up the steps to the small porch. Leaves crunched underfoot and she saw a spider, legs furred and long, scuttle across the wood. Thick spiderwebs hung on the eaves, a thinner web around the doorknob.
Turning it, the mechanism stiff, she opened the door.
And walked into a thousand memories.
5
Will took a long drink of his beer, while beside him, Nikau nursed his. “She’s something, isn’t she?” the other man said.
Will didn’t have to ask to know who Nikau was talking about; he’d learned quickly enough that there was only one woman in town who put that tone in a man’s voice. “She’s a little young for you, Nik.” He looked over at where Miriama Hinewai Tutaia held court, her hair flowing past her waist and men buzzing around her like bees around a honeypot.
A woman that attractive to men didn’t usually have many female friends, but Miriama did. They buzzed around her, too, wanting her attention, wanting her laughter. She handled their need with generous ease, giving just enough that no one felt left out, no one felt as if they weren’t enough. And so that the black-haired man with thin wire-frame spectacles who had his arm possessively around her waist felt as if he mattered the most. “Dr. de Souza has also beaten you to the punch.”
“You realize he’s older than I am?”
“Only by a couple of years.” Far too young a doctor to end up a general practitioner in a desolate West Coast town, but when Will had checked up on Dominic de Souza, he’d found no black marks, no problematic history. Seemed like the man was here for exactly the reason he’d said: in a big city, he’d have been the junior in a big practice, but in Golden Cove, he got to be his own boss.
“She’ll get tired of him sooner or later,” Nikau predicted. “A woman with that much life in her, she’s not going to be happy with a podunk doctor. She’ll want wilder and I’ve got it.”
“Hate to break it to you, but the podunk doctor lives in a nice part of town and owns a flash European car. Have you seen the state of your place?”
Nikau shrugged. “If Miriama just wanted money, she’d have hooked up with one of the rich tourists who pass through here.”
Will couldn’t argue with that. Even in just three months, he’d seen more than one out-of-towner take a single look at Miriama and fall at her feet. Not all were young backpackers, either; Golden Cove also got the rich travelers who came for the pottery or to stay in the refurbished B&B, which had recently earned a place in a high-end travel guide as a “hidden gem.”
“I hear she’s leaving.” That was the thing with this town—the way the gossip flowed, you’d think you knew everything. But there were secrets here, a thick tide of lava beneath the surface. Will felt them, and once, when he’d been a detective who dug and dug and dug, he’d have begun to poke around. But if he’d still been that man, he wouldn’t be here, so the point was moot.
“Six weeks to go.” Nikau took a sip of his beer. “Plenty of time.”
Snorting, Will returned his gaze to the bottles behind the bar. There was no fancy lighting here, no glass shelves. It was dark wood and solid, the bottles lined up neat as soldiers. “She’ll burn you up.” Will was grateful he’d never felt a tug toward Miriama; she was too young, too shiny, too innocent.
Will had lost his innocence so long ago that he barely remembered the taste of it.
“Man likes being burned now and then.” Nikau turned his attention back to the bar. “What about you? How long you gonna turn down the invitations coming your way?”
“Let’s say I’m not in the mood.” He wasn’t in the mood for much, not even living.
“You still got a dick?”
“Last time I looked.”
“Then you’re in the mood. Go grab Miss Tierney of the big blue eyes and the big tits and heat up the sheets. She’s been shooting you ‘come to me, cowboy’ looks since we sat down.”
Will had nothing against the schoolteacher who worked in the next town over, but he had no desire to screw her, much less date her. It was like that part of him had switched off thirteen months ago. Will wasn’t even sure he wanted it to switch back on.
Deciding to change the focus of the conversation, he said, “You ever going to tell me