Cottage by the Sea

  Using her navigational guide, Annie found the Hoffert home about a mile off the beach. Knowing Britt didn’t drive and had the early shift at Bean There, she suspected the teen either walked into town or caught a ride with Jimmy, who seemed to care about her.

  Annie parked on the curb by the tilting fence. The lawn was overgrown and filled with weeds. Flowerbeds were nonexistent. The house was small; the outside paint looked like it might have been a light shade of yellow at one time but had since faded to a patchy, bleached white. The roof was covered with a blue plastic tarp.

  “Dr. Annie, Dr. Annie!” Logan called out, racing his bicycle toward her, his thin legs pumping with all his strength.

  “Hi, Logan.” She didn’t bother to explain that she wasn’t an actual doctor. “How’s your arm doing? You missed coming back to see me.”

  “I know. But I’m good.” He proudly displayed his red cast. “It doesn’t even hurt anymore. It itches, though.”

  Annie smiled. “There are ways to help that.”

  “I know. Mom gave me a chopstick to scratch with and that works.”

  The screen door opened, and Britt stepped onto the porch. Her gaze went from her brother to Annie and then back again.

  “Hi, Britt,” Annie said. “I hope I haven’t come at a bad time. I wanted to check to see how Logan’s doing.”

  She crossed her arms over her stomach. “I told you this morning that he’s doing great.”

  “He missed his appointment.”

  “Dad said I didn’t need to go back because it would only cost more money.”

  “I wish you’d said something. The money isn’t an issue.”

  Britt continued to stare at Annie in the most unwelcoming way. Annie straightened. “I came for another reason, too.”

  “Oh?”

  “I heard your mom cleans homes and I was hoping to talk to her.”

  Britt looked back over her shoulder. “Mom’s busy right now. You could talk to her next week…”

  “Mom’s home,” Logan disputed. “She said she wanted to meet Dr. Annie to thank her. Remember, Britt? You heard her.”

  “It won’t take more than a few minutes,” Annie promised, ignoring the nonverbal message Britt sent her younger brother. “Britt,” she repeated, when the teenager didn’t answer. “I’d like to meet your mother.”

  A tall, slender woman came out of the house and joined her daughter on the porch. She had a dishcloth slung over her shoulder; her look was weary.

  “I’m sorry to disturb you, Mrs. Hoffert,” Annie said, stepping toward the gate leading to the steps into the house.

  “Mom, this is Annie Marlow,” Britt gestured toward Annie. “She’s the one I was telling you about who fixed Logan’s arm.”

  The woman’s face showed immediate gratitude. “You’re Dr. Annie, from the clinic.”

  “That’s me, but I’m a physician assistant, not a medical doctor.”

  “Thank you for everything you did for my son. And, please, call me Teresa.” The woman smiled shyly.

  “Annie needs a housekeeper,” Logan said, kicking over his bike and running to the porch to join his mother and sister. “Dad said you needed to clean more houses.”

  “How often would you need me?” Teresa asked, bringing Logan close to her side.

  Britt defiantly shook her head. “Mom, no,” she insisted, and then sent a pleading look to Annie and said, “Mom can’t clean any more houses. She’s works all the time as it is.”

  Teresa pretended her daughter hadn’t spoken and repeated her earlier question. “How many times a week are you thinking?”

  “Mom,” Britt protested. It looked like she was about to pull her mother back into the house.

  As Britt’s mother had done, Annie disregarded her complaints. “Just one day a week. Once every other week would work, too. I live in the cottage on Seaside Lane.”

  “Mom…”

  Teresa studied Britt, and it seemed she was about to give in.

  Losing interest in the conversation, Logan yawned and looked longingly toward his bike.

  Annie didn’t want to lose this opportunity, so, thinking quickly, she blurted out, “I’ll pay you double your going rate.”

  Teresa’s eyes shot back to her. She bit into her lower lip. “Double?”

