by Amie Denman
“I can’t just say the firefighter and uncle part. There are other facts about me, and the point is to not say obvious stuff so you can throw people off.”
Ethan leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “Maybe I’ll pick up some overtime here at the station for some extra cash. It may be easier than playing this game.”
Brady laughed. He didn’t have to use the app for anything other than finding out his schedule. It would be very easy to shove the phone back in his shirt pocket and forget all about competing for the grand prize. If he didn’t get to know the other summer workers, there would be no harm. He’d tried getting close to one the previous year, and it had definitely not worked out.
Kate hadn’t changed. She was medium height, but her straight shoulders and the way she carried herself made her seem taller. Her hair was long and straight and appeared brown unless she was in the direct sunlight. He remembered the way streaks of gold wove through her hair one day last summer when they walked along the beach with some of her friends. She still drew him toward her like the sound of a waterfall, but she had doused him with cold water.
He couldn’t imagine her playing the app game because forming relationships with other summer workers was clearly not in her travel plans. But she had been the one to tell him about the app. Maybe...
He scrolled through the usernames and avatars, looking for Kate. There were flowers, emojis, race cars and animal pictures with goofy nicknames identifying the summer workers who were already playing. Finally, he found a picture of an airplane with Kate’s name under it.
If ever a woman was a flight risk, it was Kate Price. He clicked the avatar and discovered she had entered three items of information about herself. He smiled, intrigued by the thought of sorting the truth from the lies.
I have been to forty-three states. I hate flowers. I am an only child.
Brady considered the three statements. It was very easy to believe Kate had been to forty-three states, but it could be a trick question. Perhaps she’d been to forty-two or even forty-four. It was, quite possibly, an arbitrary number. As for hating flowers, maybe he was old-fashioned, but it seemed unlikely that any woman would hate flowers. Or was that a stupid assumption?
Was Kate an only child? He’d lived just outside her circle last year, intrigued by her and finally kissing her. But he didn’t know the simplest thing about her. Was he going to get the chance to find out?
CHAPTER THREE
KATE SAVED THE spreadsheet her boss, George, had left open on his office computer. It was the third day in a row George had trusted her to do his paperwork and added an hour or two to the end of the shift.
He paid her for her extra time, and keeping track of summer workers’ time, business expenditures and daily revenues was a simple matter of accurate record keeping and attention to detail. Not the most exciting job she’d ever had, but definitely not the hardest.
She left the office and pulled the door shut behind her. The workers running the trolley on the late-evening shifts all knew the keycode to get into the office in case they’d left personal items in there. The sun had nearly set and the pink light washed the beach and pier with watercolors. George’s business office was tiny, but it had a magical location. Right on the beach by the pier, in the middle of all the action Cape Pursuit offered.
Kate noticed three vehicles in the office parking lot. One pickup truck, one tiny hatchback and one older sedan that looked as if it was borrowed from someone’s grandparents. Some employees drove to work, and some took advantage of a free trolley pass for the entire summer, hopping on and off at locations nearest their homes.
The trolley pulled up and Kate climbed the three steps as soon as the door opened. She shared a room in summer employee housing in a dated but clean complex two stops north on the trolley route. She owned a reliable car, but she had already put a lot of miles on it by driving for Uber on and off over the past two years. Taking the trolley gave her car and herself a nice break after a long day at work.
“Hello,” a friendly voice said, pulling Kate from her thoughts about getting off her feet and microwaving something to eat. “I’m your courteous trolley driver. Do you have a ticket?”
Brady grinned at her, and Kate laughed. “No ticket. I’m considering hijacking this wagon, so you better take me where I want to go or there could be trouble.”
He held both hands in the air. “I’m working alone tonight, so I’m at your mercy.”
“Where’s your narrator?”
“Went home early to prepare for tomorrow’s hangover. I’ve had three passengers in the last hour, and none of them cared about the narrated tour. I have fifteen minutes left in my shift, and then I’m getting a triple cheeseburger.”
“Sounds good,” Kate said.
Brady raised an eyebrow. “I’ll buy.”
“I wasn’t inviting myself along,” Kate said, shaking her head.
“I don’t mind doing the dirty work,” Brady said. “Kate, will you please have a triple cheeseburger with me? There may also be fries and ice cream involved. I want you to know that up front.”
She had no intention of having a dinner date with Brady, no matter how good fries and ice cream sounded.
“I can’t.”
“Because you’re not hungry?” Brady asked.
“I have plans for a late dinner.” It was a very lean version of the truth, but it was technically true. She had frozen burritos and chicken potpies in the small freezer in the kitchen she shared with Holly.
Brady’s brow wrinkled, but he nodded. “Have a seat wherever you like.”
Kate was relieved he wasn’t going to argue and try to persuade her into dinner, even if it was just a burger between coworkers after their shifts. That wasn’t a date, but it was a slippery slope she had no plans to tiptoe across.
“You usually work the earlier shifts, don’t you?” Brady asked.
