Half Moon Harbor Read Online Free PDF Page B

stunning, hand-painted rendition of a three-masted clipper ship in full sail. Eighteenth-century model, she supposed, given the established date on the bigger sign on the side of the building.
    Hanging below the near side of the cross beam were three rectangular signs, connected by brass hooks, each one hanging beneath the next. The top sign, in the same elegant script as the one on the side of his boathouse, said B RODERICK M ONAGHAN VII. The one under that read S HIPBUILDER , I RISHMAN , K EEPER OF THE F LAME . Her heart twinged at that last part. Underneath that, the final sign read B OATS B UILT BY H AND ~ I NQUIRE W ITHIN .
    Below the final sign dangled a smaller wood plaque, painted black with a beautifully rendered family seal or crest in the center. The crest was made up of a blue and gold flag with a knight’s head positioned above it. She assumed it was the Monaghan crest. Then she glanced back up at the hand-painted clipper ship, and noted the same crest was painted on a small flag that flew at the top of one of the masts. Wow. She couldn’t even imagine what it took to build something so majestic . . . and to think it had been Brodie’s own ancestors who’d made their legacy doing just that. She wondered what kind of boats he built or planned to build. Obviously nothing on so grand a scale as his ancestors’, so . . . what was his goal?
    She thought of her own goals, and how overwhelming it felt, launching herself into uncharted waters, trying to build something new while resurrecting the only part of her past that meant anything to her.
    Thinking about what Brodie faced, the weight of what he bore on his shoulders, of all who had come before him . . . made her own journey seem miniscule and a little ridiculous by comparison.
    She turned, looked back down the curve of the harbor to her boathouse. And yet, mine is no less important, no less meaningful a mission. In fact, any time she felt overwhelmed, which she imagined would probably be pretty much all the time, she only had to look out on all he had to accomplish to put her own to-do list in perspective.
    She smiled at the thrill that shot straight down her spine, the sensation comprised of equal parts anticipation and terror. She’d initially thought she’d build something brand new, completely original, thinking that was necessary to her new life plan. But as soon as she’d entered the old coastal town, she’d been drawn to its history, its heritage, and decided she wanted to blend old and new. She’d looked at old waterfront houses and even a few abandoned inns, wanting something with character, maybe with its own colorful history, where she could begin to build her own . . . and then she’d walked inside the boathouse right on the water, with a dock of its own, and something about it had called to a place deep inside her. Probably the same place that had pulled her to the Potomac River back in D.C. and to rowing. There was a specific kind of peace that she’d found only on the water, an inner serenity. The water had represented continuity. Security.
    She’d felt that same thing when she’d walked into the boathouse, then down the pier that extended into the harbor. In some ways, it couldn’t be more different from the river she’d spent so many hours on. But in all the ways that mattered, it had felt the same, standing on that particular spot, feeling physically hugged by the curve of the harbor behind her, and energized by the horizon that spread out in front of her, endless, hopeful, full of promise.
    She understood Brodie’s disappointment with the town for doing what they’d done, but she told herself that the loss of one boathouse wouldn’t diminish one iota the proud and bold legacy the Monaghans still laid claim to in Half Moon Harbor, and the entire Cove for that matter. She needed to make him understand that if anyone was going to co-opt even the tiny part of his heritage that