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“Does that happen often?”
“No. It’s rare. It’s okay to bring up your concerns. Always ask if you don’t feel comfortable about anything. But maybe you’ve been watching too many YouTube videos.”
Brogan sputtered with laughter. “You’re probably right, but I like to do my research.”
“We need to get on the road,” Lucien announced as soon as he joined Brogan on the runway. “We’re headed into the terminal.”
“You guys have a safe trip,” Ewan said as he pointed to his ride. “We’re going this way.”
“Enjoy that rustic cabin,” Blake teased. “Don’t get freaked out if you think you see Bigfoot. I hear they’ve had several recent sightings.”
“Did you see that on YouTube videos?” Brogan fired back, her lips curving.
“I’m pretty sure I did,” Blake admitted with a laugh. “See you guys on Thursday.”
Their rental car was a granite-gray Jeep Grand Cherokee. Lucien tossed their bags in the back and got comfortable behind the wheel. He plugged their destination into GPS and headed out of the parking lot.
When they flew past a shopping center, Brogan wanted to know, “Should we pick up groceries?”
“We’ll do that in Coyote Wells. It’s where Lyssa and Daniel used to work—Two Sisters’ Food Mart. He says we can’t miss it. It’s right on the main drag.”
“Where are Birk and Beckett staying?”
“Near us in Birk’s RV. They decided to bring it along on extended trips like this one. As we’re discovering, remote areas often don’t have enough places to stay.”
“Then how did we score the cabin?”
“I suspect it belongs to a local.”
“It’s not an Airbnb?”
“I don’t think so. Birk didn’t mention it.” Lucien scanned the overcast sky. “Looks like a storm moving in. Check the weather for me, will you?”
She picked up her cell phone and swiped to the weather app. “Heavy rain predicted from a Pacific Northwest cold front. But it looks like we might get the tail end of the storm. If this is right, then it might miss us altogether. Although the temperature will drop fifteen degrees.”
“I guess we’ll have to play it by ear.” Lucien slowed his speed to stare at the scenery, surprised by its natural beauty. The area seemed to have it all—towering trees, a mountain range leftover from tidewater glaciers, a series of sloping ridges, and shadowy canyons dotted with thick, lush green belts as far as the eye could see.
They discovered Coyote Wells was a beach town rich in Native American history and folklore. A sign next to the city limits touted that it was home to the Sun Bringer Festival, a celebration held every summer to honor The First Peoples from the original seven tribes. These natives had been around to greet the string of Spanish explorers that wandered up the California coast, even helping these strangers settle in the region. The strangers repaid the tribes’ generosity with hostile sneak attacks on their villages, wiping out women and children.
The town had even been abandoned at the turn of the century, only to go through a revival of sorts during the 1920s by the stalwart tribespeople who remained.
Brogan studied the peninsula-shaped harbor on her map while sitting at the stop sign on the corner of Water Street, in the heart of the downtown business district. Her eyes tracked directly ahead where the main street dead-ended into a common park area. A thirty-foot lighthouse stood in the middle of a triangular-shaped grassy area overlooking the waterfront.
“This is cute. Check out those old-fashioned globed streetlights.”
“Straight ahead is Lighthouse Landing. Water Street circles that. We need to use the roundabout to return to the market we passed on the left. This time the store should be on the right. After we pick up the supplies, we’ll text Birk and tell him we’re here.”
“I feel like making a video of the town for Daniel,” Brogan said, holding up her cell phone to record. “What a charming place to grow up.”
Lucien pulled into the parking lot of the only grocery store in sight just as the sky began to spit raindrops.
After grabbing a cart, they found the shop small and cramped, with a few shoppers milling up and down the aisles.
“I made a list of what we need to pick up. Coffee, definitely. Cream, sugar, milk, cereal, and eggs.” Brogan checked off each item on her list. “What do you want for dinner tonight?”
“There’s a deli and meat counter over in the corner. We could cook steaks on the grill.”
“There’s a grill?”
