Children of the Sea 02 - Sea Fever

confident?
     
    “I was surprised to see his brother at the wedding,” she said.
     
    “Dylan?” Margred cocked her head, leaning forward to wipe the table. “Did you like him?”
     
    “I barely talked to him.”
     
    No, she’d just had sex with him on the beach. Really excellent sex.
    But no meaningful conversation.
     
    Her face burned.
     
    She wasn’t looking for meaningful, Regina reminded herself. And neither, obviously, was he. At least, not with her.
     
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    “He seemed to know you, though,” she added.
     
    Margred’s rag paused. “He is Caleb’s brother.”
     
    “From before.” Regina wiped her sweating palms on her apron. “He said he knew you before.”
     
    “Did he?” Margred continued her slow, even strokes on the table.
    “What else did he say?”
     
    Regina had a vision of Dylan’s face, black and bitter. “I did not come for my brother.”
     
    She cleared her throat. “Nothing, really. I just found it interesting.
    Since you, you know, lost your memory and all.”
     
    “Ah.”
     
    Let it go, Regina told herself. Not your problem. None of your business.
     
    “So, how did you meet him?”
     
    Margred straightened, rag in hand. “Curious?”
     
    Regina scowled. “Concerned. Damn it, you’re my friend.”
     
    My employee.
     
    Cal’s wife.
     
    “So I am. And as your friend, I am telling you to leave this alone.”
     
    Regina closed the register drawer with a short chaching . “Fine.”
     
    Margred’s expression softened. “I promise, there is nothing in our relationship that Caleb could object to.”
     
    “Does he know?” Regina asked before she could stop herself.
     
    “Oh, yes. I have no secrets from Caleb.”
     
    34
    “Bet the memory loss thing helps with that,” Regina muttered.
     
    “Excuse me?”
     
    The bell over the door jingled. Jane Ivey, the owner of the island’s gift shop, entered wearing a lumpy cardigan and the determined look of a woman on a mission.
     
    “What can I get you?” Regina asked.
     
    “Here’s the bride!” Jane exclaimed as if she hadn’t spoken. “You looked real good on Saturday, honey.”
     
    “Thank you,” Margred said.
     
    “That whole wedding— it was real nice,” Jane said.
     
    Margred smiled. “Regina did it all.”
     
    Jane’s tight brown perm quivered as she nodded. “Well, I know that.
    That’s why I stopped by. The girls are coming home for Frank’s birthday in September,” she said to Regina.
     
    “That’s . . . great,” Regina said. Was it great? She couldn’t remember how well Jane got along with her absent children. Sons stayed on the island, took over their fathers’ lobstering business or bought boats of their own. But daughters moved Away, seeking education, opportunities, husbands.
     
    Sometimes they came back.
     
    “We never thought when Frank had that episode last winter that he’d make it to his sixty-fifth,” Jane said, clutching her purse. “But he did, the old coot. Anyway, they’re all coming, Trish and Ed and Erica and the grandkids. We’re having a big party. And I want you to cater it.”
     
    Regina felt a spurt of satisfaction, warm and sweet as biting into pastry filling. She knew her food was good. But she didn’t get many opportunities to show what she could do. “Um, I’m not really set up for—”
     
    “We don’t do catering here,” Antonia said from the kitchen pass through. “We do take-out. You can look at a menu, if you want.”
     
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    “Oh.” Jane’s face folded. “Well . . .”
     
    “How many guests?” Regina asked.
     
    “I don’t— thirty?” Jane guessed.
     
    She could do thirty, Regina thought, excitement balling in her stomach. She could feed thirty in her sleep. As long as Margred was willing to help with setup . . .
     
    “Talk to the inn,” Antonia said. “The chef there can probably—”
     
    “I already asked at the inn. Forty-eight dollars a head, he wanted, and twenty-four for the kids, who won’t eat nothing but chocolate milk and hot dogs anyway.” Jane’s soft jaw set. “I want you to do it.”
     
    “So take a menu,” Antonia said.
     
    “Frank really liked those little crab cakes,” Jane said to Regina.
     
    He liked her food.
     
    She could do this.
     
    “Why don’t I put together some ideas,” Regina said, already reviewing appetizers in her head. Tiny grilled sausages, that was easy, the kids could snack on those. Canapes. Maybe Gorgonzola with pine nuts?
    Roasted