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Praise from Brent carried Lucien through dinner with the gang and into a mellow evening spent alone with Brogan.
Jade had opted to take her dogs for an early walk after dinner and then head to bed, making it an early night.
“Are you sure you don’t want us to bring you back some ice cream?” Brogan asked.
“I’m sure. I recognize a third-wheel situation. Besides, I’m fine by myself. The guest house is so cozy, and I love the idea of settling in there with a good book. The kind of day we had, I’ll probably be asleep by nine o’clock.”
“Okay. But if you change your mind, send me a text. The dogs seem to like our nightly stroll along the dunes to get ice cream cones.”
“Stop worrying about me,” Jade chided. “I’m fine. Enjoy yourselves.”
Brogan watched her friend cross the lawn with her dogs and head toward the guest cottage.
“She doesn’t seem down about the breakup,” Lucien pointed out as they led Stella and Poppy through the orchard.
“That’s because she’s been thinking about doing this for months. Birk’s not a bad guy. The two of them just don’t mesh anymore.”
“So that’s it. Jade doesn’t expect anyone to intervene on her behalf?”
“Not at all. How would that work anyway? Birk’s not even in this country as of this morning.”
“Just making sure I’m not letting down a friend.”
“You’re not. Treating ourselves like this seems like a fitting end to the day, a celebration of sorts on the progress we’ve made in such a short amount of time.” She pointed to the horizon as the sun arched into the shimmering ocean. “Look at that view. Tell me how lucky we are to live next to the sea.”
He steered her toward the line outside Vanilla Bean Machine. “Do you still want pumpkin spice?”
“Nah, I’m having a hard time letting go of summer. I feel like a lavender and honey waffle cone.”
After getting their ice cream, they took their cones and led the dogs toward the water’s edge. Lucien fed Stella and Poppy their pup cups, watching them gobble up the whipped topping.
Licking her cone and looking out into the harbor, Brogan enjoyed the breeze off the ocean. It felt like a soft kiss on her skin. She looped her arm through Lucien’s. “I love sunsets here.”
“You always were a sucker for a romantic sunset, starry skies, too. As soon as I discovered that, I would always steer you outside. Helped me get lucky a lot.”
She elbowed him in the ribs. “You’re saying I was that easy? I knew what I was doing.”
“You were good at it, too.”
That comment earned him another elbow to the ribs. He took her by the hand, and together they strolled back toward the boardwalk, stopping briefly to acknowledge the spot where Gidget’s body had ended up.
She noted the distressed look on his face and nudged him past the area. “It’s not the same as it was in 1978. The entire boardwalk has undergone at least three renovations. Murphy said as much. Not to mention how many times they’ve redone the pier. And there were no preservation areas back then.”
“I know. But still—”
“It’s eerie to stand here not knowing what happened to her so long ago with so many unanswered questions. I get it. What were you talking to Brent about earlier?”
“I think Vera or maybe this Katharine had a connection to Gidget.”
She slowly turned her head to stare at Lucien. “You believe what?”
“This whole Vera Lockhart seeking therapy about seeing a teenage girl get off a bus is bogus. Think about it. The Vivian Lawton driver’s license was applied for in Denver in July 1969. That’s a fact. We found it in Vera’s metal box. Nine years later, in 1978, Gidget turns up in town, getting off a train from where else? Denver, of all places. The violent path of abductions stopped somewhere between Kansas and Denver. Coincidence?”
“Wow. Probably not. And what did Brent say?”
“That DNA would tell the tale. What else would definitively link Vera to Gidget?”
“Mother and daughter, maybe? But Brent found nothing in Vera’s house that mentioned a daughter.”