  Annie assured her she would. “From what I heard, you’re worth it.”

  “Does it matter what day?” Teresa asked.

  Annie shook her head. “Whenever you can fit me in would be great.”

  “Mom,” Britt said under her breath. “You work every day already. You can’t take on another house, even if it’s only part-time.”

  Logan disagreed. “But Dad said—”

  Britt cut him off with a fierce glare.

  “How about Monday afternoons?” Teresa asked.

  “That would be perfect.” It didn’t escape Annie’s notice that Teresa and Britt stood on the porch while she was on the other side of the fence.

  “Thank you.”

  For the first time Teresa appeared to notice they had been virtually shouting across the yard. “Forgive my manners,” she said as she opened the screen door. “Please come inside for coffee or tea. I’ve been thoughtless and rude.”

  “But…Dad?” Britt whispered, barely loud enough for Annie to make out the words.

  “Unfortunately, my husband is out for the afternoon,” Teresa explained, glaring at her daughter. Annie had the impression the information was more for Britt’s sake than for her own. In other words, Carl Hoffert wouldn’t be back anytime soon.

  Logan skipped down the porch steps and opened the gate for her. “It’s a little tricky,” he said, as the gate scraped the broken concrete sidewalk, swinging inward.

  Taking Annie’s hand, he proudly led her to the house. “Watch out for the second step,” he warned. “There’s a weak spot.”

  Annie followed his advice. The inside of the house was what she had expected. The walls needed painting and the floors were cracked and badly worn, and yet, from what she could see, it was meticulously clean. Annie was certain Teresa had done everything within her power to make a good home for her children.

  Annie followed Britt and her mother into the kitchen. “Britt,” she said, hoping she wasn’t being too obvious, “is that a bruise on your wrist?”

  The teenager glared at her and didn’t answer.

  “Please sit,” Teresa said, pulling out a chair at the kitchen table. “Would you like coffee or tea?”

  “Either is fine,” Annie said, hiding her disappointment that Carl was away. The entire purpose of her visit had been to meet the man she suspected of abusing his family.

  Thirty minutes later, the two women were at the table talking when the door opened and Carl Hoffert staggered in. Discomfort filled Teresa’s eyes when her husband entered the kitchen.

  “Carl,” she said cautiously, “we have company. This is Annie. She’s come to inquire about me cleaning for her.”

  He immediately looked at Annie and grinned appreciatively. “Don’t often have visitors.”

  Annie forced a smile.

  Bracing his hands against the back of a chair to steady himself, Carl narrowed his gaze on her, suspecting something was amiss. “Do I know you?” he asked. “You ever been to The Pirate’s Den?”

  “No, I can’t say that I have.” She’d heard of it, though. The tavern was in the roughest part of town, where she’d been warned not to go alone. “I’m looking to hire your wife. I met your son and heard about his accident,” she said, playing it cool, unwilling to give herself away.

  Carl’s expression hardened. “A broken arm. That’s a crock of—”

  “Carl, don’t get all worked up about it,” Teresa said, sending an apologetic look Annie’s way.

  “Damn busybodies.”

&nbs
p; “Carl, please,” Teresa whispered, sounding almost desperate.

  Her husband refused to listen. “The boy’s mother is turning him into a spoiled brat. No way was Logan’s arm broken. Britt should never have taken him to that clinic. We don’t have that kind of money to be wasting on foolishness.”

  Annie noticed he seemed to have all the funds necessary to buy booze, but he was unwilling to allow his son the proper medical treatment. She didn’t dare mention it, but the thought went through her head at lightning speed.

  Sipping her coffee, she focused her attention on Carl. “How did Logan hurt his arm?”

  “Fell out of bed,” Carl said, without a moment’s hesitation. “Damn boy is clumsy.”

  Just as she suspected, the story of the bike accident was as bogus as Carl’s version.

