Love Finds You in Martha's Vineyard Read online

  She flicked on some lights and walked around the slightly eerie-looking space. With no one around, and the machines strangely silent, she thought it might make for a good setting for a creepy horror movie. Not that she was going to let her mind go there. Her plan was to start figuring this place out without anyone else around to distract her. What exactly made a business like this tick? What attracted customers to come and waste their money on these senseless games? And what might make this place even more alluring? What could she possibly do to improve something she really didn’t understand? Well, besides throwing out all the horrid machines and turning it into a whole different sort of business, like an art gallery. Except she knew her aunt and mother could not afford to do that.

  One thing she knew was that the whole place, not only the second floor, was in need of a good deep cleaning. And perhaps some better lighting too. Maybe a paint job would help. A more cheerful color than the drab beige, which looked like it hadn’t been painted in ages, perhaps not since smoking had been allowed in places like this. The whole thing looked dark and dismal and depressing. Even the front windows were dingy and gray. She ran a finger over the surface of the glass to see that she left a clean trail through the grime. Hadn’t the previous owners ever heard of soap and water? Or elbow grease?

  Because, really, what sort of parent would want their children playing games in a filthy place like this? Of course, this made her wonder what sort of parent would want their children to play games like these in the first place. Or perhaps parents who dumped their kids here didn’t really care. Maybe this was their way of having a break from their children. But unless she was mistaken, based on what she’d read about Martha’s Vineyard, the tourists here didn’t seem like that. Her mother had insinuated that the business needed help, and, as Waverly recalled, it hadn’t been very busy today. Something was definitely not working here. She was determined to get to the bottom of it.

  But not on her first night in this town. After all that labor, she realized she was ravenous. Heading out to Main Street to find someplace to eat, she walked a ways, finally stopping at a hotel restaurant called Zephrus, where she happily dined on delicious lobster cakes and seafood linguini. Then, thoroughly full and exhausted, Waverly ended her first day in Martha’s Vineyard by returning to the studio apartment, where she crawled into her grandma-style bed and fell soundly asleep.

  For the next few days, Waverly did little more than clean and scrub and spend time with Rosie, learning the ropes, as well as going over the books.

  “As you can see, it’s not terribly complicated,” Rosie said to Waverly on Saturday. “I told your mom and aunt that they could probably run this place themselves, but I don’t think either of them are too interested.”

  Waverly wanted to point out that she wasn’t terribly interested either, but why bother? “I’d like to get someone in here to do some painting and help me move things around,” she told Rosie.

  “Why?” Rosie looked blankly at her.

  “I want to see if I can make this place a little more welcoming.”

  Rosie just laughed. “Why bother?” Waverly frowned.

  “Why not?”

  “Because kids only come here for the games. They don’t care what the place looks like.”

  “Well, I care.”

  Rosie shrugged. “I’ll give you the numbers of a couple of guys who might be looking for work.”

  “Thanks.”

  Rosie was writing numbers on a scrap of paper. “I know I told your mom and aunt that I’d be here until the Fourth, but I’m hoping it’ll be okay if I leave a little sooner.”

  Waverly felt worried now. “I, uh, guess so.”

  “You can easily find someone else to hire,” Rosie told her. “I can give you some recommendations if you want.”

  “Yes,” Waverly said eagerly, “please do.”

  Then Rosie had gone off on her lunch break, and Waverly was left on her own again. Not that this worried her anymore. Not like it had the first time Rosie had left Waverly alone in the arcade. By now Waverly realized that there really wasn’t much to running the place. At least not in the way it had been run for the past several years. But Waverly hoped she could bring it up a notch.

  She had just finished calling one of the guys Rosie had recommended, and he’d assured her he was a fairly good painter and happy to get some work, when a young girl with blond and purple hair approached the counter.

  “That machine isn’t working right,” the girl explained.

  “Which one?” Waverly asked.

  “Road Warrior,” the girl said, pointing to one of the games.

  “Can you show me which one that is?” Waverly asked. Then she confessed to being new here and not that familiar with the games.

