Fortunate Harbor by Emilie Richards Read Free Book Online Page A

another room one of the renters used as an office. Used to be a laundry room. Might be it’s big enough for a single bed for Lizzie. A lot bigger and nicer than anythingat the Driftwood Inn, anyway. Best of all, it’s not far from the water, and, well, there’s Olivia. Lizzie would already have a friend.”
    Dana wondered if prayers really could be answered. When she’d asked Wanda about houses on Palmetto Grove Key, she had not expected a hit. And not right there. Not just down the road from Wanda herself. For a moment she pondered this news, afraid to speak. Then reality intruded.
    “I…we don’t have much money. And we don’t travel with much in the way of furniture. I’m…I’m not sure we could swing this.”
    “There’s furniture there. Nothing to crow about, but sturdy enough. And I can tell you the rent’s probably cheaper than your motel. You’re paying, what? Three, maybe four hundred dollars a week? Tracy’d charge you less, I’m certain. And the last long-term renter, old man name of Herb, did a little handyman stuff to offset some of his rent. Maybe you could, too.”
    “I can paint, but I can’t repair much.” Dana glanced at Wanda. “I love to garden. I’m a whiz with a shovel. I could do some landscaping.”
    “I doubt Tracy would care whether anything was growing or the place was all gravel and sand, but you could ask.”
    “She really said we could look at it?”
    “Better than that. One of our neighbors, Janya Kapur, is having the whole gang over to dinner tomorrow night, and you and Lizzie are invited.”
    Lizzie arrived back at that moment and heard the invitation. “We’re going to somebody’s house for dinner?”
    “One of my neighbors,” Wanda told her. “And your friend Olivia will be there, too.”
    “Oh, wow! Can we go, Mommy?”
    “But this Janya doesn’t know us,” Dana said. “I mean, it seems awfully presumptuous.”
    “Not so much. See, we all got to be friends. I’m still not sure how it happened, but I think they’d all expect to meet you. Tracy and Janya and Alice—she’s Olivia’s grandmother. We’re what they call a community, and the last couple of renters didn’t fit in. Now that won’t stop Tracy, push comes to shove. She’s got to keep body and soul together, after all, and that rent helps. But she’s like the rest of us. Somebody who fits in would be best. I think you’d fit nicely.”
    Dana heard the subtext. If she passed this test, she would be allowed to rent the house, but she would also be expected to be part of their little circle.
    Dana made certain never to be part of anything . Yet how could she refuse? This gift was heaven-sent. And Lizzie? With a friend already in place? Her beloved daughter who had put up with so much, more than she would ever even remember?
    “You can come see the house and figure out if you like it enough to rent it. Then, either way, you can have dinner with us. I’m making pie. “
    Dana was trapped between logic and yearning. This was the kind of situation she stringently avoided, yet how could she say no? She didn’t believe in omens, but she suspected every blade of grass in Palmetto Grove was pointing toward the key.
    Palmetto Grove Key, where by now the ashes she had sprinkled in an overgrown cove at dusk last night had probably washed deeper into Little Palmetto Bay with the first high tide. Palmetto Grove Key, where once she had been happy.
    Gaylord clapped his hands to get everybody’s attention. Dana was surprised to see that the entire kitchen staff was there, as well. All shifts, all positions.
    “We have handouts,” Gaylord said, without preamble. “Rena will pass them out. I’ll explain as she does, so not to keep you later than we must.”
    Dana was watching Rena slouch along the front row, handing out sheets of paper, and she missed the next sentence.
    “What?” Wanda demanded. “You’re closing the Dancing Shrimp?”
    Dana put her hand on Wanda’s arm. “Is that what he