Buck handed the urn to Scarlett, but Scarlett turned her face away and wailed, “I can’t! I just can’t!”
Belinda staggered over and reached her hand into the urn. She bent all the way over the side of the boat as if she was afraid to throw Deacon’s ashes, as if she preferred to simply set them down on the surface of the water. “Good night, sweet prince,” she said. Angie rolled her eyes. Of course her mother would quote Shakespeare.
BELINDA
After the ceremonial moment had passed, they idled a bit. Belinda returned to the back of the boat, as far away as possible from Scarlett.
“It’s a lovely night,” JP said. “We’ll turn around in a minute.”
Scarlett stood up. At first, Belinda thought she had changed her mind about the ashes, which was a good thing. If she didn’t scatter them now, she would always regret it. But instead of asking for the urn, Scarlett headed for Belinda with her arms outstretched.
“Belinda,” she said. “Listen to me.”
“No,” Belinda said. She backed up. In that moment, Scarlett became Stella, or maybe just a younger Scarlett, maybe the Scarlett who had occupied Deacon’s fantasies even while he was married to Belinda.
“Stay away from me, please,” Belinda said. Belinda took another step back and instantly realized her mistake. There was nothing behind her except—after a moment of suspended time, which was at once instant and endless—the water.
ANGIE
Splash.
There was a beat of stunned silence. If it were anyone else, Angie might have laughed. But it was Belinda.
Angie said, “She can’t swim! JP, my mother can’t swim!”
JP jumped up onto the bench, and from there, he dove over the side of the boat. A few seconds later he surfaced and said, “I don’t see her!”
Buck dove into the water. Laurel dove into the water. The boat bounced around, and Angie gripped the side to keep herself upright. JP went down again. Ellery wrapped her arms around Angie’s legs.
“Miss Kit Kat?” she said.
“She’ll be fine,” Scarlett said.
“She can’t swim!” Angie said to Scarlett. “You know she can’t swim!”
“I was just trying to apologize!” Scarlett said. She turned to Joel. “I wanted to say sorry.”
Joel peered over the side of the boat into the water, but he did not jump in, Angie noticed.
Mom! Angie could not lose both her parents. She could not. Belinda was a fighter. Swim! she thought. Find the surface! Wasn’t everyone born with an innate sense of what to do in the water?
JP’s head popped up. He dragged Belinda to the surface. Belinda sucked in air, coughed, and choked. Then, once she had oxygen, she started to howl. Angie, too, started crying.
“Mom!” Angie said.
Buck climbed aboard, and together he and JP managed to get Belinda back onto the boat. Laurel followed, then JP. Hayes was sitting with his head in his hands. “Man,” he said. “I just cannot handle this.”
From the launch, JP radioed the harbormaster, who sent one of his assistants to meet them on the dock with towels and blankets. Belinda was in full-on teeth-chattering, goose-bump mode. Angie walked her mother over to JP’s Jeep, and Hayes helped Belinda get settled in the front seat.
They had to wait for JP to tie the launch back up, during which time Angie watched Joel, Scarlett, and Ellery climb into the back of the red Jeep, with Laurel and Buck in the front.
“Who is that guy with the goatee?” Hayes asked. “Do we know him?”
“He’s my boyfriend,” Angie said. Hayes was so oblivious! Angie wanted to snap in his face and say, For Pete’s sake, Hayes, pay attention! But she didn’t want to be the instigator of any more family strife, and besides, she envied Hayes his ability to block everything out.
“Your boyfriend?” Hayes said. “I thought he was Scarlett’s boyfriend.”
“Exactly,” Angie said.
“But I guess that wouldn’t make sense,” Hayes said. “Because she was married to Dad, and he’s only been dead a few weeks.”
“Exactly,” Belinda mumbled. Angie put a hand on Belinda’s shoulder and kept it there until JP climbed into the Jeep.
“Back to Hoicks Hollow?” he asked.
“Yes, please,” Angie said. She wanted to somehow apologize for her family, but she didn’t know how.
Back at 33 Hoicks Hollow, there was a commotion in the driveway. Belinda had regained some color and some life. She sat forward.
“Someone is here,” she said. “Is it Bob?”
“It might be?” Angie said. That would be a nice surprise for her mother. The red Jeep was already in the driveway, as well as… the Lincoln. Pirate’s taxi.
“What does that guy want?” Hayes asked.
“What does that guy want?” Angie asked Hayes. “Do you owe him money?”
“More like the other way around,” Hayes said.
JP said, “Pirate is the scourge of this entire island. He moved here last year and parades around in that asinine costume like he owns the place. And it’s no secret he deals drugs.”
Angie saw a man—tall and lean, with sandy blond hair, wearing a coat and tie—climb out of the back of the taxi. Not Bob.
“Who’s that?” she said.
Scarlett jumped out of the red Jeep and launched herself into the man’s arms.
“Well,” Belinda said.
The man was Bo Tanner. Angie unfolded herself from the back of JP’s Jeep just in time for Scarlett to introduce her.
“Bo, this is Angie, Belinda and Deacon’s daughter. Angie, this is Bo Tanner.”
He held out his hand. Angie wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do. Deacon’s ashes probably hadn’t even settled on the ocean floor yet, and already Angie was meeting his replacement. She shook Bo’s hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
This, at least, was true.
When Angie turned around, she saw Joel waiting for her.
“You should go,” she said. “Get your stuff out of my room and have Pirate here take you to the ferry.”
Joel reached out for Angie’s arm, but she swatted him away. “Don’t touch me.”
“Ange.”
His voice, with its smoldering, sexy, ragged edge, nearly undid her resolve. She wanted to go to him and rest her head on his heart. The nonsense with Scarlett she could forgive; he had probably just felt uncomfortable putting his feelings for Angie on display. But then she thought of JP’s words, You deserve to be someone’s everything. She would never be Joel’s everything. He might not leave her for Scarlett Oliver, but he would leave her for someone, the way he’d run through Karen and Winnie. Angie drew on some strength way down in the pit of her stomach that she didn’t even know she had; it was even more difficult than drawing back the string of the bow. “Leave, Joel,” she said. “Oh, and by the way, you’re fired.”
“You can’t fire me,” Joel said. “Only Harv can fire me.”
“Okay, then wait for Harv to tell you,” Angie said. “But you’re fired.”
Angie and JP helped Belinda from the car into the house.
“I can walk,” Belinda said. “I’m fine, really.”
Angie looked at JP. “We’re ordering pizzas for dinner,” she said. “Dad’s favorite. Can you stay?”
“Let me run back to my shack and get changed,” JP said. “Then, yes, I’d love to join you.”
“My hero,” Belinda said.
JP left, and Joel was gone. Laurel, Buck, Hayes, and Ellery were in the kitchen when Belinda and Angie walked in, followed by Scarlett and Bo.
“Bo is going to join us for dinner!” Scarlett announced. She beamed at Laurel. “Is that okay with you?”
Laurel opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Finally she managed: “It’s Deacon’s farewell dinner, Bo,” she said. “Do you feel like you want to be here?”
Bo smiled. “No,” he said. He held his palms up as if to show he meant no harm. “I’ll head back to my hotel, I think.” To Scarlett, he said, “I’ll let you enjoy your time with everyone tonight, and I’ll come get you and Ellery in the morning. Good-bye, y’all,” he said, excusing himself with half a wave.