The Sweetest Summer: A Bayberry Island Novel

  “That makes two of us.”

  She propped up on her elbow as well. They remained like that, sharing the dim light with each other as the breeze from the open windows brushed over their skin and clothing.

  “I wrote you exactly two days after I got home from vacation, the day before school started. I remember it clearly.”

  “What did you say?”

  She shrugged. “I’m not sure about the exact words, but I talked about starting tenth grade and how much fun I’d had on Bayberry Island. I told you I thought you were the love of my life and we would always be together. And I said that if you didn’t write me back, I’d know you didn’t feel the same.”

  Clancy wasn’t sure why, but a flash of memory came to him. It wasn’t of their summer together—it was his dream encounter with the mermaid. Had she been trying to tell him something? That she had never cursed him? That Evie had always been there and now she needed him? She’d mentioned he was facing the most important decision of his life . . . what the hell? Clancy laughed to himself.

  “What?” Evie straightened a bit.

  “I don’t know how to put this into words because it’s going to sound completely crazy, but I think I’ve always carried you with me somehow. In the back of my mind, in my dreams.”

  “Seriously?”

  “It was the sweetest summer of my life, Evie.”

  She smiled. “Mine, too. Without a doubt.” She slowly brushed a foot up and down his calf. “What do you remember most about that week?”

  Clancy raised his eyebrows. “You mean besides the fact that you blew up my world?”

  Evie grinned.

  “Well, I’d have to start with that day we ran on the beach together. I was in awe of you. So graceful. And you were incredibly easy to be with. You never made me feel awkward or clueless. You were nice to people. You were cool and smart but very much a girl—exactly the way you are now. I had fun with you, Evelyn McGuinness.”

  “I had fun with you, too, and I remember being amazed at how easily we fit. It was effortless. Remember the wind chime you gave me?”

  “Absolutely. It was one in a million.”

  She laughed. “Yes, and I still have it back home.” Evie paused. “Do you realize that you saved my life the first time we met, just like you saved Chrissy?”

  Clancy felt his eyes go big. “I guess you’re right. That’s pretty weird.”

  “And the way we danced, talked, and kissed . . . those kisses were da bomb.”

  “They still are.”

  “Do you think it’s possible the connection is still there, after all this time? I’m not sure there’s any other explanation for how we’ve . . . reacted to each other.”

  “It’s there.” Clancy tipped up her chin and kissed her again. “You will always be the girl who showed me the meaning of life.”

  Evie sighed. “It really was that big of a deal, wasn’t it? I know that for me, the girl who left for vacation was not the girl who came home to Maine.”

  “I wonder . . .”

  “What?” She waited. “Tell me, Clancy. Don’t stop.”

  He took a deep breath. “I’ve been thinking that what happened with us that summer wasn’t just because you were a girl and I was a boy, do you know what I mean?”

  “I do. You were the boy.”

  “You were the girl. I don’t think I really understood that until today.”

  Evie sat up on the bed, running her fingers through her short spiky hair. “It would be easy to make yourself insane wondering how things would have been different if you’d gotten my letter. Maybe we would have been together all this time.”

  Clancy sat up, too. “Or, maybe we would have been in too much of a rush and burned out right away. What if this is the exact time and the exact way we’re supposed to meet up with each other again?”

  “True.” She smiled at him. “All we have is right now. It’s all anyone has.”

  They sat in the quiet for a long moment.

  “Clancy?”

  “Hmm?”

  “I know this might sound terrible.”

  “You might be thinking the same thing I am.”

  Evelyn bit her bottom lip. “Really? Because I’m going completely nuts being so close to you and not being able to”—she looked up—“you know . . . express myself with you.”

  He smiled, trailing his fingers down her bare arm. “Yeah. I think we both need to express the hell out of each other.”

  “I’m afraid I’m going to explode if I have to wait much longer.”

  “I’ve been a little worried about the spontaneous human combustion thing, myself.”

