by Kathi Daley
By the time I’d showered and dressed in a pair of white shorts and a sunny summer top, Glen had left. I found Carrie sitting on the deck, sipping a glass of wine.
“Did your friend leave?” I asked, even though, given his absence, I could see he’d left.
“He did.”
“He seems like a nice man.”
Carrie smiled. “Glen is very nice. Carl and I were good friends with Glen and Wilma for a lot of years. It was devastating for all of us when she died.”
“It sort of sounded like Glen and his wife didn’t get along all that well,” I pointed out.
“Far from it. Glen loved his wife, and she adored him. There was an odd ritual between them when it came to picking out furniture for the house. I didn’t really understand it, but I could see that it came from a place of love. I suspect that at some point early on in their relationship, one of them purchased something the other one hated, which seemed to initiate a game of sorts that resulted in some rather odd choices over the years. But I never picked up on any real tension between them, and when Wilma got sick, Glen put his life on hold to be there for her.” She took a sip of her wine. “I’m very happy with my decision to move, but I will miss having Glen right across the street. He’s a good person and easy to talk to.”
“You can always invite him over. Maybe you could start having weekly dinners together or something like that,” I suggested.
Her expression grew contemplative. “Yes, maybe. We do share a long history. He knows all my secrets, and I know his. We’ve been there for each other through the best and the worst of times. I’d really hate to lose what we have.” She shook her head and then smiled, almost as if she’d pulled herself from a trance. “So, where is Quinn, and what have the two of you been up to today?”
“Quinn is with Sam. I doubt we’ll see her until tomorrow. As for what we’ve been up to today, I have what I suspect will be somewhat of a shocking story to tell you.”
She raised a brow. “Shocking how?”
“I left you a note this morning letting you know that Quinn and I had gotten up early and were going to see Sam. We both felt the need to come clean about our adventure last night.”
“Yes, I got the note and was happy you were going to fill him in. How’d he take it?”
“He was upset at first, but things ended up working out. The three of us actually managed to garner an invite to the island.”
“Did you find Grace?” Carrie asked.
“No, but we did find Peggy.”
After explaining that Peggy didn’t want anyone other than us to know where she was, I spent the next thirty minutes catching her up on everything Peggy had shared with us. It was a difficult and emotional thirty minutes since Carrie was as shocked as Quinn and I had been about what had been going on with Peggy before her disappearance, and her choice to run away from her problems rather than staying to face them. I supposed that after thinking about it, I didn’t really blame her. At first, I’d felt bad that she hadn’t trusted us enough to share what was going on, but when I thought about the fact that she had shared her situation with both her mother and her brother and they’d shut her down, I realized she actually had a really good reason not to trust or expect help from anyone.
“I had no idea any of that was going on,” Carrie said, wiping a tear from her eye. “Maybe we should have. She’d been acting so oddly that summer. We attributed her behavior to her friendship with Dusty, but maybe as her best friends, we should have known.”
“I remember that she pulled away from us that summer,” I said. “I get it now, but at the time, I remember feeling slighted by her. She seemed to have this whole other life she didn’t want to share with us. At the time, I thought that other life revolved around her age-inappropriate boyfriend, and I was irritated. But now that I know what was really going on, I realize I wasn’t there for her the way I should have been.”
“We couldn’t have known,” Carrie said. “The idea that her father was doing what he was is just so strange. The guy was an attorney. He was involved in politics. He seemed so normal.” She paused. “Although I do remember being intimidated by him. He had a very assertive presence. And I do remember Peggy being afraid of him and much happier when he wasn’t around, but I thought that was just because he was strict, whereas her mother was always sick and never seemed to get out of bed, let alone pay much attention to what Peggy was doing.”
“I suppose that her real illness might have been depression brought on by guilt,” I said. “She died a couple of years after Peggy went missing. I heard she’d had an accident, but there had been rumors that her death had actually been the result of suicide. At the time, I remember thinking that if it had been suicide, it had been over the loss of her child, and maybe it was, but maybe it had more to do with guilt over her failure to help that child when she had the chance. She must have been in so much pain.”
“If she felt pain for not helping Peggy, then I actually find I’m glad about that,” Carrie said. “That may seem mean, but in this situation, all my sympathy goes to Peggy. She must have been so terrified and lost and lonely.”
“I’m sure she was.”
“Does she seem happy now?” Carrie asked.
I nodded. “She did seem happy. She said several times that she felt safe with Wilson. I suppose that after living in a situation where you are powerless and never felt safe, feeling safe is a biggie in terms of what you feel you need to survive. She indicated that she had no desire to leave the island, although she was welcome to do so at any time. I guess I get that. Her father is a monster. When she was younger, she was afraid he would find her, and she’d be forced to go back. At some point, she must have convinced herself that she was only safe as long as she was on the island, so she simply stayed.”
Carrie closed her eyes and tilted her face in the direction of the sun. “Having a sense of security is important. Maybe even the most important thing. When you have it, you don’t even realize how much you need it, but when it’s gone, it can leave you feeling like you are adrift in an angry sea. I get not wanting to rock the boat once you find a safe haven. I’m sure it was easier to stay.”
