“I can’t ask that of you. Of either of you.”
“You can, and you will,” Jake said.
“Why would you do this for me?”
“You know why.”
And she did. She wrapped her arms around him, buried her nose in his neck, and closed her eyes. “I love you, too.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
Shannon
A Dog’s Cat, George Town
Two Weeks Later
Sitting on the trampoline of A Dog’s Cat, Shannon swayed in time to the waves. Jake was back at the helm station, steering the boat to the George Town anchorage.
At the start of the trip in Florida, she’d had no idea where the adventure would lead. She’d lost her job. Her fiancé had left her for another woman. The days of agony after her life tanked seemed like a dream now.
She knew she’d lost Charlie years ago, but to lose him so completely by finding out he wasn’t her brother and then to death, tore at her. If only she hadn’t been so angry. She should have picked him up as soon as he fell overboard. Forgiveness was something she would never allow herself. Charlie brought on his own troubles, but in the end, she’d betrayed him. She’d let him down when he needed her most. What kind of person lets another person drown?
A local fisherman had found Charlie’s body. Debi would escort him back to Canada and bury him there. Shannon and Jake would stay on A Dog’s Cat.
Funny, she’d thought she’d been in love with Lance. She could call him just Lance now without adding The Loser. Maybe she could have made a life with him if he hadn’t cheated on her, but lucky for her he had. Otherwise, she never would have met Jake.
Where they were headed or what they did for a living didn’t matter. All that mattered was they were together. They could figure out the rest.
Peanut curled into Shannon’s leg and rested her jaw on her thigh. She rubbed her thumb along the dog’s soft nose, and Peanut closed her eyes. Debi planned to leave Peanut on A Dog’s Cat. The plane ride to Toronto was too long to be crated for.
If Debi didn’t return to the boat, Shannon and Jake would take care of her. Mister I’m a cat man obviously cared for Peanut. He already was a dog man. He just didn’t know it yet.
Jake steered into the anchorage, and Shannon retrieved the windlass and prepared to drop the anchor. The sun warmed her skin. Maybe she would never go north again.
With the boat anchored, Shannon, Jake, and Debi grouped in the cockpit.
“You okay?” Debi tucked a strand of hair behind Shannon’s ear.
Shannon hugged her. “I wish you didn’t have to go.”
“I owe it to Charlie. He should be buried beside his parents.”
“Do you think we could have done anything differently?”
“I don’t know.”
Jake carried Debi’s suitcase and loaded it into the dinghy.
“I never understood why Charlie didn’t like me,” Shannon said.
“Maybe that’s my fault,” Debi said. “I might have subconsciously favored you. He could have felt I loved you more.”
“Was he always angry?”
“At first, I thought his eight-year-old mind couldn’t cope with the loss, but that he would settle into our home eventually. By the time he was a teenager, I knew he was getting angrier each year. Something changed in him. He was such a happy little boy.”
“Was I a good sister?”
“You were. You couldn’t know he was troubled. I’m the one who should have done more about it.”
“Neither of you are at fault here. Charlie had issues,” Jake said. “We should get going.”
The trio set off in the dinghy, puttered into Lake Victoria, and tied to the dock behind Exuma Markets.
The taxi met them in front of the store. An elderly man in a suit opened the back hatch and loaded Debi’s bag. Peanut jumped on Debi, somehow aware she was leaving. Debi picked her up, kissed her nose, and handed her to Shannon. “Take care of her.”
Shannon swallowed the tightness in her throat. She put her lips to Debi’s ear. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” Debi released Shannon, quickly hugged Jake, and stepped into the taxi.
Shannon and Jake stood hand in hand. Debi’s taxi disappeared around the corner.
“What should we do with the rest of our lives, Champagne?” Jake asked.
“Be together.”
* * *
If you enjoyed this book, please consider writing a short review and posting it on your favorite review site. Reviews are very helpful to other readers and are greatly appreciated by authors, especially me. When you post a review, drop me an email and let me know and I may feature part of it on my blog/site. Thank you.
Kristina
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Message from the Author
Dear Reader,
I wrote LOOK THE OTHER WAY after I read TOTAL MEMORY MAKEOVER by Marilu Henner and was inspired by her journey. I do take the condition of a highly superior autobiographical memory to the extreme to make the story dramatic.
I’d sailed the Bahamian Islands from 1999 to 2003 and again from 2009 to 2014. The book is based on the country, but I have taken liberties with locations and businesses. All of the people and some of the places in the book are fictitious.
If you’d like to connect, send me a tweet @StanleyKMS telling me you’ve read LOOK THE OTHER WAY, and I’ll follow you back. I can also be found at www.KristinaStanley.com.
With all my heart, I thank you for reading LOOK THE OTHER WAY.
Kristina Stanley
Works by Kristina Stanley
Novels:
Descent
Blaze
Avalanche
Look the Other Way
Non-Fiction:
The Author’s Guide to Selling Books to Non-Bookstores
About the Author
Kristina Stanley is the best-selling author of the Stone Mountain Mystery Series. Her first two novels garnered the attention of prestigious crime writing organizations in Canada and England. Crime Writers of Canada nominated DESCENT (Imajin Books, July 2015) for the Unhanged Arthur award. The Crime Writers’ Association nominated BLAZE (Imajin Books, Oct 2015) for the Debut Dagger. Imajin Books published her third novel in the series, AVALANCHE, in June 2016.
Her short stories have been published in the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and The Voices from the Valleys anthology. She is the author of THE AUTHOR’S GUIDE TO SELLING BOOKS TO NON-BOOKSTORES.
As the co-founder and CEO of Feedback Innovations, a company started to help authors rewrite better fiction, she’s created an app to turn a first draft into a story readers love.
Connect with Kristina at www.KristinaStanley.com
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Look the Other Way Page 27