Mike's Wager: Short Story (The Camerons of Tide's Way #3.5) (2 page)

Mike put his hand on the flap. Truth time. He pushed it open and crawled out. Then reached back for the empty plate and towel. “These yours too?” He held them out toward the man squatting just a few feet away.

It was Gordon Quinn. Tide’s Way’s town manager. And his wife was Aunt Bea to everyone in the town, whether they were related or not.

Mike stood up slowly, careful not to look Mr. Quinn directly in the eye. Five weeks of preparation had provided Mike with a pretty impressive beard, and he’d let his hair grow as well. But in spite of the disguise, it wouldn’t take Aunt Bea long to figure out who’d been living on the town common all week.

“Good God! You’re Michael Kennedy!” Apparently didn’t fool the town manager all that long either. “What on God’s green earth are you doing living like a bum? Do your parents know you’re here?”

Before Quinn could offer his hand for a shake, Mike jammed his filthy hands into his pockets and discovered the baggie full of brownies he’d been saving for breakfast. He hauled the bag out and gazed at the crumbled brown contents. What a shame. Aunt Bea made the best brownies in creation.

“I don’t think my folks are even home,” Mike answered Mr. Quinn’s question. “They thought I was headed to Florida for Spring Break so they were planning to fly out to see my sister in LA.”

“You can explain all this in the car. It’s colder than a witch’s—you-know-what. We’ll come back and clean this mess up later. Let’s go get breakfast before Bea shows up to find out how come I failed to do her bidding.”

Mike started the explanation on the way to the Quinn’s home and finished it over a steaming plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, and grits.

Aunt Bea insisted he come back for dinner and stay the night after he’d changed into clean clothes at home. “No need to be rattling around in that big old place by yourself. Besides,” She patted his hairy cheek, “you’ve got some eating to catch up on before you head back to school.”

Beatrice Quinn did indeed know boys. And men, for that matter.

MIKE BUCKLED his seatbelt and gazed out at the black, rain-drenched tarmac of Wilmington’s small airport. He’d won his bet, and his faith in Tide’s Way was untarnished. He was eager to collect his winnings from Murphy, and he knew exactly what he was going to do with it. There was a ragged colony of homeless people who lived over a laundry grate that needed a little help getting by.

Mike was looking forward to the remainder of his freshman year at Harvard. He was looking forward to getting to know some of the men and women in that tattered but loyal colony of lost and cast off souls. But mostly he was looking forward to coming home in May, to a town where people cared.

The End

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About the Author

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I have been a member of Romance Writers of America since 1995 and of the Ancient City chapter in St. Augustine, Florida, for the last six years, where I have served as secretary, conference chair, and treasurer. I am also a member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association and the Florida Writers Association. My publishing credits to date include several non-fiction essays about life as a Peace Corps Volunteer, one mainstream political intrigue,
Whatever It Takes
, published in June 2012 by Wings Press, and the Tide’s Way series from Bell Bridge Books.