Page 59 of Piece By Piece

His pulse beat against her wrist, or maybe it was her own.

She couldn’t tell where one of them ended and the other began.

For once, she didn’t really need to.

They knew.

Neither of them spoke.

The island just hummed around them, the crickets, the ocean, the distant sound of a boat creaking in the marina.

The world was full of sound, and still the quiet between them was the loudest thing of all.

He squeezed her hand once.

She squeezed back.

Then he let it go gently and stepped back.

“Good night, Liza.”

“Good night, Grant.”

She went upstairs, and he went home.

Neither of them would sleep for a very long time. Moments like this were too full for sleeping.

Liza lay in her bed and held her father’s book and thought about the man who had created the puzzles inside of it.

The man who had been twenty feet away this entire time.

The man who had just held her hand at the bottom of the stairs like it was the bravest thing he’d ever done.

And maybe it was.

She pressed the book to her chest and whispered into the dark.

“He was right here all along, Dad. Can you believe it? He was right here.”

CHAPTER 10

The day before the festival, the entire island smelled like fried dough.

Liza stood in the middle of the town square holding a clipboard and a sunburn that she hadn’t noticed until it was too late.

She hadn’t felt this kind of purpose since before her panic attack.

All around her, Seagrove was transforming.

Shop owners were hanging their banners.

Someone had set up a lemonade stand that seemed to already be doing a great business.

A man on a ladder was stringing flags between street lamps while his wife shouted directions from below.

He seemed to be completely ignoring her.

And Grant was standing beside her.