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Sunday takes Ruby's hand and pulls her up to the counter. "Coffee's on me, then, sister."
* * *
The boat ride back to Shipwreck Key is quiet and, if Ruby is honest with herself, a little tense. She'd parted ways with Dexter and there had been no awkwardness, but a tiny piece of her wished that they'd had a reason to be awkward.
The rest of the boat's occupants are acting a bit off for reasons that aren't completely known to Ruby. Sunday and Banks are sitting at opposite ends of the boat and sneaking furtive looks at one another like two teenagers who haven't confessed their crushes yet (or like two people who've just seen each other naked for the first time and are already thinking ahead to when they might do it again), and Marigold and Cobb are sitting silently, each wearing a pair of dark sunglasses as they watch the water like something fascinating might happen there. Heather has decided to stay on Christmas Key for a few extra days, with the promise that she’ll make her way back to Shipwreck on her own, but now Ruby kind of misses her, as she would have been easy to talk to amidst all this stilted silence.
"So," Bev says loudly, steering the boat with one hand. He's come back to Christmas Key to pick them up, and even though the night before at the bar must have been a busy one, he's smiling and cheerful under the bright New Year's Day sun. "Did you all have a good time last night?"
Marigold and Cobb continue to stare out at the waves, but Sunday smiles knowingly at Ruby, and Banks keeps his focus on the ground in front of him. Ruby ignores them all.
"It was wonderful," Ruby says. "The dinner, the fireworks--all of it. And the locals were just as welcoming as they were the first time we went over. I truly love it there."
"Everyone does," Bev agrees. "I've never met someone who moved to Christmas Key, hated it, and left. Not to be grim, but most people stay there until the end."
"I can see that. Why not live in paradise until you leave for your final paradise?” Ruby says, realizing as she does that it sounds a bit dark.
"Exactly. And I always love to visit," Bev says, carrying on the conversation with Ruby even as everyone else tunes out and gets lost in their own thoughts. "But I've never once considered giving up my life on Shipwreck. There's something magical about Christmas Key, to be sure, but there's a pioneering spirit and a mystery surrounding Shipwreck that feels right to me."
"How long have you been there?" Ruby puts her hand on top of her hat to hold it down as they bounce over a wave.
"Coming up on forty years," Bev says, squinting at the horizon. "I moved to Shipwreck with my young bride, and we lived there happily until she got sick. I took her back to the mainland and we stayed there while she was in hospice, then I came back to my island alone." He keeps his eyes trained ahead, not looking at Ruby as he speaks.
"Bev, I'm so sorry. I've known you for a while now, and I didn't know about your wife. I feel terrible that I never asked."
"Please, don't you spend a minute feeling that way," he insists, looking back at her. "Everyone who lives on Shipwreck knows that I don't speak of her often, and they know better than to bring her up. But when I feel like talking about her, I do.” He gives a single nod.
In a way, Ruby can understand this. She's accustomed to people speaking freely to her and asking questions about Jack, because when you make the unwritten agreement to be in the public eye, it's somehow understood that you become community property. Your thoughts, feelings, and secrets are not automatically yours anymore, and being forced to endure stories and questions from strangers that would feel intrusive to most people is all part of the gig.
"That makes sense," Ruby says, swallowing her thoughts of Jack. "Talking about a spouse who has passed on is something that you don't always feel like doing."
"Says a lady with the experience to back up that statement," Bev says appreciatively.
They ride in silence for several minutes with just the hum of the motor and the rush of the waves until Ruby breaks the silence.
"May I ask about Tilly?” She scoots closer on her bench seat so that he can hear her and she's not shouting so much. They've both given up hoping that anyone else might join in on their conversation.
"Of course you may. You're her boss, after all," he says with a twitch of his thick, graying mustache. "Brave soul that you are, employing a teenage witch to sell books in your shop.”
"Oh, she's easy, Bev," Ruby says with a wave of her hand. "I've raised two teenage girls, as you know, so there isn't much that throws me. She does have a unique fascination with books and documentaries about serial killers, but beyond that, I find Tilly pretty straightforward."
Bev chuffs audibly, but Ruby can see grandfatherly pride on his face. "Her fascination with all things dark and bizarre is a mystery to me," he admits. "I thought raising girls was supposed to be all sugar and spice and everything nice. At least with her mother it was."
"That was my question," Ruby says. "If it's not too bold or personal. Your daughter sent Tilly to you when she was only six?"
"She did," he says, putting both hands on the wheel as he inhales deeply. "She was in an abusive relationship, and getting away from the guy was all she could handle at the time. Not to mention the fact that her mother had just recently passed. So she sent Tilly to me, and we leaned on each other. I was lonely, and Tilly was a little girl whose mother had been so wrapped up in her own relationship drama that she'd forgotten to be a mother. Once we found each other, we created our own little family unit. We’ve been that way since.”
"And her mother?" Ruby presses, hoping it's not too much.
"She comes to visit a couple of times a year. By the time she found a decent man, married, and had another baby, Tilly was settled in and happy on Shipwreck. She'll tell you otherwise when she goes on about how the kids at school never liked her, or how everyone thinks she's weird, but that's just a protective mechanism, you know?"
"I can see that," Ruby says, nodding. "I've even called her on it before."
"Good." Bev chuckles. "Because I want her to be who she is, but I also want her to know that it's okay to bend a bit. To be yourself, but to make it palatable to the rest of the world. For years and years we all strove to do that, didn't we? To be our authentic selves, but to fit into society? It seems like recently people have stopped doing that and what's happened? All hell has broken loose." Bev cuts the motor as they approach Shipwreck Key.
"That's true," Ruby agrees mildly. She'd like to bring up a discussion she had with Tilly not long ago about the fact that Tilly prefers dating girls and thinks that her grandfather disapproves, but without the loud hum of the motor, it seems like far too personal of a topic to broach in front of everyone else on the boat.
They slide into the slip at the dock and Bev ties up. As he does, Ruby looks around, watching as visitors and locals stroll up and down Seadog Lane. A gull is standing on a wooden piling, watching them with interest.
