AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I know so.” Josie waved her hand, standing up straight again. “You and Alissa balance each other out perfectly. I wouldn’t worry too much about not ‘getting’ the luau.”
The knot in Dane’s chest loosened a bit. He trusted Josie’s word. She was great with people and always friendly, but she wasn’t afraid to tell someone the truth if they needed to hear it. She wouldn’t lie to him.
“Thanks, Josie,” Dane said.
“No problem. See you tomorrow.”
Josie left Dane to his thoughts. The heaviness in his chest had lightened, but that left him with more questions. He loved the idea and he and Alissa balanced each other out, but he wanted to show her that he was willing to keep stepping out of his comfort zone for her.
But how?
Dane grabbed a notepad and a pen—writing things long-hand always helped him when he was stuck with a problem. There were so many options for him to meet Alissa in the middle, but he wanted to find the best one.
* * *
Hannah had turned The Crab’s sign from open to closed a half hour ago, but now she was finally finished wrapping things up for the day. The set of tasks that she had to do to close up the restaurant were so heavily ingrained in her that she could have done them in her sleep. Tidying, counting, sweeping, wiping down surfaces, putting the chairs up on the tables.
She took off the apron from around her waist and looked around. The restaurant was always so filled with life that seeing it empty was strange, but she welcomed the quiet today.
She wandered over to the piano that they kept in the corner of the restaurant near the entrance and sat at it, lifting the cover over the keys. It wasn’t anything fancy. If she was remembering correctly, her dad had gotten it from someone who was trying to get rid of it and had it tuned up.
It had been there for ages and they kept it there for customers to mess around on it, just for fun. Sometimes people just poked around, not playing anything in particular, and others were quite good, grabbing the attention of everyone in the restaurant for a short time.
But for her, it was the place where she composed her work after hours and played her heart out without anyone around to see her. She could be completely herself.
The same piece that she had been working on for weeks was bothering her—something about part of it didn’t sound quite right, but she knew she could figure it out with enough work. She put her fingers to the keys to warm up her hands for the piano and not cooking or preparing food. The scales that she’d found online flowed easily, a good sign for tonight’s playing. The repetitive motions and sounds took her mind off of the hard work of the day, all of the slightly-less-than-friendly customers and mishaps that came along with working at a restaurant floating away.
Once she was warmed up, both mentally and physically, she started on her piece. It was a melancholy song, which she usually didn’t compose, but she loved it, the sticking point she had with it aside. She had it memorized, so the first minute was perfect and easy. The way the piano was facing made it hard to see the ocean outside unless she turned to look slightly behind her, but she did anyway.
Seeing the ocean at night was what had inspired the piece in the first place. It was dark and lonely, with only the moon to illuminate it. It was a sight she had seen countless times in her life, but one night it just struck her in a way it hadn’t before. She had turned back and gone right to the piano, starting to play a few chords, which eventually turned into this piece.
She played up until the point she was having trouble with, then slowed, poking through the notes that she had mentally sketched out. Was it too upbeat, all of a sudden? Too thinly layered?
She sighed, going back to the beginning and trying to put herself into the mindset she was in when the song first came to her. It took her several tries to play through it again and again, but then, it clicked.
“Yes,” she whispered to herself, drawing out the word as she played through the next section flawlessly. She had already thought out the ending to the song, which she played.
The satisfaction of figuring out the song’s problem faded quickly into the sadness that the song evoked. What if she could nature her love for music all the time instead of at night when her fatigue of a long day on her feet made it hard to concentrate for very long?
Hannah sighed, resting her hands on her lap and looking around The Crab again. It was a large space, but the walls felt like they were closing in on her. Like the whole town was closing in on her with its familiarity, Michael aside. And he wasn’t paying any attention to her anyway.
She ran her fingers along the keys from its highest notes to its lowest. Why had Luke come here of all places for the summer? From what she’d heard, Bloomington, Indiana, was a college town with a lot going on. A lot more interesting things than were here in Blueberry Bay. At least he had all of that to go back to at the end of the summer. She didn’t.
A pang of guilt filled her chest. Blueberry Bay had been a great place to grow up, and The Crab was her second home. Her father had always been amazing to her, even after her mom left when she was young. She loved him, but the stagnant feeling that crept into her head every day was getting harder and harder to ignore.
CHAPTER FIVE
Caitlin pulled away from Pearl’s day camp, her heart squeezing the way it always did when she left her daughter anywhere. But the thought of Pearl having fun soothed her nerves. She always talked a mile a minute about all the things she did after she came home. She never had a hard time making friends.
Caitlin pulled up her sister Alissa’s phone number in her car’s system and called her.
“Hey!” Alissa said when she picked up. “What’s up?”
“Nothing, just wanted to say hey.” Caitlin pulled into the right lane. “What’s going on in Blueberry Bay?”
“It’s great! So many tourists are here for the summer season. It still has that small town vibe, but I’ve had to give directions at least four times this week. You’d be surprised how many people can’t find the ocean despite all the views.”
“Really?” A smile spread across Caitlin’s face. Getting lost in the small town was hard to do. There was Main Street, which ran parallel to the boardwalk. A few other businesses branched off Main Street, but not many.
