Maternal Harbor by Marie F. Martin

Author:Marie F. Martin [Martin, Marie F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Retail, Suspense, Thrillers
ISBN: 147927013X
Amazon: B0096VTEVK
Publisher: 4D Publishing Co
Published: 2013-11-07T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

Puzzled, Teagan hung up the phone. Doretta never said a word about a visit from an old friend. Nothing made sense. Hadn’t since Pai died.

The boys, swaddled in receiving blankets, lay on a quilt in the middle of her living room floor, nursing pacifiers, oblivious to everything, enjoying their own world. Levi squirmed, pushed his arm free of the blanket, and spit out the pacifier. Teagan reached down and tickled his chin. “You sound just like a piggy-wiggly.” Gathering him up from the blanket, she carried him into the kitchen, ran hot water over a bottle of Doretta’s breast milk and dribbled a few drops onto her wrist. “Perfection, Master Levi.”

He slurped at the milk as she wandered back into the living room to the beautiful oak rocker Mac bought after learning about the pregnancy. The graceful chair had been sitting on the windy pier beside some crates of fish. He called from the hull of his undulating trawler, “Best, to rock your baby slow and steady. Good for the digestion.” He belched and disappeared before she could thank him.

She yelled after him, “I will rock him my way!” Would he ever think she could do anything without him explaining how to? She carried the rocker to her pickup and kept it dusted and polished with loving care.

Rocking Levi at the speed of mild surf, she absent-mindedly moved him to her shoulder, when he spit out the bottle. She recalled how Mac had tried to talk her out of the fish business. They were standing on the dock by the hull of his trawler. The wind pushed against the water and them. She had been fourteen and confident about a dream of helping the small independent fishermen have a market that paid a fair price for their catches.

Mac leaned into the air currents, “Girl,” he had said. “Takes a lot of sacrifice to build a market and earn a living from it.”

The wind whipped her hair and she pulled the strands from her eyes. “I want to have a place to sell your catch. It isn’t fair big companies are forcing everyone to sell to them. Spencer and Eddy lost their boats because of it. And now I hear cruise ships are taking over the moorage.”

His eyes lit. “That’s exactly how I want you to deal with unfair. Instead of whining, do something. Seems you’ve learned that. Me and the mates aren’t going anywhere, so earn yourself a business degree, come back and open that shop. We’ll sell to ya.”

The clock on the mantel chimed at the half hour. Surprised, Teagan glanced at the time and muttered to Levi, “Your mother better hurry up.” She carried the full little body to the window to search the well-lit parking area for Doretta’s Toyota. She cupped her free hand around her eyes to deaden the reflection in the glass and scanned downward into the night for anything out of the ordinary. Dry leaves, caught in rough places on the carports, appeared like black holes in the shingles.

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