Page 8 of An Island Summer
“I knew right away when you mentioned his cottage. Word gets around our little island. When the lights came back on, people started talking and we’ve all been waiting to see who’s moving in.”
Meghan considered the idea that no one had probably noticed her empty apartment back in New York.
“Your grandfather used to show me photos of you when he stopped in. He came in all the time right after we opened,” she said, placing the pencil behind her ear, tucking a lock of hair back with it. “It was my first job and he was so patient with me while I rung up his order. Every time, he got a black coffee with a splash of milk. He never stayed very long. He was always on his way to fish. He had a charter, didn’t he?”
“He did,” Meghan said. “He took vacationers out on day excursions in the summers.”
“Ah, yes! I remember now. He was popular with families—they all knew how good he was with kids.”
That filled Meghan with happiness, the memory of Pappy chasing her with Frankenstein fingers all over the yard outside while she squealed running through her mind like an old movie reel. “Yes, he was so great.”
With a nod of understanding, the barista smiled. “I’m Chloe, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you, Chloe. I’m Meghan and this is Tess.”
“Glad to meet you.” Chloe pulled two paper cups from the stack beside her and scribbled a note on one of them. “Any flavor in the lattes?”
Meghan peered up at the menu, her mind still on Pappy. “Oh, you have English toffee? I’ll take that. Decaf.”
“I’ll have caramel,” Tess said, coming up beside Meghan.
The barista wrote their choices on the side of the cups with pencil, filled the espresso machine, and hissed the frother. “I’ll bet you miss him,” she continued.
“I do,” Meghan said. And something told her that the missing Pappy part was never going to get easier.
FIVE
Meghan mounted her bike outside the coffee shop. Tess pushed off, rolling up next to her, and the two of them headed down the road. Meghan’s hair, coarse from the salt in the air, tickled her face, the seaside breeze whipping around them. Island music from shops and cafés faded in and out as they passed by. The beach atmosphere was like medicine for her soul, like a tiny whisper of the hope she’d had when she’d left here so many years ago with her big dreams tucked into her suitcases.
She and Tess had spent their senior year in high school 154 miles apart, the whole time planning their unified escape to the Big Apple, where they’d chase their futures with a vengeance. They’d spent that first year barely sleeping, talking into the wee hours of the morning, catching up on the years they’d lost living apart. Her friend would follow her anywhere. And Meghan was so thankful she’d followed her to the Outer Banks. It felt good to show Tess where she’d spent much of her youth.
The village was very much the way she remembered it. A few of the shops had changed hands since she’d been there last, but they’d kept that small-town feel with their clapboard and shingled facades, decking, and porches. Locals rode by on pastel bicycles, maneuvering around the sand dunes that had inched onto the edges of the road, and surfers, with their bare feet and chests, carried brightly painted boards under their arms as they made their way to the perfect swell.
Meghan stopped on the corner to wait for the traffic light, and Tess leaned toward her. “Hey, Hester, is that Toby Meyers?”
Meghan peered over at the white Range Rover next to her, recognizing the man from last night. He looked at her, his blue eyes causing her to forget where she was for a second. Realizing that it was time to cross, she waved to him and rode to the other side, catching up with Tess.
“Was that him?” Tess asked, parking her bicycle in the bike rack, her eyebrows dancing in suggestion.
“I think so,” Meghan said, parking her bike. As she started toward the door to the souvenir shop, Tess bounced up beside her.
“Did you see his car?” she asked, pulling on the sleeve of Meghan’s T-shirt, continuing before Meghan could answer.
“His car?” Meghan shook her head, dismissing the comment, but she had seen it. Ithadcrossed her mind that she could barely afford a cup of coffee and he was driving around in that. And the frustration that she could hardly manage to buy that coffee swarmed her. Maybe it had been Pappy’s doing, for encouraging her to shoot for the stars, but she felt like she was always one step away from breaking through and being something big, yet it never seemed to happen.
“I hope we run into him again,” Tess said. “He was so mysterious. Quiet. You know how those quiet ones are…”
Meghan shook her head with a smirk. “The very last thing I need right now is another person to worry about.”
“You’d worry about me?” a familiar deep voice sailed up from behind them.
She turned around to find Toby’s piercing gaze on her. “No,” she said, thinking quickly, “I said you’re thelastthing I’d worry about.” She gave him a lighthearted look of challenge, to be sure he knew she was only kidding, although his expression was nearly impossible to decipher, his neutral look not allowing her even the slightest hint of what he was thinking. “Are you following me?” she asked.
Tess eyed her, clearly entertained by the exchange.
He didn’t crack even a fraction of a smile, but there was something gentle in his eyes. “I was at the stoplight with my blinker on, remember?”
“What are you shopping for?” she asked, looking away at the random parked cars in the lot to avoid the flutter his stare caused her.
