One Summer (39 page)

“This had better be good,” she muttered.

“It’s better than that,” he promised before leaving her talking to dead air.

 

“Are you sure you feel up to going out?” Amanda asked ten minutes later as they walked down Harborview toward the harbor on the south end of the bay. “You know I’m always up for lunch, but you do realize that after what happened at the cemetery, you’re going to end up answering a lot of questions from everyone.”

Assuring herself that the ends justified the means, Charity had lied and told her mother that she was craving the Sea Mist’s smoked clam chowder. Helping her in the ruse was the fact that the restaurant was located right next to the yacht club where she’d been instructed to show up.

“I’m going to have to deal with them someday.” And wasn’t that the truth? “Might as well get it over with sooner than later.”

Amanda nodded, her hair gleaming like polished copper in the sun-shower streaming through the fog that was finally beginning to burn off. “I suppose that makes sense.”

Charity was not surprised when the judge’s timing proved right on the money. The billowing white sails were approaching as they reached the dock.

“Oh, wow,” she said. “That’s one gorgeous sailboat.”

“It’s a sloop,” Amanda said. “You can tell by its single mast, jib, and mainsail.”

“That’s impressive you know that.”

“I told you, your grandfather was a sailor. And since this is supposed to be a fun lunch to take our minds off our troubles, I don’t want to think of any damn boats, because it only makes me think of Benton. I swear, if he ever does show up, I won’t know whether to kiss him or kill him.”

“Well,” Charity said as the man behind the gleaming white yacht’s wheel began waving his arm, “I’d say you have about a minute to decide.”

As it happened, there was no decision to be made. Because Amanda kicked off her pricey Prada heels and took off running, barefoot, hair flying in the salt-tinged breeze, to where her husband was pulling the
Amanda
up to a slip at that floating dock.

Leaving them to their reunion, despite all the problems she still had left on her plate, despite the fact that her heart was still aching for Angel and Johnny, Charity was smiling as she walked back to the house.

Gabe had found Charity’s mother dramatic but amusing when they’d first met. As the days had passed, he’d discovered that, just like her daughter, she was a woman of contrasts. Of hidden depths. Which was what, he assumed, more than her still amazing looks, had so attracted the judge.

He liked Judge Benton Templeton. Who, despite having a reputation for a clear and cool head on the bench, had shown he could be as clueless as the next male when it came to dealing with a woman.

Deciding that he needed to do something drastic to get his mind back to where it had been before his heart attack, he’d cleared his court calendar and flown to Maui, telling Amanda he was attending a legal conference.

What he hadn’t told her, and what he admitted over dinner had been a mistake, was that he’d also left a first-class plane ticket in the study. The plan, which failed big-time when she’d discovered the Viagra in his luggage, had been to call her from Hawaii and instruct her to fly down and join him.

By the time she arrived, he’d have accepted delivery of the blue-water sloop and together they’d take a leisurely cruise back to Washington State, where they’d begin preparing for their grand around-the-world adventure.

“Best-laid plans,” the judge said, shaking his head as he beamed at his wife sitting next to him. Who beamed back like a besotted schoolgirl. Since Charity had reported it had taken them more than two hours to show up at the house after the
Amanda
had docked, Gabe suspected they hadn’t spent that time sampling the chowder and crab cakes at the Sea Mist.

“Well,” Charity said as she rose from the table to answer the kitchen phone. “All’s well that ends well. I’ll be right back.”

She turned toward the teenage boy, whose face held a touch of sunburn, but much less strain than it had when he’d left the house this morning. “Johnny, I’m dying to hear all about your fishing adventure.”

She was gone less than three minutes. When she appeared in the doorway, she was white as a glacier.

Gabe jumped up, was at her side in two strides, and took her in his arms. What the hell had gone wrong now? “Sweetheart? Who was that?”

“That was Mrs. Greene.” She was trembling. “Angel’s gone missing.”

Johnny jumped to his feet so fast, he knocked over the chair. It nearly landed on the newly named Shadow, who’d been lying beneath it, happily receiving the bits of crab he’d been sneaking to the mutt.

