Free Beach House Memories by Mary Alice Monroe

manhood in their breadth. She smiled just to see him and felt a familiar gush of love.
    “Hi, honey,” Lovie called out. “You weren’t out long.”
    “Waves weren’t good.” He reached the top of the stairs and leaned against the railing.
    “Come, give me some sugar,” she said, wiggling her fingers in a come hither .
    Palmer rolled his eyes and pushed off from the railing, walking like a condemned man to deliver a quick kiss on her cheek. She held her hand to his hard cheek and clung to the brief moment. There was a time when Palmer climbed on her lap and told her all about his day, the good and the bad. They had no secrets. Now he was as cagey as a ghost crab, always scuttling around in secret places, popping up unannounced before disappearing again. She was told this was normal for teenage boys. She accepted it. Yet she was always hungrily searching for the sweet boy she occasionally spotted in his quick smile and hasty hug.
    “You hungry?” she asked him.
    “Yeah. Starved.”
    “Well, go shower. I’ll fix you lunch. Have you seen Cara?”
    “No,” he replied. Then, “What were you saying about a golf course?”
    Flo spoke up. “There’s some talk about developers coming in and building a resort on the north end of the island. A marina, houses, condos. Maybe a golf course.”
    “Really? Cool!” Palmer said, then started heading inside.
    Flo grabbed his arm and tugged him toward her. “Hey, you think you can sneak outta here without giving your aunt Flo a kiss?”
    Palmer tried not to smile and mocked a grudging kiss on Flo’s cheek. She promptly ruffled his hair and sent him on his way. She turned to face Lovie, her eyes speculative. “See what I mean? Everyone thinks it’s ‘cool’ that the forest is being destroyed. It’s going to be hard to rally against it.”
    Lovie heard the truth in it. “Oh, Flo, everything about our sleepy island is going to change. The number of houses will jump by thousands.”
    “It’ll more than double the population.”
    “When I think of the cars, the roads . . .” Lovie’s shoulders stiffened as a thought took root. “The beachfront lots will be the first to go, and think of the lights shining on the beach. What will become of the turtle nests?”
    “That issue’s already been raised. The developers are going to have to do engineering and environmental impact studies.”
    “Well, that’s something.”
    “They’ve got to do it before they can get approval for their development plans.”
    Lovie thought of the announcement she’d seen posted earlier that day. “Now it all makes sense.”
    “What does?”
    “When I was at the Red & White this morning I saw a sign for a turtle study on the island.”
    Flo leaned forward in her chair. “No kidding. What did it say?”
    “Not much. It was just a notice calling for volunteers for a turtle study that’s going to be done here this summer.”
    “There it is,” Flo said with a sharp slap on the knee. “Told you so.”
    “Hold on a minute.” Lovie went into the house and returned a moment later with her purse. Sitting, she dug through it and pulled out a small spiral notepad and flipped through it. “Here. A Dr. Russell Bennett. The meeting is at the Exchange Club on the fifteenth.” She looked up. “Bennett. Ever heard of him?”
    “No. Is he from around here?”
    Lovie shrugged. “I’ve no idea.”
    “You’re going to the meeting, of course.”
    Lovie shook her head. “I haven’t decided.”
    Flo’s face went still. “Lovie, you’ve got to get involved in that study.”
    “Why?” she said, feeling the pressure of Flo’s expectations. “Don’t you remember what happened last year when that land was purchased?”
    “They ignored you. So what? You survived to fight another day.”
    Lovie shuddered, recalling the patronizing attitude toward her years of work with the sea turtles. In retrospect, Lovie felt she’d been naïve to think that she could change the plans of a powerful group