  “Given a day or two, he would have been right as rain. The boy’s nothing more than a sissy. Time for him to man up. No need to rush him to that clinic.”

  “I’m sorry you feel that way, Mr. Hoffert. Logan’s arm was broken. I can show you the x-ray if you like.” The minute the words were out of her mouth, Annie recognized her mistake.

  “You from that clinic?” he demanded.

  Annie couldn’t lie. “Yes. I was the PA who saw Logan.”

  Right away Carl stiffened, and his eyes narrowed to thin slits. “What the hell are you doing in my house?”

  Teresa moved closer to Annie. “I invited her in, Carl.”

  “I know why you’re here,” he snapped, ignoring his wife. “You’re looking to make more trouble for me. You take me for a fool? You’re the one who sent those people from the state to check on me.” His gaze narrowed and focused on Annie. His anger seemed to be brewing, and Annie feared it would soon reach the boiling point.

  “Annie came to hire me and check on Logan,” Teresa explained, keeping her voice calm, although Annie heard the slight tremble.

  “Like hell she did.”

  Teresa slowly released her breath. “We’ll talk about it later, Carl.”

  Carl looked at his wife, his eyes flashing fire. “No way did this busybody come to hire you. She came looking for trouble. Well, I have news for you. The guy the state sent is an old school friend of mine. Harvey knows me from way back and he let it slide.”

  Teresa looked even more stunned. “Someone was here from the state?”

  That explained what had happened and why Carl hadn’t been charged. Annie’s shoulders sagged. “I apologize for any trouble I caused,” she said to Teresa and Britt. They both knew she wasn’t referring to her phone call to the state. “I think it might be best if I left now.”

  “Damn straight you’re leaving. Get the hell out of my house and don’t come back.” Carl Hoffert walked over to the door and held it open for her.

  “Carl. Stop,” Teresa demanded, although it did no good.

  His head swerved toward his wife, his eyes narrowing menacingly. “I’d think by now you’d know better than to talk back to me, woman.”

  Annie could see that Teresa wasn’t backing down. She feared that the minute she left, Teresa and the kids would pay the price for her visit, and she couldn’t allow that to happen. The last thing she wanted was to be responsible for more harm done to this family.

  “I need to explain something,” Annie said calmly, hoping to smooth matters over. “Because I work at the clinic, I am obligated by law to report any suspicious injuries to Child Protective Services.”

  Her words fell like stones dropped from a ten-story building, landing with a violent crash.

  “I told you to get out of my house,” Carl shouted a second time. Grabbing hold of Annie’s shoulder, he shoved her forward, his grip hard and tight. Annie knew she would have bruises to show for the rough treatment.

  “Carl, don’t!” Teresa screamed. “Leave her alone. Or do you intend to hurt her, too?”

  “Shut up. You’re to have nothing more to do with this troublemaker, understand?”

  Teresa cast an apologetic look at Annie. “I’m so sorry my husband—”

  “Are you apologizing to her because of me?” Carl demanded.

  “You’re being belligerent and rude.”

  “She deserves it,” he shouted, and then whirled around and faced Annie. “Get out,” he bellowed, “before I make you sorry you ever showed your face on my property.”

  Britt appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, her face tight with embarrassment and pain. “Go,” she whispered urgently.

  Heeding the teenager’s words, Annie walked onto the porch but turned to face Carl Hoffert. “I’ll leave, but I want you to know I will report any suspicious injuries to the sheriff.” That was all she could do at this point.

  Carl snickered, finding her threat little more than a joke.

  Annie walked back to her car and was shocked when Carl followed her outside. Standing on his porch, he pointed at her.

  “You want to make trouble for me? You don’t know what trouble is. If I were you, I’d watch my back.”

  CHAPTER 15

  When she returned to the cottage, Annie found a starfish on her porch.

  Keaton again.

