“Lucy, I—”
“You knew. All this time, you knew. Gran knew. And neither of you told me.”
He winced at the pain in her voice, but he couldn’t deny the accusation. While he hadn’t felt good about it, it hadn’t been his place to tell her.
Lucy wasn’t done yet. “There’s been this customer at the Keel who obviously hates me, and I thought it was ridiculous because glaring at me because she didn’t like my mother or because of the Fairee thing seemed so petty. But it turns out I’m her dead husband’s secret love child, so yeah. I’d glare at me, too.”
“She shouldn’t be throwing hostility your way when none of this is your fault.”
“It would have been nice to know what I was walking into. I know a woman was murdered because a man liked her whoopie pies, and I know Bones choked on a chicken bone in third grade, and I know Pete and Jenna may or may not be married, but I didnotknow my mother slept with a married man and this town isn’t going to forgivemefor it.”
“And what would you have done?” he demanded, the incessant headache feeding his temper. “You would either have run away and Helen would have been heartbroken, or you would have stirred up all kinds of trouble with our neighbors.”
“Right. The warm and welcoming neighbors.”
“I’m not going to blow up my community for a woman who’s just passing through.”
As soon as he said the words, Nick wished desperately that he could take them back.
It wouldn’t have mattered because Lucy was already gone. She stormed past him, pausing only to shove her feet into her shoes before she was out the door.
Nick waited a few minutes, cursing his headache and himself and this entire crap day, but he didn’t hear Lucy’s car door or the engine starting.
Telling himself she was taking a walk to cool down, he went in the bathroom and took the strongest stuff he could find for his headache. Then he drank an entire glass of water with it because he’d been busy all day and there was a possibility dehydration was partly responsible for the throbbing temples.
Then he sat on the couch, resting his head against the back, and closed his eyes to wait for Lucy to return while he replayed the situation over and over in his mind.
Two hours later, Nick found her sitting at the end of the small dock that extended into the water a little way down the shore from the cottage’s property line. Technically, it belonged to the neighbors, and it probably should have been used for bonfire kindling years ago.
Lucy’s knees were drawn up, with her heels resting on the edge of the dock and her arms wrapped around her legs. Her chin rested on her knees, and she didn’t seem to mind the wind pulling wisps of her hair free from its bun as she stared over the open water. And a thick blue cardigan he recognized as Helen’s was keeping her warm.
She wasn’t wearing his sweatshirt.
The dock swayed slightly as he walked down the length, trying to avoid the boards that looked most at risk for caving in under his weight. And he cringed as he gingerly sat down next to her, letting his legs dangle over the edge, afraid both of them were about to end up in the water.
“I’m sorry, Lucy.”
She didn’t look at him, or even move. “How could you keep something so big to yourself? How could you know I have a sister right across town and not tell me?”
“I didn’tknowTaylor is your sister. What Iknewwas I’ve heard years of whispers and hints about Iris Macauley. And yes, I heard some whispers about Iris and Jack, but whispers and facts are two different things.”
“But you knew they were all talking about it again—talking aboutme—and you just let me go around Wayward Harbor and talk to people with no idea what they were saying as soon as I left the room.”
“I should have told you,” he said. “I absolutely should have told you, and I’m sorry I didn’t.”
“Butwhydidn’t you? You can’t say it was because you were protecting the community from the woman just passing through because they were already all up in it. I was the only one in the dark.”
“When you came here, you were hiding. You were hiding from all the awful stuff people were saying about you, as anybody would. And it took you a little bit, but you came out from under the blankets. You were reclaiming yourself. You were enjoying Wayward Harbor and making friends, and I was afraid if you knew some of them were gossiping about you—about something so big—it wouldn’t feel safe to you anymore and you’d go back under the blankets.”
After what felt to Nick like a lifetime of silence, Lucy let go of her legs and let them dangle off the edge next to his. Shoving her windblown hair out of her face, she turned to face him.
“I guess I can understand that,” she said softly.
“I’m still sorry. No matter why I did it, it was wrong.”
“I appreciate you saying that.” She sighed, looking back toward the horizon. “I made Gran cry.”
“Youmadeher cry? Or did she happen to cry during a highly emotional conversation with her upset granddaughter?”