  Suddenly the girl was explaining the whole thing to her in vivid detail.

  “Wow,” Waverly said as she looked at the game. “It sounds like you’re a real expert when it comes to video games.”

  “I play a lot of games.” The girl frowned at her. “Don’t you?”

  Waverly shook her head. “The truth is, I’ve never played once.”

  The girl looked shocked. “Never?”

  “Never.”

  “And you could probably play for free here,” the girl pointed out.

  “Probably.” Waverly handed the girl a token. “Go ahead and put this in and show me what’s wrong.”

  So the girl put in the token and explained what the machine was doing and what it should be doing. Before long, Waverly slapped an OUT OF ORDER sign on it and repaid the girl her lost token, as well as a couple more for helping her figure it out.

  “Will you get the game fixed?” the girl asked as she followed Waverly back to the counter.

  “I guess so.”

  “Can I ask you a question?” The girl was lingering at the counter.

  “Go for it.” Waverly smiled at her.

  “If you don’t play video games, why do you work here?”

  Waverly laughed. “That’s a good question. I suppose it would be smart for me to learn how to play some of these games. But the truth is, I find them a little intimidating.”

  “Want me to teach you?” the girl offered.

  Waverly blinked. “You know, that’s not a bad idea. In fact, if you teach me, I would gladly pay you in tokens for your time.”

  The girl beamed at her. “It’s a deal.”

  “My name is Waverly,” she told the girl, sticking out her hand. “That’s a weird name.”

  Waverly laughed. “If you promise not to tell anyone, I’ll explain how I got it.”

  “I promise.”

  “Well…” Waverly got a handful of tokens and put them in her jeans pocket. “When my mother was pregnant with me, she got sick to her stomach a lot. All she wanted to eat was milk and Waverly Wafers.”

  The girl nodded. “I like Waverly Wafers too.”

  “And so my mother named me Waverly.”

  The girl laughed. “My name is Sicily,” she told her. “My mother named me for the place she and Dad went to on their honeymoon.”

  Waverly smiled. “That’s a beautiful name. And a great story too. Much better than being named after a cookie.”

  So her video game lessons began. It turned out that Sicily was a good teacher. But after about an hour, Waverly was concerned. “Are your parents in town?” she asked.

  “My dad is doing errands,” Sicily explained. “He said he’d be back to get me at one.”

  “Well, it’s getting close to two,” Waverly told her. “Do you need to call him or anything?”

  Sicily just shrugged. “He knows where I am.”

  “Right.” Waverly felt sorry for Sicily now. What kind of father left a young girl alone like this for nearly two hours? “Hey, can I get your opinion on something?”

  “Okay.” Sicily turned away from the video game.

  “I’m going to have these walls painted, and I wonder what color would be best. Since you obviously love video games, maybe
you’d have a suggestion.” She pointed to the counter. “The color samples are up there.”

  They went to the counter, and Waverly spread out the color wheel that she’d been studying. “I really have no idea.”

  “You should paint the walls all these colors,” Sicily said as she ran her hands over the wide array of colors.

  “All these colors?” Waverly blinked. “Really?”

  “Well, not all of them. But how about a rainbow of color?”

  “A rainbow?” Waverly considered this. “Or maybe a mural?”

  “What’s a mural?”

  Waverly explained that it was a large painting that filled an entire wall.

  “Yeah, that would be cool. Like maybe with characters from some of the video games.”

  Waverly considered this. “That would be a lot of work.”

  “Yeah.” Sicily pursed her lips. “And you’d need to be a real artist too.”

  Now Waverly smiled. “As a matter of fact, I am a real artist.”

  Sicily’s blue eyes got big. “Really? You’re a real artist?”

  “Well, I haven’t done much art lately, but I used to be a real artist.”

  “Do you want any help with the mural?” Sicily asked hopefully.

  “I’d love some help.”

  “Really?” Sicily looked stunned.

  “Are you a good painter?”

  “I think so. I mean, I never painted a mural before, but it sounds like fun.”

  “I could pay you in game tokens,” Waverly offered, “if it’s all right with your parents.”

