Page 38 of All the Ways You Save Me
“Me too.” I raise my gaze to his. “So, I might be sticking around for a while, checking out my hometown, enjoying the beach. But I promise no more weirdness. And no more calling you Adam.” I give him a tentative smile and hold out my palm. “But maybe we could be friends.”
He eyes my hand before slowly taking it in his. “Sure. Friends.” A current of electricity hums up my arm.
“What are you shaking on?” comes a voice from across the bar top. I look up to find the bartender gazing at our clasped hands and quickly pull mine away.
“Just a little agreement among friends,” Garrett says, taking a gulp of his beer. “Chloe, this is Madeline.”
“Nice to meet you,” Chloe says, her expression decidedly less cautious now that Garrett isn’t looking at me like he wants to throw me out of the bar.
“I’ll be staying on Sandy Harbor for the summer,” I say. “I hope you don’t mind if I hang out at Hudson’s every once in a while. I’m not technically a local, but I grew up here.”
“Really?” Her face brightens even more. “When did you leave?”
“My senior year of high school.”
“Do you come back often?”
“This is my first time, actually.”
“Well, I hope you enjoy your summer.” Chloe pulls two more beers from the beer fridge and sets them in front of me and Garrett. “I don’t suppose you’re looking for a job, are you?”
Next to me, I feel Garrett tense up.
I’ve signed up to be here for the entire summer with no idea how I’m going to afford it. This could be a perfect way to solve that problem and get to know the locals at the same time. And one local in particular. “Are you hiring?”
“I am. Do you have any experience?”
“I worked at a restaurant in college, but that was years ago, so I don’t know if I could provide a reference.”
“Well, I heard Ian is renting a cottage to you, you seem more normal than most people who come in here, and you’re friends with this guy. Not to mention I’m kind of desperate.” She reaches over the bar to give Garrett’s arm a shove. “What do you think, should I hire your friend?”
Garrett turns in his chair to look me up and down with those intense blue eyes. I hold my breath. This will never workif Garrett truly wants me gone. But he just lifts a casual shoulder. “Madeline is perfectly normal. So go ahead and hire her.”
Chloe turns to me with a grin. “Welcome to Hudson’s.”
And just like that, I have a rental cottage, a job, and an entire summer to find out the truth about whether Garrett is really Adam.
TWENTY-ONE
PRESENT DAY
Madeline
The next morning, I pack up my things to move to Ian’s cottage. It’s not hard because aside from my wet dress hanging in the bathroom, most of my clothes are still in my suitcase. I packed for a few days, not for the summer, so I’m probably going to have to find a local shop to buy a few more things.
It’s just another detail I didn’t think through.
The cottage isn’t far from the surfing beach where I ran into Garrett. I find it on a quiet street set a few blocks from the ocean, nestled between houses of various sizes and vintages. Some are brand-new construction with multiple floors, balconies, and rooftop decks overlooking the water, while others are the more modest, single-story bungalows I remember from my childhood.
Ian’s rental cottage is clearly brand new but built in the style of the older houses, with pale blue clapboard siding, a staircase leading up to a whitewashed front porch with a swing, and the start of a flower garden blooming next to the stone path. The house next door must belong to Ian, too, because while itlooks a few years older—the paint isn’t quite as fresh, and the garden is more established—it’s a carbon copy in size and style.
Last night, Ian’s assistant texted me some forms to fill out online, and she said she’d be by early this morning to leave a key and some paperwork in an empty flowerpot. I find them easily and step inside to a small but airy living room that flows to a kitchen at the back of the house. The space is furnished with a sky-blue linen couch and two side chairs arranged around a coffee table and matching throw rug. A stack of beach-themed paintings leans against one wall, probably one of those projects Ian mentioned that still needs to be completed. To my left is an archway that leads to a single bathroom and two small bedrooms, both furnished with queen beds covered in sea-green duvets.
Everything smells like fresh paint and cut wood, and as I explore further, I notice a few more of the unfinished projects Ian mentioned. The baseboards are missing in one of the bedrooms, and I find them stacked in a closet along with a few paint cans. The towel bars are still in boxes in the bathroom, and a couple of light switches lack faceplates. It’s nothing I can’t work around. Ian said he’d get someone in to complete everything in the next week or two, and it’s worth it for the discount he gave me.
I head into the kitchen, where I’m happy to find sets of dishes, silverware, and pots and pans, still in boxes on the counter. I wonder if Ian’s assistant dropped them off when she came by with the key. I make a note to text and thank her. Even with the discount, my impromptu summer-long beach vacation is severely straining my budget. I have no idea what kind of tips I’ll make at the bar—though Chloe said the locals are generous—and I’m relieved that outfitting the kitchen won’t be another expense.
I circle the small kitchen, admiring the cerulean tile backsplash that mimics the beach glass Josie and I used to collect askids and running my hand across a solid cabinet door stained in a bright, natural shade. I don’t know much about construction work, but I can tell someone put in time and effort with high-quality craftsmanship in this house.