  Bending down, she reached for it and held it close to her heart. Finding the starfish helped ease the unpleasantness of her encounter with Carl Hoffert. She’d never meant for her visit to go to such ugly extremes. Even now, Annie trembled in the aftermath of Carl’s anger. Her biggest concern was that by confronting him, she’d done more harm than good. The thought of what Carl might do upset her so much that her hand tightened around the starfish to the point of pain.

  Once inside the house, Annie set the starfish in the round bowl with the small collection of seashells she’d found on her walks, along with the ones Keaton had left for her. Regrets weighed down her shoulders. If the social worker who’d made the visit knew Carl, then he was likely to believe his story. She’d wondered what had gone wrong after the reassurances she’d received from CPS, and now she knew.

  Collapsing onto the sofa, she grabbed her phone and reached out to her cousin. Gabby was her best friend and the person she most often spoke to when upset.

  Gabby answered almost immediately. “Annie, I was just thinking about you—I hope you’re calling to tell me you’re coming to visit. I miss you, girlfriend!”

  “No…I had a rough afternoon and needed to hear a friendly voice.”

  “What’s going on?” Gabby asked.

  Annie told her, condensing the story as much as she could, explaining her fears without using any names.

  When she finished, Gabby was quiet. “What about you, Annie? He threatened you.”

  She hadn’t taken Carl seriously. “Don’t worry. I told him plain as day I would report him to the sheriff, and I meant it.”

  “Annie,” Gabby said and groaned. “He could hurt you.”

  “He wouldn’t dare. Besides, I took a self-defense class a few years back, remember?”

  “The key words in that statement are ‘a few years back.’ ”

  “I’ll be fine.” Maybe she should be concerned, but she didn’t believe Carl Hoffert would try anything. Perhaps she was being foolish, but deep down she believed the man was too much of a coward to attack her.

  “I’d feel better if you came to Seattle for a couple days.”

  “Gabs, I can’t. I need to be at the clinic on Monday morning. Stop fretting. I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”

  “I’ll come to you, then.”

  “Gabby, no. I’m okay, really. I needed to vent, and I feel better already.”

  She felt her cousin’s hesitation. “You’d better call me every day for a week.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because I’ll worry unless you do.”

  Annie laughed.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “I
call, text, or email you nearly every day as it is.”

  Gabby laughed, too. “Okay, so you do. But I want a phone call. Otherwise I’m packing up my car and heading your way. Deal?”

  “Deal,” Annie agreed.

  The mood lightened. “I’m surprised, you know. You’re really enjoying living on the beach in your little cottage by the sea.”

  “I’m loving it.”

  “You haven’t mentioned meeting any cute, shirtless guys playing volleyball.”

  “Not yet. Give it a month or two and the beach will be full of guys eager to show off their athletic skills.” Not that Annie would be interested, although Gabby might.

  “Anyone I should know about?”

  She wanted to tell Gabby more about Keaton. She’d talked about him plenty in past conversations. She looked toward the starfish, sea glass, and other small gifts he’d left for her and her heart swelled. There’d been a subtle shift in their relationship since they’d kissed. Well, perhaps it hadn’t been that subtle. He already occupied a good deal of her life, and…

  “Annie?” Gabby said, breaking into her thoughts. “You’re not saying anything, which tells me you’re holding out on me. Start talking.”

  “It’s Keaton.”

  “The guy who doesn’t speak?”

  “He talks plenty, but only when he starts getting comfortable around a person. He’s a man of few words until then,” Annie explained. “I’m serious, Gabby. I really like him. He’s kind and caring and…”

  “You’re describing a Saint Bernard.”

  Annie laughed. “Wait until you meet him, and then you’ll know what I mean. I think the reason I’m not afraid of Carl Hoffert is because I have Keaton in my life. He’d never let anything happen to me.”

  “I like him already. If you’re that into him, then I don’t need to know anything more about him.”

  They talked for another thirty minutes, and by the time Annie was off the phone she felt worlds better.