Page 70 of Echoes at Driftwood Cottage

Chapter Nineteen

The next morning, putting aside her own issues, Rowan waited on customers inside the Vanilla Bean Machine while Daniel drove to the airport to collect his grandmother. There was no way she intended to let her own troubles ruin Daniel’s visit with Mamie.

She was in the process of preparing a giant banana split for three teenage girls to share when a man in his thirties, wearing a black hoodie walked into the shop from the rear entrance and stood a few feet away from the counter.

“I’ll be with you in a minute,” Rowan called to the man, who looked out of sorts and nervous. She finished topping the banana split with whipped cream and rang up the kids’ tab, all the while trying to keep an eye on “hoodie man.” It ran through her mind that he might be getting ready to rob the place.

Then it hit her. Was this the guy Daniel had seen in his house, the one who’d trashed both of their houses and vanished out the front door?

As the teenage girls took their order to one of the tables, the agitated hoodie man glared at her from across the counter. “Do you know who I am?”

Frightened now, Rowan moved closer to the wall phone and stammered, “Um, no, no, not at all. Should I?”

“There’s a rumor going around town that you don’t have any clue who you are. Is that true?”

Rowan sent him a confused look. “What are you talking about?”

The man shoved the hoodie back from his face and rolled his eyes. “Word has it around town that you’re adopted or something. Is it true?”

“Adopted? No. I wasn’t adopted,” she bluffed. “Not that I know of anyway. What business is it of yours? Who are you?”

“My name’s Will Snelling. William. When I was seven, I was on a boat that capsized north of here. I got separated from my sister. I’ve been trying to find her ever since.”

“And you think I might be Hallie?”

A cautious look crossed Will’s face. “I never mentioned her name.”

“Let’s back up a minute, shall we?” Rowan suggested, taking a step toward the man. “You could be onto something. Because you’re right. I don’t actually know who I am or where I came from. I’ve been looking into it for weeks now.”

“Are you for real?”

“Hey, you’re the one who showed up here asking questions. You’re the guy who broke into my house. And Daniel’s.”

“I had to find out if you were Hallie.”

“And just because I had a bunch of junk and newspaper articles scattered all over the floor you thought I was Hallie?”

Will went on the defensive. “Let’s be clear. I didn’t take anything out of your house. Okay? I just went through stuff. Same with your boyfriend. You’d already made a good-sized mess and left it in the middle of the floor. Don’t go telling the cops I stole stuff.”

“You also made a mess at Daniel’s,” Rowan countered. “Look, I’m not telling the police anything. Could we at least sit down and have a civil conversation? I found those newspaper clippings about your family’s boat sinking in a safe deposit box that I opened trying to find clues about where I came from.”

When he simply stood there, staring at her, she motioned toward one of the tables furthest away from the girls. “Well? Say something. Do you want to hear all of it or not?”

After Will took a seat, she sat down across from him and went on, “My life’s been a mess since I moved back here. I found clippings about your shipwreck—the Celestial Moon—in my grandmother’s safe deposit box. Only it turns out my grandmother wasn’t really my blood relative. I started reading the articles. They all said the same thing. Everyone onboard your uncle’s boat drowned. I won’t lie. For a few days there I thought that I might be Hallie Snelling, a little girl who’d risen from the dead. But since she drowned—”

“The newspapers got it wrong early on,” Will corrected. “The Coast Guard did find my dad’s body and my uncle’s, but they never found Hallie. Obviously, I’m still here, so I was rescued, picked up by a fisherman near San Gregorio State Beach.”

“Interesting.” Rowan crossed her arms over her chest. “But how do I know that you’re William Snelling? How do you know it’s true? How do you know that’s your real name?”

Will rolled his eyes again. “Because after the accident I went to live with my dad’s cousin in Oregon. I’ve always known my name. It wasn’t bad there. I had a good life. My cousins accepted me well enough. But eight years ago, on my twenty-fifth birthday, I took the next step and uploaded my DNA to a website for genealogy purposes. I’ve waited around for years for a hit. But nothing happened. I came back here a few months ago, to this town because this place seems to be the epicenter where all the questions start and end.”

“Here? I’d hardly call Pelican Pointe an epicenter.”

“It’s the epicenter because it’s smack in the middle of where the boat went down.”

“How do you figure?”

“Pelican Pointe is the midway point between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz. I’d planned to ask you to take a DNA test.”

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