  “I think it’s okay,” Sicily assured her. “They don’t really care what I do.”

  Waverly wanted to question this but decided not to. “I’m happy to talk to them and explain—”

  “There’s my dad now.” Sicily pointed to the door, where an attractive man was just coming in. He almost had the look of an artist with his slightly shaggy brown hair and neatly trimmed beard. But it was his eyes that captured her. Although she couldn’t detect the color, it was the expression that got her attention. They seemed to have a kind of depth to them, like perhaps his life hadn’t been exactly smooth and easy.

  Then, to Waverly’s surprise, a familiar-looking woman walked in directly behind him. In fact, unless Waverly was mistaken, that was her cousin Janice.

  “Waverly!” Janice exclaimed as she hurried up to greet her. “So nice to see you again. It’s been ages.”

  “Janice.” Waverly opened her arms to give her cousin a hug. “I’d heard you were here. So good to see you.”

  “You know each other?” Sicily wore a confused expression.

  “Janice is my cousin,” Waverly explained to the girl. “But I haven’t seen her in years.” She stepped back and studied Janice. “You look as beautiful as ever.”

  Janice lifted a brow. “You look a little stressed out, cousin. Is running a video arcade not all it’s cracked up to be?”

  “It’s a bit of a challenge,” Waverly admitted. “But Sicily here has been giving me some good advice.” Waverly glanced at the man next to Janice now. “In fact, I’ve been offering her a job.”

  “A job?” He looked startled. “What do you mean?”

  “This is Waverly, Dad.” Sicily tugged him closer. “And this is my dad, Blake Erickson,” she told Waverly. “Waverly said she’d pay me in game tokens if I helped her paint a wall.”

  “Paint a wall?” He frowned. “What?”

  “A mural,” Sicily explained. “With characters from the video games. Waverly wants me to help her.”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that,” he said cautiously.

  “Why not?” Sicily demanded. “There’s nothing else to do in this boring place.”

  “There’s a lot to do,” he countered.

  “I’m sorry,” Waverly said quickly. “It was probably out of line for me to offer your daughter a job without first consulting you.” She smiled at Sicily. “You and your dad should discuss this privately. You can get back to me later on it.”

  “Okay.” But Sicily’s eyes were sad now.

  “If you’ll excuse me,” Waverly stepped away, “I need to take care of some things.” Thankfully, Rosie was back. Waverly went over to her, acting as if she had some important business to handle. But she simply told Rosie that Zach, who’d agreed to do some work at the arcade, would be coming by this afternoon to speak to her. “I’ll be upstairs.”

  “Okay.” Rosie nodded.

  “I’m still trying to get the apartment set up,” she explained unnecessarily. “It’ll be a miracle if I can fit the furnishings in.”

  Then, without looking back, Waverly hurried up the stairs to her apartment. The moving van had delivered her things yesterday and, it was true, she was still trying to get the place arranged. But it wasn’t as if it was urgent. Still, she felt relieved to escape her cousin and Sicily’s father. Although she was curious as to their relationship, she decided she really didn’t want to know.

  She went into the tiny bathroom and stared at her image in the mirror. Janice had been right: Waverly did look stressed out. Frazzled, frowsy, and frumpy. She ran her fingers through her tangled auburn curls. The sea air had made her hair much wilder than usual. She even had a streak of dirt across one cheek, probably from when she’d been cleaning behind a row of machines this morning. It figured that Rosie had never mentioned it. Dirt didn’t appear to bother that girl much.

  Waverly ran the cold water, splashing it on her face, which felt strangely hot and flushed. She washed off the dirty streak, dried her face, then looked again. A slight improvement, but unremarkable.

  “Hello?” called a female voice in her apartment. “Waverly?”

  She knew it was Janice but felt surprised she’d walked right in. “Coming,” she called as she tossed the hand towel next to the sink.

  “Sorry to intrude like this,” Janice said. “But I told Sicily you wouldn’t mind if I showed her your place.”

  “Is it okay?” Sicily asked carefully.

