Chapter 7
Faith

She didn’t know what she was going to do. George had been flirtatious, to say the least. Faith didn’t know much about renovations or contract bids, but even she knew the price he quoted was ridiculously low. Of course, she knew it was because George was into her, but who was she to turn down a lust-driven bid? She’d nearly signed the agreement before she walked out the door but told herself not to jump the gun just yet.

“Pleased to make your acquaintance, ma’am,” George said as soon as she was ushered into his office. He was the same height as her and a bit stocky. But Faith could tell he had that kind of swagger some women fell for hard. What he lacked in looks, he likely made up for in smoothness.

“Hi,” she said quietly as she took in the office. It was different from what she imagined a Savannah business to be. Minimalist design, with the only decorations being shelves of trophies and ribbons from industry-related organizations.

“I see you have a knack for picking out the best,” George said. “Please, have a seat.” Faith settled into the stiff, uncomfortable but chic chair. George sat right beside her, foregoing his own cushy leather desk chair on the other side of the stainless steel desk. They were uncomfortably close, but Faith wasn’t about to be the one to shift away.

“Thank you for seeing me on such short notice.”

“It’s my pleasure,” George said. “Any friend of Alex’s is a friend of mine.” She thought she detected a touch of disgust when he said Alex’s name.

“Well, we’re not exactly friends,” Faith said. His knee touched hers. “More like connected through family friends. But he doesn’t seem particularly happy that I’m here.” Why am I telling this man all this?

“Don’t you take it personal,” George said. He patted her knee, warm palm partially on the bare skin exposed by the high slit of her dress. “Alex has been difficult since the incident.”

“Incident?” Faith’s ears perked up.

“Oh, well, I really shouldn’t say anything,” George said. “My apologies, ma’am, I thought you knew. Everybody knows. Anyway, what can I do for you? I must admit, I did a little snooping on you.”

“Snooping?”

“What is it they call it? Google stalking? I like to have an idea of who I’m meeting with,” he said with a fake laugh.

“Oh. Find anything interesting?” she asked. Faith knew it sounded flirtatious, but it was a calculated risk. Maybe George had stumbled across something interesting.

“Not much,” he said. “Saw you’re some fancy lawyer in San Francisco.”

“Hardly fancy,” she said, though she blushed.

“Asked round ʼbout you. From friends that came from Saint Rose an’ such. Heard you and your daddy used to spend a few summers here, along with some aunt an’ cousin from up north.”

“Aunt?” she asked. “Cousin? Do you know their names? Are they here now, or . . .”

He raised a brow. “I figured you’d know their names, ma’am.”

“I, uh, I didn’t really keep in touch with the family on my father’s side,” she said.

“Well, then, why don’t you ask your daddy?”

“He’s dead,” she said quietly.

“Oh. Oh my. My condolences, ma’am. I didn’t know.”

He doesn’t know that, but he knows some kind of gossip about Alex? Faith didn’t want to come off as a gossip herself, especially since George had made time for her. “Thanks,” she said curtly. “But in regard to the property, I just inherited it. It’s worse for wear, but I’m thinking about having it restored.”

“Restored.” George repeated the word as if he’d never heard it before. Even though he held her gaze and didn’t sneak a look at her chest, it felt like he was skillfully undressing her with his eyes.

“Or something,” she said. Her ears burned. “I, uh, sorry. I don’t really know anything about that kind of stuff.”

“No? Not a professional flipper then,” George said with a smile. His teeth were shockingly white and straight compared to the rest of his aesthetic. Obvious veneers, although well done and clearly expensive.

“Hardly,” she said. Faith couldn’t hold out any longer. She switched the crossing of her legs to direct her body slightly away from him. “I’m actually visiting from San Francisco. I didn’t even know Saint Rose existed until I inherited the property. Or, I’d forgotten. Now that I’m here, though, I keep getting, like, flashbacks to the summers here.”

“Your Aunt Lydia musta taken a real likin’ to you,” George said. “Leavin’ you her whole island and all.”

“Did you know her?”

“Well, not really,” George admitted. “But when you grow up on Saint Rose, everyone knows everyone a little bit,” he laughed. “She mostly kept to herself, but she was a good, solid woman. I did go to her funeral.”

