That should have been her. Her father’s abandoning of her and Grey had ripped their childhood from them.
“Bluefin tuna,” a woman said. She appeared from out of nowhere and now stood behind a long counter.
Pippin looked at her. “Sorry?”
The woman pointed at the picture Pippin had been staring at. “That’s a bluefin tuna,” she repeated.
“Oh wow! It’s huge.”
“There’s some bigguns out there,” the woman said, studying Pippin as if she were familiar. The plait of her long iron gray hair was pulled in front of her right shoulder, hanging down her front. She was as tan as she was wrinkled, which is to say very. Of both. And her voice dripped with honey that was thicker than molasses.
Pippin walked up to the counter. “The new dock looks great,” she said.
The woman beamed. “It’s been a long time comin’. State of the art floating docks that can accommodate vessels up to 180 feet. Do you need a slip?”
The woman looked hopeful, and Pippin hated to burst her bubble, but she shook her head and launched into the spiel she’d rehearsed in her head on the bike ride over. “No. But I believe my father docked his boat here. It would have been a long time ago. I was wondering if anyone might remember him?”
“Sure thing, hon. What’s his name?”
“Leo Hawthorne.”
The woman gave a quick intake of breath followed by a low whistle. “I ain’t heard that name in ages.” She did a double take. “Did you say father?”
“That’s right. My name is—”
“Oh my stars! I know who you are, darlin’. If Leo’s your daddy, then you’re Pippin!” The woman bounded off her stool and circled around to the front of the counter. “Good night. Look at you standing right here in front of me. I knew you looked familiar. You’re the spittin’ image of your mama. Just beautiful. That woman had to fight the men back. A few from around here, as I recall. I reckon you do, too.”
The woman’s enthusiasm knocked Pippin for a loop. She didn’t want the attention or notoriety that came along with being a Hawthorne in Devil’s Cove, but it looked like she was going to get it whether she wanted it or not. “You knew my mother?”
“Well sure I did. Your parents were two lovebirds. She didn’t come around here too much. Like I said, too many people in love with her. But once in a while she did, and Lordy did we get to talkin’. Why, when she was pregnant with you and your brother, well I never seen a happier woman in my life. She told me she didn’t think she could have another baby after you two, then lo’n behold, there she was—” She broke off and stepped back. “I’m so sorry. I wadn’t thinkin’. Of course, that was a tragedy. In this day’n age, no woman should die in childbirth. What a loss.”
Pippin forced a small smile. “It was a long time ago.”
“That it was. Time passes too quick.”
“My dad docked his boat here back then, didn’t he?”
“Well sure. Your daddy, now he was one of the good ‘uns. He tried to do right by you, you know.”
Pippin had been so angry at her father for so long, but maybe this woman could shed some light on where he’d gone. Why he’d abandoned his children. She swallowed down the lump in her throat. “Oh yeah?”
“He shor’ did love your mama. Saw him get into more’n one scuffle over her. Then when you babies came, there wadn’t a happier man on the planet. When she died, he worked hisself to the bone bein’ both mama and papa.”
Then why had he left? It would never make sense.
The woman patted her chest. “I’m Bev. You tell me what I can help you with, hon.”
Pippin careened her mind back on track. “My dad disappeared a long time ago now.”
Bev frowned. “We were all blown to pieces by that. The Leo I knew wouldn’t have left y’all—you and your brother. He was downright obsessed with doing right by you both.”
Her father had been distracted in the years after their mother died, but Pippin had always known he was there for Grey and her. Until he wasn’t. He’d proved her wrong, and she didn’t know if she could ever forgive him. Still, she asked, “What do you mean?”
“Leo was single-minded. When he set out to clean his boat, he did it top to bottom, hardly stoppin’ for a break. When he lost your mama, I ‘member he stuck right to his schedule. Took his crew out and brought back more tuna ’n I reckon he ever had before. He worked ’n went home to you. In fact, all he talked about was making things right for you two. Then that boat sank.” Her face fell. “People got to talkin’.”
Pippin didn’t like the sound of that. “Talking about what?”
Bev’s brows rose toward her hairline, her forehead pulling into an accordion of wrinkles. The sun had not been kind to her. She fluttered her hand in front of her. “Never mind any of that, darlin’.”
But Bev couldn’t put the lid back on the can of worms she’d opened. “What were people saying about my father?” Pippin asked.
Bev ran one hand down her braid. “We don’t need to—”
Pippin cut her off. “Please. Tell me.”
“Just tell the girl,” a man said from the back corner of the office.
Pippin started. She hadn’t noticed him there, and she couldn’t make out any details. He lay back on a worn couch, sunk down so far that Pippin wondered if he’d ever be able to claw himself out of it.
Bev pressed her lips together before saying, “My husband. Mick.”
“Tell her,” the man said again.
“They’re just rumors—”
“Tell me,” Pippin repeated, more urgently this time. She knew almost nothing about her father. Even rumors would be better than that.
Bev released a heavy sigh. “The night before your dad took off, the boat next to his sank. People thought he mighta had somethin’ to do with it.”
“But you just said that he was a standup guy. One of the good ones. Why would he sink someone else’s boat?”
Bev shrugged. “People just thought it was odd that he took off right after.” She lowered her voice to secret-telling level. “Some people thought he was aft'r some treasure buried deep in the sea.”
Mick scoffed from his sofa. “They’re all treasure hunters. It’s the lore of the island.”
Pippin’s mind whirled, trying to formulate a scenario different from the one she’d imagined all these years. She’d never known her father to be one of the many people who wreck-dived, but maybe he’d seen something. Or known something. Pippin suggested the idea. “Maybe that’s why he left. Maybe it wasn’t even about the so-called treasure hunting. “What if he saw who sank the boat and was scared?”
Mick grunted. “Anythin’s possible.”
Pippin’s feelings toward her father were complicated, at best. She’d loved him with all her heart, and then that love had turned to hurt and betrayal. If he’d known something or discovered something and had to run… The idea that he’d had no choice but to leave gave her a sliver of hope. It was as if she’d held onto a piece of yarn at the end of a row of knitting and now that she’d pulled, the entire thing was unravelling. What if everything she’d believed all these years was wrong? Mick had said it. Anything was possible. “So what happened? How did the boat sink?”