As they sat on the couch, a box of Kleenex between them and Chinese food on the way, Leah thought about what Brad said. She thought about the captain’s daughters who opened the inn, who Brad swore still traipsed up and down the upstairs halls. She imagined the general store, and all the people who found what they needed in there to take care of their families. And of the gallery, that hosted artists and brought art to the village. The house had had a life long before she’d even envisioned her bookshop; Leah was just another part of its history. When she finally climbed the stairs to her room that night, she slept soundly for the first time all week.
The next morning, Leah drove out to Oyster Pond. She couldn’t stop thinking back to what Brad said, about how Luke carried her up to bed and tucked her in. About all the things he’d done for her that summer. An envelope with a payment inside it sat on the passenger seat beside her; but it wasn’t the reason she was driving over there.
To her dismay, Luke’s truck was not in the driveway. Still, she parked and walked around to the boathouse, hoping. At the very least, she could leave the check there. But when she rounded the corner of the house, the workshop was closed up, the windows dark and the yard quiet. She must have missed him.
The Oyster Pond River glistened in the morning light. Luke’s red kayak lay on its side along the bank. There was such beautyhere in the wildness of the salt marsh, the shorebirds calling, and the river streaking out to Nantucket Sound. It was hard to believe one person could own all of this.
She was walking around the side of the house, when a truck pulled into the driveway. Only it wasn’t Luke’s. A young man parked and got out. “May I help you?” he asked when he saw her.
“I’m a friend of Luke’s,” she said, holding up the envelope. “Just dropping something off for him.”
“You may want to hang on to it until he comes back.”
“Comes back?” Leah asked.
The guy nodded. “He just left for a week.” He lowered the tailgate of his truck and pulled a table saw out. “I’m helping to finish up a job for him, since he had to leave in such a hurry.”
“A hurry?” This gave her pause. “Do you know where he went?”
“The Vineyard.”
Leah swallowed hard. When he was working on her café, he’d mentioned that Holly wanted to go to the Vineyard. Leah hadn’t liked the sound of it even then.
She shoved the envelope in her back pocket. She was too late.
“If it’s really important, you may still be able to catch him,” the guy added.
“He hasn’t left yet?”
“Not sure, but he mentioned stopping at the marina to grab his fishing gear.”
“Which one?”
“The Landing.”
“Thanks!” Leah hopped in her car and reversed quickly outof the driveway. The marina was just around the corner. Leah drove as fast as she dared through the rabbit warren of streets. A school bus pulled in front of her at the last intersection and stopped.
Leah waited, heart pounding. She was so close.
In front of her the bus flipped open its stop sign. It took forever for two small kids to get off, dressed in swimsuits, wet towels dragging behind them. They were sea camp kids, like she and her brother had been years ago. It made Leah think of James, living in Duxbury with his family. Of her father, down in New Jersey. Of Luke who’d stayed, and herself, who’d come back.
As the bus lights blinked before her, Leah thought about what she was doing. As her father said, there were no guarantees in life. There was no guarantee Luke was still at the marina. Even if he were, Holly was sure to be with him. He was leaving for the Vineyard, after all. It’s what Holly had wanted. If that was the case, hadn’t Luke already made his choice?
Leah thought back to the phone call with her father. How he said she always went after what she wanted. Is that what she was doing?
Finally the school bus closed its stop sign and the blinking lights went off. It turned off at the next street. The road ahead was clear. The marina was just half a mile up, on the left. Leah proceeded, trusting her gut. When she got to the turnoff for the marina, she kept going straight. Tears in her eyes, she kept going all the way back to the shop.