“Oh. I, uh, I wasn’t aware of it.” Faith felt like she should apologize for missing it.

“Don’t you worry. I don’t think the dead take attendance,” he said, and leaned back into the hard chair.

“So you know the property then?” she asked.

“The big one she kept on the island? I know of it,” George said. “Turn of the century, typical Saint Rose plantation home. About four thousand square feet, quite a lot of acreage.”

Faith laughed. “Well, you know more than I do,” she said.

“I like having leverage,” George said. He smiled, but it was loaded with suggestion.

“Do you . . . do you think it’s a worthwhile project? To renovate it?”

“That’s up for you to say,” George said. He leaned forward again. “What are your plans for it? You Gonna move to the island, use it as a vacation home for yourself, rent it out . . .”

“I’m not really sure,” Faith admitted. “Maybe more a vacation home type of thing. But given all the land, I’d like to keep it as natural as possible. Kind of like an unofficial arboretum and wildness conservation, you know?”

“You really are a California girl,” George said. “Don’t get me wrong, I love me some bleeding-heart liberals. They open their, uh, wallets wide up when they come to me.” This time, he did let his eyes travel to her thighs, which were buried under the thin material. It was calculated, designed to put her on edge.

“I just thought it might be nice,” she said quietly. Faith was used to men flirting with her, but not like this. This felt like a touchless assault.

“I’m sure it’d be real nice, ma’am,” George said. He lifted his eyes back to hers. “Just my professional opinion I was sharin’, that’s all. You know what they say about California girls.”

She cocked her head. “We don’t mind sand in our stilettos?”

He let out a bark of a laugh. “I was goin’ for I wish they all could be California girls, but you right, too.”

Faith smiled. Maybe she imagined the whole predatory creeper thing with George. After all, this was the South. There were different rules, and she knew it wasn’t nearly as progressive as San Francisco. You’re out of your element, that’s all.

“An’ what’s Alex think of all this?” George asked. He reached across the table and picked up a small tin of chocolates. He popped one into his mouth, offered the tin to her, but she shook her head.

“Actually, the whole preservation thing was his idea,” she said.

“Yeah, I can imagine. He was always an odd one, that,” George said. “Never quite fit in here.”

“His mom’s nice, though,” Faith said. “And his brother, Caleb.”

“Mama Mae? Caleb? How you know them?” George asked.

“Well, I’m . . . I’m kind of staying at Greystone.”

“No shit,” George said. “Pardon my language, ma’am. You mean you booked a room there? Or . . .”

“No. I mean, they got looped into the whole inheritance thing somehow. I guess Mae was close with Lydia? Or . . .”

“Yeah, yeah, I got you. That whole island’s intertwined in one way or another. Well, Miss Capshaw, let me do something. I’mma write down a figure here. Now, keep in mind it’s just a sight unseen bid, but I’m very familiar with those properties. An’ you have a think on it.”

When he reached for the pad of paper, his leg pressed against hers, but he didn’t move it. Faith saw it as a challenge and pushed right back.

 

She watched Alex cover the Mustang. The entire ride back from lunch had been awkwardly quiet. Whatever his problem was, this whole brooding, angsty teen thing was too much. Why couldn’t he lighten up? The few glimpses of being a normal guy she saw at the barbeque joint were rare.

“Coming?” he asked curtly as he made a beeline for the ferry.

Faith sighed and followed. They were fifteen minutes early for the last ferry, and no crew members were on-site. The only other passengers were a group of fat, mean-looking rednecks.

She didn’t think much of the motley crew until they reached the boarding area and Alex abruptly stepped in front of her. “Faith?” one of the men said meanly. His knuckles were covered in faded blue tattoos, and his neck was so big it merged his head with his shoulders.

“Yes?” she squeaked. How does he know my name?

“Get out of the way, Caldwell,” one of the others said. Alex didn’t move, but Faith peered around Alex’s broad shoulders at the group.

The first man spit a stream of reddish brown chew into the dirt. “Ain’t you Gonna give yo’ cousin a hug, baby girl?” asked one of them.

“Excuse me?” she said.

The group broke out in cruel laughter. “She ain’t even know,” said the second man.

“We yo’ cousins, Cousin,” said the first man.

