Emily met up with the others at the Sandpiper. Her revealing conversation with Mudge hadn’t taken much time at all, yet it left her reeling.
“To vacations!” the schoolteacher said, raising her glass of Cabernet to clink with the rim of Emily’s margarita glass.
“To vacations,” Emily echoed, hoping to avoid questions that would reveal that she was not on vacation.
“When do you go home?” asked the anniversary man, whose name turned out to be Dennis.
“Not for a few days,” Emily answered noncommittally. Part of her wanted to leave now. Another part never wanted to go home again. How could she ever look at her apartment the same again?
She only half listened to her companions as they discussed whether or not they’d enjoy being on vacation forever, or if vacations were only special because they were interruptions of normal life.
Emily’s attention was on Aggie, who was working behind the bar tonight. Had Sean really abandoned his young love when Aggie needed him most? What about his famous boast that he always fixed broken things better than they had been? Was Agie as bitter about Sean as her brother? And what had she told her son?
Emily tried to reconcile the stories Sean had told with this ugly truth. There had been no hint of guilt when he spoke of Aggie, no sign that he knew he had a son out there who was growing up without him. Why on earth would Sean have suggested they honeymoon here if he knew he might run across Aggie or his son and face their wrath?
No. She shook her head. Mudge was wrong. He had to be. If he were right, then Emily was not the judge of character she had always thought herself. There must be some other explanation for why he left Aggie and Mudge without explanation. Sean had loved them both. She had heard it in his voice, in the stories he told. He missed them.
The schoolteacher, whose name was Lily, Emily reminded herself, laughed and sipped her wine. “Why is it that vacations always make us feel as if we’re wearing disguises? Or is that just me?”
Emily said, with one-hundred-percent honesty, “It’s not just you.”
She’d always thought she was supremely level-headed when it came to love. She’d thought the long line of brides and grooms who were so hopelessly blind to their own mismatches had inoculated her against such foolishness.
Had Aggie been as blind to Sean back then? Was she clearer headed now? Maybe she could help Emily understood where Mudge had failed.
* * *
The four of them sat in the Sandpiper, their conversation ebbing and flowing like the sea. Emily made certain to interject a comment often enough that no one else would guess her mind was elsewhere.
Her focus was on Aggie. As the place slowly emptied out, she realized that she didn’t want to wait, or be circumspect. She just wanted to know what Aggie knew.
You’re an “ease the bandage off bit by bit” kind of girl, are you Emily Pepperell? I’m more of rip it off in one go person myself.
Tonight, Sean, she said silently, as she made her decision, I’m going to be a rip the bandage off kind of girl.
But she didn’t want her new Blythe Cove Manor friends to see that side of her. When they finally, reluctantly, rose from the table, she made an excuse to linger.
Dennis looked concerned, “Are you certain you want to walk back alone in the dark? It could be easy to get lost.”
She smiled at his kindness. He had no idea she was already so lost she didn’t think she could ever be found again. “I have a flashlight.”
He smiled. “Blythe does think of everything. Umbrellas, flashlights, sunscreen. I just wish she had something harder than sherry in the evening.”
They all laughed, and Emily watched them leave until she found herself alone with Aggie, who was wiping the bar one final time.
Aggie’s face communicated everything in one look when Emily walked up to the bar. We’re closing. I want to go home. Don’t ask me for anything. The good business woman trumped the exhausted single mom and she said, “What can I get you?”
Emily said bluntly, “Answers. About Sean. He married me three days ago, and I haven’t seen him since.”
Aggie’s expression went through several permutations, beginning with I couldn’t have heard what I just heard. Sean? Sean. At the end, finally, Sean left her. Through it all, Emily noticed one stark truth. Aggie had known that Sean was not dead.
Without a word, Aggie dropped her bar rag and set up two shot glasses in front of Emily. She reached for the house whiskey, but stopped and reached up to the top shelf for another bottle. She poured two generous shots before putting the bottle back on the shelf and returning to Emily.
“What do you want to know?” Aggie asked, picking up a glass and gesturing for Emily to pick up the other.
Whiskey wasn’t Emily’s usual choice, but she picked up the glass. She swirled the whiskey as she realized all her questions had fled. What did she want to know?
At last she looked up at Aggie. “How could I have been so wrong about him?”
Aggie looked both surprised and pleased at the question. It was obviously not one she had expected. “What did you think of him?” She added “Before he disappeared?”
“I thought he was the most charming, loving man I’d ever met. He made me a better person every day I knew him. I thought I’d won the relationship lottery.”
Aggie winced. “Sounds about right.”
“Your brother does not agree.” Emily downed her shot.
“Forrey, he could see the mountains where there were nothing but rolling seas. That boy could make a mountain out of a molehill faster than anyone I knew.”
“It isn’t a molehill when someone abandons his pregnant girlfriend.” Emily didn’t want to mince words. Tonight was about ripping off the bandages. All of them.
Aggie laughed the laughter of a young girl with no responsibility on her shoulders. “Ah. I should have known Mudge would tell you that. He probably thought you’d run away and stop asking questions if you thought Sean was a deadbeat who abandoned his own son.”