With the new summer app, everyone had easy access to everyone else’s schedules, so it was no surprise he would know that.
“I did, but then I stayed over a few hours and did some office work for George. He seems to be pouring a lot of effort into his business.”
“I noticed that. I hope it’s a good sign.”
“How wouldn’t it be?”
Brady shrugged. “Sometimes people fix things up right before they sell them, but I don’t know what George’s plans are.”
Kate sat in the front seat, not wanting to sit farther back and make Brady think he’d offended her. He closed the trolley door, rang the bell and then handed her the wireless microphone.
“There’s no one on board,” she said.
“I know. But you could pretend you’re entertaining guests with an amusing story about yourself. An anecdote from your lifetime of trolley experience that could change their lives.”
Kate hesitated. Brady’s playfulness was a giant part of his appeal, and she remembered being surprised to learn the previous summer that he rescued people and put out fires on a daily basis. Weren’t firefighters supposed to be very serious?
“Consider it a safety measure. I was out most of the night on calls at the station, so I’m tired and you’d be helping me stay awake and drive.”
“Maybe you should let me drive,” Kate said.
Brady shook his head. “I’d rather listen. Perhaps you could name your favorite...color or baseball team...or flower.”
“I don’t—” she began, and then she remembered the three facts she’d entered into that stupid social media app. She’d revealed that she hated flowers, but no one in Cape Pursuit could know that it was because of the year she worked for a florist delivering flowers. If it weren’t for the prize of a thousand bucks, she wouldn’t open herself up to anyone’s attention.
“Don’t?”
“Have a favorite baseball team,” Kate said. She’d been about to say she didn’t
like flowers, but if by some chance Brady had managed to open the first challenge on the app and find her profile, she wasn’t going to make it easy for him.
“Want a suggestion for a team or a color?”
Kate sighed and sank against the seat back. One block had already gone by and her stop was coming up in just minutes. She didn’t regret her refusal of a burger with Brady, even though it would have been far tastier than whatever her freezer offered up. Dinner was definitely a bad idea, especially with someone so sweet and funny. Kate loved people, but she kept her friendships light and transient. Aside from a few friends she checked in with on social media, she didn’t have a lot of ties.
Brady was the kind of man who liked ties.
“I like blue,” Brady said. “Almost every shade except the really light ones. Ocean blue, midnight blue, royal blue. All good.”
“Is that one of the truths you put on the employee app?”
He turned his head and grinned at her. “I thought of much more interesting truths.”
“And a lie?”
“That was harder, but I’ll leave it to you to decide if I really went to ten different elementary schools or not.”
Kate laughed. “You seem like the kind of man who likes to be in one place.”
Brady didn’t answer, but she noticed his hands flexing on the steering wheel. He was probably thinking about what opposites they were. If she had said she’d gone to ten different elementary schools, people would probably believe it readily. But nothing could be farther from the truth. She’d hardly been outside a ten-mile radius in her first eighteen years on the planet.
“Did you get your own house yet?” she asked, hoping the answer would be yes and he would fill the last few minutes of their ride with wonderful, boring details about paint colors, window screens and basement drainage systems. It would be safely impersonal.
“Not yet. That’s why I’m back here working for the summer.”
Kate absorbed that thought as she looked out the windows at the darkening city of Cape Pursuit. They had passed the bulk of the tourist strip with its hotels, restaurants and bars. Her stop was just one short block away.
“Why are you back?” Brady asked.
Kate let the question hang in the cool air. Brady coasted to a stop and set the brake, but he didn’t open the door, which would automatically turn the interior lights on. Kate faced him in the semidarkness, wondering if she should tell him her plans. It was none of his business, but it would make it clear that any ideas he might have about a relationship or a repeat of last summer’s kiss would be useless. She’d be moving on as soon as summer ended.
“I’m here for the same reason you are,” she said. She got up and Brady pulled the lever to open the door, giving Kate a quick exit whenever she wanted it. She put a hand on the shiny brass railing at the top of the steps. There was no one else on the trolley, and Brady was at the end of his shift. There was no hurry, and she could take the time to let him know her future was already planned and didn’t include him.
Brady’s stomach rumbled like a long peal of thunder, and he put a hand on it and laughed. “I wasn’t kidding about that triple cheeseburger. Working two jobs is definitely cutting into my eating time.”
“I don’t want to hold you up,” Kate said. She put a foot on the top step and the movement brought her eye level with Brady in the driver’s seat. It wouldn’t hurt to level with him. “I’m going to flight attendant school in September. That’s why I’m here. I’m earning my tuition money, and then I’ll be all over the world and getting paid for it.”
She smiled as the images of Europe, bright blue oceans, Australia, Hawaii and every other beautiful place she’d seen on travel posters rolled through her head. She’d had plenty of time to develop her imagination and her appetite for seeing new places as she crossed the United States in her freight-truck days.
Being a flight attendant would be much more glamorous.
Brady nodded, but his expression clouded as if he had a question he’d like to ask but wasn’t going to. “You’ll love that.”
