Page 81 of The Summer that Changed Everything

He slid away from Lucy and reached for his phone, which he’d left charging on the nightstand.

It was still pitch-black in the room; they’d pulled the shades tight. But the bright screen made it easy enough to see. It was his mother.

“Damn,” he muttered.

Lucy began to stir. “What’s wrong?”

“My mother’s trying to reach me.”

She rolled over to face him. “That’s bad?” she mumbled.

It could be, he thought, but he didn’t say it.

After covering a yawn, Lucy asked, “Aren’t you going to answer?”

“I’m thinking about letting it go.” It didn’t feel right to accept a call from Sara while he was in bed with Lucy. He no longer cared whether his mother approved of his relationship with her. It was more that he had no idea what Sara might say. If she’d heard from someone in North Hampton Beach—possibly Patti Clark—that he was befriending Lucy, she could be upset, and he didn’t want Lucy to overhear her saying anything derogatory.

“Does she know that you’re helping me?” Lucy asked.

“Not yet.”

“Now I understand the hesitation,” she said with a worried chuckle and climbed out of bed to go to the bathroom.

He let his mother’s call transfer to voice mail again, just to see what she’d do. If she called a third time,somethingimportant was going on, and it was possible it didn’t have anything to do with Lucy. There could be bad news regarding the business that she’d gotten word of before he did. Maybe one of their attorneys had tried to call him at the office this morning and reached out to her when he didn’t answer.

Or Houston could’ve done something—crashed his motorcycle or overdosed.

Sure enough, his phone started ringing again. “Shit!” He connected the call. “Hello?”

“What’s going on?” his mother demanded. “Why haven’t I been able to reach you?”

“I’m just getting up.”

“You never sleep this late.”

“I’m taking the summer off, remember? Or... sort of. I’ve been keeping up with things at work—I could never takethatmuch time off. So what’s going on? Is it Houston?”

“Houston?”

As frustrated as he could get with his brother, he breathed a huge sigh of relief at the surprise in her response. Houston wouldn’t do even the simplest things to improve his life, but at least he was unharmed. “I thought... I thought maybe... Never mind. What’s wrong?”

“Is it true?” she asked.

Ford let his head fall back on the pillows. “Is what true?”

“Chief Claxton just called Houston to say that Lucy McBride is staying at Coastal Comfort.”

Apparently, this was Chief Claxton’s way of fighting back... He knew his family wouldn’t approve. “She rented the Smoot cottage for the summer, but she’s being harassed.”

“So you had her move in withyou?”

He heard the shower and was relieved that Lucy was giving him privacy. “Having her at the house isn’t hurting anyone, Mom. I’m keeping her safe.” He was doing a lot more than that. He was making love to her every chance he got. But that wasn’t any of Sara’s business.

“Chief Claxton said you’ve hired a private investigator to examine murders that’ve already been solved.”

“That’s one way to put it, I guess.”

“Why areyougetting involved?” she cried.

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