“I’m sure it was,” I agreed.
Carrie opened her eyes and looked at me. “You know the memory of that summer we all went camping up at Jordan’s Peak comes to mind. It seems to me it was early in the summer at least a month before Peggy went missing.”
“I remember,” I said.
“The part of that memory that sticks out for me is the night we played truth or dare. I remember that Peggy picked dare every time even though Quinn kept giving her ridiculous dares. Quinn seemed determined to ask Peggy about Dusty, so she wanted her to choose truth, but Peggy stuck to her guns, only choosing dare while Quinn made her eat a worm and strip naked and yodel at the moon.”
“I remember that I kept telling Peggy to pick truth. I felt bad for her. Quinn can be mean at times. Or at least she could be mean back then. I suppose I also wanted to ask Peggy what was up with Dusty, who, if you remember, we all thought she was sleeping with.”
“As it turns out, I guess it wasn’t Dusty who was sleeping with her,” Carrie said.
I placed my hand on my stomach. “This whole thing makes me sick. I’m glad I know that Peggy is okay, but I sort of wish I didn’t know the rest. I know it’s crazy to do so, but I feel really guilty that we didn’t realize what was going on and help her.”
“I know,” Carrie said. “I feel the same way. I wish I could say there weren’t signs, but there were. We knew something was going on. She was withdrawn and pushing us away. We suspected that Peggy had been sexually intimate and was feeling guilty and ashamed about that. We just missed the mark on knowing who had been causing so much trauma in her life.”
Carrie was right. There had been signs. A lot of them. We were just too young and innocent to be able to read them.
“So what are you up to tonight? Do you have plans with Ryder?” Carrie asked, changing the subjec
t to something less depressing, which I was grateful for.
“Actually, I do. Although I feel bad about leaving you here all alone. I could cancel, but I do need to tell him about our trip and finding Peggy before he hears it from someone else. Maybe I should just invite him over here.”
“Nonsense. I’m a big girl who can look out for herself. I have a bottle of wine in the refrigerator and a movie I taped last week that I’ve been wanting to watch. You go and have fun.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Of course, I’m sure. At first, after Carl left, it was hard to be alone in the house so often, but I am alone, so I guess I need to get used to it. Before you arrived, I was going out almost every night as a way of avoiding the silence, but I can see now that my inability to spend time alone was going to turn into a real problem. Maybe I’ll call Jessica and see how her trip is going.”
“It’s late there. In fact, it’s the middle of the night there.”
Carrie rolled her lips. “I guess you make a good point. But seriously, don’t worry about me. I can entertain myself just fine.”
“Okay,” I said, still feeling uncertain. “I shouldn’t be too late. I’m actually pretty tired after last night, so my plan is to come clean with Ryder, enjoy a meal, and then have an early night.” I stood up and then paused. “I forgot to mention that Peggy knew Hillary Denton. I know she was a full-time resident, and you’ve always lived here, so I figured you might remember her disappearance.”
“I remember. Her parents were devastated when she disappeared.”
“Peggy said that like her, Hillary came to the island to escape a bad situation. She said that Hillary was pregnant and wanted to keep her baby, but her parents forbid her from doing so. They told her that if she wouldn’t agree to have an abortion, they’d take her baby from her as soon as it was born. Does that sound right? Were her parents that hard and unreasonable?”
Carrie paused. “My first instinct was to answer no, but thinking back, they were strict. I remember that Hillary had to go to the library where her mother worked after school, rather than taking the bus home. Her parents were the sort to want to put up a good front. They always acted as if things were perfect at home, but after Hillary disappeared, I do remember thinking that she’d probably just run away to escape her strict upbringing. I had no idea she was pregnant. In fact, there were rumors about drug use, but if she loved her baby enough to fight for it, then I have to assume those rumors were false.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Drug use doesn’t really fit in with wanting to keep your baby.”
“Did Peggy know how things turned out for her?” Carrie asked.
“She had her baby, and after she turned eighteen, Wilson gave her some money and helped her get a new start.”
“So the guy we both thought was creepy, is actually a nice guy.”
“It sounds as if he is,” I said. “I’m not saying that some of his choices aren’t odd, but he does seem to have a big heart and a willingness to act on his compassion.”
“I wonder why he keeps mistresses on Shipwreck Island. The guy is loaded. It seems like he could have a real relationship.”
“I suppose we’d need to know the man a lot better than we do to answer that question.” I slid my chair in and stepped away from the table. “Call me if you need anything. If not, I’ll be home in a few hours.”
Chapter 8
I’d originally planned to meet Ryder at the boathouse, but he called and offered to pick me up. When he arrived, he had his motorcycle instead of his truck, so I changed from my dress into a pair of shorts. I enjoyed riding on the back of his bike, but I’d noticed an unusual tension that had me feeling nervous tonight.