“I know where she is.”

“I’d assume she’s on her way here,” Charity said. “To be with you.”

“You already sent her away once,” Johnny said. “She’d never trust you not to make her go back.” He realized, from the stricken look on the vet’s face, that his words had hurt. But he figured he could make up for that later. Once his sister was safe.

“I asked the social worker how that could have happened,” Charity said. “You know what she said? That Angel stole a bike that was in the rack outside the inn.”

Johnny could tell she was even more angry than when the dickhead car dealer had said he was going to take Angel away.

“Forget about the bike,” Gabe said. “How about the fact that they weren’t watching her? After turning her life upside down, they didn’t even care about her that much.”

“That’s
exactly
what I told her.” She no longer looked like the warm and friendly veterinarian who’d offered his sister and him a home. What she looked like, as she turned toward the judge, was some superheroine from a comic book.

“We’re going to find her,” she said. “Then, Benton, when we do, you’re going to make sure those horrid people never get near her again.”

“Sounds like a plan,” the old guy, who’d taught Johnny how to tie rope knots while they’d been out on the boat, said.

“I know where she is,” Johnny repeated. Then he suddenly remembered the tide charts Fred had taught about. “Oh, fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

“Take it easy,” Gabe said, putting his hand on Johnny’s shoulder.

“Fuck that!” Johnny couldn’t take it easy. Not when his sister was about to die. “She’s in the cave. The one she said she wanted to run away and live in. I talked her out of it, but she’d know I’d come there.”

“The tide!” Charity said.

“It’ll be coming in,” Gabe said, looking grimmer than Johnny had seen him. “We’d better haul ass.” He turned to Amanda. “Call Kara. And have her call the rescue squad.”

They were out the door in a flash. As Johnny piled into the Jeep with Gabe, Charity, and the judge, he realized that as shitty as this day was turning out to be, for the first time in his life, he had a clue what it would feel like to have a real family.

The sun was quickly setting. In just a few minutes they’d be working in the dark. Kara was sending out a crew with klieg lights, but Gabe feared by the time they reached the beach and got them set up, it might be too late for the little girl.

“There’s a ledge,” Johnny said. “Halfway up the wall. But I don’t think she could climb up there by herself.”

“We’ll make it in time,” Gabe assured him.

“Absolutely,” Charity said.

Fortunately, having learned the necessity for backup, Gabe had two flashlights in the Jeep. Which, with the emergency one Charity had grabbed from the clinic, at least assured they’d have some light.

“You wait here,” Charity told Johnny as Gabe stopped the Jeep about twenty yards from the sand. He was unfamiliar with this strip of coastline, and didn’t want to risk the vehicle being washed away.

“Hell I will.” Johnny bailed out of the backseat before the judge could grab him.

“It’s his sister,” Gabe said. “He needs to be along.”

She was clearly torn as she looked back and forth between him and the teen. “I understand, but if anything were to happen—”

“I can take care of myself,” Johnny insisted.

“I’d say he’s proven that,” the judge said.

“Meanwhile,” Gabe pointed out, trying not to grind his teeth at the delay, “we’re wasting time.”

“I give up.” She literally threw up her hands. “But I’m coming, too.”

“There’s a surprise.” Gabe figured it would be impossible to keep her away.

Their flashlights cut through the fading light and fog as they made their way over the low, grassy dunes to the water. Every few seconds the sea would brighten from the flash of the lighthouse beam.

Like so many Marines he’d served with over the years, Gabe had a GPS in his head. Fortunately, having come looking for the kids when he’d realized they’d left the others during their beach day, Gabe knew exactly where the cave was located. Unfortunately, the trek over wet, moss-draped rocks was proving the longest of his life.

Not encouraging was the fact that the tide was kneehigh when they reached the opening.

“Angel!” Johnny shouted over the water that had begun surging into the cave.

“J-J-Johnny?”

Gabe knew that the relief that flooded through him was shared by everyone.

“It’s me, Angel!” Johnny called. “We came to get you.”

