Prince, began to bark incessantly. Telling Prince to stop barking, Mary opened her sliding glass door to go back into the house. It was around four o’clock in the afternoon, and Mary was expecting her friend, Lucy Robinson, to stop by and visit a while before her five o’clock waitress shift began at the Surf Restaurant. Lucy was twenty-five, two inches shorter than Mary, with dirty-blonde hair, blue eyes and a vivacious personality. Lucy was engaged to Logan White, aged thirty, a computer programmer who worked at Digital Imaging on the island.
Calling out, “Come on in, the door’s unlocked,” Mary stopped walking towards the door when she saw John W. Fielding, III standing in her doorway with a slight smile on his face.
Shocked, but trying to gain her composure, Mary said, “Oh, it’s you. I was expecting you to be my friend, Lucy.”
Looking more amused, John replied, “I was driving around on the island and saw a car in the driveway of the address you gave me, so I thought I would stop and look at your property. You said to ‘come in’ so I did.”
Mary stammered, “Yes, I guess I did.”
John replied, “Is this a bad time to view your property? You didn’t say you had other plans when I talked to you earlier today. If this is inconvenient for you, I can come back when it is more convenient.”
Mary gained her composure and said, “Sure. I have time to show you my property.”
Prince went over and leaned against John’s leg. John bent down and automatically began patting the dog as if he and Prince had been good buddies and this was a normal greeting between them. Mary told Prince to go lie down by his favorite place near the fireplace, and then she took John on a tour of her home.
The home was built in 1992. John liked the spaciousness of the 4 bedrooms upstairs, each with its own bathroom. Two of the bedrooms had an ocean view, and each bedroom had a sliding glass door leading to a verandah that wrapped around the entire house. The master bedroom was downstairs. It had a sliding glass door that opened up to a small deck with an ocean view. The kitchen had a gas stove and a large island with four barstools surrounding it. The counters had been updated with granite counter tops. The house was on the ocean, and at high tide, the water stopped approximately one hundred and fifty feet from the house.
“The house has been appraised for 1.2 million dollars, which is what I would like to get for it. I haven’t listed it, yet, with a real estate broker, so that is my going price.”
John replied, “I think that is reasonable. I can pay you 1.2 million dollars. How soon would you be able to move out?”
Mary almost gasped, and could not believe she had a buyer this quickly, and someone who was willing to pay the price she quoted, especially since the house was not listed on the real estate market. “It will probably take me a couple of weeks. I’ll need to box up my belongings, put some things in storage, find a place to rent, and get furniture moved.”
John answered, “That will work for me. If you need to get in touch with me, I will be temporarily staying at the Ritz Carlton on Amelia Island. We can close this deal then in two weeks.”
Mary called her attorney to make sure they could close in two weeks. Her attorney told her there would be no problem, since this was a cash deal, and that closing would take place in his office. John and Mary exchanged lawyer’s names. As John was leaving, Lucy’s car pulled up in front of the driveway.
“Who was that gorgeous “hunk” driving the Lexus?” Lucy asked.
Mary replied, “That, my dear, was John W. Fielding from Boston, Massachusetts who just bought my house.”
Surprised, but excited, Lucy exclaimed, “You’re kidding! You actually sold your house today? You sold your house to him? You’ll have to tell me all about this guy. Is he married?”
Mary answered, “You know, I never asked. I didn’t see a ring, but that doesn’t mean anything. A lot of men do not wear wedding rings.”
Chapter Four
Mary, Lucy, and Lucy’s fiancé, Logan, celebrated the sale of the house the next evening at the Le Clos Restaurant, a quaint French restaurant in the downtown area of Fernandina Beach. They had just been seated, when Mary looked up over her menu and spotted John Fielding smiling and staring at her. This had to be fate. He was seated two tables away. Lucy also saw him and suggested that they invite John to sit at their table.
At first, Mary was hesitant to ask him to join them because they really didn’t know him, and she didn’t want anything to jeopardize the sale of her home. But with coaxing from Lucy and Logan assuring her it would be a great idea to get to know the new owner of Mary’s home, she relented. Mary went over to John’s table and asked John if he would like to join them and he said, “Yes.”
The four of them got along well at the restaurant telling jokes, laughing, and having a good time. Mary found out that John was thirty-three, he was single, and that he owned several different electronic franchises, as well as several shopping malls located in Boston. He became interested in buying a place on Amelia Island, Florida because of his deceased uncle’s exploits sailing down the Eastern coastline from Boston to Miami and his frequent stops at Fernandina Beach, Florida.
When dessert was ordered, John asked Mary, Lucy, and Logan if they would like to go boating the next Sunday. John told them he had bought a seventy-foot yacht that day and that it was moored at the dock in front of Bret’s Restaurant. The weather report indicated that no rain was predicted for Sunday, so they could leave between noon and 12:30 in case anyone wanted to attend church.
Mary said, “I would love to go, providing Prince can tag along, too.”
John replied, “That would be fine. He’s a retriever, so he’ll enjoy the water and the boat ride. Besides, I think he likes me.”
Mary smiled. “Yes. He is not always so friendly to most people he just meets.” Lucy and Logan laughed. Lucy said, “This is true! You should have seen what happened the first time Logan met Prince. At Mary’s Halloween party, Logan came dressed up as a pirate with a patch over his eye. Logan yelled, ‘ARG’ real loudly behind Mary. Mary screamed, spilling her drink, and Prince ran from his favorite spot by the fireplace and took a lunge for Logan. Prince has now accepted Logan as friendly, but it took a lot of dog treats before he made this decision.”
More amicable chatter followed. When it was time to leave, Mark, Lucy and Logan all agreed upon what food and drinks to bring with them on the boat ride. The three of them were looking forward to seeing John and his new boat in front of Bret’s Restaurant the next Sunday between noon and 12:30.
Chapter Five
John was leaning against the piling nearest his boat on the dock wearing white shorts, a blue polo shirt, a white cap with a blue marlin on it, and white dockside shoes. Mary, Lucy, and Logan and Prince arrived together. The three friends were also dressed in shorts and beach attire and wore caps on their heads. Prince immediately ran to John to receive his obligatory pat on the head. Mary could only ogle at how handsome he looked. For a “dit-dot,” he looked like he fit right in among the native fisherman along the docks.
John also had a beautiful boat, or rather, yacht. It was the largest boat she had personally seen in her life! Before now, the largest boat she had ever gone out on was a nineteen-foot speed boat. John’s boat was luxurious. The upper deck’s bow contained a captain’s chamber with two white leather captain’s chairs, a teak steering
