Page 26 of The Vineyard Bride

“I’m glad to hear,” Sam said.“I wonder what Tommy has planned for his bachelor party?”

“Tommy’s more of a loner,” Amanda said.“I think he’ll probably head out on his boat for a few days and call it his own personal bachelor party.”

“I don’t blame him,” Sam teased.“The Sheridan Family can be overwhelming at times.”

“Oh, come on.”Amanda rolled her eyes off to the mainland.

They passed the western edge of the Vineyard, nearing Chilmark and the beaches she most adored.There was a heavily forested area, where the trees wrapped around one another in competition for the sun.And off to the right of this forested area, directly alongside the water, came a dark red glint.

“Sam, what is that?”Amanda said, lifting a finger toward the trees.

Sam furrowed his brow.“I can’t make it out.”He directed the sailboat closer to the forest, ducking his chin down as they went.

“Oh my God.Sam.Is that?”Amanda staggered forward so that the sailboat teetered dangerously beneath them.

“Careful,” Sam breathed.

“No.Sam.It’s the car.Oh my God.Sam, it’s the car.”Amanda flailed her finger toward the Chevy Cavalier, the very vehicle that had caused the accident and then fled.

Wordless, Sam drew the sailboat as close as he could up to the vehicle, which was pointed face-first in the water with its back end along the beach.From where they were, they couldn’t make out the license plate number.Still, it was too much of a coincidence to be anything else.

“This is insane,” Sam muttered, easing them toward a tree that hovered out over the water and lassoing a rope to tie them.“We have to call the cops immediately.”

“Already on it.”Amanda dialed the front desk of the police department, where, yet again, Connie answered and chewed gum into the speaker.“I need to talk to the officer in charge of the hit-and-run accident last week.It’s kind of an emergency.”

Amanda immediately cursed herself for having said “kind of.”This was important, and it mattered to her.She couldn’t give anyone the space to discredit her.Not anymore.

Over the next forty-five minutes, Amanda and Sam waited on Sam’s sailboat, cuddling one another, and eating strawberries as they waited for the police to arrive.Amanda even fell asleep for a few minutes, adoring the haze of the sun and the smell of Sam’s skin.When he nuzzled her and whispered, “Baby, it’s time to wake up.They’re here,” Amanda jumped up and glanced toward a little pathway that led around the forest, where two officers in uniform approached.

“Hi, there!”Sam called, sounding triumphant.“What are the chances of this, huh?”

The officers introduced themselves as Officer Gregory and Officer Freddie Marshall.They were in their mid-forties and a bit overweight in the middle, with red noses that proved they’d already spent a good deal of the spring in the sun.

“We’ve got a team coming out to excavate the vehicle,” Officer Marshall explained.“They should be able to assess it for prints and hopefully get a read on who might have driven it out here.It’s obvious that whoever did this wanted to get rid of the vehicle any way they could without going on the ferry.”

Amanda’s heart thumped nervously.Sam remained captivated, watching as the officers exchanged words they couldn’t quite hear from their stance on the boat.After another fifteen minutes, Officer Gregory called out to them again to say, “If you want to head out, could you drop by the station to give a statement on finding the vehicle later?”

Sam nodded, his eyes widening.“Is the license plate the same?”

“It’s been removed,” Officer Marshall announced.

“Damn.”Sam scratched his head and then repeated, “But it’s too much of a coincidence, right?”

“We’ll let you know when we know more.An abandoned vehicle like this on Martha’s Vineyard is always suspicious, that’s for sure,” Officer Marshall affirmed.“In the meantime, you two enjoy your day in the sun.”

Sam and Amanda exchanged glances.Amanda sensed Sam’s desire to jump off the boat and join the investigation if only to make sense of the horrific night they’d shared.

“Thanks again,” Sam offered finally, waving a hand as his other latched around the rope, preparing to untie it.Amanda flung into action as well, helping them to drift off from the edge of the island and back across the ocean.

For a long time, Sam and Amanda remained wordless as they headed back for the Oak Bluffs’ docks.Amanda wrapped her arms around Sam’s mid-section and pressed her cheek against his back, heaving a sigh.

What she wanted to say was this: We went through a horrible incident together, but we made it through to the other side stronger and better than before.Maybe that’s a sign that we’re ready to build our lives together.Maybe that’s a sign that we were always meant to be.

But she held her tongue, knowing that words like “meant to be” were very similar to the ones she’d carried as a younger twenty-something, so sure that Chris was the one.Maybe there was no such thing as “the one.”Maybe love was a decision, every day of your life, to commit to the person you were with.You couldn’t rely on silly concepts.You just had to put in the work.

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