  They stared at each other in the dim light.

  “How would you feel about hiring the world’s best babysitter so we can have a date this afternoon, just you and me?” he asked.

  Evie looked thrilled—for about one second. Then she scrunched her brows together. “I can’t even . . . no. I couldn’t do that under the best of circumstances, but now? No way. They would call the police.”

  Clancy smiled. “You’ve forgotten that I am the police. And the babysitter I had in mind would be my sister, the pretty mermaid.”

  Evie gasped. “Seriously?”

  “We can go to the house together, see how comfortable Christina is with Rowan. Maybe she’d enjoy hanging out with the mermaid for a couple hours.”

  “But—”

  “Rowan and I have always been there for each other. I trust her completely and have no doubt she would come to me directly with any concerns. You have nothing to worry about.”

  Evie lay down again and he did, too, snuggling against her and gently bringing her head to rest on his chest. They stayed like for a long while, so long that he thought she had fallen back asleep.

  “Clancy?” Evie’s voice sounded small and tense. “I’m going to get out of this mess, aren’t I?”

  “You are.” He hugged her tight. “I’ll speak to your IT friend today, then do some snooping around on my own. If Wahlman used money or favors to get his way in the custody case, there will be a trail somewhere—somebody with a new job or a new car or a big deposit in their savings account.”

  “Thank you.”

  Clancy kissed her hair. “We’ll get that message to your dad today, before we go see the mermaid. I know how important it is to you that he knows you’re safe.”

  Evie raised her head from his chest and kissed him. It was sweet and sensuous. She was saying thank you, the way she always seemed to do.

  “There’s one other thing.”

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “We should dye your hair.”

  Evie laughed. “I know. I hate it, too.”

  “That’s not it. I think it’s kind of funky. But you should change the style and go darker, so you don’t match the surveillance video from Logan Airport that’s now playing on every TV in the nation.”

  “I’ll give it my best shot, but obviously, hairstyling is not my specialty.”

  Clancy chuckled.

  “Now it’s my turn to ask for something.”

  “Shoot.”

  “I want to watch the sun come up with you.”

  He smiled down on her. “Ah, sweet Evie, sometimes I think you really can read my mind.”

  * * *

  After talking to Hal and spending three hours digging on his own, Clancy shut the door to his office and dialed the numbers he had memorized a long time ago. The call was picked up but there was no voice on the other end.

  “Flaherty. It’s Clancy Flynn.”

  “The Prince of Bayberry Island! I haven’t heard this voice in a while.”

  “Mickey, I need your help.”

  “Shoot.”

  “It involves a congressman, an alleged child abduction, the FBI, and a possible bribe of a public officia
l.”

  “Just my kind of party.”

  “It’s the middle of festival week, and I’m stuck here. I’m asking you to be my feet on the ground in Maine, Boston, and DC for a couple days. Can you do it?”

  “That’s why I gave you this number, Flynn. You’re in luck—I happen to be in between projects. Tell me what you need.”

  * * *

  Charlie signed for the delivery. There were so many fresh flowers, potted plants, and casseroles in the place by now that he could open his own combination restaurant/garden center.

  “Thank you, son.” He checked out the white panel van parked just steps from the house. It had one of those large magnetic business signs slapped on its side. “Never got a delivery from you people before.”

  “It’s a new shop.”

  “All the way from Augusta, eh?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  There was something fishy going on. The man standing at his door was stiff as a fence post and well into his thirties. He was dressed in jeans but was acting all business—barely cracked a smile. He was probably another damn FBI agent. In fact, Charlie figured there was a listening device shoved down into the Shasta daisies. He was sick of this whole business.

  “Long drive to deliver some flowers.”

  “I just go where they tell me, Mr. McGuinness.”

  Charlie looked past the deliveryman and waved to the FBI agents at the end of the farm lane. Every night and every day, they sat there in the blue government-issued sedan, staring at him. God knows it had to be the most boring assignment in the history of their careers.

