Whisper Beach by Shelley Noble Page A

We’re old friends.”
    â€œOh.” The girl visibly relaxed. “I’ll get her.” She practically ran for the kitchen.
    It seemed like ages before Dorie sauntered back out, wiping her hands on a white dish towel, and letting the door swing closed behind her.
    â€œWhat? You have a problem with my crab cakes?”
    â€œThey’re delicious as always.”
    â€œOh, for a minute I thought I had lost my touch.”
    â€œIs Van staying at your house?” There, he’d asked.
    â€œWho wants to know?”
    â€œCut it out, Dorie. It’s hard enough to ask without you giving me grief.”
    â€œHang on a second. I got to tell Cubby to watch the kitchen.” She flashed him a smile. “I’ll be back.”
    She was going to make this difficult. Joe guessed he deserved it. He hadn’t handled things very well—okay, he’d botched things—all those years ago. If he’d known things were so desperate, he would have asked Van to marry him. Live with him in Syracuse while he finished school and then come back to run the dairy farm.
    But it all blew up in his face. Van. The farm. Everything that mattered to him. He’d recovered from most of it. Instituted a plan to work what was left of the land. And if his mother was on him about grandchildren, hell, she already had a few and there was still plenty of time, if he could just find the right woman to share his life with.
    Dorie came back, sat down across from him. “Now where were we?”
    Joe sighed. “We were at the place where I asked about Van and you ran off to the kitchen.”
    â€œOh yeah.” She frowned, patted her hair, a newer, blonder version of her last trip to the salon. “Well, she came back for Clay’s funeral. Stayed over last night, then was going to see Gigi today. Noticed you weren’t at the funeral.”
    â€œVan did?”
    Dorie shrugged. “How should I know? I just know that I noticed that you weren’t there.”
    Joe huffed a sigh. “I had a job.”
    â€œAh.”
    â€œSo is she still here?”
    â€œShe better be. I told her she better not try to sneak off without saying good-bye.”
    â€œSo you don’t know if she’s planning to stay for a while?”
    â€œNope. Though I expect she won’t. She was on her way to Rehoboth Beach for a vacation.”
    â€œRehoboth? Why would she—” He caught himself. Of course she would never come back here for a vacation. He was surprised that she’d even come back for a funeral.
    â€œWhy don’t you call over to the house and ask her yourself?”
    â€œI don’t think so.”
    Dorie looked out the window and back at him, then jumped to her feet. “I gotta get back to work. I’ll tell her you asked about her.”
    â€œDorie, wait a minute.”
    â€œGotta go.” She didn’t even slow down, and before he could even consider going after her, she’d disappeared back into the kitchen.
    Well, now he knew. That would have to do. But it left him feelingdepressed. He finished his beer. Left a tip and carried his bill to the cashier.
    He was being stupid; he should at least make contact. Maybe they could be friends. But that was a joke. When he dreamed about women, they always were Van. Even when he was with women, he often was thinking about her.
    He was making way too much of Van’s return. It was probably from hanging out at Mike’s in the evenings. It was like stepping back in time. He’d grown up with half the guys who hung out there.
    And the women. It was kind of depressing. He’d be glad when Grandy was back to take over the marina and he could go home to the farm.
    He lifted a toothpick from the dispenser, nodded to the cashier, and paid his bill.

    â€œO VER THERE .” Suze pointed to a minuscule parking space near the Blue Crab.
    â€œI don’t know why we just didn’t park at Dorie’s and walk.