Текст книги "Summer Rental"

Автор книги: Mary Kay Andrews

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Текущая страница: 26 (всего у книги 27 страниц)

“You can imagine how desperate Adam got when he realized his plan backfired,” Don said. “And that you’d absconded with all his money. Not that I ever really intended to give him a cent,” Don added.

He looked at Maryn with interest. “What are you fiddling with over there?” He stood abruptly and jerked Maryn off the bed.

She cried out in pain as her head hit the sharp edge of the nightstand, and the lamp fell to the floor, its glass base smashing to bits.

Maryn was sobbing softly.

*   *   *

One floor down, Dorie, Ellis, and Julia were riveted to the spot.

“He’s hurting her,” Dorie exclaimed. “Ellis, are you still on hold? Hang up and redial, for God’s sake.”

“What?” they heard Don say, with a low chuckle. “Were you looking for that pistol I gave you? I already looked. It’s not there, is it?”

“The pistol,” Julia whispered. “My God, I forgot to put it back under her mattress.” She sprinted from the room and came back with her beach tote, holding the gun out with a look of horror and fascination.

“What should we do?” Dorie asked. “Y’all, we can’t wait for the cops.”

Ellis clicked the disconnect button. “I’m calling Ty,” she whispered. “He’s out back. He needs to know things are getting hairy in here.”

“Where’d you put the gun, Maryn?” they heard Don ask, and when she kept crying, they heard the sickening sound of a slap, and then Maryn crying harder.

“Do something,” Dorie implored. “He’ll kill her.”

Ellis’s fingers were shaking as she tapped his name on her cell phone. The phone rang twice, three times, no answer. “Come on, Ty,” Ellis breathed. “Pick up. Please, please, pick up.” A moment later, she got his voice mail. “Hi, it’s Ty,” his voice said. “Leave a number and I’ll hit you back.”

“Ty, it’s me,” she said, cupping her hand over the phone, her lips close to the receiver. “The man in Madison’s room is her husband. He’s beating the crap out of her. I still can’t get through to 911. Get your friend, get the cops, get somebody over here now. And hurry.”

“Maryn?” Don’s voice was threatening.

“The gun’s not here,” she cried. “It was stolen from my car the first week I was here. I haven’t had time to get another one. That’s why I put the locks on the door.”

“You’re sure it’s not in your purse?” Don asked, and they heard the clink of change and metal on the wooden floor.

“I told you it was stolen,” Maryn whimpered. “Why would I lie?”

“All right,” he relented. “Maybe you’re telling the truth. Doesn’t matter, does it? Come on, get up. And be quiet.” He slung the briefcase over his shoulder.

Maryn was crying again.

“I said get up, damn it,” Don growled, pulling his own pistol from his waistband.

Maryn gave another cry of pain, and they heard footsteps on the wooden floor.

“Where are you taking me?” she asked, her voice quivering.

“You wanted to see Adam Kuykendall, I’m taking you to see him,” Don said. “Let’s go.”

“I’m not alone here, Don,” Maryn said. “My friends—they’ve probably already figured out you’re here. They’ll call the cops. They won’t let you…”

He slapped her so hard her ears rang.

“Friends?” he sneered. “You don’t have friends, Maryn. Those women let you live here—why? Because you paid them? Nobody’s coming to save you, Maryn. It’s just you and me. That’s the way it’s always been. The way it always will be. Now move, God damn it.”

*   *   *

When they heard the sound of the heavy door opening, the slide of the dead bolt, all three of the women knew what was happening.

“Come on,” Ellis said, racing for Dorie’s door. “He’s taking her down the back staircase. Ty’s down there, somewhere. Julia, is that thing loaded? Do you know how to shoot it?”

“It’s loaded now,” Julia said, her voice grim. “I haven’t fired a gun since Daddy showed me how when I was fourteen, but it’ll come back to me.”

“Wait for me,” Dorie said, sliding her feet into a pair of flip-flops.

“Stay here,” Julia ordered.

“The hell I will,” Dorie said fiercely, and the three of them sprinted down the stairs as fast as they could go.

When they reached the living room, Ellis made a detour towards the fireplace. “What are you doing?” Julia whispered.

Ellis raised aloft the heavy wrought-iron poker, and Julia nodded approval.

“Wait a sec,” Dorie ordered, peeling off towards the kitchen. When she came back, she was brandishing a meat cleaver and a butcher knife. “Now we’re set,” she said.

*   *   *

Crouched under the rear stairwell, Ty heard the rusty door hinges squeak, and finally heard the heavy old door swing open. Shit! He felt the vibration of footsteps on the old steel stairway.

