The Sweetest Summer: A Bayberry Island Novel (8 page)

“We will get you a new sword and everything else. Please answer me—did you swallow water?”

She shook her head, her ultrashort hair flinging out drops of water. “I did what you said and always keep my mouth closed and blow out my nose.”

Evelyn hugged her tight again, but Chris pushed against her. “I want to go home,” she said, her bottom lip trembling.

“Okay, Jellybean. Okay.” Just then, Evelyn realized that though she’d jettisoned her daypack, she’d forgotten to remove her hat and sunglasses before she dove into the water. She smiled at Christina. “Look! I lost my costume, too! We’ll go shopping together!”

Her niece pouted, not convinced.

“All right, kiddo.” Evelyn stood, pulling Christina to a stand. “Let’s go change our clothes.”

“I’ll go with you to Nantucket.”

Evelyn twisted around to see Clancy, soaked to the skin, standing tall and serious, his arm outstretched as he handed her the daypack. In any other circumstance, she would have hugged and kissed him and told him she was indebted to him forever. But all she did was accept the pack and shake her head. “Thanks, but no.”

He looked puzzled.

“I’ll call her doctor at home first. Back in Bloomington.” She grabbed her daypack, slipped it on, and picked up Christina from the boardwalk. Just then she noticed that a small crowd had gathered to watch the drama. “He’s fine,” she said to everyone. “We’re good.”

She turned to go, took one step, and stopped. Evelyn
slowly spun around on her squeaky sandals and sought out Clancy. He stood next to his colleague, hair dripping and his uniform clinging to every plane and swell on his gorgeous body, concern in those deep blue eyes, jaw set tight. In that moment she saw all of him—the fourteen-year-old she’d loved, the beautiful man he’d become, the quick-on-his-feet lifesaver, decorated police officer, and Eagle Scout, if only in a manner of speaking. It made her smile.

God, how she wished they’d met again under more normal circumstances.

“I truly thank you, Chief Flynn. For everything.”

She walked away, Christina’s head on her shoulder, both of them weighed down with seawater. She knew in her heart that she’d blown it. Not only had she failed to provide even the most basic safety for Christina, she’d made a spectacle of them both. As soon as they got back to the Sand Dollar, she would examine her niece to make sure she didn’t need medical attention. If she did, so be it. Christina’s health was the most important thing. But the ruse would be over the second doctors discovered she was a girl.

Evelyn would turn herself in.

But if her niece seemed okay, then Evelyn would get her in some dry clothes and start to pack. Either way, they needed to get off this island and go . . . somewhere. Anywhere but here.

*   *   *

Clancy strolled through the small parking lot and entered the Bayberry Police Department through the back door. As with every other moving part in this nineteenth-century building, finesse was required to get it to function as intended. Clancy jiggled the key while simultaneously lifting upward on the knob and the thick wooden door finally opened.

He took a moment to close his eyes and appreciate the relief of central air-conditioning flowing down the narrow hallway. The evening had turned hot and muggy
and rain was in the forecast for tomorrow, which always threw Island Day organizers and vendors into a tizzy. Only minutes ago, an artist had called Clancy’s cell phone to express her disdain for the weather report.

“Isn’t there anything you can do about this?” She sounded completely serious. “As you might imagine, my origami creations don’t fare well in a downpour, and I forgot to bring my plastic rain shields with me from the mainland this year. Does the police department have extras?”

On one hand, Clancy was pleased that Island Day merchants felt comfortable coming to him with their questions and concerns—small-town cooperation was what had made the event so successful over the years. Unfortunately, he had to tell the owner of “Mâché Madness” in Provincetown that the police department didn’t stock rain shields for vendor tents and hadn’t yet found a way to control the climate.

She groaned in frustration and hung up on him.

“You’re two minutes late, great leader.”

Clancy chuckled as he moved through the open doorway of the department’s conference room. “Yeah, sorry about that, Officers.”

Deon raised both his eyebrows. “First day and you already look like you got a beat-down.”

Clancy nodded. “I did, indeed. Chip, you ready with roll call?”

“Yes, Chief Flynn.”

