Free The Spyglass Portal: A Lighthouse Novel by Stacey Coverstone

shoulder and said, “I’m a good listener, if you want to talk.”
    After a few quiet moments, she sniffled and wiped the dampness from her cheeks. “The thing is, I think I might be going crazy. Ever since I arrived yesterday, unusual things have been going on. Things that can’t be explained rationally or logically.”
    His heart sped up when she cast him a sideways glance. She was a stunning woman. “What kinds of things?” he asked.
    Her gaze delved deep. “Yesterday when we first met, I asked if you had a twin in Portland. Do you remember that conversation?”
    Aidan thought back to the moment they’d met. It was on the beach. He’d been painting at his easel and had heard a woman scream. When he ran to her, she was soaked to the skin. An old man had fished her out of the ocean. Aidan didn’t know if she’d nearly drowned on purpose or by accident. But she’d almost fainted when she looked into his face. He’d thought it’d been from shock, and he’d walked her back to his easel and offered her water from his cooler. Racking his brains, for the life of him, he couldn’t recall a conversation where she’d asked if he had a relative in Portland, and specifically a twin brother.
    She nervously cracked her knuckles and added, “I was in the light tower when I swear I saw a little girl wade into the ocean and vanish under the waves. The next thing I knew, I was looking into that old man’s face. He insinuated I’d tried to drown myself, but I hadn’t. I don’t know how I got down to the beach. Then the same little girl reappeared and ran down the shore to disappear into your painting.”
    An icy shudder moved through him, despite the warmth of the morning. She thinks a little girl disappeared into my painting? Maybe she’d suffered sunstroke. Or she was delusional.
    Her direct gaze never wavered from his as she continued with her story. “Yesterday, shortly after we’d met, you brought your dog, Paddy, over to meet me. You apologized for being a jerk earlier, and you also invited me to have dinner with you at The Catch. You said you go there so often you know the hostess’s first name—Marianne. Only, you didn’t show up and Marianne told me she’d never heard of you.”
    Her voice faded into the background as flashes of Remy smiling and laughing suddenly raced through his mind as if they were scenes from a movie. He gazed into Samantha’s face and the two faces intermingled. What had brought Remy to mind? His heart hammered inside his chest as time and space blended, and the body of Samantha merged with the body of Remy. Were these memories from the past or foreshadows of the future? When Aidan squeezed his eyes shut, the flashes stopped.
    “Yesterday Jason Murphy had a limp,” Samantha went on. “Last night he didn’t walk with a limp, and he acted like I was off my rocker when I asked him about it. And today I received a phone call from my mother who’s been dead for five years. You were there.” Stopping to take a breath, she placed her hand on his knee and adrenaline shot through his body like liquid fire. “Can you help me, Aidan?” she implored with misty eyes. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m scared. I must be sick.”
    He had no idea why she trusted him, a virtual stranger. Most people in his position would be dialing 911 right now and requesting the men in white jackets to come pronto. She must have known that, yet she’d bravely opened herself up to him and asked for help. He stared into her blue eyes, round with dread. At least she knew she had a problem. Wasn’t that the first step to recovery, as the professionals would say? His hand covered hers. “Tell me what I can do.”
    “Try to believe me,” she replied.
     
    * * * *
     
    Aidan walked her back to the lighthouse, with neither of them speaking. He noticed her fingers trembled as she unlocked the door. “Why don’t I come by again this evening? We can walk the beach and talk more if you’d like. I