Halloween Hijinks (A Zoe Donovan Mystery Book 1) (5 page)

After winning what was at the time a
n extremely messy lawsuit, the farmers forced the opening of the dam and the water level decreased dramatically, effectively relocating the boathouse a good twenty feet from the natural waterline. Several years ago I asked my mom if it would be possible for me to convert the abandoned structure and, surprisingly, my grandfather not only agreed but offered to pay for the renovation as well. Charlie and I have been living there ever since.

I love my home
. I mean, I really, really love it. It’s weathered and unconventional, with a large living area, a small loft bedroom, and a modern yet cozy kitchen. The entire wall facing the lake has been replaced with glass to give the space an open, airy feel. Off the front of the boathouse is a large deck, where I love to while away a summer afternoon or entertain guests. The little cove the boathouse is built on is isolated from the main residential section of the lake, so when you’re sitting on the deck it feels like you have the entire lake to yourself.

My dad’s contribution to the remodel
was a fantastic floor-to-ceiling river-rock fireplace built with stones he personally selected. The fireplace is built on the east wall of the structure, while the wall of windows faces south. Charlie and I adore curling by an inviting fire to watch the storms roll in over the distant mountain summit. Being warm and cozy inside while a storm rages outside gives us a feeling of comfort and contentment beyond description.

T
oday was sunny and not stormy, however, so I opted to forgo an indoor fire in favor of a fire in the pit on the beach that Levi helped me build two summers ago. After igniting the logs, I lit the charcoal for the BBQ, mixed up the first batch of frozen drinks, and settled onto one of the lounge chairs on the deck, waiting for my guests to arrive. Most evenings, if the wind is calm and the air warm, I kayak around my little cove and watch it get dark as the animals that live in the forest scurry into their shelters and homes.

Ellie
was the first to show up. After pouring herself a margarita, she joined Charlie and me on the deck. “Fantastic weather for October,” she commented as she twisted her straight brown hair into a knot and secured it on the back of her head with a clip. “In fact, it’s actually a bit on the warm side, but I hear there’s a storm blowing in by the end of next week.” Her brown eyes danced with enthusiasm. “We might even get snow on the mountain. Is Levi going to show?”

“Yeah,
but he might be late.”

“It’s been a tough week,” Ellie sympathized.

“Did you hear about the incident with the Beavers’ coach?” I asked.

“No
. What happened?”

I fill
ed Ellie in on everything my dad had shared with me. I could see the light fade from Ellie’s eyes as I told her about Coach Griswold’s vow to have Levi fired.

“We should talk to him,” Ellie s
aid.

“
We might just make him madder. Maybe a night free of football is a better approach. Perhaps it would be best to talk about something else entirely.”

“It’ll come up,” Ellie pointed out.

“Yeah, I guess. But we should try not to be preachy. Levi hates that.”

Twenty minutes later, Levi showed up, with Zak and Lambda in tow. I wasn’t thrilled about the extra guest but decided not to make an issue of it; apparently Levi and Zak had renewed their friendship, and it had never been a problem in the past to bring a friend or two along for Hump Day wind downs. Besides, I was thrilled to see Lambda, who ran over to greet me as soon as his feet hit the ground.

“I r
an into Zak and invited him along.” Levi handed me a large butcher-wrapped package. “I figured you had enough food for one more, but I brought a couple of extra steaks just in case.”

“I’ll take those,” Ellie volunteered, hugging both men and inviting them in to make drink
s.

Levi and Ellie played with the dogs on the beach while I began mixing another pitcher of drinks
, and Zak took over the grilling of the steaks.

“It l
ooks like Lambda is happy to be home,” I commented as we watched the dogs running up and down the beach, chasing the balls Levi and Ellie were throwing.

“Yeah, t
he traveling was hard on him. I think we’re going to settle down and stay home for a while. I heard your grandfather’s estate is for sale. I thought I might look into buying it.”

The estate Zak was referring to was located just around
the bend, where the cove I live on opens up to the rest of the lake. By highway the two properties are separated by a good quarter mile, but the distance by beach is barely a hop, a skip, and a jump.

Zak and me neighbors? The idea didn’t thrill me. Still, Zak was better than some unknown millionaire who could close off access to the lake, as some isolationists were known to do.

“The l
ast time I talked to my mom she said my grandfather was thinking of selling, but I didn’t realize he had actually listed it.”

“He hasn’t
. At least not officially,” Zak explained. “Your dad told me that he was thinking of selling, so I called and talked to him about it.”

“My dad knew he wanted to sell?
” This surprised me; my dad and my grandfather never talked to each other. I mean
ever
.

“
Your mom mentioned it to him.”

“My mom?
” I wasn’t aware that my mom and dad even acknowledged each other’s existence on the planet. My mom certainly never mentioned my dad to me during our infrequent visits, and I was obsessively careful never to mention his name to her. Likewise, my dad and I never talked about Mom or her family in even the most casual way.

“I g
uess they had dinner or something. Anyway, the mansion is just sitting vacant, and I figured it’d be a lot quicker and easier to buy it than to start from scratch with new construction. I’m meeting with your grandfather’s representative tomorrow to take a tour and discuss a deal. If it all works out, we could be neighbors by the time the first snow falls.”

“Dinner?” I have to confess I had stopped listening the minute Zak mentioned that my parents had had dinner together.

“Come again?”

“You said my parents had dinner,” I emphasized.

“That’s what your dad told me
. Try to keep up,” Zak teased. “Did you hear anything else I said?”

“My mother
, Madison Montgomery, had dinner with my father, Hank Donovan?” No matter how many times I said it, I was having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea.

“I guess
. So?”

“And he thought to mention it to you, but even though I saw him just this afternoon, he failed to mention it to me?”

“I’m sure it was no big deal. It just came up in conversation.”

