The Sweetest Summer: A Bayberry Island Novel (24 page)

E
velyn eased from the guest room bed. Exhausted from their beach day, Chrissy had fallen into a deep sleep. Now Evelyn tiptoed across the room, shut the door, and slipped into the hallway. Silently, she disappeared into the bathroom.

The reflection she saw in the mirror startled her, but trying to do something with her hair was pointless. Maybe one day she could grow it out again, let it return to its natural brown. But for now, this was it. No matter what her hair looked like or what she wore or how frazzled she was, Clancy was in the living room waiting for her. The moment she’d thought about for her entire adult life had finally arrived, and it was nothing like she’d pictured.

Evelyn smoothed out her shirt and turned off the light. She was greeted in the hallway by a happy Earl and an even happier Mr. T, and the threesome headed toward the living room.

Clancy was sprawled out on the couch, all six-feet-something of him golden under the light of a floor lamp, sound asleep. His sandy bare feet hung off the edge of the cushions while a loose hand cupped his cell phone. She couldn’t blame him. It had to be well past ten and in addition to everything else he’d dealt with that day,
Clancy told her this had been his very first evening routine with a four-year-old. That would wear anyone out.

Evelyn studied him for a long moment, thinking about their evening. They’d returned to the beach just before the sun disappeared. She’d whipped together a dinner using stuff she found in his pantry and freezer—a brown rice pilaf with chicken and spinach, and a fruit salad for dessert. The three of them ate at the butcher block, as they’d done at breakfast. Then Evelyn got Christina ready for bed while Clancy cleaned up, and afterward, he volunteered for story duty. Evelyn watched as her niece and the police chief snuggled together in the big living room chair, his deep voice becoming tender as he said good night to the moon, the mittens, the socks, and the stars, only to do it all over again at least three times. Christina was so worn out and happy that it took just minutes for her to fall asleep.

Apparently, it had been the same for Clancy.

Evelyn sat cross-legged on the living room rug and leaned against the chair. The dogs joined her, each resting a big, bony head in her lap. She scratched their ears as the exhaustion hit. It was a type of tired she had never felt before, not even after the most grueling marathons. The weariness cut down to the marrow of her mind and heart as much as her body. She let her eyelids close.

She could not fail. It had been the only thing Amanda ever asked of her. Evelyn remembered the day she made the promise. The air was bracing and the sky deep blue, and Amanda asked her to have a seat on the stone wall. It wasn’t like her sister to reveal her deepest feelings, so Evelyn let her talk. She broke apart, releasing everything she’d been carrying by herself.

Though five years had gone by, Amanda’s words were as clear as if they’d just been spoken.

“If anything ever happens to me, you cannot let him get his hands on her. He threw her away. Please promise me you will not
let that bastard near Christina.”

The memory faded. Evelyn felt as if she were floating
through the air. Had she fallen asleep? Where was Amanda? Christina? Had she been dreaming? Remembering? Who was carrying her?

“It’s okay, Evie. Go back to sleep.”

It was Clancy, taking her into his bedroom. She wanted it. She wanted to sleep with him at her side. Christina was happy and safe. Evelyn was not alone anymore. She had hope. So when Clancy gently placed her on his mattress and snuggled up behind her, she melted in bliss.

Oh, the relief of his arms around her, the comforting heat of his body, the knowledge that she could truly relax. She could sink into nothing yet be protected . . . from . . . everything. . . .

He opened his eyes, immediately sensing that his bed and his life were different. This was not Mr. T shoved up against his left hip. This was Evie, and her arm was flung loosely across his chest while a firm thigh pressed into the front of his shorts. He lay in the dark, listening to the soft rhythm of her breath, letting the uniquely female essence of Evelyn McGuinness wash over him. His brain had remembered the exactness of the scent for eighteen years—sea breeze over wildflowers—and it now flooded him with memories. The scent was a deeper and richer version now, that of a woman, not a girl.

Just then he realized this hadn’t been such a great idea. Yes, they were fully clothed and had done nothing but sleep for the last several hours, but now what? Evie was
in his bed
. For real. He was awake and she’d soon be, too.

