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Chapter Four
It was an easy thing, plotting this escape with Wayne. Unlike Sean, Wayne was mesmerized with the idea of traveling alongside Elise and open to all the wild and frantic natures of travel, the idea of keeping it loose and being spontaneous. As Sean had been an accountant, spontaneity had slowly trickled out of Elise’s life and left it dull and predictable and brittle. No longer.
On the morning of their departure, Elise hovered over her suitcase and watched as Wayne stuffed his with button-down shirts, jeans, undershirts, boxers. Slowly, she had grown more and more accustomed to his things, a process that filled her with more longing.
“You say it’s chillier in Berkley?” he asked. There was just the slightest twinge of fear to his voice.
“The weather’s pretty different than LA,” Elise said. “And always changing.”
“I’m from Michigan. Our weather is the least trustworthy thing we’ve got. I can handle this Berkley weather like nobody’s business.”
Elise chuckled as her phone buzzed to the side of her suitcase. The number was nothing she recognized, but it had a now-familiar Mackinac area code. 906.
“Who’s that?” Wayne asked as she lifted it.
“Not sure.” She clicked her screen and said a bright, “Hello? This is Elise Darby speaking.”
The silence on the other end of the line was deafening. Elise placed a hand on her hip and gave Wayne a perplexed look.
“Who is it?” he whispered.
That moment, someone on the other line grunted, muttered to himself, then finally uttered, “Hey Elise. It’s um. It’s Alex. Alex Swartz.”
Elise’s heart quickened to a rabbit’s pace. She turned around and headed out of the bedroom to collapse on the couch. Her knees knocked together as Wayne hustled in after her with worry etched across his face.
“Alex. Hi.”
What the heck is he calling me for?
He tried to get me kicked off the island.
And he tried to ruin Wayne and I’s relationship when Matt came to the island.
I haven’t seen hide nor hair of him since all that.
What does he want?
“How can I help you?” she asked finally when Alex still hadn’t drummed up any response.
“I heard a rumor you were headed off the island for a bit,” he said.
“A dream come true, isn’t it?”
Oops. I didn’t mean that. Not really.
Alex ignored her snark. Instead, he asked, “I wondered if you might meet me for a walk. It’s a beautiful autumn day, and I have a few things I need to say. Please.”
Elise bit hard on her lower lip.We have to leave this afternoon. I don’t know if it’ll work. I don’t know if I want any kind of relationship with you.
Instead, she said, “Sure. We have to make it quick, I’m afraid. Mind if we meet right away?”
“I’ll meet you in front of The Grind,” Alex affirmed. “Fifteen minutes?”
“On this island? You can get anywhere in ten.”
**
ELISE’S NERVES SHOTthrough her like electricity. She stabbed her hands into her coat pockets the moment she spotted him outside The Grind, there with two cups of coffee in his gloved hands. His eyes met hers, and he tried his very first smile. It hardly worked. It seemed to melt off his face.
