard Mark’s voice coming from the kitchen and she froze, unsure whether she could summon the poise to be civil toward him after he’d brought their aunt home in such rough shape.
“Next week when Ivy’s in the hospital overnight, I’ve got someone coming over to tear up the attic floor. It’s all original wood up there, did you know that? Over two hundred years old.” He boasted, “I took some photos and showed them to a woodworker I know and he told me he’d pay this much for it.”
Mark must been showing Nick a figure because there was silence before Nick replied, “I know a guy who’d pay two-and-a-half times as much as that. He’s vacationing in the Bahamas this week but I can set you up with him when he gets back. I can remove the wood myself, no charge.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Let’s call it a peace offering. I know we’ve had, uh, a few words since we’ve reconnected, but I think it would be mutually beneficial if we put that stuff behind us.” Nick lowered his voice and Zoey had to strain her ears to hear what he was staying. “This house is going to need a lot of work in the future and I’d like to be the one to do it.”
“So you’re bribing me?”
Nick chuckled in a way that made Zoey’s flesh crawl. “Let’s call it a favor. No strings attached. Trust me, you don’t want just anyone pulling up those boards. ’Cause if the wood gets cracked or chipped, it depreciates in value, big time.”
“Okay, I’ll consider selling the wood to your guy and letting you pull the boards up. But he has to make me an offer by Monday.”
“It’s a deal.”
Zoey felt sick to her stomach. She held her hand over her mouth, tripped up the stairs and raced down the hall to her room, where she flopped onto her bed.
Is Nick really so desperate to repay his debts that he’d behave in such an unconscionable manner?!she silently raged.How could he go behind Aunt Ivy’s back and propose a deal like that to Mark, especially after he claimed this wasn’t how he did business? And especially after I told him how much it would upset her if he started ripping the attic apart?
Nickknewhow precarious Ivy’s health already was, but clearly he didn’t care about that. All he cared about was how he could profit from her house. He was exactly like Mark: deceptive, self-serving and opportunistic. Only he was worse, because unlike Zoey’s cousin, Nick could sustain a really convincing Mr. Good Guy act. And against all of her better instincts, she had fallen for it.
He must think I am such a sucker, Zoey stewed.And maybe I have been. Maybe Aunt Ivy has been one, too. But as Aunt Sylvia once said, “Enough is enough.”
She didn’t know how—especially now that Mr. Witherell had died—but Zoey resolved that before Nick laid a finger on the attic or Mark laid claim to the house, she was going to do whatever it took to find out whether her cousin was truly a Winslow or not.
* * *
Although Ivy appeared somewhat more refreshed when she came into the kitchen late Wednesday morning, she complained of chest pain twice. Zoey again suggested they call the doctor or go to the ER, but her aunt refused. “I’m going to be at the hospital for hours tomorrow. If anything is wrong with me, they’ll find it then.”
Ifnothing happens to you before then, Zoey fretted. “But—”
“Zoey, you aren’t going to change my mind, so you need to change the subject,” her aunt stated firmly. “Let’s go into the living room and chat about something else.”
Once they were both settled and sipping their tea—iced, not hot—Zoey asked, “What did you think of thefacility?” She deliberately emphasized the clinical-sounding word.
“The residents were lovely and so was the staff. And the building overlooks the water. A pond, not the ocean, but it was pretty and they have a free shuttle to the public beach on the weekend. The food was decent, too. The chef caters meals to everyone’s tastes and medical requirements. But I’ll also have access to a kitchen if I want to make something myself.”
“What do you mean, ‘I’ll have access to a kitchen?’ It almost sounds as if you’ve made up your mind you want to move there.”
“Yes, dear, I’m leaning in that direction.”
Even though Zoey knew this was coming, hearing her aunt confirm it made her heart drop a beat.There’s still time for her to change her mind and there’s still time for me to get Mark to back off,she reminded herself.But how much time? “You wouldn’t move before September, would you?”
“No. There’s not an opening until then.”
Zoey relaxed her shoulders a little. “That’s good. By then you should have a better sense of how much the pacemaker is helping your energy levels and—”
“Zoey, even if I feel as energetic as I did when I was fifty, I’m still going to move into Waterside.”
So she’s not just “leaning in that direction”—she was just trying to break it to me gently,Zoey realized. “If it’s because there’s too much upkeep involved in taking care of a house this size, like I said, I’ll help you hire contractors—”
“That’s not it, either. And it’s not because of my memory. Or because of my forgetfulness, I should say.” Ivy chuckled at herself and set her glass on a coaster on the coffee table before growing somber. “It’s not even because I’m lonely for Sylvia, although not a day goes by when I don’t wish…”
Zoey leaned forward. “I know, Auntie. I wish the same thing about my sister, too.”
Ivy nodded, still not looking up until Moby paraded into the room and trilled at her and she allowed him to leap onto her lap.
