Page 10 of Kindred Lies
She barely got the word out when Cooper came running out of the house and stopped breathlessly in front of her. “Okay I'm ready to go. Uncle Nick, dad said to tell you that you should come back inside and rest. You just got out of the hospital and need to recuperate. It's bad enough you drove here and wouldn't allow him to pick you up.”
Nick grimaced at his words, but turned and walked inside. Amethyst couldn't help being overly curious about the man. He said she reminded him of someone. She wanted to know who that someone could be. Maybe she would have another mystery to solve during her visit to North Point. He seemed like a very lonely man. In some ways he reminded her of her mother. Lyoness had a similar expression of desperate isolation constantly on her face. She tried to hide it, but it remained in her eyes even as she smiled.
Nick rubbed his shoulder as pain filled his features. “I suppose I'll go back inside then. I don't want Roman to have another heart attack trying to get me settled in. It was nice meeting you Amethyst.” Nick slowly made his way up the stairs and shuffled his way inside.
Amethyst couldn't retain her curiosity. As soon as Nick walked through the front door she turned to Cooper to start getting information out of him. “He looks like he is in incredible pain. What happened to him?”
“I don't know exactly. All my dad would tell me was he got injured at work. I guess he had a lengthy stay in the hospital—not that we knew about it. Uncle Nick didn't say anything until he needed to. As long as I remember he has only come out here once a year. This is his vacation spot and I suppose now where he’ll be convalescing.”
“You introduced him as your Godfather… Why do you call him Uncle Nick?” That one boggled her the most and she wanted to understand.
Cooper shrugged his shoulders again. It was beginning to be a comfortable gesture that he made towards her or maybe he didn't know how to express the fact that he didn't actually have an answer to give her. “It's an honorary title. I've always called him that.”
Amethyst couldn't help asking, “But he isn't really your uncle?”
“Nope. He might as well be though. He's dad's best friend. They met a long time ago in the Navy.”
Amethyst had always been slightly jealous of people who had as many connections to other people as Cooper did. She didn’t even know her father's name let alone if he had any family. Her mother refused to talk about him. She kept saying he died and to leave it at that.
“That must be incredibly nice. I've don't have any family. It's always just been my mom and me. She can't handle staying in one place for long—it's a long story. I'm just used to new places because of it. I don't have a lot of friends either.”
Cooper turned to look at his house and then back at her. “It is nice to know I have them. It can also be a bit overwhelming at times. A lot of responsibility comes with family. They always have expectations and they can be hard to live up to.” He forced a smile on his face and grabbed her hand. “Come let's get going. I know you wanted to look at Marianne's journal. If we stand here all day you will never get a chance to look it over.”
“Yeah you're right.”
They started to stroll back to the inn. Cooper never let go of her hand and she found that she enjoyed it. Amethyst didn't allow anyone to truly get close to her so it gave her a new experience to ponder about later that night. Along with the mystery of Nicholas Drake and why he grilled her for information. She found she wanted to learn as much about him as possible. Something about him bothered her. His demeanor was entirely too harsh and at the same time…too familiar for her to leave it alone. She couldn't shake the feeling she knew him somehow.
