The plans for the retirement community and the ones he’d done for Nick in the past didn’t matter so much. Tony had copies of all the plans for the retirement community, and most of the plans he’d done for Nick had already been built. The homes for Dead Man’s Point had not only not been built, he didn’t have copies of the plans or the sketches. All those nights he’d stayed up working, and the work was gone. The plans for his studio were still with the county pending approval, but the plans for the house he intended to share with Jenna and their children, the home of his dreams, was gone.
The thought of starting over, of re-creating the plans and sketches, overwhelmed him. Nick had other potential buyers who were interested in the development at Dead Man’s Point, and they had nothing to show them.
Nick came over an hour later, and Katie showed him her new kitten. As soon as Katie left the room, Nick jabbed a finger at Al. “If I have to buy Sophie a kitten, I’m blaming it on you.”
“They have plenty at the Humane Society.”
“You don’t understand. If I get her a kitten, Max will want a puppy, and then Johnny will want something. It never ends, and somebody has to housebreak all these furry little creatures.”
Al sat beside Nick at the kitchen table and sipped the ice tea Ma had made them. “Katie lost her favorite kitty in the fire, and there’s another one at the emergency clinic. His ears are singed and the pads of his feet are so raw and blistered he can barely walk.”
Ma called Al to the phone. “It’s the doctor at the vet clinic.”
By the time the doctor outlined all the medical problems, Al knew the cat wouldn’t make it. He’d not only been burned in the fire, he had a large abdominal tumor that was most likely cancerous. “Put him out of his misery.” Mattie had killed three of her cats, and this one had suffered long enough.
He glanced over at Jenna, nearly bald, her blue eyes huge. “Albert?”
He nodded. Bandit alone had survived the fire, probably because Al had tossed him outside before the smoke killed him.
Jenna drifted into his arms. He didn’t want the cats in the first place, but he didn’t want them to suffer and die, especially after Katie had gotten so attached to them.
“The kitten will help.” Jenna kissed him. “Thanks for taking care of it, Alessandro.”
After Jenna went into the bedroom with Katie, Nick handed Al a folder. “One of the buyers returned the plans, said he changed his mind about Dead Man’s Point. Seems his wife is afraid the crazy old woman who died there will haunt them.”
“Aw, shit.” If she felt that way, others would, too. Al wasn’t so sure it wouldn’t happen. A man was found dead on the beach a hundred years ago, Mattie had killed Charlie, and now Mattie was dead. Dead Man’s Point had earned its name.
“We’ll clean it up, trim the burned trees back, and get the utilities and road in. By the time we get done, you won’t be able to tell where the inn was.”
“What about the other buyers?”
“I haven’t talked to them since the fire.”
Al drummed his fingers on the table. “Are you sure you want to go ahead with the sale?”
“I’m sure. If we don’t sell anything until next year, so be it. It’s still a beautiful piece of property. We’ll get our money out of it sooner or later.”
What Nick said made sense, but Al wasn’t so sure. “We can delay—”
“No, we can’t,” said Nick. “We sign the papers tomorrow. Two o’clock. Gerry’s office.”
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Jenna picked out a floppy blue hat to wear to her follow-up appointment with the doctor. The nurse removed row after row of stitches from Jenna’s head. Jenna counted for awhile and lost count at eighty. No wonder they cut her blood-soaked hair off at the hospital. It must have been a connect-the-dots project.
Alessandro sat beside the exam table, his hand on her leg. One especially tender spot made her eyes water, but she assured him that she was okay. “Some of them sting, but I’m glad to get them out.”
At last it was over, and Jenna breathed a sigh of relief. If it didn’t scar too much and her hair grew back, no one would ever know that someone had tried to kill her.
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Two days later, Angelo arrived with his barber’s kit. “I know your hair is already shorter than you want, but I thought we might be able to even it out some.”
He worked carefully, avoiding the sore spots on her scalp. As he trimmed, he said, “You have a nice shaped head, and short hair shows off your pretty long neck.”
Angelo’s compliments warmed her, and Alessandro’s teasing about her not being able to look like a guy even if she was bald made her laugh.
Angelo said, “Al, I’m buying myself a new pickup. Teresa says we need an extended cab, so we have room for the baby seats.”
“How much you want for the old one?”
“Nothing from family.”
Alessandro nodded. “Thanks, Angelo. I’ll make good use of it.”
Watching the two brothers together, Jenna felt cheated. Angelo and Alessandro were obviously close, as she and her brother might have been if only she’d known about him. She didn’t want her daughter to grow up alone, with no one else in the family but her mother and her kitties. The baby she’d carried until recently was gone, but the doctor said there was no permanent damage. She and Alessandro could make other babies.
If he still wanted her.
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The following week, Alessandro had his new computer hooked up in his mother’s basement rec room and he started re-creating the plans for the project at Dead Man’s Point. Jenna saw the frustration in his eyes and in his movements. He’d lost his life’s work, and now he had to create his latest plans all over again.
Jenna chose a red flowered hat to go with her new navy blue slacks and white shirt that Cara had bought her. She used Alessandro’s pickup to drive Katie to her first day at pre-school. Sophie was already there, and the two girls grinned at each other. It was a small, exclusive school that Cara had recommended, and it wasn’t any more expensive than the pre-school Katie had attended in Seattle. Brian was paying child support again, so they could afford it.
Seeing Katie in the hospital and hearing her struggle to breathe had made Brian a believer. He’d finally stood up to his father, and Jenna was proud of him. He’d never be the kind of man Alessandro was, but he’d made a giant step in the right direction.
Jenna went back to work for Cara. Cara was starting to show, and seeing her with her swollen belly reminded Jenna of the baby she and Alessandro would never have. It still hurt, but it was a part of life, something she had to accept.