Madison was crying. “Don, no. Please, no. I won’t tell anybody. Please…”

“Shut up!” The man’s voice was hoarse, and Ty heard the sickening sound of a slap, flesh against flesh, and Madison cried out again. “Go on, move,” the man ordered. “Move or I’ll, by God, throw you down these stairs.”

Ty looked around for something, anything, to use as a weapon, but the only thing handy was a scrap two-by-four left behind by the construction crew. He looked longingly at the shovels and rakes lying around by the construction site, but that was thirty yards away in the open, and it was too late now to risk making a run. He’d be seen for sure if he tried to move. The staircase shuddered under the weight of the footsteps descending it.

“Move, God damn it,” came Shackleford’s hoarse whisper.

52

The women crept onto the front porch, huddling together in a knot. “I wonder where Ty is?” Ellis worried. She peered out at the driveway. The rain had gotten steadier, and mist rose eerily from the construction equipment and debris scattered around Ebbtide’s weedy yard. “How’d Don get here?” she whispered. “There’s no car in the driveway.”

“Maybe he parked somewhere down the block,” Dorie suggested.

“No good, because then he’d have to drag, or carry, Madison to his car,” Julia said.

“Wait,” Ellis said. She ran across the driveway, veering around the remains of the old garage, towards the lot next door, the one where she’d parked what seemed like months ago to get her first sneak peek at Ebbtide. A moment later she was back, panting and out of breath.

“There’s a black Escalade parked over there, behind that burnt-out foundation,” she told them. “That’s got to be Don’s. Dorie, do you think you can make it over there to the car, like, fast?”

“Of course,” Dorie snorted indignantly. “I’m not a cripple, for God’s sake.”

“Okay,” Ellis said, gesturing to the knives Dorie wielded in each hand. “Get over there and slash his tires. If he does manage to get Madison past all of us, that should slow him down. And then get the hell away from there.”

“Be right back,” Dorie promised. “Don’t do anything without me.”

When she was gone, Ellis and Julia crouched down and crab walked towards the edge of the front porch.

“What’s the plan?” Julia asked, her voice unaccustomedly shaky. “Ellis, even if I could pull this trigger, I’ve only ever shot at hay bales, in broad daylight, with Daddy right beside me. I’ve got no idea whether or not I could actually hit anything, especially in the dark like this.”

*   *   *

Ty felt the footsteps coming closer. He crouched into a fetal position, willing himself to fade into invisibility. Rain trickled down his head and into his ears, it dripped off the tip of his nose. He blinked and shook his head just slightly, with sudden understanding of the efficiency of Chinese water torture.

“God damn it, move your ass,” Shackleford rasped. “Or I swear I’ll kill you right here.”

“My ankle,” Madison moaned. “I think I twisted it.”

Ty looked up and saw Shackleford shove Madison down the last few steps of the staircase. He saw the gun, too. She cried out, landing in a heap on the matted grass. The man stepped over her and jerked her to her feet. He had a briefcase on his shoulder.

“This way,” he growled hoarsely, shoving her in the direction of the driveway.

Now or never, Ty thought grimly. He stood and launched himself into a flying tackle, fueled more with testosterone than skill, remembering his high school coach’s mantra: “Square up and drive, son.” Ty slammed into the back of Shackleford’s thighs, sending him sprawling headfirst onto the ground. BOOM!

The gunshot was so close and so loud, for a fleeting moment, Ty wondered if he’d been shot. Madison fell too, and now the three of them were flopping around in the rain and the mud, arms and legs hopelessly entangled.

“What the…?” Shackleford rolled onto his back. Ty slapped awkwardly at Shackleford’s gun hand, managing only a grazing blow, and Shackleford retaliated with a vicious backward kick to Ty’s gut. Now he was pointing the gun directly at Ty, who was scuttling backwards in the mud, trying desperately to get out of firing range.

Madison somehow managed to scramble to her feet. “No!” she screeched. “No!” She darted forward and managed to land one good kick in her husband’s ribs before he caught her foot and jerked her off balance. She screamed in pain, screamed in fear, screamed until she thought her lungs would catch fire. Senseless with rage, she kicked out at Shackleford, who grabbed her ankle with his left hand and flipped her to the ground.

Seizing the moment, Ty spied a piece of scrap two-by-four, grabbed it, and was advancing on Shackleford. But the other man saw him coming, raised up on his elbows, aimed, and fired.

BOOM!

This time he didn’t have to wonder. Ty felt a searing pain in this thigh.