As Chip read aloud every name on the beefed-up police roster, Clancy checked his laptop for bulletin updates. But his mind wasn’t on police work. It was on the lovely, and inexplicably familiar, Cricket. After all the drama at the dock that afternoon, he decided he needed to know a little more about the standoffish visitor. It was simple enough to find out she was staying at the Sand Dollar, and that’s where he’d start in his quest to dig a little deeper. Once he was caught up on paperwork.

Within ten minutes, everyone had been brought up to
speed on the day’s events, the status of ongoing investigations, and the two men in the lockup waiting for transport to the mainland. Precisely at seven p.m., Deon and Jake switched over to assigned patrol, Doug and Will were on station duty and would provide backup where it was needed, and Lowell and Cam would be off duty, getting some much-needed sleep. The last item on the agenda was updating the team on the custody-related kidnapping out of Maine.

“Good job today, gentlemen. Everyone have a safe evening. I’ll be in the office a bit longer, then reachable by radio or cell, as always. Chip will handle the overnight roll call. See you tomorrow.” He prepared to head out.

“How’s the little boy from the dock?”

Clancy shrugged, wondering how he would answer Jake. What could he say? That he knew the kid’s aunt but couldn’t figure out how? That the woman had some kind of effect on him? That seeing her today felt like a punch to his gut? “I really don’t know,” was his answer. “Haven’t talked to the kid or his aunt since it happened.”

“He seemed fine,” Chip said. “I got there right after it happened and all the witnesses said the boy popped up and started treading water. Never even panicked. That’s one tough little man.”

Eventually, the room cleared. Clancy wandered down the hall to his office. He put his feet on the desk and rocked back in his chair, hands behind his head. He decided now was the time. He needed to step back, away from the glare. He would soften his gaze and keep his mind occupied with police business. And sooner or later, it would come to him. The Cricket situation would solve itself.

The phone rang. It was Rowan. “Hey, Clancy. You doing good?”

“Never better. And may I just say that you were stunning as the Safe Haven Mermaid Queen today. And my man Ashley looked dapper at the helm of the Oceanaire float.”

His sister laughed, amused by his intentional mispronunciation of Ashton’s name. Clancy had enjoyed yanking his chain since their first meeting, and saw no reason to stop.

“Yeah, well, thanks so much,” Rowan said. “I’ll pass it along to Ashley.”

“So what’s up?”

“I’m almost afraid to ask, but . . . any word from Duncan?”

“Nah, but you know how he is.”

“Yeah, unfortunately. I thought Ma was going to have a heart attack last year. I just don’t want her to get all worked up again.”

The thought had crossed Clancy’s mind, too. Their mother had worried all last summer about Duncan because she hadn’t heard from him. No one had any idea where—or how—he was. True to form, Duncan arrived the evening of the annual Flynn family cookout on the last ferry, without a word of warning. He called Clancy to pick him up and drive him directly to their mother’s cottage.

It had always struck Clancy as funny how his brother’s job required him to slip unnoticed into hostile territories, yet he loved making an entrance when he came home—the bigger, the better.

Clancy smiled to himself. “Hey, Row, maybe this year a Navy helicopter will fly directly over Ma’s backyard, you know, and just air drop the bastard right into the crudités platter.”

Rowan laughed. “Don’t joke. It could happen.”

“I’m prepared for anything. Well, sis, I’d better go.”

“Wait a sec. The other reason I called is that Ma told me you wanted your boxes that were in the attic.”

He took his feet off the desk and sat up straight.

“
Were
in the attic? You already threw them out?”

“What? No, of course not. What’s the big deal—you looking for a long-lost lotto ticket or something?”

He chuckled. “I wish.”

“Anyway, we found three boxes of your stuff—trophies and kid junk and even some college crap. I put it all in the carriage house . . .”

Clancy was already on his feet.

“. . . So come over anytime after festival week. Maybe you can join Ash and me for supper.”

He put on his cap. “I’ll take a rain check on the meal, but I’ll be right over to get the boxes.” He grabbed the keys to the Jeep.

“Uh . . . now? Seriously? Aren’t you just a little busy?”

“See ya in five.”

Eighteen years ago . . .

A
manda grabbed Evelyn’s wrist so hard it hurt. “Oh, my God. There he is!”

