Page 14 of Harbor Lights (Inishderry Island Romances #3)

NINE

Con couldn’t hide her joy at the sound of footsteps coming up the side of the house. It could only be Shiv, since she had no appointments for another hour.

“Hi, Shiv.” She swung open the door before Shiv had even come up the path. “Good to see you. Would you like a cup of tea?”

Calm down. Let the poor woman actually get in the door.

Shiv smiled a wide and open smile that reached her amber eyes.

“Hey there.” She slung her work bags down inside the porch. “Do you have any coffee?”

Con nodded. She’d forced herself to switch to tea to help with her hot flashes, and Tierney, the only other coffee drinker she knew, had avoided caffeine during her pregnancy, and never really took it up again. So, Con’s coffee caddy had sadly been relegated to the back of the pantry.

“I might need to grind some more beans.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m good with my water.” Shiv held up a bottle large enough to serve as a weight in a punishing gym class.

Con pushed away the disappointment that arose from not getting a few minutes to chat with Shiv over a hot drink.

“Do you want to show me some of the other work you need doing, or will I just get on with finishing the door?”

The pleasure of spending time with Shiv was tempered by the embarrassment of revealing the sorry condition of her house. “I’ll show you the problem areas if you like. Then you can fit jobs around the other work you get.”

Shiv nodded and she swung open the front door. “We may as well start with the obvious.” She stepped out into the garden. “You’ve made a wonderful start with the path, but the whole garden needs taming.”

Shiv led Con to the back of the house where two levels of lawn were overgrown and filled with weeds. “It looks like someone used to tend these lawns. I’m guessing that wasn’t you?” Her mouth quirked in a little smile and, to her surprise, Con’s lips responded in kind.

“No, not really. I helped out a little, and after Majella left…” Her lips tightened. “I paid one of the locals to keep the grass cut. But it got mossy and full of weeds, so now I just get him in to hack it back every few months.”

Shiv stepped onto the grass and picked at it with the toe of her work boot. “What’s your vision?”

“What?” Her mind went blank.

When Shiv held out a hand, Con took it in surprise. Shiv gently led her across the lawn and up crumbling steps to an old stone bench, half hidden by the undergrowth. She’d almost forgotten it was there, but it had been one of her favorite places to sit as a child.

She unwillingly let go of Shiv’s hand, turned to sit, ignoring the ominous wobble of the stone, and looked out over the top of the house and the wild garden, to the view across the sound to Inishderry, and to its right the sliver of Inishkyle, its silver beach shining in the low sun. “I’d forgotten about this view.”

“It’s kinda hard to get up here at the moment. Is it something you want to keep?”

She was aware Shiv was watching her and not the view. “I think it is. It’s not the sunniest place in the garden, but sometimes it’s nice to rise above it all.”

Shiv sat so close, their thighs touched. “Do you mind if I make a suggestion?”

“Of course.” She waved a hand to hide her fluster at Shiv’s closeness. “I’m not very creative when it comes to seeing the potential in things.”

“Keep this small lawn up here. I’ll rake the grass and get the moss out and reseed it.

The rest”—she waved at the mess below them—“I’d say remove the grass and turn it into a wildflower meadow.

It’ll take a while to get going, but it’ll attract the wildlife.

I’ll find someone local who knows what they’re doing to keep on top of the maintenance long term. ”

Constance’s heart sank. Who was she kidding? Shiv had never made any suggestion she was here to settle. It should hardly come as a shock. But the last couple of weeks had been such a breath of fresh air in her life. She didn’t want to go back to before...

She abruptly stood. “That sounds perfect. Shall I show you the internal work?” She hurried back down the garden, leaving Shiv still sitting on the bench.

She’d caught up by the time Con got to the house and they entered together.

“Are you okay with all of this?”

It was freaking her out that Shiv might guess what she was thinking. “Of course. This work needs doing so badly. You’re really helping me out.”

Shiv followed her into her consult room.

“So, this would need doing out of surgery hours, but it needs a coat of paint.”

Shiv looked around. “How about some new drapes, too?”

The ones she had now were sun bleached and threadbare. She’d grown blind to how bad things had got, but Shiv was right.

“Okay, if you’re happy to choose something suitable.”

Shiv had turned to the wall with her father’s old writing bureau. Above it was the glass shelf she used for her pieces of sea glass.