  “Why not.” Waverly made a stiff smile. “I’m still getting settled in but feel free to look around.” She was relieved that Sicily’s father hadn’t come up with them.

  “This is cool up here,” Sicily said as she walked around the studio. “I can’t believe you get to live above the arcade. You could go down and play games in the middle of the night if you wanted to.”

  Waverly couldn’t help but laugh. “I guess so.”

  “Cool.”

  “Blake asked me to say sorry to you,” Janice told Waverly. “He knows he overreacted.”

  “Dad’s like that,” Sicily explained. “He doesn’t like video games very much.”

  “Oh.” Waverly nodded.

  “Anyway,” Janice began, “I just called Mom and asked her why we haven’t had you to dinner yet. She told me you’d been invited numerous times but had declined.” She folded her arms across her front. “Don’t you like us?”

  Waverly smiled. “Of course I like you. But I’ve been busy, and I don’t have a car and—”

  “We can pick you up,” Sicily offered.

  Waverly laughed. “So do you drive, Sicily?”

  Sicily smiled. “No, but Dad does. And Janice does too.”

  “We refuse to take no for an answer,” Janice informed her. “Dinner tonight at seven.”

  “Only if Rosie doesn’t mind working late.”

  “Close the place early,” Janice said.

  “On a Saturday night?” Waverly asked.

  “Our mothers are the owners,” Janice reminded her. “You can make your own hours if you like.”

  Even so, Waverly was unsure.

  “Come on, Sicily.” Janice put her hands on the girl’s shoulders, guiding her toward the door. “We’ll let Cousin Waverly get back to whatever it is she’s doing. And I’m sure your father is tired of waiting for us.”

  “Do you still want me to help you?” Sicily asked Waverly with hopeful eyes.

  “Of course. That is if i
t’s all right.”

  “Good.”

  “In fact, if your dad doesn’t mind, maybe you could start putting some ideas to paper. Make some sketches,” Waverly suggested.

  “Yeah. Good idea!” Sicily nodded eagerly. “I’ll try to talk Dad into letting me help you,” she said as she exited.

  “And I’ll tell our mothers to expect you at seven o’clock sharp,” Janice called as she closed the door.

  Waverly shook her head. Unless Rosie agreed to stay late tonight, which seemed unlikely, since Waverly had overheard Rosie telling her boyfriend to meet her here at six, and unless someone picked Waverly up, since she did not intend to walk, their mothers might be a little disappointed.

  Waverly went over to the wide span of windows and looked out. Even in a few short days she had become addicted to this view. So peaceful and calming…and such a contrast to the chaos of the video arcade downstairs. It was here that she found serenity, here that she quietly conversed with God, and here that she found the strength to continue through another day.

  Chapter Nine

  “I don’t see what the big deal is,” Sicily complained from the backseat as Blake drove them home from town.

  “I don’t either,” Janice said. Then, lowering her voice, she turned to Blake. “You know, it’s like free babysitting.”

  “I heard that,” Sicily shot back at her, “and thank you very much, but I don’t need a babysitter!”

  “Yes, yes, I’m well aware of that,” Janice said evenly. “But your father thinks you do.”

  “She’s only nine,” Blake reminded Janice. “You do not leave a nine-year-old unattended.”

  “Mom does,” Sicily declared stubbornly.

  “Really?” Blake glanced at her in the rearview mirror.

  “Yeah. Sometimes she might think Alex or Vic are watching me, but usually they’re not paying any attention to what I do. They treat me like I’m grown up. Well, sometimes anyway. Unless they’re treating me like a baby.”

  “Yes, I know your mother leaves you with the older girls, but she doesn’t leave you home alone, now does she, Sicily?”

  “Sometimes she does.”

  Blake didn’t know how to respond to that, but he intended to question Gia about it. Sicily might act like a teenager, but she was still just a little girl. And he wished everyone would start treating her like one again. As he turned toward his house, he wondered again about this Waverly person. She might be Vivian’s daughter, and that was worth something since he truly did like Vivian, but why on earth would a normal adult pull up her roots and take on a job managing a video arcade? It made no sense.