Oh, God, she just shifted and made a sweet little moan in her sleep. Evie’s knee slid higher on his body, her long calf muscle pressing directly onto his cock. Clancy tried everything to avoid the inevitable: he thought of Cosmo Katsakis’s stained wife beater, the Bayberry Freedom Colony, the mountain of paperwork on his desk. But nothing prevented his body from doing what nature intended.

“Good morning, Sir Clancy.”

He froze.

“Yes, I’m awake and you are, too. I can tell.”

Slowly, Clancy turned to face her. With the barest hint of light in the room, he could make out the lovely shape of her face and the curve of her smile. He traced his fingertips along her cheek. “Good morning, sweet Evie.” He leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on her lips.

Evie pressed tighter to his hip while pulling her leg away, as if she realized what she’d done to him. “This is the first time we’ve ever woken up together. It’s pretty nice.”

“I’m not so sure about that.”

“Say what?”

“Yeah. See, waking up with Earl is
pretty nice,
and you’re way hotter than him.”

They giggled together, then busted into full-out goofy laughter, holding on to each other while trying to keep the noise level down.

“Shhh.”

“What time does Christina usually wake up?”

“Six thirty or so. What time is it?”

Clancy reached for his smartphone by the bed. “Four fifteen. I need to be at work by seven.”

Evie placed her lips against the side of his neck. He heard himself groan with the pure pleasure of her silky flesh and warm breath. He imagined how incredible it would be to feel that sensation everywhere on his body.

Clancy turned on his side and propped his head on an elbow. He traced the outline of her body from shoulder to knee and back again. “It pains me to say this . . .”

“I agree.”

“I figured.”

Evie nodded slowly. “It wouldn’t be smart. Everything has been so strange for Christina lately. If she were to see or hear something, it would scare and confuse her. Thank you for understanding, Clancy.”

He decided to keep his frustration to himself.

“I don’t think I could be quiet, anyway,” Evie said.

“That makes two of us.”

She propped up on her elbow as well. They remained like that, sharing the dim light with each other as the breeze from the open windows brushed over their skin and clothing.

“I wrote you exactly two days after I got home from vacation, the day before school started. I remember it clearly.”

“What did you say?”

She shrugged. “I’m not sure about the exact words, but I talked about starting tenth grade and how much fun I’d had on Bayberry Island. I told you I thought you were the love of my life and we would always be together. And I said that if you didn’t write me back, I’d know you didn’t feel the same.”

Clancy wasn’t sure why, but a flash of memory came to him. It wasn’t of their summer together—it was his dream encounter with the mermaid. Had she been trying to tell him something? That she had never cursed him? That Evie had always been there and now she needed him? She’d mentioned he was facing the most important decision of his life . . . what the
hell
? Clancy laughed to himself.

“What?” Evie straightened a bit.

“I don’t know how to put this into words because it’s going to sound completely crazy, but I think I’ve always carried you with me somehow. In the back of my mind, in my dreams.”

“Seriously?”

“It was the sweetest summer of my life, Evie.”

She smiled. “Mine, too. Without a doubt.” She slowly brushed a foot up and down his calf. “What do you remember most about that week?”

Clancy raised his eyebrows. “You mean besides the fact that you blew up my world?”

Evie grinned.

“Well, I’d have to start with that day we ran on the beach together. I was in awe of you. So graceful. And you were incredibly easy to be with. You never made me feel
awkward or clueless. You were nice to people. You were cool and smart but very much a girl—exactly the way you are now. I had fun with you, Evelyn McGuinness.”

“I had fun with you, too, and I remember being amazed at how easily we fit. It was effortless. Remember the wind chime you gave me?”

“Absolutely. It was one in a million.”

She laughed. “Yes, and I still have it back home.” Evie paused. “Do you realize that you saved my life the first time we met, just like you saved Chrissy?”

Clancy felt his eyes go big. “I guess you’re right. That’s pretty weird.”

“And the way we danced, talked, and kissed . . . those kisses were
da bomb
.”

“They still are.”

