Again, the laughter. Full. Unfiltered.
The attention circled back to Goliath’s skull.
“I gotta get me a skull like that,” Wilson said. “Maybe sometime you can come back for a visit—and you and I can go out in the Glades and—”
“No!” Jelly said. “If you want to see Parker, you’re the one who’s going to have to travel. And he’ll be in Rockport, a little town north of Boston.”
“I can do that.” Wilson smiled. “Can you imagine what it would be like to bag a shark? I mean a really b—”
“Wilson!” Jelly shook her head. “Give it a rest.”
The whole group of them busted out laughing. Dad and Uncle Sammy went to get the grill out of the pickup bed. Mom opened the coolers and started putting food on the table.
Wilson took the alligator skull from Parker. “I’ll bring Goliath back in a minute,” he said. “I need some selfies with this guy.”
“That is so vain,” Jelly said.
“They’re not for me,” Wilson said. “I was thinking of sending one to Clayton.”
“I have something for you, too, Parker.” Jelly reached in her pocket and held out a handful of brass plugs. “Forgive me?”
Parker smiled and stared at them for a moment. She was a good friend—and risked so much to keep him from getting hurt. But honestly, only God could have kept him safe with all he’d been through. “And while you’re in the mood for returning things, can I please have my hat back?”
“No can do.” She held the visor of his Wooten’s Airboat Tours cap like she thought maybe he’d try to snatch it off her head. “I’m keeping this until I see you in Rockport. I’ll give it to you then.”
“That could be months.” The transfer process could be maddeningly slow—and totally unpredictable.
She raised her eyebrows and tilted her head slightly, like she knew something he didn’t.
“What?” Parker locked eyes with her. “Did your dad get the transfer?”
Jelly locked her lips with an invisible key, and pretended to toss the key over her shoulder.
“You’re not going to tell me?”
Jelly shook her head. “Can’t.”
Obviously she was really enjoying this. “I thought you were done keeping secrets.”
“For others,” Jelly said. “I won’t let anyone pressure me to keep their secrets anymore. But a girl can have a few of her own.”
“What?”
“Besides . . . this really isn’t a secret.”
“Really. And what would you call it?”
Jelly smiled. “A surprise.”
That seemed like a pretty fine line to Parker. “How about a game of twenty questions?”
Jelly laughed and pointed at her sealed lips. “Sorry,” she said out the side of her mouth.
“Okay,” Parker said. “Just one question. When am I going to get my hat back?”
She looked up at him in that teasing way of hers and smiled. “Soon.”
Escape from the Everglades Page 36