Return to the Beach House (37 page)
Read Return to the Beach House Online
Authors: Georgia Bockoven
“You’re insatiable.”
“I’m on my honeymoon.”
He took her hand. On her third finger was a plain, recycled platinum wedding band, one Lindsey had discovered in an eco-friendly jewelry store in New York. He wore a matching band, sized and polished and inscribed inside with the word
FOREVER
.
During the ceremony, when he put the ring on her finger, she’d leaned forward and whispered, “This does not mean I’m going to become a vegetarian.”
He’d winked and smiled slyly. “Should have made it part of the vows.”
The end of February arrived with a gentle breeze and a scattering of cotton-tufted clouds in an azure blue sky. For two weeks the single universal topic of conversation in the Santa Cruz area was the beautiful weather. Unspoken, but recognized by those who lived in a water-thirsty state, was the underlying feeling of guilt that permeated time spent enjoying the sunshine on the patios of restaurants and taking long bicycle rides along the shore.
More often than not, whenever the people who called the area home were outside, they sent quick glances to the horizon, looking for the gray that would indicate an incoming storm. As two weeks turned into three, they stopped talking about how lucky they were to live in such a mild climate and turned on the news each night for updates on the weather.
By the middle of March, water and fire districts were holding special meetings on how to deal with what they foresaw as an upcoming drought season.
And then the end of March arrived—not on slippered feet but in hobnailed boots. A storm that meteorologists had tracked and predicted would hit the Bay Area and bypass the area from Half Moon Bay to Monterey entirely, stalled offshore and then veered right.
Trees were uprooted, shingles stripped from rooftops, and streets flooded. Entire neighborhoods were isolated. People benefited from the generosity of those living around them or went hungry.
The beach house stood firm, protected by the original shutters that had been stripped and painted and reinforced during the refurbishing the year before. The walls withstood hits by a half dozen branches from a neighbor’s eucalyptus tree, but the flower garden lost most of the perennials.
Andrew and Grace took inventory as soon as there was a lull in the storm, checking for cracked windows and any leaks that might have developed around the chimney. It became a routine for them as storm after storm hit, all the way through April and into May.
A three-week break was followed by another round of storms, not as fierce as the first, but without even a day’s break to clean up.
Julia called several times, and Andrew reassured her that all was good with her beloved beach house.
What neither he nor Grace had been able to see was the cracked shingle near the valley in the roof that separated the kitchen from the living room. For three months water had been entering the crack and running along the support beam above the kitchen cupboards, dripping behind the drywall, saturating the insulation, and warping the plywood flooring under the travertine tile.
Grace discovered the hidden damage when she tried unsuccessfully to open one of the kitchen cupboards. She grew sick to her stomach the more deeply she looked and the more damage she discovered. For the rest of the afternoon she tried to convince herself that it would be better if her father called Julia to tell her what had happened. She was sure to have questions Grace couldn’t answer.
In reality, Grace couldn’t face Julia’s dismay—not so much because of what had happened to the house, but over her disappointment in Grace.
But she couldn’t do that to her father. This was her job. She’d received the paychecks. What had happened was her responsibility.
Thankfully, Julia was home when Grace called. It wasn’t a phone call she wanted to make twice.
“The whole back wall in the kitchen?” Julia said in response to Grace’s initial description of the damage.
“And the cupboards. I took out the dishes and put them in the dining room just in case.”
“Thank you,” Julia said. “And you’re sure it isn’t something that could be fixed easily?”
“I don’t think so,” Grace answered, a catch in her voice.
“Don’t do that,” Julia said. “Don’t you dare feel guilty over what happened. It wasn’t your fault. You can’t fix what you can’t see.”
“But I should have—”
“Okay, I’m going to tell you something that I don’t want you to tell another soul.” Julia paused. “Promise?”
Grace nodded and then realized Julia couldn’t see her. “Promise.”
“This whole thing happening the way it did is like some screwy gift that I didn’t deserve.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I hated that kitchen.”
Grace turned to look at the polished granite counters, the sleek walnut cupboards, and the stainless steel stove. “Me too,” she said, incredulous. “It doesn’t fit the house.”
“There was no way I could tear it out and start over once I realized what I’d done. I was afraid I was going to have to live with it for the next twenty years.”
Grace grinned. “Not anymore.”
A loud crashing sound came from the kitchen.
“What was that?” Julia asked.
Grace peered around the corner. “The cupboard over the stove.”
“Time for you to get out of there. Tell your dad that I’ll call him when he gets home from work.”
Julia sat at her desk for several minutes after reassuring Grace again that nothing she’d done or hadn’t done had caused the leak. Her hand still cradling the phone, she thought about the upcoming home show she’d seen advertised in the newspaper. It wasn’t often that second chances like this one came along, and it was hard to believe it was pure coincidence.
While she didn’t believe in ghosts or spirits—never had, never would—it was comforting to imagine Joe and Maggie having a hand in what had happened at the beach house.
Comforting was good.
She’d go with that.
 |
Meet Georgia Bockoven
G
EORGIA
B
OCKOVEN
is an award-winning author who began writing fiction after a successful career as a freelance journalist and photographer. Her books have sold more than three million copies worldwide. The mother of two, she resides in Northern California with her husband, John
Visit
www.AuthorTracker.com
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The Story Behind the Book
B
ETWEEN PHYSICAL
and mental research, I’ve spent a couple of years exploring the central California coastline for the Beach House Series. It finally reached the point where I could close my eyes and feel what it’s like to be there, even when I was baking in the unrelenting sunshine and heat of California’s Central Valley.
Which, I suppose, is why I’m so in love with this Beach House Series. It’s not only necessary to go back to the coast to do research for each new book, but it’s fun to explore a place I’ve been to a dozen times and search for a new way to see it. The Boardwalk in Santa Cruz looks entirely different when you’re sixteen than it does when you’re forty or sixty. And for someone who’s never been athletic—ME—it takes a lot of observation and thought, not to mention imagination, to describe what it’s like to surf.
With this book, there was yet another reason to go back a second time—to film a promotion piece for
Return to the Beach House
. I hope if you have a chance you’ll drop by my website, www.georgiabockoven.com, and take a look. You’ll recognize a lot of the places mentioned in the book, just not the beach house itself. I like leaving that to my imagination—and yours.
Happy reading!
Georgia
Reading Group Discussion Questions
1. What are your impressions of the book’s format? Did you like reading three completely different stories tied together by location and time?
2. Do you think that having each of the stories deal with a different form of life’s transitions works as a theme?
3. Andrew, Grace, and Rebecca are constants at the beach house who are directly tied to two of the three stories. Do you feel that their characters add continuity?
4. The beach house itself assumes the role of another character in the book. Do you get a sense of place when you read the stories, or would you have liked more description?
5. Do you have a favorite story among the three? Why?
6. The first story, about Christopher and his grandmother Alison, explores the impact of tragedy on people’s lives according to their age and circumstance. Whose reaction to the deaths of Dennis and Peter do you feel is the most compelling?
7. How do you imagine the relationship between Christopher and Grace will progress? Do you see Alison and Kyle being an influence in their future?