The House on Mermaid Point by Wendy Wax Page A

jumped out and tied up the boat then headed toward them. He wore mirrored wraparound sunglasses held on by a cord, like 99.9 percent of the beer drinkers and fishermen to whom he waved. His nose was slathered with zinc oxide. When he removed his cap and nodded his head in greeting, Avery saw it was shaved and shiny and almost as tanned as his face.
    “I’m Hudson Power,” he said with an easy smile. “I’m here to pick you up.”
    “Pick us up?” Nicole asked.
    “Yes,” he said. “If you get your things I’ll load them on the boat.”
    If Avery’s mind had wandered briefly, it was back now. “We’re supposed to put all of our things on that boat?” She looked at the open skiff he’d tied up to the dock. It looked to be about twenty to twenty-two feet long.
    “Mm-hm. Well, except for your cars.” A dimple creased his cheek. “You’ll have to leave them here.”
    Troy and Anthony smirked, but she noticed they didn’t look surprised.
    “But where are we going? And why can’t we just drive there?” Maddie asked.
    Hudson pointed out over the docks, past the boats tied up to them, and across a slice of sparkling blue ocean.
    “I’m taking you over there.” He waited patiently for their eyes to focus on the roundish piece of land. It was covered with mangroves and stands of tall, skinny palm trees and it sat in the Atlantic Ocean. Unattached to anything. “And you can’t drive there because it’s . . . well, it’s . . .”
    “An island,” Kyra said quietly. “And, God, I hope it doesn’t belong to Tonja Kay.” She frowned at Troy, who was in the process of panning from the island to them.
    For once the close-up wasn’t of Dustin. He panned the camera across all of their faces, lingering a bit on each of their stunned, slack-jawed expressions. “We’re going to an island?” Avery asked.
    “Yes, ma’am. Although we refer to them as keys down here.”
    There was silence as they all processed this.
    “And we’re going there to . . . stay?” Deirdre asked. Avery had never heard her mother sound so tentative.
    “So that’s where we’re doing the renovation? On that island?” Avery went up on her tiptoes but she still didn’t see anything but mangroves, palm trees, overgrowth, and sand. Only the barest hint of what might be a roof showed through the scrim.
    “Yes, ma’am,” Hudson said again. Avery couldn’t tell if he always spoke so slowly or was simply worried about their comprehension level. “Do you need help with your things?”
    Avery snorted. “I’m not even sure there’s enough room on that whole island for all of Deirdre’s stuff.”
    “Well, we’ll take everything that fits,” he said. “And we’ll put the rest on the film crew’s boat. The water’s smooth as glass at the moment and we’re not going far.”
    “How will we leave? I mean, how do we get off the island when we want to?” Nicole asked.
    “Well, you can always swim. But it’s a little far for that.” Hudson rubbed his chin, considering. “Someone could come pick you up. Or you might be able to borrow a skiff or a dinghy.”
    The beer drinkers had fallen silent. Now they edged closer. A good number of them appeared to be fighting smiles.
    But then, they didn’t have to worry about getting materials and workmen on and off the island on a daily basis. Assuming Avery could even find people who wanted to work in the Sportfishing Capital of the World.
    “The island used to be called Tea Table, because of the shape and all. It’s got a really interesting history to it. But Will . . . the owner renamed it Mermaid Point when he bought it back in the early eighties.”
    All of them went still as they stared at Hudson.
    “Who did you say the owner was?” Avery asked as casually as she could manage.
    Hudson looked at Troy and Anthony. Troy gave a small shake of his head.
    “Sorry,” Hudson said on a wince. “I forgot I’m not supposed to say.” He gave the beer-drinking eavesdroppers a