She took her hat off and showed Cara the new hairdo. “I told Alessandro I looked like a boy, and he laughed at me.”
“Nick cut at least two feet off my hair before he could get me out from under the rubble of the cabin I’d been living in. The earthquake destroyed it. It was a bad time for me, like this is a bad time for you, but we’re strong women, survivors.”
She’d never thought of herself as a strong woman, but Cara was right. She had to be strong to survive her childhood, strong to get herself through college with very little help, strong to have a baby and nurture her child by herself, strong to stand up to Brian’s father, and strong to survive the fire and the loss of her baby. Only this time she didn’t have to do it alone. Alessandro’s love made everything easier.
She still hadn’t told him she loved him. With everything that had happened, her emotions were still raw, and she wanted to be sure he hadn’t said the words because she was carrying his baby before she made a commitment to him. They’d have to talk about their feelings after she healed and they put this ordeal behind them.
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Sophia put dinner on the table. Jenna had picked up Mattie’s ashes from the funeral home that afternoon, and she and Alessandro were talking about what to do with them. They had the ashes from the cats, too.
Jenna asked Sophia what she’d do with Mattie’s ashes.
“I’d put them on the rocks at Dead Man’s Point or scatter them in the water. That was where she wanted to be.”
“No, she wanted to be in the inn,” said Alessandro. “But Nick’s crew has cleared all that out, and I don’t think anyone wants her ashes under the new homes he’s building out there. He’d never sell any of them.”
“Why don’t you take the boat out and scatter them on the water?”
“The cats’ ashes are going on the beach if I have to climb down that flimsy rope ladder and do it myself,” said Jenna. “But I don’t want to put Mattie’s ashes there.”
Losing the baby had thrown Jenna, and the nasty injury to her head had weakened her, but she was getting her spirit back. Alessandro was still reeling from losing all his work, and there were times when he looked at Jenna with a deep sadness in his eyes. Those times, she knew he was thinking about the baby they’d lost. He’d get through it, they’d get through it together, and someday they’d make more babies.
The plans Alessandro had done for his studio on Beach Road had been approved by the county, but Nick hadn’t said anything to Alessandro yet. He and Angelo and Blade and Vinnie were spending every spare minute clearing the land and getting started, so he’d have a quiet place to work. Nick had the foundation and the septic in, and the framing would start tomorrow. It was a small place, one room with a loft and a single car garage, so it shouldn’t take too long to build. The other boys would have been happy to work here at the house, but Alessandro needed a quiet place to create, a place without a little girl chasing her kitty up and down the stairs.
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The last weekend of September, Al and Jenna scattered the ashes of the cats over the fence along the top of the hill, and the wind carried them out over the beach. The priest had said a prayer for the cats, but Mattie Worthington wouldn’t have a priest or preacher to pray her into heaven. In Al’s mind, she was already burning in hell. Getting rid of the ashes was just a formality.
They boarded the boat and cruised up the sound until Jenna pointed at the rocks at Dead Man’s Point. He put the boat on idle, but didn’t set the anchor. They wouldn’t be here long enough to anchor the boat.
Sitting off shore, where he wouldn’t risk wrecking the boat on the rocks, Al scanned the hill with the black iron fence at the top and the burned trees around the buildings that had been destroyed. Seeing how beautiful the property was from the water, he was almost sorry he’d sold the property.
Almost.
Living here with the ghosts was not an option for him. He had nightmares just thinking about what had happened here.
He glanced at the plastic box in Jenna’s hands. The wind was behind them, so they might as well get it over with. She pulled the top off and held it up. She poured slowly, and the wind caught the ashes in a swirl that carried them toward the rocks. Some fell into the water, some drifted toward the hill, but most of them settled over the rocks at Dead Man’s Point.
“I hope she burns in hell,” said Jenna.
Al put the empty box in the trash bag, turned the boat around, and headed back to the dock. They’d done what they’d come out here to do. Mattie Worthington was gone. The winter rains would wash the rest of her ashes off the rocks and into the water. Maybe she’d haunt the site where the inn once stood.
Only time would tell.
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A week later, Phillip called Jenna. “Are you aware that Mattie Worthington left a will?”
“I assume she did. Who did she leave her money to?”
“Her cats.”
Jenna wasn’t surprised. The only things Mattie had ever loved were the inn and her cats. “My daughter has adopted the only cat that survived.”
“I’m aware of that. There’s also a question as to whether Mattie was in her right mind when she made the will. Therefore, as her next of kin and as the caretaker of her only living cat, I’m sending you a check for the balance of her estate.”
Mattie would roll over in her grave, if she had one. The last person she’d want to have her money was Charlie’s bastard daughter.
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Jenna stayed late at work that evening to catch Nick. “I know you’re building Alessandro’s studio, and I want to contribute something.”
“Jenna, I have it covered.”
“I don’t mean the building. I know you’re taking care of that. I mean the sketches he had hanging on the walls in his office, the ones of the homes he’d designed. Did he give other sketches to you or—”
“We always give a framed sketch to the buyers.”
“If you’ll give me a list of the buyers and their addresses or phone numbers, I’ll take care of it.” If she could borrow the originals, she’d have copies made and framed.
He kissed her on the cheek. “You’ll have the list in the morning.”
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It took two weeks to gather the drawings from Nick’s customers and Tony’s retirement community. She took the drawings to a photo shop and had them copied, then returned the original drawings to their owners. The frame shop promised to get them all done in time for Alessandro’s birthday in mid-November.
The men in the Donatelli family were all working hard on the studio to get it done in time, and the women were picking out furniture and accessories.