The ride along the coast was pleasant and relaxing. He took the scenic route, which dipped to the south then looped back around in a northerly direction. Eventually, we ended up at a seafood restaurant overlooking the sea. The view was gorgeous, the menu varied, and the atmosphere designed for romance, but my intuition told me that something was up.
“This is lovely, but I thought we’d talked about grabbing takeout and heading to the boathouse,” I said once we’d been seated, and the wine had been ordered and poured.
“That is what we talked about,” Ryder admitted, “but then I realized if we went to the boathouse, we’d probably end up doing something other than talking.”
Okay, that had me frowning. “And you don’t want to do something other than talking?” I asked, knowing that other than talking was code for sex, which I was very much interested in if we were able to get past the awkward conversation we needed to have regarding my trip with Quinn and Carrie to the island and the follow-up trip with Quinn and Sam.
“It’s not that. Really. I am very much interested in doing something other than talking, it’s just that something came up today that made me realize that I had something I wanted to talk to you about. I also realized this particular conversation would be better accomplished at a restaurant rather than the boathouse.”
I suddenly realized what must be going on. “You spoke to Sam,” I said. “You found out about our trip to the island, and you’re mad, which is why you didn’t want to have an intimate dinner at the boathouse.”
“I did talk to Sam,” Ryder confirmed, “but I’m not mad. I was a little hurt at first, but after I thought about things, I realized that I understood why you did things the way you did. If I’m honest, I wish that you would have trusted me enough to confide in me, but I am happy you found Peggy and thrilled that she’s okay. Having said all of that, the thing I want to talk to you about has nothing to do with Peggy or your trip last night.”
I took a sip of my wine. “Okay. Then what does it have to do with?”
Ryder looked nervous, which was odd. He was an easygoing sort of guy, who seemed to take things as they came. Being nervous wasn’t a behavior I associated with him, but he was frowning, and there was definitely a look of concern on his face.
“I spoke to the town clerk today, and we discussed the fact that the town’s computer system is in serious need of an upgrade. Not only is our webpage seriously out of date, but the interface that allows those who visit to link to hotels, transportation, dining, and other services is pretty antiquated as well. We’ve basically decided to commit the funds and upgrade to something we can be proud of, and it occurred to me that you might be the perfect person to head up the project.”
Now, it was my turn to frown. “You brought me here to this restaurant rather than to the boathouse because you want to offer me a job?”
“No.” He hesitated. “I mean, sure if you’re interested in the job, you really would be perfect, but it’s not just that. The job won’t even start until after Labor Day.”
I waited while he stumbled through, saying whatever it was that was actually on his mind.
“It was the fact that you are exactly the sort of person we would be looking for that got me to thinking about the fact that by Labor Day, you’ll be gone. I guess that’s what I really want to talk about.”
I waited, not really knowing what to say.
He took my hand in his. “I know we’ve never discussed our relationship in any depth. We’ve never discussed what it might mean or where it might be headed. But when faced with the reality of a future without you, I realized I wanted you to be part of all my tomorrows and not just the next couple of weeks. I know when we started down this path, we both did so with the understanding that you’d just be here for part of the summer. I know that your life is in flux, and you have a lot to think about, but I’m hoping you will at least consider the idea of staying.” He paused, looking at me with hope in his eyes. “I’m not trying to complicate things for you, and I don’t expect an answer tonight, but I wanted you to know how I feel before you decide what your next move might be.” He frowned. “I’m assuming that you haven’t already made a decision about what you might do once your five weeks here come to an end.”
“No,” I said. “I haven’t decided. I s
till have my apartment in the Bay, but I really don’t see myself ever being happy there now that Kayla is gone. My old boss wants me to come back, but I’m pretty sure I’m done with that as well. Carrie did suggest that I might want to stay here on the island, but we never discussed it in depth. I’m sure I can crash in her new guest room if I need time to think things over once the five-week lease on the rental is up.”
“So, you’ve considered it?”
I nodded. “I have. But I suspect there’s more going on here than the fact that you’ll miss me if I decide to go back to the Bay.”
He rubbed his thumb over my hand. “There is more going on. I’m pretty sure I’m falling in love with you. I guess I’ve known that for a little while, but I didn’t want to say as much because I didn’t want to put pressure on you to consider me or my feelings as you make your decisions. I really want you to do what is best for you. And I know this conversation might seem to have come out of left field, it’s just that, today, when the job situation came up, and I thought about you leaving, I realized how very much I wanted you to stay. I thought about it all day, and in the end, I decided that I needed to say something. I needed you to know that if staying is something you might be interested in, then I might be interested in taking our relationship to the next level.”
“And what level might that be?” I asked, tilting my head slightly.
He smiled. “I don’t know. Maybe we could go steady.”
I laughed. “It’s been a while since a boy asked me to go steady. Can I get back to you?”
“Absolutely.”
I leaned across the table and kissed him. “Now that we have that discussion out of the way, what do you say we get our order to go and head to the boathouse after all?”
He ran a finger along my jaw, pausing at my lips. “We haven’t ordered yet, so maybe we’ll just skip the food. I’ll get the check and pay for the wine.”