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“I actually live in Groton,” he said. Which was only about fifteen minutes from Mystic. “My business is between my house and Mystic. I travel throughout the area. Nothing is really that far around here.”
“No,” she said. “I’m learning that. You said you didn’t move here when you left Long Island?”
The server came over and got their drink orders. They both got a beer. He figured she’d get some fancy drink or at least wine and found he was happy to be proven wrong.
She also said she was starving and they ordered loaded waffle fries while they looked at the menu. He was thrilled she was setting the pace so he wasn’t making any assumptions here either.
“Nope,” he said. “I’m sure you heard the rumors back then. My mother left my father.”
“I tried not to pay attention,” she said.
“Good. I’m glad. But not many felt that way.” He was happy to be starting over somewhere new where he could at least omit some things.
“That’s on them,” she said. “People divorce all the time.”
“Yeah,” he said. “But not everyone’s mother has an affair and gets knocked up by another man, then tries to pass it off as her husband’s.”
“Oh,” she said her mouth staying frozen on that syllable.
“Yeah. My younger brother, Blaze, came out with red hair. Kind of goes with his name. My father had dark brown hair like everyone else in the family.”
“It’s hard to hide it then,” she said.
“There was a lot of explaining to do. My father had been hearing rumors, but I think he didn’t want to believe them. Looking back, it wasn’t the first time, I’m sure.”
He’d heard the fights his parents had before then but tried to cover his ears.
His mother did a good job of tarnishing his father to him when she made him move. To the point he barely talked to his father at visits, but his father never gave him a hard time about it.
“That’s too bad,” she said. “That had to be hard.”
“It wasn’t easy. Blaze’s father didn’t last more than a few years and there have been several men after. My mother and I, we don’t have the best relationship now.”
“I think I’d struggle over that too,” she said. “So I’ve got to know, how did you end up here?”
This was where he had to be careful about what he said. He stuck with mostly the truth.
“My father got a job at Yale two years after my mother left. My grandparents lived close by and it worked out better. He wanted to go back home, I guess. I stayed with my grandparents more when I visited. My mother moved around some for a few years, but I was at least able to start and finish high school in the same place. Blaze is the one that has been uprooted the most.”
“I’d be so upset if I had to leave school at that age.”
“It’s hard to make new friends,” he said. “But the school I went to was big enough that no one thought much of it. It’s not like all the kids grew up together from kindergarten on.”
“That’s a benefit,” she said.
“Back to how I ended up here. My father bought a summer home here.”
“Has to be by the water,” she said. “If I was buying a summer home, I’d want it on the water.”
“Not directly on it but with a great view of it from the primary suite on the second floor,” he said. “It’s a block away, with neighboring houses facing the backyard.”
He wouldn’t add any more. The view he had from Baker Cove put his house over the million-dollar mark just from the location alone. That didn’t include the renovations and addition he did.
His twenty-five-hundred-square-foot house wasn’t anything over the top or special other than the location though. He’d converted the attic to a primary suite with a bath and sitting area, along with a balcony. He figured if he was close by, might as well have the view anytime he wanted without having to walk to the beach like his father used to do.
“I’d love that,” she said. “But renting is what I do. So your father had a summer place. Are you saying that is where you live now?”
“It is,” he said. “My father passed away five years ago. We hadn’t been close for a long time and were just reconnecting.”