  “Say hello to your buddies for me.”

  “What buddies?” The man stiffened.

  “Joe and Fred down there at the end of the lane.”

  “They’re not my buddies, sir.”

  Charlie laughed. “Whatever you say. Bye, now.” He tried to shut the door but a large leather shoe prevented it from closing.

  “Be sure to read the card,” the man said.

  Charlie glanced at the small white envelope stuck inside the arrangement. It was probably some kind of FBI trick, a fake note from Evie, begging for help. They hoped he would take them right to her. They must really think he was stupid.

  He put his lips directly into the flowers. “I don’t know where they are, dammit!” He looked up to see the stiff man smiling.

  “Jordi is under the apple tree, Mr. McGuinness.”

  Charlie froze, staring at the man as if seeing him for the first time. Of course, no one would know that but the girls. His heart flipped with joy as he suddenly understood—these flowers weren’t another sign of support from loyal friends and neighbors or an FBI trap. This guy wasn’t acting like a floral deliveryman because he wasn’t one. He was a messenger. A man others counted on to slip under the radar.

  Charlie couldn’t help it. Tears formed in his eyes. “Thank you, son.”

  “Call us for all your floral needs.” The man handed Charlie a slip of plain paper with an 800 number and a name penned in ink: Flaherty.

  “Have a pleasant day.”

  “Ayuh, you as well. Thank you, again. Truly!”

  Charlie shook his head in wonder, closing the door. The second he was inside he ripped open the tiny envelope. It wasn’t her handwriting, but they were her words.

  Pop-Pop,

  We are safe and have help. Forgive me! It will work out and we’ll see each other soon. We love you and miss you and are sad we can’t share your birthday. I will stay in touch.

  Love, C&J

  Charlie wandered into the kitchen, lit the gas stove, and stuck the card in the flame. He tossed it into the kitchen sink and watched it shrivel into a wisp of ash. Note? What note?

  Take that, FBI!

  * * *

  Clancy stayed in the mudroom and kept his voice down as he waited for his sister to pick up the line.

  “Hi.”

  “Hey. Whatcha doin’?”

  “Serving coffee for guests. Hold on. What?” He’d heard his sister mumbling in the background. “Mellie says she misses you.”

  “Tell her we’ll do the fandango next time I’m over there, which will be soon.” When Rowan had repeated his response, he heard Imelda Silva’s familiar laugh.

  Mellie came to work as the family cook and housekeeper soon after Clancy was born, and stayed on when the Safe Haven became a bed-and-breakfast. Though her wealthy daughter insisted she retire, she had no interest in it. Mellie said she knew too many people who died soon after they put in their last day on the job.

  “What’s up?” Rowan sounded busy.

  “I’ll just get right to the point. I need a favor.”

  “Oookay.” She hesitated. “As long as it doesn’t have anything to do with Mona and Frasier, because I don’t want anywhere near that.”

  Gee, that sounded familiar. “I just need you to put on your mermaid costume and entertain a four-year-old for a few hours. Nothing major. Make cookies or something. This kid has been obsessed with your beauty since the parade and has been begging to meet you.”

  It got quiet for a moment. “You’re not supposed to drink on duty.”

  He chuckled. “How many times have I asked you for a favor this big?”

  “This is a first.”

  “So you’ll do it?”

  He heard his sister sigh. “You didn’t forget that tonight is the clambake, right?”

  Damn! He had forgotten. “Of course not. But we’ll be out of your hair by four or five.”

  Rowan groaned. “Can’t we do this some other day?”

  “I really need your help today.” Clancy didn’t want to pique his sister’s curiosity by sounding desperate, but, hey, he was. “It’s important.”

  “Okay, okay. How can I say no? You’ve saved my bacon so many times it’s not even funny. Honestly, I don’t remember the last time you asked me to do anything for you.”

