at first.” Sam lifted a metal basket of French fries from boiling fat, let it drain and set it under a warmer. “But careful. Man, the first time you made coffee, it was like you were measuring it for a science experiment.”
“So that’s where I learned to make coffee.” Hugh had startled his office staff one morning when he arrived early by taking care of that task for the first time. He’d been puzzled when he discovered that he knew instinctively what to do.
“After a while, you loosened up,” Sam said. “Cracked jokes. Sneaked in beer when we were working late. Talked me into driving all the way to San Diego to look at a panda in the zoo. You were the first guy I ever met who’s as crazy as I am.”
“Me?” Crazy was not an adjective anyone would apply to the cautious Hugh Menton.
Hugh had kept his nose to the grindstone through medical school, conscious of the need to live up to his legendary father’s reputation and to Andrew’s excellent record. Looking back, he supposed the other students had found his perfectionism annoying.
“I don’t suppose you’d consider coming back?” Sam asked wistfully. “Miguel’s a nice kid but he ought to go to college. Besides, he’s not very interesting to talk to.”
“I’m afraid I can’t,” Hugh said. “Although I appreciate the offer.”
“You’re really a doctor?” Sam persisted. “It’s not just some mail-order Ph.D.?”
“U.C.L.A. Medical School,” Hugh said. “With a residency in pediatrics.”
“How’d you end up as Joe Avery, anyway?” Sam asked.
Hugh explained about the capsized boat, Rick’s death and how he’d apparently washed ashore. “I suppose it happened right when the real Joe Avery fell off the pier,” he said.
“So he must be dead?” Sam asked.
“My brother says that, shortly after I disappeared, he was contacted about an unidentified drowning victim in Oceanside. Of course, it wasn’t me, and by then Joe was no longer considered missing. Yesterday, I called the police to suggest they compare the DNA to that of the real Joe Avery.”
“I’m glad. The guy deserves to rest in peace.” Sam removed some hamburger patties from a freezer.
Hugh’s original plan to view the town and slip away unnoticed would be impossible now that he’d been recognized. Besides, he was in no hurry to leave. “Is Meg working today?”
“Not till tonight. She took Dana to the community pool,” Sam said. “How are things between you two, anyway?”
“Unsettled.”
“Meg’s a good woman. You should…” The cook broke off as his wife thrust an order at him through the narrow aperture.
It was an informal setup, Hugh noted, based on his observation of coffee shops he’d patronized over the years. “You ought to enlarge that window and put in some warmers so you could set the trays there. Buy one of those round holders that she could clip the orders to.”
“Yeah, like you never said that before!” Sam shook his head. “I guess you don’t remember saying it, do you?”
“I’m afraid not,” Hugh said. “Whatever advice I gave you, I’m sure it was right on target.”
“Man, you haven’t changed! Still as cocky as ever.”
They grinned at each other. A strange but pleasant sensation rippled through Hugh. A sense of belonging.
He gave himself a mental shake. “I’d like to find Meg. Where’s the pool she took Dana to?”
“Go two blocks south and turn right on Arroyo Grande,” Sam said.
“Thanks.” A few minutes later, Hugh was on his way.
DANA HAD MADE a new friend in the wading pool, a little boy with a plastic boat. They spent half an hour pretend-racing it from side to side, weaving between the other children.
Meg sunbathed in her bikini. Although she occasionally greeted an old friend en route to the larger pool nearby, she felt very much alone. In the kiddie section, most of the moms were accompanied by their husbands, except for one young woman who’d come with her mother.
Keeping a cautious eye on Dana, Meg leaned back in the plastic lounge chair and imagined how Corinne O’Flaherty would have doted on a granddaughter.
Thinking of her mother was like picturing two entirely different people. One warm and loving, full of fun. The second alternating between deep depression and intense irritability.
Her father’s bouts with alcohol hadn’t made life any easier. Since his recovery, however, Meg had forgiven him and they’d grown close these last few years.
Tim refused even to speak to the man. He understood that their mother had been a victim of mental illness, but he couldn’t extend the same forgiveness to the father who’d abandoned them.
Meg wished Tim could find a woman to make him as happy as Joe Avery had made her. Once he was a father himself, maybe he would soften toward the man who now deeply regretted having failed them. She knew how much she’d matured after experiencing true intimacy with Joe.
Looking up, she squinted against the glare of sunlight. That man walking toward her sure did resemble her husband. It must be a trick of the light, or of her longing.
He had the same graceful stride, straight shoulders and strong arms. The same boyish crease in one cheek that, as always, set her heart pounding.
Despite his modesty, Joe had always had a magnetic presence, and now she noticed how women’s heads swiveled to follow him. With an electric jolt, Meg realized it was Hugh Menton.
She straightened on her chaise longue. “What are you doing here?”
He pulled over a plastic chair, checked to make sure it was dry and sat down. Although tailored slacks and a crisp short-sleeved shirt might seem overdressed at a pool, it was the other people who looked underdressed by comparison.
“I dropped by to see the town,” he said. “I thought it might jog some memories.”
“Remember anything yet?”
Instead of answering, Hugh glanced toward the wading pool. “I could spot Dana a mile away. That hair is amazing.”
As always, mention of her daughter made Meg smile. “She comes by it naturally.” She shook back her own frizzy cloud until it tickled her shoulders.
“So I see.” Hugh regarded her warmly. “I like your hair loose that way.”
His appreciation quivered through her. How like Joe to talk about her hair when she was sitting here in a bikini! Unlike most men, he was too much of a gentleman to comment on how the rest of her looked.
That didn’t mean he was unaware of her. Sensitized to him as always, Meg noted his speeded-up intake of breath. In response, heat thrilled through her.
She