“No big deal
? Are you kidding me?” I screeched.

As far as I kn
ew, my mom and dad hadn’t spoken since the day my mom left me with my dad. Even visitation with my mom was arranged through one of my grandfather’s flunkies. I thought about the plans my dad had for Monday night and wondered if they were with my mom. The very idea that they were seeing one another totally blew my mind. Though they had been in love once. I supposed it wasn’t inconceivable that the long-dormant flame could have reignited if they had happened to run into one another.

“I don’t know all the details,” Zak explained
. “I stopped to talk to your dad while I was picking up supplies to clean up the field. I mentioned that I was thinking about finding a lakefront I could move into right away rather than waiting for one to be built. He mentioned that he’d run into your mom, who mentioned that your grandfather was thinking about selling. That’s all I know. I swear.”

“I thought my mom was in Europe
. She’s engaged to some prince or sheikh or something.”

“
She changed her mind.” Zak shrugged. “Your dad said she decided that marriage to a prince wasn’t really for her. She rented a cottage on the beach.”

“My mother is living in Ashton Falls?
” I knew my voice sounded all high and squeaky, but I found Zak’s news simply unbelievable. Why hadn’t she gotten hold of me? Why hadn’t my dad told me she was back? Why had she rented a cottage when a perfectly good house had been standing totally empty for years at a time? And why did Zak know so much about what was going on in her life while I, her one and only daughter, was completely in the dark? I knew if I didn’t get a grip, big baby tears were going to trickle down my face, and there was no way I was giving Zak the satisfaction of seeing me cry. My mom and I weren’t super close, but still…

“She probably just
wanted to get settled in before she called you.” Zak didn’t sound convincing, but he topped off my drink and turned his back to flip the steaks. “These are about done. Why don’t you call the others and I’ll get the salad and bread?”

Once everything was set out, we gathered around the large pine table in the far corner of the deck and chatted about a little of this and a little of that as we ate. Maybe it was the margaritas, but it seemed like Zak was going out of his way to be sweet and funny, and his sugar and nice wasn’t annoying me nearly as much as it usually did. Besides, Zak’s endless string of jokes and funny stories had both Levi and Ellie in stitches, and it did my heart good to see my two very best friends so happy and relaxed.

By the time we
finished eating the sun was setting behind the distant mountain. Ellie and I cleared the dishes and put away the food while Levi and Zak threw a few more logs on the fire in the pit on the beach. The dogs, exhausted from their earlier romp, curled up for a nap while Levi sat on a log strumming his guitar and Ellie and I talked about the upcoming community picnic. Zak was unusually quiet, and I couldn’t help but wonder what was on his mind.

As the hours passed and the air grew cold
, we gathered our belongings and headed inside. I halfheartedly offered coffee, but what I really wanted was to put on my pj’s and curl up with my thoughts. Luckily, my guests feigned fatigue, leaving me alone to process what Zak had shared.

I snuggled into the sofa in front of the fireplace and tried to wrap my head around the fact that m
y mom was not only back from Europe but had been living in the same town as me and no one, including my dad, whom up until a few hours ago I believed kept no secrets, had bothered to tell me. The whole thing made no sense.

My dad and mom met
one summer while she was “roughing it” with her family at the lake house. I think it’s important to understand that my mother is from money. A lot of it. And we aren’t talking crisp, new, technology-generated riches; we’re talking about an old and dusty fortune as tarnished and moldy as the outdated aristocrats who own it. My mother, who had been brought up in the midst of coming out parties, afternoon teas, world travel, country clubs, and private schools, was eighteen and going through what can only be termed a rebellious phase when my handsome, rugged father wandered into her life.

According to my father’s admittedly embellished account
, he’d been trolling the lake for fish when he’d seen the most breathtaking image on the beach, silhouetted by the setting sun. He told me that he knew in an instant that the vision in white was his one and only true love; the mother of his child; the master of his destiny. Sound a bit fantastic? You bet, but my father is a romantic, and I think he really did love her in that moment. He claims he tossed his anchor, dove overboard, and swam to shore, where he lifted her petite form into his large arms and kissed her like something out of a steamy romance novel. My mother apparently was both impressed and intrigued by his bold move, and I was born ten months later.

Although my father’s telling of his first meeting with my mother seems
more like a fantasy than a realistic rendition of an actual encounter, I completely believe the next part, where my uptight and stodgy grandparents found out that my mother was pregnant and shipped her off to an “aunt’s” where I quietly, under the shroud of absolute secrecy, was delivered into the world. My grandparents wanted an anonymous adoption, but my dad fought hard and convinced them that he would raise me in isolation from the judgmental eyes of their aristocratic friends.

I don’t remember a lot about the first four years of my life
, but I do know that other than those first few days I had no contact with my mother whatsoever. Then, for reasons unbeknownst to me, when I was four my mother’s maternal instinct kicked in and my father was notified through my grandfather’s representative that my mother wanted to set up a visit. My father agreed, and I was escorted to a huge and intimidating estate, where I cowered in the closet in spite of my mother’s clumsy attempt to parent me, until someone took mercy on me and returned me to my dad, the only parent I’d ever known.

The strange thing is
, this truly horrifying experience planted a seed deep within my heart that germinated and grew into a desire that, I have to admit, I’ve never completely overcome. Until that point I’d never thought much about my family structure. I knew I had a dad while other kids had both a dad and a mom, but I’d never stopped to consider an alternative until I learned that I actually
did
have a mother, as scary as she might be. My idea flourished into a wish, which became an obsession. Every night before bed I uttered a prayer that always ended with “please bring me a mom who loves me and a brother or sister to play with.” Eventually I met Levi and Ellie, and the brother or sister part seemed less urgent, but a mother? I guess in many ways I’m still waiting.