“Do you think it’s possible the connection is still there, after all this time? I’m not sure there’s any other explanation for how we’ve . . . reacted to each other.”

“It’s there.” Clancy tipped up her chin and kissed her again. “You will always be the girl who showed me the meaning of life.”

Evie sighed. “It really was that big of a deal, wasn’t it? I know that for me, the girl who left for vacation was
not
the girl who came home to Maine.”

“I wonder . . .”

“What?” She waited. “Tell me, Clancy. Don’t stop.”

He took a deep breath. “I’ve been thinking that what happened with us that summer wasn’t just because you were
a
girl and I was
a
boy, do you know what I mean?”

“I do. You were
the
boy.”

“You were
the
girl. I don’t think I really understood that until today.”

Evie sat up on the bed, running her fingers through her short spiky hair. “It would be easy to make yourself insane wondering how things would have been different if you’d gotten my letter. Maybe we would have been together all this time.”

Clancy sat up, too. “Or, maybe we would have been in
too much of a rush and burned out right away. What if this is the exact time and the exact way we’re supposed to meet up with each other again?”

“True.” She smiled at him. “All we have is right now. It’s all anyone has.”

They sat in the quiet for a long moment.

“Clancy?”

“Hmm?”

“I know this might sound terrible.”

“You might be thinking the same thing I am.”

Evelyn bit her bottom lip. “Really? Because I’m going completely nuts being so close to you and not being able to”—she looked up—“you know . . .
express myself
with you.”

He smiled, trailing his fingers down her bare arm. “Yeah. I think we both need to express the hell out of each other.”

“I’m afraid I’m going to explode if I have to wait much longer.”

“I’ve been a little worried about the spontaneous human combustion thing, myself.”

They stared at each other in the dim light.

“How would you feel about hiring the world’s best babysitter so we can have a date this afternoon, just you and me?” he asked.

Evie looked thrilled—for about one second. Then she scrunched her brows together. “I can’t even . . . no. I couldn’t do that under the best of circumstances, but now? No way. They would call the police.”

Clancy smiled. “You’ve forgotten that I
am
the police. And the babysitter I had in mind would be my sister, the pretty mermaid.”

Evie gasped. “Seriously?”

“We can go to the house together, see how comfortable Christina is with Rowan. Maybe she’d enjoy hanging out with the mermaid for a couple hours.”

“But—”

“Rowan and I have always been there for each other.
I trust her completely and have no doubt she would come to me directly with any concerns. You have nothing to worry about.”

Evie lay down again and he did, too, snuggling against her and gently bringing her head to rest on his chest. They stayed like for a long while, so long that he thought she had fallen back asleep.

“Clancy?” Evie’s voice sounded small and tense. “I’m going to get out of this mess, aren’t I?”

“You are.” He hugged her tight. “I’ll speak to your IT friend today, then do some snooping around on my own. If Wahlman used money or favors to get his way in the custody case, there will be a trail somewhere—somebody with a new job or a new car or a big deposit in their savings account.”

“Thank you.”

Clancy kissed her hair. “We’ll get that message to your dad today, before we go see the mermaid. I know how important it is to you that he knows you’re safe.”

Evie raised her head from his chest and kissed him. It was sweet and sensuous. She was saying thank you, the way she always seemed to do.

“There’s one other thing.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“We should dye your hair.”

Evie laughed. “I know. I hate it, too.”

“That’s not it. I think it’s kind of funky. But you should change the style and go darker, so you don’t match the surveillance video from Logan Airport that’s now playing on every TV in the nation.”

“I’ll give it my best shot, but obviously, hairstyling is not my specialty.”

Clancy chuckled.

“Now it’s my turn to ask for something.”

“Shoot.”

“I want to watch the sun come up with you.”

He smiled down on her. “Ah, sweet Evie, sometimes I think you really can read my mind.”

*   *   *

After talking to Hal and spending three hours digging on his own, Clancy shut the door to his office and dialed the numbers he had memorized a long time ago. The call was picked up but there was no voice on the other end.

“Flaherty. It’s Clancy Flynn.”