“I, um, I don’t . . .”

“Yeah, you don’t know shit is right,” said the first man. He eyed her up and down the best he could behind Alex. “Yo’ great-aunt, Miss Lydia? Crazy ol’ bitch done left you the estate when she know good an’ well it belong to us.”

“You knew Lydia?” Faith asked. She stepped to Alex’s side. He grabbed her forearm to keep her from getting any closer to them.

“Know her? Sweetheart, we a hell of a lot better related to her than you ever be.”

“Yeah,” agreed the man with the menacing tattoos. “And we none too pleased you come up in here like some uppity princess and steal our inheritance.”

“Your inheritance? Listen,” Faith said as she held up her hands. “I have no idea why she left everything to me. But that’s the way it is.”

“Oh!” squealed one of the men. “She done gone lawyer on yo’ ass.”

“You listen here,” said the first man. “That property ain’t yours. You hear me? And I’ll be damned if yo’ Gonna take it.”

Alex cleared his throat. “Y’all best leave,” he said. “I think the sheriff will be plenty interested in the fact that you threatened her. Sheriff’s just looking for reasons to lock you up, is what I heard.”

“Yeah, Caldwell?” asked one of the men in the back. “You Gonna tell on us? Well, now ain’t that a surprise. That Becca fucked you up real good, right? Ain’t got nothin’ better to do than run round snitchin’ on everybody.”

Becca?

The men shuffled for a moment but eventually left with scowls plastered across their faces when Alex didn’t budge. Most looked over their shoulder at Alex and Faith. “I be watchin’ you,” the first man called to them from across the street, where they climbed into an old Bronco with a massive lift kit. “Cousin,” he added.

It wasn’t until the Bronco was out of sight that Faith realized her heart had started to slow. “What the . . . what the hell was that?” she asked Alex. She gazed up at him, but he wouldn’t look her in the eye.

“Just a li’l domestic dispute,” he said.

Domestic dispute? Are those monsters really her cousins? She wanted to push and ask more but knew it would be impossible with Alex. She held her tongue and told herself she’d ask Mae.

It felt like hours before the ferry came into view. “You enjoy your day in town, ma’am?” the security checker asked.

“Oh, uh, yeah,” she said. “It was great.” Alex raised a brow at her. Not gonna blab about the fat cousin brigade? he seemed to ask.

“Seems y’all my only customers,” the clerk said. “So we Gonna get goin’ straightaway.”

Instead of leaning against the railing like he had in the morning, Alex started to circle the small deck area. Faith heard him swear as he fumbled with a pile of something pushed under a storage seat and wrapped in a gray cloth.

“Hey!” she called to him as he picked up the bundle and tossed it overboard. “What is that? What are you doing?”

“Nothin’,” he said. “Just some stupid booby trap.”

“Booby trap? But how did you know? Was it for me—”

“I just knew. Okay? Now drop it.”

“There’s no way in hell I’m going to drop it. What was it? A bomb?” she asked. She looked around the ferry to see if anyone was watching, but the small crew was nowhere to be seen.

“I said drop it,” he repeated. Something in his voice made her listen.

A chill crept through her. When they were five minutes from docking on Saint Rose, Alex finally came and stood beside her.

“Cold?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I just can’t believe there’s been so much friction. I’ve only been here two days! I didn’t even know about those guys.” She couldn’t bring herself to say cousins. There was no way she was related to those creeps.

“Maybe you should think about whether or not it’s worth your while,” Alex said, stone-faced. “You’re just here for a short while, anyway.”

Is it just her, or is he trying to get her to leave?

Faith didn’t want to argue with him. What was the point? Getting information out of Alex was a painstaking process.

On the other hand, maybe he was right. She didn’t have to be on the island to handle the estate. That’s what estate attorneys are for, and there were no rules that she had to keep the property anyway. Surely it could be sold. Not for a huge profit, maybe, but for something. Besides, the real windfall was in the cash inheritance, not the house.

Faith inched away from him as Saint Rose came into view. In some ways the rednecks were right. Who was she to inherit everything? She hadn’t even known the woman had existed until the attorney had contacted her.

She sighed. The estate attorney who’d called her about the inheritance only lived a bit away. Maybe it was better to get things handled sooner rather than later.