“Where?” She looked all around but didn’t see him. There were thousands of people crammed onto the boardwalk and the edge of Main Street for the parade. How was she supposed to pick out one single teenage boy in this craziness?

“Don’t do that!”

“Don’t do what?”

“Look around like that, like a gopher on a PBS nature show or something.”

“How am I supposed to find him if I don’t look for him?”

“Oh, my God. You just don’t know anything, do you?”

“So I’m supposed to use ESP to find him? Or Baldwin radar?”

Amanda cracked up. “God, that would be great, wouldn’t it? But, no. I’m just saying you need to be low-key. If he sees you looking for him, he’ll think you’re dying to see him again.”

Evelyn
was
dying to see Clancy again, but decided to keep it to herself. If Amanda knew how interested she
really was, this vacation would be a living hell. Could there be anything in the world more embarrassing than having your twelve-year-old sister teach you about the art of seduction?

“He’s looking over here. He sees you.”

Evelyn puffed up her hair with her fingers and tried to appear casual. She must have been crazy, but she actually let Amanda help her get ready that morning. On her sister’s advice, she’d applied mousse to her damp hair and let it dry naturally. After Amanda borrowed a pair of scissors from the front desk, she cut off the bottom of two T-shirts so they both could wear crop tops to the parade. They had to hide this from their parents, of course, because people from Maine thought stuff like that was indecent.

So there she was, hanging out on the boardwalk waiting for the parade to start, pretending not to be looking for the boy she was desperately looking for, all while having big hair and an exposed belly. Evelyn felt kind of silly.

“Don’t look. Don’t look. He’s coming over here!”

The parade started. Evelyn tried to appear really, really into the high school band now playing “Achy Breaky Heart,”
something that was almost impossible to do.

“Hey!”

She turned to see Clancy standing in front of Amanda and herself. She smiled like she was surprised to see him.

“Hey!”

“Want to go for a walk?”

“Sure.” Evelyn shot Amanda a silent look that screamed
Oh, my God!
and said, “Tell Ginny and Charlie I’ll see them later.”

They pushed their way through a dozen rows of people and Clancy gestured for her to follow him. Finally they broke into a patch of clear boardwalk where they could actually talk to each other.

“Who are Ginny and Charlie?”

“Oh. My parents.”

“You call them by their first names?”

Wow—she felt pretty stupid. “No. Not really.”

They walked down the dock toward the marina and the two of them made more small talk—school, family, sports, music, TV—just trying to figure each other out. They went for ice cream cones and Clancy took her back behind Main Street to a beach access he said only the locals knew about, and they went for a walk.

“I think you’re really pretty and smart,” Clancy said.

Of course, Evelyn had just taken a giant lick of butter brickle and it got all over her lips. She shook her head while licking it off, feeling more awkward than she ever had in her life. “Hmm. I’m just average.”

He laughed. “Trust me. I see girls come and go all the time here and you’re
way
above average.”

She couldn’t stop herself from smiling, which meant she was now embarrassed about three things: that she was sloppy with her ice cream, that he thought she was above average, and that she couldn’t stop herself from smiling. This boy thing was hard. She didn’t even know if she was doing it right.

“I think you’re really special, too.”

Clancy shrugged, licking a dribble of rocky road ice cream from the side of his cone. “Thanks.”

“Really. You’re cute and brave and an excellent swimmer. And totally strong. Plus, you’re super nice.”

That was such a stupid thing to say! Evelyn wished she could turn into a pile of sand and be blown away by the breeze. Had she admitted too much? Did the compliments sound fake? They were
real
. She honestly felt that way about him.

But Clancy turned toward her and his face exploded into a smile. It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen—a straight, white grin that pushed up his eyes and cheeks. For just a second, it was difficult to get air. Her feet seemed nailed down, but her insides—her chest and stomach and heart—were so light that she felt she could
fly right up over the beach. This was weird. She was wiggin’ out.

Clancy reached over and took her hand in his. It wasn’t like he demanded it, or was afraid she’d say no. It was more like he just knew it would be there and she would be fine with it. And she was.

Evelyn was holding hands with the cutest guy in the world! He liked her. And she liked him. This was the bomb!