“Harvey was trying to come up with things,” she explained. “Things to get us on the right side of the ledger. But I don't think he was really having any luck.”
“You mean the website and the resort on the lake?”
She shook her head. “No, no. If we're being honest, those were pipe dreams. They would've taken money I don't have. I appreciated Harvey's grand visions for this place, but unless one of us won the lottery, those things weren't going to happen.” She tapped the pencil again. “He was just trying to secure some financing. I'd invested all my savings into improvements: paving the roads, hooking us up to city sewer instead of asking people to maintain their own septic systems. I just had the pool resurfaced and had to replace the whole filtration system. Harvey wouldn't actually tell me what he was doing because he didn't want to get my hopes up. He was vague about it. I'm not sure if he was working on a loan or what he was doing.” She paused. “But I know he was trying. He was always trying.”
A fly buzzed in the air between us and I waved it away. “Could he have gotten a loan? I mean, was he part owner here or something like that?”
She shook her head. “No, nothing like that.”
“So he was just doing it to help you out?”
She set down the pencil and folded her arms across her chest. “You mean was he doing it because he was my boyfriend?”
Blood rushed to my face. “No, no. I just—”
She held up a hand. “It's fine. I understand. The way people talk around here, I understand. Who knows what you've been told in the short time you've been here. But let me assure you.” She leveled her eyes with mine. “Harvey and I were not a couple. Not ever.”
I was embarrassed that I'd compelled her to even explain it. If anyone knew about how gossip could get carried away, it was me. Living in Moose River, I'd been subjected to more than my share of rumors. Most of them were harmless, but after awhile, it became tiresome and there were times that I'd wanted to scream at people to mind their own business.
“I understand why people jumped to that conclusion,” Delilah said, the tension slowly seeping out of her shoulders. “He was always here. We spent a lot of time together. Hell, we went drinking together more than a few times. But he and I laughed about it, the notion of us being a couple.” She smiled ruefully. “I just wished more people believed us when we told them that we were simply friends.” She paused. “And maybe friends is the wrong word. I think I was more like a second mother to Harvey.”
“You mentioned his mother yesterday,” I said. “That she'd be devastated at the news. Was he close to her?”
She shifted in her chair and an uncomfortable look crossed her face. Her lower lip trembled. “He was at one time. I was, too. Kat was my best friend.”
I wasn't sure whether she wanted me to ask more questions or not, so I stayed quiet.
“We grew up together around here, Kat and me,” she said, turning her gaze toward the window. “When she had Harvey, his father left. He was a no-good loser but she thought he'd turn over a new leaf when the baby was born. She came home from the hospital and he was gone. She never heard from him again. So I helped her raise Harvey. He was like my son.”
I nodded, listening. It dawned on me briefly that it was weird how she was just pouring out her life story to me. But then again, she'd just lost someone important to her and seemed desperate to talk about him. If that was what she needed me to do, I was more than willing to listen.
“Kat was a good mom but she wanted him to get out of here when he graduated, to go see the world. She wouldn't let him work during high school—she didn't want him to get trapped into some dead-end job that would make him feel like he couldn't leave.” Her top lip tucked into her bottom lip and she tilted her head to the side, like she was trying to get a better look at something outside the window. “But then he asked me for a summer job.”
A truck honked outside the office and Delilah punched the remote. The gate arm outside rose and the truck crawled past the building, hauling a shiny blue and white speed boat behind it.
“He wanted to stay here,” she continued, her fingers resting on the remote. “He wasn't interested in going to college. This...this was his home. They argued about it and she basically kicked him out, thinking that would force him to go somewhere else.” She sighed. “But he came to me and asked for a job and a place to stay. I tried to get him to go back to Kat, to try and work it out, but he wouldn't. He said he'd tried a hundred times.” Her fingers traced the remote. “I wasn't going to leave him homeless. So I let him use one of the campsites and I hired him to do some maintenance work.”
I leaned against the wall. “And she wasn't happy about that?”
She smiled, but it wasn't a happy smile. “No, she was not. She found out three days later and she marched right in here, asking if it was true. I told her it was. Tried to get her to calm down, told her that it wasn't forever, that if he made some money then maybe he'd reconsider and pack up and head out for wherever she wanted him to go.” She shook her head. “But she wasn't having it. She went and found him. He was working on the laundry room, I think. She screamed at him, told him to leave. He dug in and refused. She stormed back here and demanded that I fire him.” She squirmed in the chair. “I couldn't fire him. He was like my own son.” She pulled her fingers away from the remote. “She hasn't spoken to me since.”
Based on her body language, it seemed like she hadn't gotten over losing her best friend and that she still felt badly about it. But she'd been put in a tough situation. I wasn't sure what I would've done, but I tended to think my reaction would have been the same as Delilah's.
“And he just decided to stay?” I asked. “He never left?”
She shook her head. “No. He got a studio in town to live in during the winter. He loved this place,” she told me. “That's what Kat never understood. Harvey loved this place. It's why he took such an interest in running things around here. He wanted it to grow and get on solid footing so it would be here forever. He'd talked about taking it over from me whenever I decided to retire. I used to blow him off because I couldn't even think of the idea of retirement—couldn't afford it, if I'm being honest—but there was no doubt.” She looked at me. “I wrote it into my will that this place was all Harvey's if anything ever happened to me. He loved it more than I do.”
Her eyes drifted to the window again and my heart hurt for her. She'd lost a friend in Kat, a friend in Harvey and, the way she was talking about it, the future of Windy Vista had gone with Harvey, too. Jake and I had mocked the place when we'd gotten there, but now there was nothing funny about it. It meant a lot to plenty of people and it was in jeopardy of disappearing.
“Anyway,” Delilah said, snapping out of her reverie. She lay her hands on the desk. “I didn't mean to bend your ear like that. I'm sure you came down here for some reason other than to have some old woman cry on your shoulder.”
I smiled at her. “I didn't hear an old woman crying on my shoulder. And even if I did, she'd be welcome to do that anytime.”
Her eyelids fluttered and she took a deep breath. “Thank you.”
I nodded. “I did have a question for you, though. When I woke up this morning, there were...visitors on our deck.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Squirrels?” Her expression clouded. “Or bears? We don't usually see them this time of year...”
I swallowed. I hadn't thought about bears. “No,” I said. “Guys.” I told her about our confrontation with Chuck and Jaw.