She climbed in and Cab climbed in after her.
The chariot scooped them up, and they fell laughing onto the seat. Lights whirled past them in streaks of color; the tinny calliope music surrounded them, released after a decade of silence, to fill the air with a tune that seemed to sing, free at last, free at last.
Cab’s arm stretched across the back of the seat; Abbie relaxed against the cushion. The mighty Neptune led the way, trident in the air. The fanciful tail of a mythological sea creature curved over their heads, creating a private cocoon where lovers sat close, made plans, and spoke secrets that no one else could hear. No wonder this had been the favorite ride for lovers, young and old.
Abbie looked over at Cab, strong and warm beside her. He was smiling, happy, triumphant, but he was looking at her. She sighed and didn’t move away when his arm slid down the seat back to her shoulders.
The lights blurred, the music faded; Abbie settled close to her companion and wondered if this was like being home.
Chapter 29
The sun was bright, the day was warm, and the parking lot was beginning to fill up with people. There was still an hour before the carousel opened for business, but Abbie was too excited to wait for the three Crispins.
It was just like being a kid, she thought, as she waved to Hadley, who stood on the front porch of his store, broom in hand and tossing candy to everyone who passed by.
People wandered up and down the main street carrying cardboard cups of coffee compliments of Flora’s Tea Shoppe and sampling Penny’s miniature icebox cookies. A couple stopped to look at the painting in the Gaillard Gallery window. A trio of women emerged from Sweetgrass carrying colorful shopping bags.
Abbie made her way to the center, past a table with bags of pink and blue cotton candy, a cart roasting peanuts, a lemonade stand, sodas chilling in big tubs of ice, and on the grass verge at the pier’s entrance, an impromptu farmers’ market.
The carousel was still closed, but Otis and Jerome and several other men were in position to raise the new storm windows to reveal the restored carousel.
Abbie climbed the steps to the community center and slipped inside. Almost everyone was there, ready to go en masse to the carousel. They were a motley crew, tall and short, skinny and chubby, dark and light, girl and boy.
“Would you look at the little angels,” Sarah said. “It won’t last, but it’s nice to dream.”
“Oh, come on,” Abbie said. “They hardly use their fists instead of words anymore.” She thought about it. “Well, not as much. And definitely less head cuffing.”
A crowd was gathering around the carousel. The door to the center opened, and Jerome stuck his head in the door. “Y’all ready?”
“Ready when you are,” Abbie told him.
All the kids made a beeline for the door and crowded around Jerome.
“Hey, let’s have a little order here.”
After a mad second of changing places, they managed to put themselves into two relatively straight lines.
“All right. Heads up, stomachs in—”
“Aw, we don’t have no stomachs, Jerome.”
“Joe does.”
Joe grinned and arched back to show his nonexistent tummy.
“Then here we go.” Jerome opened the door, calliope music filled the air. The children marched down the steps to the carousel, and a thrill ran through Abbie.
“Come on, I’m not missing The Third’s grand gesture.” Sarah followed the children out.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Abbie said and shut the door behind them.
The crowd parted to make a lane for the little parade, then closed in behind them to surround the carousel. Just inside the entrance, the kids broke rank and ran to choose a figure to ride. Jerome and some of the older kids helped the little ones up and buckled them in.
When they were all seated, Cab clanged the bell. Ding. The platform jerked.
Abbie held her breath.
He clanged the bell again. Ding. Ding. The carousel began to turn. With a shrug, Jerome jumped on Midnight Lady’s back, his grin wide, and Abbie wondered if he, like Cab, was riding over the beach to parts unknown—to his future.
She looked over to Cab, who looked so happy that it almost hurt her to watch. And the carousel turned. Horses, Neptune, the lion, the sea horse passed before her in a swirling cavalcade.
When the ride was over, the children tumbled off and were swallowed up by their friends and family while others took their places.
Cab turned the running of the carousel over to Otis and came to meet Abbie.
“Your assistant?” she asked.
“For a while. He’s underemployed, and I need to get some paying employment, myself, so I can afford this thing.”
They walked through the crowd, stopping for Cab to be congratulated again and again. They stopped for lemonade.
“Think we can get away for a nice quiet dinner tonight?” he asked.
“That sounds good, but we better play it by ear. Now that all these people are here, it might be hard to get them to leave.”
“That’s another reason I hired an assistant.”
“Miss Abbie! Miss Abbie!” Ahead, Dani and Joe were running toward her, pulling a woman between them. It wasn’t Ervina. She was tall and young with her hair pulled severely back in a bun at the nape of her neck. And though she wasn’t in uniform, her carriage alone told Abbie this had to be their auntie who was taking them away.
Her throat caught. She’d miss them. Of course, she might be going away soon, too.
“Miss Abbie, Miss Abbie.” Dani and Joe stopped in front of her, their faces smeared with ketchup, mustard, and cotton candy.
“We don’t have to go away,” Dani said.
“We’re going to her ’partment to pack her things and then we all three gonna live here. In a nice house.”
“Auntie says we can still come to the center when school starts.”
“That’s wonderful,” Abbie told them, then took the hand their aunt offered her.
“My name’s Lisa. Their mama is my sister. I had no idea how things were. I’ve been on my second tour of duty. I just got back two weeks ago, so I have some things to settle. But I’ll be looking for a place here where we all can live. They love the center so much, I don’t have the heart to uproot them. They’ve had it hard enough as it is.”
“What are we gonna do next, Miss Abbie?”
“What are we gonna do next, Miz Abbie?”
Lisa laughed. “It’ll take some getting used to having everything in stereo.”
Kyle popped up behind them. “What story are we gonna tell next?” And suddenly she and Cab were surrounded by children, all wanting to know what the next project was going to be.
Sarah was standing a bit off. She shrugged as if to say, Don’t look at me.
But it didn’t matter. They were expecting her to stay, Abbie realized. It hadn’t entered their minds that she, too, would be leaving when Sarah did and someone else would take over the center. Someone appointed by the county or the state most likely.
“Can I use the digit camera first?” Joe asked. He tugged on her shorts. “Can I? Can I be first?”
She looked down at them and couldn’t speak. Marnie and Millie had offered her free room and board. Bethanne needed help with her new wedding venture. Beau didn’t say much, but she knew he would be happy to have her. He’d made her the nautical star.
“Yeah, what are we gonna do next?” asked a much deeper voice. Cab came to stand by her side. “I think we might have a story to tell.”
They all wanted her to stay. Hell, she wanted to stay. She looked out at the festivities, beyond them to the pier where Beau was probably carving another mysterious figure. And beyond to the brilliant sea.
There was a whole world out there waiting. But not for her. She kn
ew she couldn’t change the world; she didn’t want to. But she did want to make her little bit of it an okay place to live.
She touched her nautical star. She’d been home these last two months and she hadn’t even realized it. She had found her way home.
She looked at Cab and smiled down at the children surrounding her. “Well, let’s see, what kind of story would you like to tell?”
About the Author
SHELLEY NOBLE is a former professional dancer and choreographer. Most recently she worked on the films Mona Lisa Smile and The Game Plan. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and Romance Writers of America, and the author of Beach Colors. She lives in New Jersey.
www.shelleynoble.com
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Also by Shelley Noble
Beach Colors
Credits
Cover design by Mumtaz Mustafa
Cover photograph © by Grant Faint/Getty Images
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
STARGAZEY POINT. Copyright © 2013 by Shelley Freydont. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
ISBN 978-0-06225834-2
EPub Edition JULY 2013 ISBN 9780062258359
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