He squeezed it, and a sappy part of me wondered if she would be something to remember me by. I wanted to know, but I couldn’t bring myself to say anything. Of course he’d be back. This was as much his family as it was mine. Jack wouldn’t leave us like that.
“Gowild,”ItoldJack, knowing he tended to ooh and aww at everything in the Treasure Trove, a mishmash antique and secondhand store located down a side street. He always found something, even if a fair chunk of the goods came from past campers’ lost and found items that had never been claimed.
My bestie grinned at me, heading for the back corner where a painted pink dresser and sticker-covered filing cabinet leaned next to one another, along with paintings framed in large brass frames and, oh, the musical instruments.
Jack began playing with some bongos before spotting a harmonica, but we knew what we were looking for: the same mythical item we’d looked for every Town Day since Leo got it in his head that he’d be a one-man band. Today was made of gold and dreams and maybe even a little magic because there it was, nestled between a leaning keyboard and a kid’s guitar with missing strings: a foot tambourine. I’d never heard of one before Leo had painstakingly and lovingly described it. He was going to flip his shit.
Jack halted his steps as he listened. His Cheshire Cat smile had me quaking with excitement.“No way.”
I took my foot out of the contraption and handed it to him. He lifted his foot to his hip as he stuck his shoe in the curved thing.
“How did I not know you were this… Bendy?”
“Because you’re not my girl, Autumn.” He winked.
“Shut it,” I told him with a playful shove. “I’m no one’s girl.” The words twinged with a surprising sadness.
Then why did Jamie’s annoyingly handsome face pop into my head?
“You’re about to forget all of that when you hear—” He stepped gingerly, and there it was: tambourine music? Noise? Whatever you wanted to call it.
I couldn’t wait to see the look on Leo’s face when we came back with this little beauty.
“This place is a national treasure.” Jack’s voice had no trace of sarcasm.
I looked around in the middle of this thrift store among broken and discarded things and wondered how one could even say that. But Jack was more of a romantic than I was.
He shook his foot again. And again. And again. The shop manager looked at him with a sharp eye, and he shot her his most ridiculous smile, the one that let him get away with way too much.
Then I heard it, the deep rumble of Jamie’s laugh, the way it floated over me, delighting me. That laugh had always brought out my own just under the surface, one tiny nudge and I’d be giggling right along with him.
I pulled down my very inconspicuous, heart-shaped sunglasses and ducked behind a mannequin facing the aisle that Jamie, Ren, and Grant had just walked down. I glanced around it to get a peek at what they were doing.
“Hey, Jamie, what do you think about me wearing this?” Ren gleefully held out a beret. It was unconventional, but he could pull it off.
“That’s perfect. It looks like something my nemesis would wear.”
“No. Hey. We’re nemeses now?” Ren gasped in mock shock.
“You know what you did.”
I quickly went back to my hiding spot to avoid being seen as Jack picked up a ukulele and strummed a chord beside me. I put my hand on his forearm to stop him from drawing attention to us, but his phone vibrated, and we both looked at his pocket.
“Is it Gia?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Leo took gas back to the boat, and now it won’t start. That man could touch bulletproof glass and it would break. You need anything?”
“I’m good.”
He hit Leo’s contact as he handed me the ukulele. “What did you do?” he said on his way out the door.
As he paced back and forth in front of the store, it was the best time for me to make my escape. Then Jamie approached Jack outside. So much for that. And why was Jamie talking to him anyway?
“Isn’t he the best?” Ren’s voice startled me. He popped up behind where I was still ducking behind the mannequin. Busted. His grin told me he wasn’t the least bit surprised I was here. Renwore the strangest mashup of clothes: some parachute pants, a leather jacket, and a beret.
I cracked a smile and shook my head at his ridiculousness. “Who?” I asked, remembering almost too late that Ren had asked me a question.
“Jamie. He’s matured so much since high school, hasn’t he?”