“I knew you’d come! But I was beginning to be afraid I was going to drown.”

“No way we’d let that happen,” Gabe said. The cave lit up in the glow of the flashlights as they entered through the roiling water.

“Wow,” Charity said.

“They’re d-d-diamonds,” Angel said. “Johnny and I were going to sell them to get money for an apartment. Before that mean man took me away.”

“Well, you’re not going to have to do that,” Charity said with the self-confidence that Gabe found as sexy as everything else about her. “Because you and your brother are going to live with me.”

“But what about Mr. Craig?” Angel asked.

“Screw him,” Johnny said as Gabe scooped the little girl up and deposited her on his shoulders, the same way he’d carried her out to the police car that had taken her away.

“Not exactly the words I would have chosen,” Charity said. “But I totally agree.”

“What about the lawyer?” Johnny asked, as they made their way back to the Jeep. Kara and Benton had arrived with klieg lights, as promised. They were shining out toward the water, turning the beach nearly as bright as day.

“Don’t worry about him,” Benton said. “He’s a non-issue. Because you and your sister have friends in high places.”

“Friends like you?”

“Absolutely,” the judge assured him. “I’ve always wanted grandkids, and from what Amanda’s told me, I’d say I hit the jackpot with you two.”

Johnny’s head whipped around, a lot like the kid’s in
The Exorcist
, and shot Charity a look. “You’re going to adopt us?”

“I was hoping to. If that’s okay with you,” she tacked on.

“Yeah. Sure. That’d be cool.” His tone might be trying for teenage nonchalance, but Gabe could see the tears welling up in his eyes.

“Well then,” she said, “I’d like to see anyone try to stop me.”

She’d no sooner spoken than her jeans pocket began playing “Dancing Queen.”

“Hi, Mom,” she said as she answered her iPhone. Hearing the ringtone she’d assigned to her mother, Gabe wondered what she’d given him. Or maybe she hadn’t bothered to give him his own signature song, since he wouldn’t be sticking around that long. “Your timing’s perfect. We’ve got her.”

There was silence as she listened to whatever her mother was saying.

“Okay,” she said finally. “Thanks for letting us know.”

She put the phone back in her pocket. “Mother received a call from the Craigs’ lawyer. His client doesn’t want us to bring Angel back to the inn. Not that we would have, of course. But apparently Craig and his wife have changed their minds.”

Johnny’s hoot could probably have been heard all the way to Portland.

As he pumped a fist in the air, Gabe met Charity’s gaze. And as her eyes brightened with moisture, and his own began burning, as well, Gabe felt something inside him, like the fault line that ran beneath the town, shift.

It turned out to be amazingly easy in the end.

After Johnny and Angel were safely in bed, Mrs. Greene had arrived at the house and explained to Charity something that had not been included in Angel’s official records. Every time over the years, whenever numerous caseworkers had found what they’d hoped would become a permanent placement for the seemingly adorable little girl, the families she’d been placed with had called back within days, usually in a panic, insisting that there must be something very wrong with her, because the terribly violent temper tantrums she’d suffered made her seemed possessed.

Despite her mother’s long-diagnosed schizophrenia, MRIs, CT scans, and examinations by a host of neurologists and psychiatrists could find no medical reason for Angel Harper’s abrupt change in behavior.

So caseworker after caseworker had kept trying.

And each time Angel would get herself thrown back into the system. Charity and Gabe realized that the out-of-character behavior was the only way the little girl had been able to think of to keep from becoming forever separated from her big brother. Who, to her mind, hung the moon.

She’d been at Charity’s house for a week now. With Amanda and the judge back in Washington, and Johnny and Angel settled into their new home with what appeared to be amazing ease, proving the resiliency of children, Charity thought, life would have been perfect. Except for one shadow hovering on the horizon.

Each night she went to sleep in Gabe’s arms, afraid the next morning she’d wake to find him gone.

Which didn’t happen. But on the seventh morning, when she woke and found him sitting hunkered over a mug of coffee at the kitchen table in the stuttering early-dawn light, she knew they’d run out of time.