8 Sandpiper Way Read online

  Praise for the Cedar Cove novels of DEBBIE MACOMBER

  “[This book’s] small-town charm is virtually guaranteed to please.”

  —Publishers Weekly on 74 Seaside Avenue

  “Returning to Cedar Cove is always a pleasure and this book is a particular pleasure.”

  —Romantic Times BOOKreviews on 74 Seaside Avenue

  “Readers new to Macomber’s considerable narrative charms will have no problem picking up the story, while loyal fans are in for a treat.”

  —Booklist on 6 Rainier Drive

  “Those who enjoy good-spirited, gossipy writing will be hooked.”

  —Publishers Weekly on 6 Rainier Drive

  “Debbie Macomber is a skilled storyteller.”

  —Publishers Weekly on 50 Harbor Street

  “The books in Macomber’s contemporary Cedar Cove series are irresistibly delicious and addictive.”

  —Publishers Weekly on 44 Cranberry Point

  “Excellent characterization will keep readers anticipating the next visit to Cedar Cove.”

  —Booklist on 311 Pelican Court

  “Macomber’s endearing characters offer courage and support to one another and find hope and love in the most unexpected places.”

  —Booklist on 204 Rosewood Lane

  “Macomber is known for her honest portrayals of ordinary women in small-town America, and this tale cements her position as an icon of the genre.”

  —Publishers Weekly on 16 Lighthouse Road

  8 Sandpiper Way

  Debbie Macomber

  www.mirabooks.co.uk

  To Minda Butler, Karen Sweeney and Hyacinthe Eykelhof-Mitchell For their courage, strength and inspiration and special thanks to my friend Emily Myles, the fabric artist who inspired Shirley’s dragon

  September 2008

  Dear Friends,

  Welcome to Cedar Cove! If you’re a regular visitor, you’ll be happy to know that Olivia, Jack, Grace and all the rest are waiting to tell you about the current events in their lives. And if you’re new to town, you can expect to make a whole group of new and interesting friends.

  For the readers who’ve complained that the Cedar Cove books come out only once a year—good news! Next month the town’s story will continue with A Cedar Cove Christmas.

  As many of you already know, Cedar Cove is loosely based on my own hometown of Port Orchard, Washington. The streets and businesses are disguised but easily recognizable. As an unexpected result of the Cedar Cove stories, our little town has become something of a tourist destination. Because of this, a group of wonderful volunteers headed by Jerry Childs and Cindy Lucarelli are planning Cedar Cove Days, which will take place in August 2009. Check my Web site at www.DebbieMacomber.com for upcoming information.

  If you’re interested in viewing the “lay of the land,” you can download a Cedar Cove map from my Web site—or you can receive a glossy collector’s edition free by sending a SASE to my office at P.O. Box 1458, Port Orchard, WA 98366.

  Although I rarely mention it, take a look at the dedication page. I’m dedicating this book to three phenomenal women who’ve been coping with breast cancer. Minda Butler lives in our condo building in Florida. Karen Sweeney, my cousin from Omaha, is now in remission. Hyacinthe Eykelhof-Mitchell is my editor’s younger sister. All three women are dear to my heart and an inspiration to everyone.

  I hope you enjoy 8 Sandpiper Way. Your Cedar Cove friends are looking forward to your visit—and I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

  Warmest regards,

  Some of the Residents of Cedar Cove, Washington

  Olivia Lockhart Griffin: Family Court judge in Cedar Cove. Mother of Justine and James. Married to Jack Griffin, editor of the Cedar Cove Chronicle. They live at 16 Lighthouse Road.

  Charlotte Jefferson Rhodes: Mother of Olivia and of Will Jefferson. Now married to widower Ben Rhodes, who has sons David and Steven, neither of whom lives in Cedar Cove.

  Justine (Lockhart) Gunderson: Daughter of Olivia. Mother of Leif. Married to Seth Gunderson. The Gundersons owned The Lighthouse restaurant, recently destroyed by fire. They live at 6 Rainier Drive.

  James Lockhart: Olivia’s son and Justine’s younger brother. In the Navy. Lives in San Diego with his wife, Selina, daughter, Isabella, and son, Ada.

  Will Jefferson: Olivia’s brother, Charlotte’s son. Formerly of Atlanta. Divorced, retired and back in Cedar Cove, where he has recently bought the local gallery.

  Grace Sherman Harding: Olivia’s best friend. Librarian. Widow of Dan Sherman. Mother of Maryellen Bowman and Kelly Jordan. Married to Cliff Harding, a retired engineer who is now a horse breeder living in Olalla, near Cedar Cove. Grace’s previous address: 204 Rosewood Lane (now a rental property).

  Maryellen Bowman: Oldest daughter of Grace and Dan Sherman. Mother of Katie and Drake. Married to Jon Bowman, photographer.

  Zachary Cox: Accountant, married to Rosie. Father of Allison and Eddie Cox. The family lives at 311 Pelican Court. Allison is attending university in Seattle, while her boyfriend, Anson Butler, has joined the military.

  Rachel Pendergast: Works at the Get Nailed salon. Engaged to widower Bruce Peyton, who has a daughter, Jolene.