“Sean didn’t abandon you?”
“The opposite. Sean saved me from a bad situation I had gotten us all into.” Aggie’s expression grew serious again. “Sean is not my son’s father.”
“Why does your brother think he is?” Emily was sure Mudge had believed what he said. But then again, she had thought Sean meant the vows he spoke at their wedding.
“Because I never told him the name of who his father really was. And I hope I never have to.” Aggie sighed. “My brother means well. He even believes he’s protecting me. But he isn’t. And I haven’t done him any favors by not insisting he accept the truth.” Aggie looked away, out to sea.
“Then tell it to me.” Emily set down her shot glass, prepared to listen.
“Not here.” Aggie locked the main door of the bar, then led Emily around to the back and out the staff entrance. She locked that door too, pulled hard to double check it was locked, and then headed toward the sound of the sea, leaving Emily to follow her into the darkness.
The sound of the sea in the darkness settled around Emily like a blanket. The gritty, pebble-strewn sand shifted under her feet so that she had to work to follow Aggie.
They sat on the sand and Aggie filled in the past that Sean had not revealed to Emily. When she was done, Emily was more confused than ever.
“How does you falling in love with a drug smuggler lead to Sean disappearing completely from your lives? Never mind disappearing from my life three days ago?”
Aggie was invisible, just the hint of a shadow indicated she was bowing her head toward her knees. Her voice was soft. “I was in love with Ed, I would have done anything he asked. But when he brought up the idea of running some dope out to a larger boat anchored a few miles out to sea, I confess I thought it was a way to make some quick cash.” Her voice hitched. “To pay for a wedding, if you can believe it.”
Emily thought of all the many young brides she had helped. “I can believe it.”
“Sean knew better, but he wasn’t
going to let me get into trouble by myself. I think he had already decided that if anything went wrong, he was going to take all the blame.”
“Did Mudge know?”
“He did, after we set sail and Sean pulled close to the bigger boat. My brother is not unobservant. He wasn’t going to let Ed make the drop. Sean somehow convinced him that it would be one time only.”
“So what went wrong?”
“Ed was shot when he made the drop. Turned out someone wanted to send his big shot drug kingpin father a message. He never had a chance. They took the drugs, kept the money, and kept Ed’s body to show to his father.” Aggie’s voice was soft, but Emily could still hear the echo of the shock and horror the young woman had felt seeing her lover killed. “We were stupid, I’m not going to argue. But we messed with the wrong folks. Sean saw it before we did. Being Sean, he didn’t think too long about his solution — he took all the blame, confessed to the cops, turned informer, and ended up with a lifelong target on his back.”
“He went into witness protection?”
“Yes.”
“Then why was his name still Sean.”
Aggie laughed. “He said no one would expect someone to keep their same first name when they went into witness protection.”
“So why didn’t Mudge just tell me this?”
“Sean wanted him — and me — completely out of the mess. And Mudge would not have stayed out of it if he’d known what Sean was up to. Sean said it was better for him to think Sean was the only one who’d broken faith in him.”
“Why haven’t you told him now, after so many years?”
“Who knows what my brother would do if he knew. He might even try to fix things for Sean. Bring him home.”
“But…”
Aggie sighed. “I haven’t thought about it for years. I’ve been busy raising my son, working, and living my life.”
That was the problem. All that had been years ago. “So why would he disappear on me? That’s the part I don’t understand. How can it be related to what happened to you?”
A deep voice broke the darkness and Emily and Aggie both started. “The honeymoon at Blythe Cove Manor.” Forrey, aka Mudge, turned on a flashlight and illuminated his face. “That was Sean’s idea?”
13
Aggie sucked in a breath in shock. Emily thought she would scold her brother — or maybe leap to abject apologies for lying to him. Instead, she said, “Sean wanted to come home. To show you off to us.”
Mudge nodded, settling down beside them, so that the flashlight illuminated on all their faces. He gave his sister a piercing look. “Sean must have made a mistake. Someone must have figured out who he was. Ed’s father never stopped looking for Sean. He blamed him for Ed’s death. Maybe someone was watching for him to come back home.”
“This wasn’t his home,” Emily protested weakly. But the two of them sitting in different sections of the airplane now took on a totally different meaning.
“He loved it here,” Aggie said. “He wanted to come back. He must have thought it would be safe.”
“How do you know that Ag?” Mudge hadn’t said anything about the lies his sister had been telling him, but it was clear he was not happy with her. His question had an edge to it.
Aggie stared him down. “He sent me things every so often.”
Emily asked, “What things?”
Aggie looked at her, reading the concern in the subtext of her question. “Postcards. Baseball caps. Once a pack of playing cards from Route 66. Nothing romantic. I told you. We were just friends.”
“How did you know it was from him?” Emily asked. “Did he risk signing his name? Could someone have traced him through those?”
“No. He wasn’t that foolish.” Aggie fumbled in her pockets. “Wait. I have his latest one.”
She held out a postcard and Forrey shined his light on it. “See?” Aggie tapped the return address. “Home is Where the Heart Is Gift Shop.”
