Still Water by Stuart Harrison Read Free Book Online Page A

when she was young. She didn’t even own her first dress until she was sixteen, and she followed her father around everywhere, right from when she could first walk. Pestered him to take her on his boat. He pretended that she was a nuisance, but secretly he loved it. She could strip an engine by the time she was fourteen and she knew the waters around the island as well as anybody.”
    Ella reached over and covered her mother’s hand with her own, and for a second the two women shared something that Matt was excluded from. Some deep bond that existed only for them. He sensed that it went far beyond the normal mother-daughter relationship. The moment passed and Ella rose.
    “Let’s eat,” she said.
    Over supper they talked about the island. Helena related how she’d come there as a young woman to marry Ella’s father. Briefly they touched on the election, Helena glowing with pride as she contemplated the idea of her daughter becoming the next mayor. At the mention of Howard’s name she waved a hand in dismissal.
    “I remember when he came home from college, that was before his father died. Howard always had a look on his face like he’d sucked on a lemon,” she laughed. “He doesn’t care about the island.”
    She asked Matt a little about himself and he told her that he was divorced and had a son, that his parents still lived in Boston, and that his father was retired now. Ella knew he’d been married, though he hadn’t told her much beyond the fact that Kirstin had left him and had remarried.
    “Ella tells me that you were a prosecutor in Boston?” Helena asked.
    “Yes.”
    “And so what brings you here to the island? You can tell me I’m a nosy old woman if you like.”
    Matt smiled. He wasn’t sure he could have explained all of his reasons easily, so he kept it general. “I just decided I needed a change from the kind of life I was living. I always loved this place when we came here when I was a kid.” He didn’t want to get into the sense of failure his wrecked marriage had engendered, the fact he’d worked so hard that he had a son he barely knew.
    “You had a brother didn’t you?” Ella said.
    “Yes, Paulie,” Matt said cautiously. “He was a couple of years older than me. He died, when I was still in law school.”
    “I’m sorry.” Ella shook her head. “I remember him. He was so full of life.”
    “That was Paulie. He did everything at a run. Seemed like he had enough energy to take on the world.” He faltered, unsure whether he wanted to go into what had happened, but it was something he knew he had to get to grips with. He felt like his brother’s death had plagued his life, and he ought to get used to confronting it. It was partly the reason he’d chosen to move to St. George.
    “Paulie was just starting out as an architect when he was killed. It was one of those dumb, pointless things that happen. He walked into a grocery store one morning during a robbery. The guy with the gun was high on something and he panicked and Paulie got shot.”
    Helena’s eyes widened. “That’s terrible. And your poor parents.”
    “It was pretty tough,” Matt admitted. “My folks took it hard.” He picked up his glass, suddenly keen to change the subject. “But it was a long time ago, and it shouldn’t spoil such a terrific meal. To the cook.” He raised his glass, and Ella smiled, though the way she scrutinized him he didn’t think she was fooled by his pretence at being unaffected.
    After the meal Matt helped clear away the table, and then Helena made her excuses and went to bed early. “I get so tired these days. I hope we meet again.”
    “I hope so too.”
    Ella went to see that she was all right, and when she came back she closed the passage door.
    “I like her,” Matt said. “How did I do?”
    “We don’t make snap judgments in this family. But I guess you did okay.”
    Over coffee they talked, discovering a little more about each other. Matt told her about his ex-wife