  Bob and Peggy Beldon: Retired. Own the Thyme and Tide B and B at 44 Cranberry Point.

  Roy McAfee: Private investigator, retired from Seattle police force. Two adult children, Mack and Linnette. Married to Corrie, who works as his office manager. The McAfees live at 50 Harbor Street.

  Linnette McAfee: Daughter of Roy and Corrie. Lived in Cedar Cove and worked as a physician’s assistant in the new medical clinic. Now living in North Dakota. Her brother, Mack, a fireman in training, is moving to Cedar Cove.

  Gloria Ashton: Police officer on Bremerton force. Natural child of Roy and Corrie McAfee.

  Troy Davis: Cedar Cove sheriff. Married to Sandy, now deceased. Father of Megan.

  Faith Beckwith: High school girlfriend of Troy Davis, now a widow. Moving back to Cedar Cove.

  Bobby Polgar and Teri Miller Polgar: He is an

  international chess champion; she’s a hairstylist at Get Nailed. Their home is at 74 Seaside Avenue.

  Christie Levitt: Sister of Teri Polgar, living in Cedar Cove.

  James Wilbur: Bobby Polgar’s driver.

  Pastor Dave Flemming: Local Methodist minister. He and his wife, Emily, are the parents of Matthew and Mark.

  Shirley Bliss: Widow and fabric artist, mother of Tannith (Tanni) Bliss.

  Shaw Wilson: Friend of Anson Butler, Allison Cox and Tanni Bliss.

  Chapter One

  They say the wife is always the last to know.

  Except that Emily Flemming did know and she’d known for more than a week. Dave, her husband, was involved with someone else. Only Dave wasn’t just Dave Flemming. He was Pastor Dave Flemming. The thought that her husband loved another woman was intolerable, unthinkable, unbearable. Dave’s betrayal was bad enough, but disregarding his moral obligations to his congregation and his God—she could hardly believe it. This shocking secret was completely inconsistent with everything she knew about her husband.

  Ever since the night of their anniversary dinner, Emily had carefully guarded what she’d learned. She’d been in the church office, waiting for Dave, and had reached for his suit jacket, which hung on the back of his door. When she draped it over her arm, a diamond earring had fallen out of the pocket. Later she’d discovered the second one in the other pocket. Emily had certainly never owned anything as extravagant as this pair of large, diamond-studded pendant earrings.

  In the beginning Emily had assumed the earrings were an anniversary present; however, she quickly realized they couldn’t be. For one thing, they weren’t in a jeweler’s box. But even if they had been, it wa
sn’t possible. Dave could never have afforded diamond earrings on their tight family budget.

  Emily should have asked immediately…and hadn’t. She’d been afraid of ruining their special evening with her suspicions. But almost at once, other details had begun to add up in her mind. She could no longer ignore the fact that Dave so often worked late, especially since the private hour they’d shared after dinner had gone by the wayside. It might’ve been her imagination but he seemed to take extra long with his grooming, too.

  Her suspicions doubled and tripled. She held them close to her heart, examining them over and over, trying to make sense of her husband’s behavior. Whenever she asked where he’d been, Dave’s answers were vague. Another warning sign…

  “Mommy, when’s Daddy coming home?” Mark, the younger of her two sons, asked as he looked up from his plate. He was eight and his dark brown eyes were identical to his father’s.

  Emily had the same question. “Soon,” she said as reassuringly as she could. Two or three times a week, Dave didn’t get home until well after dinner. At first she’d made excuses for him to their boys. Now she didn’t know what to tell them.

  “Dad hardly ever eats with us,” Matthew complained, sitting down next to his younger brother.

  Dave’s lateness had started gradually. He used to make a point of being there for the evening meal. As she stared into space, Emily couldn’t help wondering if he was having dinner with some other woman…some other family. She chased away the thought with a determination that stiffened her spine.

  For the sake of her children, Emily dragged out her standard excuse. “Your father’s been busy at the church.”

  “Every night?”

  Her sons echoed Emily’s own dissatisfaction. “It seems so,” she returned lightly, pretending all was well as she joined them at the dinner table. They automatically clasped hands and bowed their heads while Emily recited grace. Silently she added a prayer for herself, asking for courage to face whatever the future might hold for her marriage.

  “Shouldn’t we wait for him at least one night?” Mark said as he reluctantly picked up his fork.

  “You two have homework, don’t you?” she asked, ignoring his question.

  “But Dad—”

  “Your father will eat later.”

  “Will he get home before we go to bed?” Matthew, her sensitive son, asked.

  “I don’t know,” she said, swallowing hard.

  She made a pretense of eating. Her appetite had disappeared the minute she’d found those diamond earrings. That was the start—the wake-up call she’d ignored for months. Naturally, she’d told herself, there could be any number of explanations for those earrings. She’d intended to ask him about it the very next day…and hadn’t.

  Emily knew what held her back. She didn’t want to hear the truth; she simply wasn’t ready for it. She dreaded the consequences once she did finally confront him.

  She’d questioned her husband, more than once, about his late nights. But Dave brushed aside her concern and offered ambiguous excuses, mentioning people she’d never met and meetings she didn’t know about. He almost seemed to resent her asking, so after a while she’d stopped.

