Driftwood Point by Mariah Stewart Read Free Book Online

and forth over a length of wood.
    Lis waited till the whining of the sander paused before saying, “That’s my great-uncle Eb’s boat.”
    Alec glanced over his shoulder and gave her a once-over, top to bottom. “Good to see you again, too, Lis.”
    He wore goggles upon which a layer of fine dust had accumulated. He wiped the lens with the bottom of his shirt and turned the sander back on. Lis waited for him to finish. When the machine finally went silent, Alec set it on the concrete floor.
    â€œSo what brings you to town?” he asked without turning around.
    â€œI want to know what’s going on,” she said, annoyed that he’d taken his time in turning off the sander.
    â€œIn St. Dennis?” He lifted the smooth board and turned to face her, his eyes still the cornflower blue she remembered. “Well, let’s see. The parade is on for Fourth of July, just like always. The annual gardentour starts in another week or so, I forget just when. I never did make it to that. But you know, you can pick up the latest St. Dennis Gazette and get the whole calendar of events from now right on through December. Grace Sinclair does a fine job tracking down everything that happens in town.”
    â€œYou know that isn’t what I meant.” She glared at him. “What’s going on with you and my great-grandma?”
    â€œWhat’s going on is that I’m helping her to stay in her home, keep her business going, without her ending up in the hospital with a broken hip or worse or inviting a lawsuit from someone who trips over those loose floorboards in the store.”
    â€œI didn’t notice any loose floorboards.”
    â€œThat’s because I nailed them down.”
    â€œHow did you talk her into letting you do everything you’re doing?”
    â€œMaybe you should be asking her that.”
    â€œI already did.”
    â€œAnd . . . ?”
    â€œAnd her answer wasn’t really an answer. I want to know how it came about and how much it’s costing her.”
    â€œDon’t you think that’s her business? Hers and mine?”
    â€œNot if she can’t afford it.”
    â€œShe can afford it. That all?”
    â€œNo. I don’t get it. Owen and I both have tried for years to get her to make some changes in the place but she wouldn’t hear of it. Now I come home and there’s a whole new living space . . .”
    â€œNo way a hundred-year-old lady should be climbing stairs a couple of times a day.”
    â€œ. . . a new kitchen . . .”
    â€œOld stove was about to set the place on fire.”
    â€œ. . . new bathroom . . .”
    â€œShe couldn’t get in and out of that old tub without falling. One of these days she was bound to break something and that would’a been the end of her and the Cannonball Island General Store would have been closed for good. No way was that going to happen.”
    â€œ. . . a new back porch . . .”
    â€œOh, now, that was a necessity. That thing was headed south in the next big storm. Scared the life out of me to just walk past whenever a big wind kicked up.” He nodded, his hands on his hips. “Yeah, replacing that was the first thing that had to happen.”
    â€œHow did you talk her into it?” Lis was all out of patience.
    â€œWell, since you’re all hell-bent to know and you somehow feel you’re entitled—I didn’t ask her. I just started to work on it. She stuck her head out the back door, and I said, ‘Miz Ruby, I’m fixing this old ramshackle porch of yours before it falls down on someone. So if you hear some noise out back, it’s just me and my hammer. With your permission, of course.’ ”
    â€œAnd just like that she said okay?”
    â€œNo, she said, ‘Go on, then, boy.’ Took me a couple of weeks, but once it was done, she liked