AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Kit bent, retrieved the lone cigarette, and sat beside Lou Ann. She used Lou Ann’s lighter, sparking a flame with shaky, out-of-practice fingers, then closed her eyes and drew deeply, filling her nose and lungs with warm smoke, clouding her habit-free heart.
The memories came slowly. In pieces.
Her mother’s hand in her hair, braiding each strand. Knuckles brushing her nape and a salty night breeze tickling her bare knees. Chirps of crickets and a chorus of tree frogs. Her mother’s loose embrace, a deluge of stale smoke, the sharp scent of whiskey, and a slurred refrain:Tomorrow I’ll be better. I’m still in here. I’m still in here....
Kit passed the cigarette to Lou Ann. “My mama loved these,” she whispered after releasing her smoky breath in slow degrees.
“Been awhile, huh?”
“Fifteen years.” And she’d left behind so much more....
They sat silently, staring as the setting sun painted the sky and sea gold, listening to the rustle of cordgrass and the rhythmic lap of the sea against the bobbing boat and still dock, the tide dragging the same waters out, then shoving them back in, constantly moving but never going anywhere.
Kit closed her eyes. A low roaring sound filled her ears, and the dock seemed to shift beneath her. She leaned forward and braced her elbows on her knees. “I loved my mother.”
Lou Ann’s callused fingers brushed her arm. “I never said you didn’t.”
The words were low and comforting, but the heavy silence that followed spoke louder. Kit opened her eyes and focused on the water rippling below, her sister’s voice—along with so many others—returning, as it often had over the years:If you loved her, you would’ve stayed. You got no family now.
Lou Ann offered up the cigarette again. When Kit shook her head, Lou Ann shrugged and proceeded to finish it off, the bright golden light of the sun flooding the harsh, world-weary angles of her familiar face.
She cocked her head to the side and squinted. “You sure you wanna go back?”
“Yes.” She’d thought of little else over the past fifteen years. Throat closing, Kit bit her lip. “Have you seen my sister?”
“Since it happened?”
Kit nodded.
“Nah. But me and Viv never got on too well.” Lou Ann blew out a cloud of smoke, then stubbed the cigarette butt on a wood plank. “She’s around, though. Usually hanging on to Beau pretty tight.”
“Beau?” Kit curled her hands tight around the edge of the dock, the sun-warmed boards hot to the touch. “Beau Sutton?”
Blond, handsome heir to the Sutton family’s abundant wealth and upstanding reputation. A captivating boy, two years Kit’s senior, whom she and Viv had admired from their neighboring deepwater dock in Hope Creek. The few exchanges Kit had had with him over the years had been brief and stilted—their fathers’ rivalry unconducive to the formation of anything more.
Last time she’d seen Beau, he’d been standing arm in arm with his new wife on the end of the Suttons’ dock, their faces tipped toward the night sky, each colorful burst of fireworks highlighting their wide smiles and elegant wedding attire, as the small crowd filling the dock behind them cheered. The next morning the pair had left the island on a boat decorated with yellow jessamine.
Six months later, Kit had packed her bags and left, as well.
“Yep.” Lou Ann stood and untied the dock line of her small boat from a piling. “Beau moved back into his dad’s place two years ago, and your sister’s been staying at that Sutton mansion for over a year now.”
Kit stiffened.Viv? Living with the Suttons? Hanging on to married Beau?“But—”
“Look.” Lou Ann held up a hand. “Lot’s changed since you left. Get on the boat. You’ll find out soon enough.”
* * *
Kit clenched her fists around her overnight bag and lifted her face into the swift pound of wind as Lou Ann’s boat sped across the water. Though years had passed since she’d last traveled these waters, the sight and feel of them remained the same: the rhythmic lift and lowering of the boat over soft waves, the pungent scent of pluff mud on the salty breeze, and the golden kiss of the setting sun against the rippling Atlantic in the distance.
Heart momentarily lightening, Kit sat up straighter and craned her neck, seeking out the familiar shape of Hope Creek Island as it emerged into view. Soft lights, each one illuminating a dock leading to a dense thicket of trees, glowed in the dusk amid tall cordgrass and sprawling live oaks hung with Spanish moss.
A bittersweet tenderness pulsed in Kit’s biceps with the remembered fatigue of long, sun-soaked days of shrimping and harvesting wild oysters with Royal. The satisfaction of a hard day’s work mixed with the energetic buzz of pride at having increased the profit of the family business had provided a welcome escape from troubles that plagued both of their hearts most days back then.
For a moment, she wished she could roll back time to her lithe teenage years, board Royal’s shrimp trawler, return her dad’s wide smile, and reclaim that faint trace of hope in the clean sea air. Hope that Sylvie would find her way back.
“Money’s floating down the Ditch pretty regular now,” Lou Ann called over her shoulder, her brown hair whipping in the wind. “That’s what brung ’em out.”
Kit frowned at Lou Ann. Money floating down the Ditch was nothing new—the Intracoastal Waterway had always been popular with wealthy home buyers seeking the enviable waterfront views and pristine beaches along the untarnished coast of Hope Creek Island. And the frequent arrival of wealthy guests vacationing at the high-priced Hope Creek Resort on the opposite end of the island was nothing new, but . . .