  She supposed she had her answer. Since the discovery of the diamond earrings, she had a perfectly clear picture of what was happening—what had already happened. Sadly, pastors were as susceptible to temptation as anyone else. Like all sinners, they, too, could be lured into affairs. They, too, could make irreparable mistakes.

  If Emily had hoped this was just a misunderstanding, that she’d allowed it to grow out of all proportion in her mind, those hopes had been destroyed. Earlier in the week, she’d run into Bob and Peggy Beldon at the grocery store. They owned the local bed-and-breakfast, Thyme and Tide. As the three of them stood in the middle of the aisle exchanging pleasantries, Bob casually said that he missed playing golf with Dave.

  As long as the weather permitted, the two of them had played weekly for the past three years. In a matter of minutes, she’d ferreted out the information she’d been afraid to learn. Dave had given up golfing more than a year ago. A year! Yet every week last summer, he’d loaded up his golf clubs on Monday afternoons and driven off, supposedly to meet Bob. Obviously he’d been meeting someone else.

  Emily sighed. She couldn’t continue to let her mind wander down this well-traveled path of doubt and suspicion. Half the time she acted the role of the quiet, unassuming wife; the rest of the time it was all she could do to refrain from demanding an explanation. She wanted the truth no matter how painful it might be—and yet she didn’t. What wife ever did?

  So far she’d remained silent. She was astonished by how good she’d become at pretending everything was fine. None of her friends suspected. What bothered her almost as much as her suspicions was the fact that Dave didn’t seem to have any idea that she’d caught on. She wondered if he’d broach the subject. Maybe if he knew she’d figured out what was going on…Perhaps that was what she’d been waiting for. She wanted him to ask her.

  But Dave never asked. If she managed to put on a marvelous performance, then so did her husband. Last Sunday he’d actually spoken from the pulpit about the importance of marriage, of loving one’s spouse.

  Emily felt like the most unloved woman in the world. She could barely stop herself from breaking into heart-wrenching sobs right there in front of the entire congregation. Naturally everyone must have assumed she’d been overcome with emotion, since Dave’s sermon, by implication, had honored her. She wanted to tell them that, beautiful though his words were, that was all they were. Words.

  It was hard to believe this could be happening to them. Emily had always been so sure they had a solid marriage, and that Dave was her best friend. Apparently she was wrong.

  The door leading to the garage opened and to her surprise he walked into the house.

  “Dad!” Mark slid out of his chair, running toward his father as if he hadn’t seen him in a year.

  “Hey there, little man, how’s it going?” Dave reached down and swung their son into his arms. Mark was too big to be picked up like a child, but he craved the attention from his father.

  Dave kissed Emily on the cheek, then ruffled Matthew’s hair before he sat down. “I’m glad I made it home in time for dinner tonight.”

  “Me, too,” Mark said, his eyes glowing.

  Despite everything, her own happiness sprang to life again, and Emily got up and brought a fourth place setting to the table.

  When she passed him the enchilada casserole she’d made, he took a heaping serving, then grinned over at her. “You fixed one of my favorites,” he said. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” She met his look, letting him know with her eyes how much she loved him. Maybe, regardless of the evidence, all her unhappy suspicions were wrong.

  “Can you help me with my homework after dinner, Dad?” Mark asked.

  Their younger son was the top student in his class, far ahead of the other second-graders. He didn’t need any assistance. What he really wanted was time with his father.

  “You promised to throw me the football, remember?” Matthew said. Never mind that it was late November and already dark outside,

  He, too, wanted time with Dave. The children weren’t the only ones; Emily needed all the reassurance he had to offer. Hard as she tried to cast aside these doubts, they refused to die. She didn’t want to lose her husband. She loved Dave no matter what and was determined to keep her marriage together—or at least make every possible effort.

  “Hold on, hold on.” Dave laughingly raised both hands. “Give me a minute to catch my breath, would you?”

  Both boys stared expectantly at their father. Emily couldn’t bear to look at their eager faces. Seeing the love for him in their eyes made her feel like weeping.

  “Let your dad eat his dinner,” she said.

  “After that, I’ll help you both, but I’d like a few minutes alone with your mother first,” Dave said, glancing at Emily.


  A chill raced down her spine, and she was afraid to meet his eyes.

  “Aw, Dad,” Mark whined.

  “It won’t take long,” he promised. “Eat your green beans.”

  “Okay.”

  Emily handed Dave the bowl of buttered beans with sliced almonds. He took a small portion. Green beans weren’t his favorite vegetable, either, and this was her way of suggesting he set a good example.

  Following dinner, the boys cleared the table, then went to their room for study hour. This had been Dave’s idea. Whether they had homework or not, Matthew and Mark were to spend one hour every night reading, writing or reviewing their schoolwork. The television wasn’t allowed to be on, nor were video games permitted.

  As the boys trudged to their room, Emily made a pot of coffee, keeping her back to Dave as she worked. Asking to speak to her like that was unusual for him. If there was something on his mind, he generally discussed it with her after the boys had gone to bed.