Page 115 of Summer People
“You were always nice. I knew you’d come back for me. And then finally you did. It was fate. We were meant to be,” she pleads. “I’d do anything for you. I cut her brakes and pulled her under the water, hoping the current would force her toward the ferry. Do you know how many times I had to trap that damn squirrel and shove him into the gutter?” she screeches.
I blink. That last confession is a new one. Poor rodent. At least he’s finally free.
“I don’t understand what happened to you.” Cank shakes his head. “Your mother raised you better than this.”
“Elizabeth Sweet happened to me. She shouldn’t be here.” She kicks her feet wildly, causing the chair to tip one way, then the other. “I will kill her.”
Cank looks up at me and sighs. “How much longer until the coast guard arrives?”
I look up at the camera mounted just over his head. One of the many I installed around the island over the years. The footage goes directly to a NAS drive in my office, where it’s saved for sixty days. So not only will this confession be on tape, but so will the fire.
“Oh.” Cank nods. “Look at you. All that computer nonsense is gonna be useful.”
Head bowed, I give it a shake. “Who would have thought that all those skills people gossiped about when I was a kid would come in handy?”
Just as the coast guard pulls up, Cank grins and adjusts his floppy hat so the puffin and whale are centered over his face.
This better be quick. I want to get back to my girls.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
libby
“I can’t believeit’s all gone.” Maggie sniffles.
While the people of Monhegan did their best to get the fire out quickly, the paint acted as an accelerant, and there isn’t a thing left that’s salvageable.
Sadness engulfs me. All the work we did. The kids, the town. It was all for nothing. And all because Flora wasjealous. I can’t believe she was responsible for all the mishaps: the golf cart, the window,the hot water heater—honestly, that one almost put me over the edge. Hell, she tried to drown me during the Monhegan Goodbye. I knew something was pulling me down. Now I know it wassomeone.
I’m both relieved and bothered by the truth.
Relieved because it means that Brad had nothing to do with any of it and is likely still oblivious to my whereabouts, leaving this island as my respite from the rest of the world.
Bothered, though, that Flora hates me so much she nearly killed me and Sutton today. Thank god we noticed the fire before we were totally trapped.
I pull my girl into my side again, needing her close to remind myself that she’s okay. “I’m so sorry, Maggie.”
Maggie’s green eyes widen, and her twin braids swing as she snaps her head in my direction. “Why are you apologizing? We should all be apologizing to you. You moved here to escape the crazy, only to find another breed of it. This isn’t who we are, Libby. Swear it.”
I hold out my arm and pull my sweet friend to my other side.
She sniffles against my shoulder, then a sob breaks free. This theater was her everything. Maybe her only thing. Yes, it was used as a theater and meeting place during the summer, but it’s also the schoolhouse. Her schoolhouse. Where she spends her days shaping little minds.
“We’ll rebuild.” Though Fisher told us to stay out of what’s left of the building, Wilder has been wandering through the debris. He steps out of the charred mess, his dirty blond hair darker than normal from the soot, holding up a sign. TheGreasesign. “And we got this.”
There’s a low buzz of conversation around us as neighbors discuss what to do next. But I focus on that sign.
“Yes, we’ll rebuild,” I say louder.
Maggie nods against my shoulder and straightens, inhaling a steady breath. “Yes. We’ll rebuild, and next year, we’ll put on the best version ofGreaseever.”
Smiling, I shake my head. “Not next year. We’ll perform on Sunday.”
Wilder tilts his head and regards me, though his expression is thoughtful rather than disbelieving. And if I’m not mistaken, there’s a gleam in his eye. Yeah, he knows precisely what I’m going to say.
“We’ve got no set. Nowhere to perform,” Maggie says glumly.
I release Sutton and take the sign from Wilder. “We’ve got a sign.” I point to the park in the distance. “And in the words of William Shakespeare, all the world’s a stage.”
