“This one needs to be chopped up.”
“Thanks.” She stepped back and smiled. It about knocked him over.
“Where are you staying?” And when was she leaving? He pulled on the cord to start the machine. It roared to life.
“At my grandmother’s cottage.”
Theo gripped the handle tighter and pushed the spinning chain through the center of the wood. Cottage? Hardly what he’d call the four-bedroom ocean front house her grandmother had lived in. It had remained empty all these years. Not that he’d admit to driving past on occasion. It was his job to keep an eye on the park. The cottage in Seal Harbor wasn’t precisely on park land, but it was close.
The buzzing of the chainsaw drowned out any other conversation. He didn’t want to sit and chat with her, but he was curious what she’d been doing for the past four years.
Once the large branch was in smaller pieces, Theo tipped his head and jogged down the path toward another volunteer. The floral scent of Chelsea alone was doing his head in. He’d never make it.
Chelsea Woodridge pulled the cap off her water bottle and took a long swig. She’d forgotten how much hard work cleaning up the pond was, but it felt amazing. Being back here on Mount Desert Island had lifted her spirits. Even seeing Theo again, and his constantly scowling face, hadn’t dampened her excitement.
What in the world was he still doing here? The Park Ranger job was supposed to have been a steppingstone to getting into the FBI’s Environmental Crimes unit. It’s what he had wanted and talked so much about. Why hadn’t that happened?
And why had he changed his mind aboutthem? Had he only married her so they could have sex? That didn’t make any sense. There had been plenty of other girls hanging around him that summer who would have been thrilled to jump in and provide the service.
Turning back to the path, her head started to swim, and she stumbled. A nearby volunteer, a blonde woman perhaps in her forties, caught her arm.
“Are you okay?”
Chelsea propped herself up against a tree and nodded. “Yeah, a little dizzy. Must have moved too fast.”
“Have you eaten at all today? We’ve been at this since early morning. I don’t remember seeing you stop for lunch.”
Because she hadn’t brought a lunch. It was stupid, but her grandmother’s cottage—her cottage now—wasn’t in the best shape, since no one had been there for ages. The electricity hadn’t even been turned back on yet.
“I had a small pastry this morning with some tea. I didn’t want to be late, so I guess I forgot the lunch thing. I brought water and made sure to drink it.”
“Here. Have some crackers and cheese,” the woman offered. “My name is Kelly, and this is my partner, Tammi.” She pointed to another woman with short, curly brown hair.
Tipping her head at the two women, Chelsea took the offered food and nibbled. Ever since her father had died of a heart attack a few weeks ago, her stomach had been off. But then she’d also been off her medication. Should she go back on? No. For the first time in she couldn’t remember how many years, she finally had a clear mind. It was confused about so many things but didn’t feel cloudy, and her body didn’t feel sluggish. She did need to remember to eat better.
“Thank you. That must have been it. I’m Chelsea.”
“Have you been here before?” Tammi dragged the rake through some of the undergrowth.
“I used to come up here every summer to stay with my grandmother, but she passed away five years ago.” No need to go into the details of her relationship with Theo. Apparently, he didn’t want to rehash anything. He’d been avoiding her today. How could she have been so wrong about him?
After taking another sip of her water, she resumed clearing the debris from around the planks. Kelly and Tammi stayed close by. To make sure she didn’t pass out? That was sweet but probably unnecessary. She needed to start taking care of herself. She’d been under her father’s thumb for too long.
“We own a little sandwich shop, The Brown Bag Cafe, in downtown Bar Harbor,” Kelly said as she took a small hatchet and chopped up some of the larger branches into kindling-size pieces. “Since it’s still early for tourists, we don’t fully staff it every day, but you make sure to stop in and get some food. We can even pack it in a cooler for you if you don’t have a fridge to store it.”
“I will. Not sure how much of anything works in my grandmother’s cottage. I only arrived yesterday.” And she’d slept in a sleeping bag on top of the bed she’d used as a child.
Tammi pulled a card from her bag and slipped it into Chelsea’s back pocket. “Our cell number is on the back. You need to find someone to help with any work, call us. We know lots of people on the island.”
They spent the rest of the afternoon chatting while they worked. Theo checked on them occasionally but did most of the chainsaw work that was needed. As he tromped past a few times and talked to Kelly or Tammi, she had an opportunity to look at him.
His hair was a little longer than he’d worn it before and curled a bit on the ends. It was still that beautiful dark color with some lighter highlights at the temples. A few more laugh lines surrounded his chocolate brown eyes, but his face was as handsome as ever. And he’d bulked up since she’d last seen him. All the hiking and trailblazing he did on the job?
His thirtieth birthday would have been a few months ago. What had he done to celebrate? Did he have anyone special in his life? No way someone like him had stayed single. She automatically touched the ring under her glove, on the third finger of her left hand. Why had she continued to wear it once they weren’t together? The last few years were so blurry, she didn’t even know how long she’d been married to him. Her father had never mentioned the divorce, or if he had, she didn’t remember. But he always took care of every little aspect of her life. He must have taken care of that, too.
She didn’t even remember telling him about getting married. He’d known about Theo, for sure, as she recalled how mad he’d been when she’d wanted to go back to Maine and all the stuff he’d bought to make her feel better when Theo had told her not to come back. That it had simply been a summer fling and a mistake.
It hadn’t felt like a mistake. It had felt perfect. But her judgment wasn’t always on target, and she had to live with that fact.