He said it quietly, but his words cut right through her. Why did such a simple statement sound like a criticism?
“You’re darn right I will,” she said as she descended the steps, hiked her bag over her shoulder and headed off to her summer apartment. Brady could eat a cheeseburger and fries all by himself.
* * *
KATE SAT IN the last seat on the trolley with the microphone in her lap. Holly was at the wheel. Kate didn’t love the way her friend often bumped the curbs at stops, accelerated too slowly and tended to get behind by a minute or two at each stop. But, she reasoned, Holly would get better at all of those things if she drove more often, and it wasn’t fair for Kate to grab the seat at the wheel every time. Holly had also worked for the tourist company the year before and had been Kate’s roommate, but Holly had worked most of the summer at the bike rental instead of the trolley.
When Holly grazed the curb at the mermaid statue trolley stop at six minutes past three in the afternoon, Kate hopped off and greeted people as they entered the trolley. If she scanned their passes and helped them board quickly, they might make up the six minutes by the end of their shift. She disguised a frown when she saw the sheer number of people lined up to board the bus. They all looked sun-weary with pink skin, salt-water-tousled hair and sandy feet in flip-flops. One man covered his eyes with his hand and pinched his temples.
Beach time was over for the day for this group of tourists. Kate smiled at them and tried to get them onto the air-conditioned trolley as quickly as she could. An older man traveling in a group with who appeared to be his kids and grandkids had a tough time picking up his foot to get it on the bottom step. Kate reached out a hand to steady him, but he had already gripped the railing on both sides of the steps.
“Got a cramp in my leg,” he said. “I tried to play Frisbee on the sand with my grandkids, and I wore myself out before I even knew what hit me.”
Although it was blistering hot, the man wasn’t sweating like all the other guests who were wiping their brows and upper lips with the corners of their beach towels.
“You have to pace yourself,” Kate said. “Are you staying in Cape Pursuit for the week?”
The man gave her a confused expression, and she thought she heard him say, “I don’t know,” as he labored up the steps. Poor guy. He was going to need a vacation from his vacation.
Kate scanned boarding passes and tried to get everyone aboard so they could move along. There would be hot, tired people waiting at the next stops, and one of the hallmarks of the Cape Pursuit Trolley Line was the fact that it promised to run on time. She gave Holly the sign to close the door, gave the bell a quick pull and went to her seat at the back of the bus.
“Thank you for riding the Cape Pursuit Trolley Line,” she began in a cheerful voice over the speaker system. “We hope you’re all having a wonderful day in our beach town. As you ride in cool comfort to your final stop, I’d like to share some highlights with you. I’m sure you saw the mermaid statue on the beach where you just boarded. You might be interested to know that the statue is much more popular with tourists than with some of the local city leaders. It’s rumored that the artist they commissioned to sculpt it chose a more anatomically realistic style than expected.”
Kate paused and a few people chuckled, as they usually did. “No matter what you think of the statue, the mermaid looking out to sea and hoping for the return of her beloved sailor is part of the town’s history as a sailing port and even a location for pirates to shelter from weather and the law.”
The mention of pirates usually got a few heads to turn, but the children aboard the trolley were too hot and tired to show much interest. Kate moved on to narrating the names of the streets they passed, the hotels and even suggesting some of the restaurants. She always made sure to point out the miniature golf course and
ice cream stand owned by her employer.
The older man with the leg cramp had taken a seat across from her in the back of the trolley, and she saw him leaning over in his seat. At first she thought he was trying to massage the cramp out of his calf, but then she noticed he had rested his head on the back of the seat in front of him. And he wasn’t moving.
Was he asleep? Ill? She saw a lot of hot, tired tourists, but everyone on the trolley staff had also been trained in basic first aid, especially the kinds of problems they might see in a summer beach town. The older man’s family had sat in front of him and they were busy looking at pictures on their phones and talking about where they were going for dinner.
Kate put a hand on the man’s shoulder and noticed he was shaking. Or was it shivering?
“Are you okay?” she asked. The man barely acknowledged her. “Sir?” she said more loudly.
Kate tapped the shoulder of the woman sitting in front of the older man. She turned and looked and Kate pointed.
“Dad?” the woman asked. “Are you okay?” She hopped out of her seat and squeezed in next to her father.
He turned a confused gaze on her. “Margaret, when did you get back from Europe?”
Kate pulled out her phone and dialed 911. As she spoke to the operator and explained her suspicions about a heatstroke victim, she strode to the front of the trolley. The next stop was in sight, and Kate told Holly to pull up at the stop and empty out all the passengers. On her way back to the ill man, she noticed an ice chest tucked under one of the trolley seats.
“Do you have ice left?” she asked.
The woman shook her head. “My son left it open and our ice turned to water. We poured it out on the beach.”
“I have ice,” the man two rows behind her said. He pointed to the red plastic rolling ice chest at his feet.
“I’ve got an overheated man in the back,” Kate said. “May I?”