Emily felt the tears spring into her eyes. She could almost hear Sean saying, Home is where the heart is, woman. Don’t you know that by now?
“He did ask me if I thought there were any brides in need of my service closer to the sea.” Emily had insisted she didn’t want to open her own shop, especially not hundreds of miles away, and he had dropped the subject. But that was when he’d booked the honeymoon trip. He must have intended to try to change her mind. To fix what he thought was broken and make it even better.
What had he been thinking, to leave her like this. With all the questions unanswered? She wasn’t quite sure she’d ever forgive him for that. He had known how much answers meant to her, even if they were only cold comfort.
She thought about the unknown number that had left messages on her phone. Could that have been Sean?
She pulled out her phone and played the first message. It wasn’t Sean. It was an Officer Donnelly. He wanted to ask her some questions. He gave his number.
She dropped the phone into the sand and the three of them stared at it as messages played out in an increasingly insistent manner.
“Officer Donnelly again. It is very urgent that you contact my office immediately.”
“I have important information for you. Please call at your earliest convenience. This is not a prank.”
It was the last message that broke them.
“I normally don’t do this over voicemail, but you leave me no choice.” There was a hesitation and then… “I regret to inform you that your husband’s body was found in a landfill south of the airport.”
Another hesitation, but this time broken by the sound of a sharp intake a breath magnified by three. “We would like to confirm your well-being at your earliest convenience.”
* * *
The sky was lightening in preparation for dawn when Mudge and Aggie walked her home, treating her as if she were made of spun sugar that would melt or crumble at the slightest provocation.
Neither wasted words on platitudes or encouragement. Mudge did say, as he left her at the door of Blythe Cove Manor, “I know the police chief. We can talk to him tomorrow. See what you need to do.”
Emily nodded. “Okay.”
Aggie hugged her. “I’ll come for you in the morning. It’s easier to do these kinds of things with friends.”
“Thank you.” Emily pushed opened the door. “Thank you both.”
She went up to the little single room and opened her window wide. The sea was calling to her again. But this time it had Sean’s voice. My mermaid. Come to me.
She didn’t even try to sleep, knowing it was futile. Instead, she turned on the light and took out everything she had left of Sean and laid it out on the bed. The pictures. The letter. The birth certificate. The faked death certificate. Soon she’d have a real one to go with the fake one. That was it. So little left, when she had expected a lifetime of memories.
Emily remembered there was one more thing of Sean’s. The ship in a bottle. She went over to the dresser and lifted up the bottle. She pressed the bottle that Sean’s fingers had touched so long ago to her lips until she felt the glass warm. She’d ask Blythe if she could have it. Surely the innkeeper would agree if she knew the truth.
She started to shake as the tears came like a firestorm to overwhelm her. The bottle dropped from her fingers and shattered against the side of the dresser, scattering the three tiny figures.
Emily fell to the floor, her legs unable to support her any longer. She reached for the tiny Sean figure and held it loosely in her palm. You should marry me now. I’m never going to leave you, so why should we wait?
The only thing left to face was whatever he had written in the letter. Emily gathered all the tattered hopes she had left and took the envelope into her hand. She did nothing with it for a long time. And then, rip-the-bandage-off time, she opened the letter.
14
The sight of his open, loop-de-loop scrawl brought tears to her eyes so thickly she could not read.
At last, when the sun had risen, she rea
d the last message Sean would ever send her.
You have made me the happiest man in the world today, Emily Pepperell. Know this — if I ever break your heart — by accident — I promise to fix it even better than it was before.
If I ever leave you, I promise I will find my way back to you.
If you ever lose me, I promise you will always find me in the song of the sea.
My love for you is as vast as the sea and as enduring as the message in the bottle bobbing on that sea.
My home — and my heart — is with you always and forever.
Those had been his wedding vows. But they took on a different meaning now that she knew the truth about how he had ended up on Spirit Lake, so far from the sea he loved. Now that she’d come here, she understood why he’d risked everything to bring her here. Foolish man had no doubt thought this was something else that he could fix if it got broken. But he’d been wrong.
She hadn’t been though. He had loved her. There was not one scrap of doubt left in her heart. She read his vows again, remembering how he had looked deep into her eyes and held her hands when he recited them.
One phrase caught her attention. The message in the bottle? Could he possibly have meant something more by that? She scrabbled around the floor, gathering all the fallen pieces of the ship, the people. She found the note, then. It was small, but heavy. A little white paper rolled up tightly around a key. One day we’ll have our own ship for real. But for now take this receipt to Captain Tinkham’s Emporium and find our own ship in a bottle — the Mermaid Emily. It belongs in a place of honor in your new shop, which you will find next to Tinkham’s.
When Mudge and Aggie arrived to see her to the police chief, she showed the note, and the key to them.
“How on earth did he get that in the bottle?” Aggie asked in wonder. Emily noticed the woman’s eyes were glassy with unshed tears. “He really could work magic.”
Mudge snorted. “Don’t be daft. He probably mailed a new bottle to Blythe and asked her to switch it out as a surprise for Emily.”
Summer Magic Page 15
