critical factor in a relationship.
She’d trusted Jeremy, too.
Anyone could pretend or cover up for a few months, Ivy thought. However, the longer you knew someone, the more likely they would slip if they were hiding something.
Not that Ivy thought Bennett had any nefarious intentions. Still, there might be a lot about Bennett she didn’t know, and she didn’t have much longer to find out everything she could.
4
In the marina, water lapped lazily against the hull of Bennett’s boat, and seagulls squawked overhead. The day before, he’d stripped the old varnish from teakwood sections of the boat, and today he was sealing the wood.
Working on the boat was therapeutic for him. This morning, he’d put on jazz and mixed a pitcher of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, courtesy of an old tree on the grounds of the Seabreeze Inn. He helped pick the fruit from the tops of trees no one else could reach. He’d brought his juicer from his house when he leased it and enjoyed squeezing fresh juice for Ivy.
“Hey, old man,” Mitch called out. “Need a helper?”
“Could have used you yesterday for the stripping and sanding. This is the easy part.”
“Why do you think I waited until today?” Mitch climbed aboard.
“Smart guy. What’s going on?”
“I spent the morning training another part-timer at Java Beach to help with the summer traffic. That will give me more time off, too.”
“Good move. You’re going to need that as a married man. Can’t be a total workaholic.” He squinted against the sun.
“Shelly works pretty hard, too,” Mitch said. “Caring for the grounds, helping Ivy with guests, and filming videos for her gardening and lifestyle online channel—she’s always busy.”
Bennett squinted against the sun. “That’s good. She’s just as industrious as you are. But things will change when the baby comes along.”
“How would you—” Mitch caught himself and flushed. “Hey, I’m sorry about that. Sometimes I still make an idiot of myself.”
“That’s okay. It’s been so long that most folks have forgotten or never knew that I was looking forward to being a father.”
“That must’ve been a pretty tough time for you.”
Bennett put down the sponge applicator he’d been using to spread sealer on the teakwood. “Worst thing I have ever been through. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”
Suddenly Mitch looked stricken. “How often do women have medical issues with pregnancy? I’d never want anything to happen to Shelly. I mean, if having a baby is that risky, I don’t know if I want to take the chance on kids, even though Shelly wants a family.” He hesitated. “I have enough reservations, anyway.”
Bennett detected a strained note in Mitch’s voice. The kid was probably just worried. “Pregnancy complications like Jackie had are extremely rare. Don’t worry too much about it. Chances are you and Shelly will have smooth sailing through delivery.”
“Yeah, about that...” He ran a hand through his short spiky hair.
Bennett looked at him. “Want to talk about it?”
“It’s not my favorite subject.” Mitch picked up the sponge applicator that Bennett had put down and dipped it into the sealant. As he spread it across the teakwood in long strokes, he began to talk. “See, my old man—my ma, too—were pretty tough on me when I was a kid.”
Bennett listened, letting Mitch take over his job. His friend had never spoken about his family—other than to say his parents had died in an accident. Bennett hadn’t pushed him to talk about his family or his childhood, although he’d often wondered how Mitch had grown up. He always figured that when Mitch was ready to unburden himself, he would be there for him.
Slowly, Mitch continued. “I overhear a lot of conversations at Java Beach, and someone said that if folks were hard on their kids, then when those kids grow up, chances are they’ll do the same when they have kids. So I searched online about that, and it turns out that it can be true. That scares me.”
Bennett pondered Mitch’s words. “When you say ‘hard on their kids,’ I’m not sure I follow. Do you mean that they demanded a lot from you, or do you mean they were abusive?”
Mitch heaved a sigh. “Pa wasn’t a big guy, but when he was mad, I knew to clear out. I wasn’t a match for him until I was older. And that only seemed to anger him more.”
“And your mother?”
“She never beat me like my pop did, but she sure had a mouth on her. Ma thought that since she’d never hit me, she was better