Page 58 of Ten Beach Road

“We came to see if you ladies would like to go out for a ride,” Jeff Hardin said. “We’ve got a picnic. We’re going to anchor off the beach over at Fort De Soto.”

“Oh.” Avery turned to Maddie and gave her a small shake of the head. “No,” she began just as Maddie said, “That sounds great.”

Avery raised an eyebrow her way, but for once Maddie didn’t care. It was a beautiful day and anything that might take her mind off of their predicament and the work still to be done was way too good to pass up. “Do you have room for all three of us?” Maddie asked. “Kyra’s inside.”

“Sure,” Jeff Hardin said. “Why don’t you get her and meet us over at the Cottage Inn dock? It’ll be easier to board there.”

Avery turned back to the Hardins. “Look, it’s really nice of you to ask, but . . .”

“What?” Chase asked. “Is there something in the monkey handbook about fraternizing with the boss?”

“You are so not the boss.” Avery’s chin went up a notch.

Chase folded his arms across his chest.

Good grief.Maddie felt as if she were in the middle of a Rock Hudson/Doris Day movie. “Children, children,” she said in her best “mother” voice. “It’s way too beautiful a day to be acting out some fifties battle of the sexes film.” She took Avery by the shoulders and turned her away from Chase. “Let me just get Kyra. We’ll meet you there in five minutes.”

Fifteen minutes later she sat next to Avery on the bow ofHard Case, their backs braced against the exterior wall of the cabin, her knees pulled to her chest, her bare feet flat on the deck. Warm salt air skimmed over her, whipping her T-shirt around her, as the boat sliced through the water. Occasionally she closed her eyes just to draw the fabulous feeling even deeper inside her. “God, I hate to sound like a cliché,” she said, “but this really is the life.”

Avery nodded. Her bikini top clung to her ample bosom, her legs, short but shapely, were stretched out in front of her and crossed at the ankles. She’d pulled her hair up into a high ponytail, but curly strands had pulled free and were streaming behind her with the wind.

“The Hardins have always had a boat,” she said, raising her voice just enough to be heard over the motor and the wind. “I used to love and hate going on it.”

Maddie considered Avery’s profile. The childlike freshness of her face belied the strength of her features and the determined set of her chin. When you added the curves and the bust and the short stature, it made it easy to dismiss that strength. She wondered how many men had made that mistake and how many ever even attempted to look beyond the pert good looks. Based on their roles onHammer and Nail, her husband hadn’t. And whoever produced the show certainly hadn’t bothered to present the real Avery, who was so much more than she’d seemed on TV.

“I’m getting the love part.” Maddie also raised her voice, knowing that nothing could be heard behind them. “I’d like to stay here and never go back to the real world. But why the hate?”

Avery tilted her head back and closed her eyes, and Maddie wasn’t sure she was going to answer.

“Did something happen between your families?”

“I think it was just the jealousy, you know?” Avery hesitated again, but Maddie waited her out.

“They seemed so complete. And my dad and I were so . . . not. I mean we loved each other and were always there for each other, you know.” She opened her eyes and turned to face Maddie. “I miss him like crazy. But I don’t think either of us ever really got over being abandoned. There was always this gaping hole that we didn’t know how to fill.”

“Your parents were divorced?”

“Oh, yeah.” Avery nodded, but turned her gaze back to the waterfront mansions that flew by, each with its yacht moored behind it. “Deirdre left when I was thirteen. Just decided she didn’t want to be a wife or a mother. I guess re-covering celebrity sofas was a nobler calling.” Her face was still as stone in stark contrast to her hair, which flew around it like snakes. “You know what I remember most about her leaving?”

Maddie waited.

“I got my period for the first time two days after she left. And I had to ask my dad to go to the store to get me sanitary napkins.” A sad smile played at the corner of her lips. “It was so pathetic. I can’t think about it to this day without picturing him in the drugstore trying to figure out what kind to buy.” All these years later and Avery’s voice was still thick with pain.

“Do you see her?”

“Not if I can help it.” Avery wrapped her arms around herself even though the wind that blew over them was warm as a caress. “Not that she ever beat my door down or anything. We went years without a word from her. And then her work started showing up in magazines and she was the go-to designer to the stars. Every once in a while she shows up and doesn’t understand why we can’t start over.” She drew her knees up to her chest and opened her arms to include them.

The boat slowed for a no-wake zone, and they passed Tierra Verde’s sprawling condos and headed directly toward the Skyway Bridge. Maddie sat up and turned to get a glimpse of Kyra, who sat next to Jeff Hardin, her head fallen back, a small smile on her lips. No one could love you or hurt you more than your mother. And Kyra was about to tackle that trickiest of jobs on her own.

“Did she ever tell you why?” Maddie asked, turning back.

“I don’t care why,” Avery replied. “You can’t just walk away from your own flesh and blood and then reappear and ask for a do-over. It doesn’t work that way.”

They rode in silence for a time, moving into the intracoastal waterway, the sun and water and steady roar of the boat’s powerful engine as soothing as a deep-tissue massage.

Then they were picking up speed again and running along the massive bridge. They passed a large island teeming with birds and the boat made a right and slowed slightly. Jet Skis skimmed by, buzzing around the larger boats like insects around livestock.

“There’s the fort!” one of the boys shouted as a long sliver of white beach appeared on their left, the ruins of a fort still standing off at one end.

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