  “I don’t either.”

  “But out of all the requests you could have made—why does it have to involve me getting dressed up like the damn Mermaid Queen? You know I hate it. Can’t I just keep an eye on this kid dressed like a human being?”

  “You’re the best mermaid ever. We’ll be over after lunch.” He tried to hang up.

  “Wait! Who’s ‘we’? Who is this kid, anyway? What’s going on?”

  “Tell you later. Just don’t mention anything about this to Ma.”

  “Um, Clancy? She’s—”

  “See you soon.”

  “Are you ready, Officer Clancy?”

  He shoved his cell phone in his pocket and retreated from the mudroom. “I’m right here.”

  “Go sit on the couch.” Clancy had no idea four-year-old girls could be so bossy. “Then close your eyes, ’cause it’s a suuuu—perize!”

  He did as instructed. “I’m ready.”

  Clancy heard giggling and shuffling until it stopped directly in front of the fireplace.

  “You can open.”

  Mission accomplished—they looked nothing like the photos of the suspected kidnapper and missing girl now being splashed all over creation. He would be thanking his mother.

  “Very nice,” he said.

  “I know!” It was so good to see Evie’s face light up with laughter. It had to be the most beautiful sight in the world.

  “Watch out for the scary pirate!” Christina began a jerky freestyle dance that caused her tricornered hat and attached curly wig to list to port. “I will fight you for the treasure!”

  As Evie tightened the headgear, he had to admit that Christina’s outfit beat her previous pirate costume all to hell. Clancy had been forced to climb shelves and root through plastic storage tubs, but he had found it all—ruffled shirt, vest and short pants, pull-on vinyl boots and a plastic sword with matching scabbard and belt. He even found a
new eye patch.

  However, it was Evie who stole this particular costume show. Mona had been right—the shells needed adjusting and the spandex mermaid skirt was damn near scandalous.

  He liked it. A lot.

  “I’m not sure I can go out in public in this.” Evie ran her hands down her hips, looking worried.

  “It’ll just be for a while.”

  “Yeah, but”—she mouthed the next sentence—“Your sister will think I’m a pole dancer.”

  He laughed. “And here I thought you were a sports therapist and blogger.”

  “We have some catching up to do, like you said.”

  Clancy got everyone in the Jeep and headed out to the Safe Haven. Chris was singing happily in the backseat and Evie sat with her hands folded on top of her spandex scales.

  “You sure Rowan is okay with this?”

  “Oh, she’s thrilled!” Maybe that was an exaggeration, but at least she hadn’t refused.

  As they drove, Clancy glanced at Evie sitting in the passenger seat of the Jeep. She looked so goddamn hot he could hardly steer. He was probably this worked up because of the knowledge that—if all went according to plan—they’d be alone soon.

  She looked over at him, sunlight in her pale green eyes. “You know, the last man I dated called my wardrobe ‘predictable.’”

  “He never had the privilege of seeing you in a mermaid skirt, I take it.”

  When she laughed, he wanted her so much it hurt—pure torture. He was a grown man, and a beautiful, wonderful woman had been sleeping in his bed and walking around his house and he couldn’t have her. The images had been hijacking his brain all day. Evie in a state of abandon, wild and uninhibited and rolling on top of the sheets with him. Evie panting because she wanted him so badly. Evie naked and wet in the shower with him, in the surf, kissing him in the kitchen, sitting in his lap.

  Evie. Naked. Everywhere.

  “Whoops.” He overshot the Safe Haven’s front gate and had to bang a U-ie on Shoreline Road. “Sorry. Here we are.”

  A painfully high screech rose from the backseat. “Look! The castle! It’s the mermaid’s castle!”

  Eighteen years ago . . .

  For maybe the first time in her life, Evie was up before her parents. She left a note so they wouldn’t freak out. “Went for a quick run. Will be back by seven, plenty of time to finish packing.”