Spindrift by Phyllis A. Whitney

Author:Phyllis A. Whitney
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media Romance
Published: 2017-08-10T04:00:00+00:00

10

For a moment I stood on the veranda watching the lone figure down by the wall, strengthening my resolve and my courage. What I had to do would not be easy. Then as I watched, I saw him climb the wall and knew I had better hurry if I was to catch him.

Outdoors, though the sun was dipping down the sky, the day was still bright and warm with Indian summer. The breeze from the sea had not yet turned chilly as it would when the shadows fell. As I ran across the lawn, Joel disappeared and I knew he must be climbing down the rocks beyond the Cliff Walk.

As I went over the low wall I saw in surprise where he must be going. A boatshed was built out into the little sandy cove below the rocks, with a path carved down to it, and Joel, who would have nothing to do with boats since his sister and brother had died, was following the path to the shed.

Spindrift kept a speedboat down there that Hal had liked to use, and when I reached the boatshed behind Joel, I saw that it had not yet been put away for the winter. The boat bore Spindrift’s name and it floated between two docking platforms inside the shed.

Joel still did not know I was back of him when he stepped down into the cockpit and slipped behind the wheel. He had already untied the boat from the dock and he was clearly going to take it out. I moved quickly, stepping down into the seat beside him.

“Do you mind if I come with you?” I said.

He showed no astonishment at finding me there, but seemed indifferent, and I hid my own alarm. Joel had been afraid of the water ever since the accident, and I didn’t know why he was taking the boat out. But I asked no questions and he offered no explanations. For a moment we sat there in silence and there was no sound in the boatshed except for the gurgling of water in the slip and the rush of the ocean over the rocks outside. By this time the sun was slanting behind us into the west and the shadows were dark under the shed roof, with only the opening to the sea a square of sunlight ahead. It was cold here in the shade and I wished for a jacket. Joel wore only a sweater with a rolled neck, but he didn’t look cold.

Now that I was here I didn’t know what to do. This hardly seemed the moment for the sort of talk I wanted. The man beside me seemed impossibly remote. The Joel I had been thinking of, wanting to return to, was another man—far removed from this quiet stranger.

“Is anything wrong?” I asked, making at least a beginning. The words echoed in the hollow shed and I was sorry that I’d spoken.

He did not answer but reached for the switch, and suddenly the motor roared into life.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.