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Kristen watched her smile and laugh, but she noticed that Matt didn’t join in for as long. Kristen smiled too, but it wasn’t super happy or supportive. She covered AvaJane’s hand and said, “I’m sorry, AJ. I won’t talk about the past.”
“I want to hear it,” Lisa said. She shot a look over to AJ. “I love hearing your stories about the Seafaring Girls and the lighthouse.”
It surprised Kristen to hear that AJ had been talking about those things. She’d come to her Seafaring Girls meetings out of pure duty and loyalty to Kelli. At least as far as Kristen was aware.
AJ nodded, and Kristen broke off a cold end of one of her funnels. She popped it into her mouth and said, “Halloween in the eighties and early nineties was an excuse to dress rather…provocatively,” she started.
Lisa snorted. “That’s still true.”
Kristen smiled and kept going. “AJ came to the lighthouse in the middle of the day once, straight from school.”
“I’d gotten kicked out,” she said. “Because I didn’t meet the ‘dress code.’” She put the last two words in air quotes.
“I remember that,” Matt said slowly. He seemed lost inside his own head for a moment, his memories clearly blocking out the people right in front of him. “It was a milkmaid costume.”
“Nothing sexy about that,” AJ said with a smile.
It had been terribly sexy, but Kristen didn’t argue. Everyone at the table knew she wouldn’t have gotten kicked out of school for an ankle-length skirt. “Anyway, she came, and we sat down on the beach instead of up on the deck. Just the two of us.”
AJ softened then. “I do remember this.”
“The water looked like that.” With her fork, Kristen pointed out to the waves coming ashore. They carried white tips, and they seemed to march in straight lines. They never deviated, and there was very little wind today to push them off-course. “We talked about how some things are predictable, and some things aren’t. AvaJane always wanted everything to line up exactly like those waves did.”
“I liked knowing the rules,” she said, her eyes out on the water too. “So I could break them. So I could blow them up and try to put them back together the right way.” She looked over to Kristen, her smile so kind and genuine. “Kristen was so good to us girls, always letting us come interrupt her day, no matter what time it was.”
“AJ never did like rules,” Matt said.
“No.” AJ laughed. “I did not. I still don’t.” An alarm went off, and she startled. “That’s our cue to get over to the stage.” She started cleaning up the plates of mostly-gone funnel cakes. “Oh, Matt-baby, he’s asleep.” She smoothed her son’s hair off his forehead, tugged his hat lower over his face, and put the shade on the backpack in place to protect her son.
Watching her be so maternal and caring did Kristen’s heart good, and as she stood, she realized Theo had cleared their trash for the both of them. He took her hand in his again, and they walked behind Matt, AJ, and Lisa as they made their way over to the mayor’s stage.
It stood across the street from the beach, opposite of the Kaleidoscope Café, in the largest park in Five Island Cove. That was why the balloons launched from here, and Kristen watched as one came flying toward the earth.
“Oh, my,” she said, but it landed safely, with at least a dozen people working on getting it to stop and then getting the fabric down and put away.
“They’re much bigger than I imagined,” Theo said.
“Welcome, ladies and gentlemen,” someone said up on the stage, and Kristen’s attention got diverted that way.
She easily spotted Eloise with Aaron, the two of them standing off to the right-hand side of the stage. Billie and Grace stood with them, and both girls had grown up so much in the time Kristen had known them.
“Welcome to the Kaleidoscope of Colors Event!” The man in front of the mic was Carbon Roundy, and Kristen had known him and his family for years now. “We’re pleased to have Mayor Sherman with us today, to make a special announcement.”
Kristen squeezed Theo’s hand as Aaron’s father came forward.
“Does he do this every year?” Theo asked.
She shook her head. “Never, that I can recall.”
“What’s he going to say then?”
Kristen didn’t know, and she tensed further as he turned and said, “I’d love for my son, the Chief of Police, Aaron, to join me. Son?”
ChapterFifteen
Eloise coached herself over and over to keep her smile plastered to her face. She gathered the girls closer to her as their father stepped between them and headed for the podium where his dad waited for him.
Aaron looked sharper than sharp today, wearing his full police office uniform. All the stripes. All the ribbons. Every line crisp and perfect. She loved him dearly, but she did not love this part of being his wife. Had he told her she’d have to put on a blasted skirt suit in the middle of July and stand in front of a crowd, she might have told him no when he’d asked her to marry him.
