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EPILOGUE
TWO WEEKS LATER
Emilia was fidgety as she waited at the baseball pitch for the girls to arrive. Standing at the hot dog stand, their designated meeting spot, she realized she was making a habit of being the first to arrive. The annual Esperance Softball Bonanza was tradition, and she’d been shocked to discover Cam had never been.
“Then you have to come this afternoon,” she’d said, lying in his arms that morning.
“Okay, I’ll see if I can get off early and meet you there? Is Jack going to be there? I don’t want to crash your girls’ time.” They’d been inseparable since they’d made up two weeks before, and Emilia was surprised to find she liked it. She’d always thought she was fiercely protective of her space. In actual fact, she’d just never found someone she wanted to share space with. Mia and Jack approached her, both giving her a hug in greeting.
“Where’s Cam?” Mia asked.
“He’s going to be a bit late because he didn’t know this was a thing until this morning.” Emilia smiled. “You know these New Bernians. Come to Esperance for the slow lane and don’t realize summer is anything but.”
“Yeah, it’s a culture shock,” Jack said knowingly.
Everyone else started trickling in and finally, Annie rushed towards them.
“I’m so sorry I’m late,” she said, slightly out of breath. “I just had the weirdest phone call with a publisher and couldn’t get him off the line.”
“Oh, what’s doing?” Emilia asked as they lined up to get some hot dogs, not liking the somewhat panicked look on her friend’s face.
“Well, there’s this big-name author, Richard Hammersmith, who wants to launch his new book here in Esperance. Smalltown crime, it’s his second novel and his first did really well. The weird thing is, he wants to do his book launch here because he’s from here. Do you know a Richard Hammersmith?”
“No,” Emilia said definitively. “I don’t know any Hammersmiths, and frankly, the name sounds made up.”
“Right? So I’m going to google him, obviously, cause it’s bizarre and I don’t like it. How am I supposed to host a book launch for someone who’s hiding?”
Hannah piped up. “It’s only bizarre if you’re right. Like, what if he’s from one of the hobby farms? Or really old?”
“We would have heard the name, Han,” Poppy said. “Come on, it’s Esperance. Quite the mystery.”
“Yeah,” Annie said, obviously calmer now. “I still don’t like it. If you’re going to give yourself a penname, why go with something so… stuffy? Anyway, we’ll find out in a bit.” She pulled out her phone and set off on her mission. It took her all of two seconds before the blood drained from her face and she let out a very small, quiet, “What. The. Actual. Fuck?”
“What is it?” Sammy asked, moving closer to Annie and touching her arm.
“I can’t believe it.” Annie showed Sammy her phone, obviously completely at a loss.
“Aidan?!” Sammy said, looking around the group. “Aidan is Richard Hammersmith.”
“Aidan Young?” Emilia asked. “Annie, are you sure?”
“Positive, it’s right there in black and white. Oh my god, what am I going to do?”
Hannah moved in and grabbed Annie with both hands on her upper arms. “Listen to me, Annie. You are not that eighteen-year-old girl anymore. You’re going to give him the best book launch he’s ever seen, cause that’s what you do. And then he’s going to fuck off back to whatever rock he’s crawled out from. Whatever comes at you in between, we’ll handle it together. All of us. Okay?”
“Okay,” Annie took a deep breath. “Okay. I can do this. I can do this.”
A flash of movement caught Emilia’s attention, before she was engulfed in Cam, who said a quick, general hello to everyone before taking Emilia out of the line to give her a proper kiss.
“Hello,” he smiled.
“I’m glad you made it!”
“Me too, have you told them yet?”
“No, Annie had a mystery to solve that turned into a mini crisis, so I didn’t get the chance. Do you want to tell them?”
Cam laughed. “No, they hardly know me. I think you should tell them. Is Annie okay?”