“Hey, I nearly forgot.” Shiv rummaged in the pocket of her cargo pants and pulled out something blue. “I found this on the beach yesterday. I saw your collection…”—she nodded toward the shelf—“and I wondered if you’d want it.”

Her pale cheeks colored slightly as Con processed what she was saying. “It doesn’t matter, if you don’t want it.” She started to put it back in her pocket.

Con shook herself. Shiv’s observant gesture had taken her by surprise. If she was honest, it was such a solitary pastime she’d rarely spoken about it to anyone.

“That’s so thoughtful of you, Shiv. Thank you so much.” She took the object and pulled on her glasses to look closer. “Oh, it’s beautiful.”

The glass was blue, but in shades that went from light to dark to lighter again. And it was shaped like a heart.

“Thank you.” She resisted the urge to throw her arms around Shiv, which was probably for the best since she looked as though she was about to bolt. She rearranged the other pieces and placed it on the shelf in pride of place.

“Has it been a hobby for long?” Shiv asked.

“For the past few years. After I gave up rowing, I found I wasn’t getting enough exercise, so I started going for daily walks along the local beach. It’s a beautiful, long beach, but finding my first piece of sea glass made it a little more exciting. I’m kind of hooked now.”

“I get it.” Shiv nodded. “Spotting that piece, and then seeing its beauty, was pretty cool.”

Warmth spread through Con at Shiv’s appreciation of her hobby. She liked that, despite being so different, they had common ground.

“Come on, let’s see the rest of the house,” Con said, to redirect her thoughts.

She led Shiv through the rest of the ground floor, pointing out jobs, while Shiv made suggestions about how she could tackle them, and took notes on a pad.

When they’d finished on a long list of kitchen repairs, Shiv closed her book.

“I’ll draw you up a list of prices and you can prioritize what you want me to do first. Does that sound okay?

” She tucked her pen in the top pocket of her shirt.

“And now I’m gonna get that front door sanded down and painted. ”

“Thanks. I have a few evening patients, then I’ll be done about seven. Will you let me cook you dinner afterwards?”

Shiv blinked, then nodded. “Yeah, I’d like that. Thanks.”

When she turned away to her equipment and started to prepare for the work, Con left her to it. She went to her consult room to prepare for her next patient. Maura had gone home hours ago, so she’d need to make sure she had the right notes up on her screen.

The appointments went quickly, and Con acknowledged the frisson of anticipation at spending the evening with Shiv.

She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt that way.

It would’ve been with Majella back in the early days.

More than thirty years ago. How had she robbed herself of this feeling for so long?

The spark of potential that could lead to paradise.

What the hell am I thinking? Shiv was a patient, and someone she was paying to be here.

Not to mention their age difference. There was no way Shiv was looking forward to eating together like she was.

In fact, she’d paused long enough to make Con think she only accepted the offer out of politeness.

But a convenient hot meal instead of trying to cook in a half-renovated cabin was more likely her motivation.

She’d better prepare something quickly. She opened the refrigerator door and stared at the array of vegetables.

After Shiv’s previous comment, she’d gone overboard on stocking up, but the truth was she barely knew what to do with any of it.

She’d been able to blame Majella’s passion for cooking for so many years, but what about the last decade?

It was ridiculous to be fifty-six and not know how to cook a meal.

Trying not to panic, she checked the time.

She had barely an hour until Shiv needed to be on the last ferry.

Why hadn’t she thought it through? She could’ve thrown a bunch of ingredients into the slow cooker, or better still, asked Maura for help.

Think, think. Omelet! She breathed a sigh of relief. It ticked all the boxes: quick, vegetarian, nutritious, and even she shouldn’t be able to mess it up. She pulled out the tray of eggs and every vegetable she thought she could get away with adding and got to work chopping and whisking.

“Front door’s done.”

Con narrowly avoided chopping off her own thumb as she looked up with a start.

“Sorry, I should’ve knocked.” Shiv stood, thumbs tucked in her waistband, her signature white tank top smeared with a little purple paint, and Con’s heart skipped. To distract herself, she wondered if Shiv had a number of these shirts or if she was just really good at getting out stains.

“Of course not.” She regained the use of language. “I hadn’t realized how immersive prepping veg can be.”

“I hope you’ve not gone to too much trouble. I’m a pretty simple eater.”