*   *   *

Ellis and Julia startled at the screams coming from the back of Ebbtide. “He’s killing her!” Julia whispered, peering around the corner of the garage. “We’ve gotta do something.”

“Wait!” Ellis said, clutching the hem of Julia’s shirt. But the gunshots coming from the back of the house canceled the women’s sense of caution.

“My God,” Ellis gasped. “He’s got a gun. And Ty’s back there. He’ll kill them both!”

Before Julia could stop her, or argue for a reasonable plan of action, Ellis was sprinting towards the rear of the house, with Julia close behind. Ellis’s legs felt like concrete. Her lungs, calves, and thighs burned as though she’d set fire to them. But Ty was back there, and that bastard Don Shackleford had a gun. For once in her life, she didn’t have a plan. All she had was adrenaline.

Rounding the corner of the house, in the dim yellow of a single porch light, Ellis saw Madison, her face streaked with blood, flailing around on the ground, screeching and kicking out at the man Ellis knew must be her husband.

Standing over Don Shackleford was a mud-covered Ty Bazemore, with a crazed look in his eye and what appeared to be a two-by-four raised menacingly above Don Shackleford’s head.

In the moonlight, they saw the gun clutched in Shackleford’s hand, pointed directly at Ty’s chest. For a nanosecond, time seemed to stand still. And then Ellis heard her own voice, at a decibel level she didn’t know she possessed. She burst out of the shadows, with Julia right beside her, the two of them screaming like banshees.

Instinctively, the friends split up, with Julia running in one direction towards Shackleford, and Ellis in another.

Julia stopped five yards away, held the pistol out, elbows locked, the gun clutched in both hands, the way she’d seen Clint Eastwood do in all those Dirty Harry movies Booker loved so much. “Stop, or I’ll shoot!” Unlike Clint Eastwood, her voice cracked and the words came out more of a squeak than a roar. Also unlike Clint, her hands shook like a drunk with a bad case of the DTs.

Shackleford’s expression was more of bemusement than terror. He shoved Madison aside and stood easily.

“I’ll shoot your ass,” Julia screeched, planting her feet and assuming the position.

“Sure you will,” Shackleford said, laughing. He raised his own pistol and pointed it at Julia, but at just that moment, they heard an earsplitting burst of siren: Whee-OO, whee-OO, whee-OO. Startled, Shackleford turned his head, just for a second.

Whee-OO, whee-OO.

It was all the distraction Ty needed. He slammed the two-by-four across the top of Don Shackleford’s skull, at precisely the same moment that Ellis, crouched behind Shackleford, circled around, leapt into the air, and with an unearthly howl which Julia later described as “half Karate Kid, half feral dog,” made a direct hit to Shackleford’s groin with the fireplace poker.

At which point, the bad guy, Julia said in subsequent retellings, “folded like a Kmart lawn chair.”

53

Ty dropped the two-by-four and limped over to Ellis, gathering her into his arms, deliberately turning her away from the sight of Don Shackleford crumpled on the ground with a gaping gouge across the top of his head.

Julia stared down at Shackleford, who was motionless. Wordlessly, she dropped the pistol, and went to comfort Madison, who had retreated to the cover of the back porch, and was now weeping softly, clinging to the handrail of the iron staircase.

“It’s all right,” Julia said, hugging Madison. “You’re all right. He can’t hurt you anymore. Not anymore. Not ever.” Her voice was soothing, singsongy. Madison shuddered, and Julia petted her, as she would a frightened kitten. “I swear, he’ll never touch you again.”

“You guys!” they heard a voice call. Looking up, Ellis and Julia saw Dorie loping towards them, through the mist. “I heard gunshots. Are you all right?”

“Dorie!” Ellis cried. “We’re okay. We’re all okay. Ty…” Her voice was as shaky as her legs, which now felt like they might collapse under the weight of her. “Ty saved us.”

“You saved yourselves,” Ty corrected her, wincing. Now Ellis saw the blood oozing from his left thigh. “You’re hurt,” she exclaimed. “Oh my God, he shot you.” She looked wildly around. “Ty’s been shot. We’ve got to get an ambulance.”

“I’m fine,” Ty said wanly, clamping his hand over his thigh. “Just a flesh wound. Like on TV.”

Ellis fumbled in her pocket for her cell phone, but now they heard a different set of sirens, and looking up, saw a procession of blue and red flashing lights: three Dare County sheriff’s cruisers, a K-9 drug enforcement unit, and an ambulance.

“Thank God,” Ellis murmured.

Everything happened at once then. Cops with dogs swarmed out of the cruisers, weapons drawn. Connor Terry pulled up in his Jeep a moment later, and rushed to Dorie’s side. The EMTs strapped Shackleford to a gurney and shoved him into the ambulance.

“Come on, buddy,” said another technician, trying to herd Ty towards the same ambulance.

“Nothin’ doin’,” Ty said through gritted teeth. “I’m not getting in the same buggy as the asshole who just tried to kill us all.”

Madison, despite her own vehement protests, was told that her head injury, and a shoulder that was likely dislocated, meant a direct ticket to the emergency room. Red lights flashing, the ambulance left, bearing both Madison and her unconscious husband to the emergency room.

Ty was still arguing with the EMTs when the pretty black paramedic who’d just finished applying a butterfly bandage to Madison’s forehead came walking up. “Aw, Bazemore, don’t be such a hardhead,” she called.

“Kalilah, you know this guy?”

“Sure,” she replied. “You know him too. He works the bar at Caddie’s.”

“Hey, Kalilah,” Ty said. “I’m was just trying to tell your friend here it’s no big thing.”

“Lemme see,” Kalilah said, pushing him gently onto the bumper of the nearest cruiser. Donning a fresh pair of latex gloves, and illuminated by the headlights of another cruiser, she gently probed the wound. “You are one charmed sumbitch,” she told him, swabbing the wound with disinfectant. “Looks like that bullet only grazed you. Couple inches to the right, and it would’ve hit your femoral artery. You would’ve bled out before we got here.”

“Yeah,” added the first EMT, “and another inch to the right of that and you’d be singing soprano.”

“My lucky day,” Ty said, wincing.

Kalilah was an efficient worker, and a moment later she had his thigh cleaned and dressed. “Now,” she ordered with a grin. “I need you to drop those pants so I can hit you with some antibiotics. Which one of those cheeks is the prettiest?”

Ty shrugged, and unflinchingly dropped his rain-sodden shorts to offer up his left buttock. Before he could stop her, she jabbed him with a second needle. “A lil’ something for the pain,” she said. “You’re gonna sleep good tonight, my friend.”

Thunder growled in the distance, and a streak of lightning tore through the night. But the rain had slacked off to a gentle drizzle, and finally, after what seemed like an eternity, after all the witnesses had been questioned and statements taken, the police cruisers made their bumpy exit down the Ebbtide driveway. The group stood, huddled under a green-and-white striped golf umbrella, watching them go.

“Hey,” Ellis said suddenly. “It just struck me. That first siren we heard. Right when Don Shackleford was going to shoot Ty. Where the hell did that come from?”

Dorie laughed. “My bad.” She reached in the pocket of Connor Terry’s borrowed, bright yellow Dare County Sheriff rain slicker and brandished her weapon of choice. “You ever try to slash a steel-belted radial Michelin with the equivalent of a butter knife?” She gave Ty a reproachful head shake. “Dude, you gotta get some decent equipment in that kitchen of yours. I was still sawing away on that first tire when the Escalade’s car alarm went off. I thought for sure he’d kill all of y’all.”

“Actually, that car alarm probably saved my life,” Ty told her. “Shackleford had a dead bead drawn on me. He’d have shot me for sure. So it looks like you’re the real hero here.”

“She did great,” Ellis said, looking around at all their haggard, mud-splattered faces. “But I think we all did pretty good. We make a decent team, don’t you think?”

“Awesome,” Julia said. “But I’d just as soon not ever go through anything like that again. Ever.”

Ty nodded his agreement, but his eyelids were drooping, and it was clear he was in pain. “Come on,” Ellis said finally, draping Ty’s arm around her shoulder. “I’m taking you home.”

He looked off at the spot where his garage and apartment had been, and yawned. “Got no home anymore,” he said drowsily.

“Sure you do,” Ellis told him, nudging him gently towards the weatherbeaten gray house. “Ebbtide’s still here. It’s not going anywhere. And neither am I.”

Epilogue

Julia burst through the kitchen door. “Ellis,” she exclaimed. “I just got back from my run and noticed that Madison’s car is gone! I called the hospital and they told me she got herself discharged early this morning, AMA—that means ‘against medical advice.’”

Ellis finished wrapping the last pink-and-green-flowered dinner plate with a sheet of newspaper and nestled it tenderly in a box with the other dishes from the now-empty cupboard. “Madison’s gone,” she said calmly.

Julia opened the refrigerator door and stood there, letting the chill spread over her sweat-soaked body. “You don’t sound too surprised.”

Ellis gestured towards the kitchen table, where the high-heeled Christian Louboutin sandals rested atop a scap of paper. “I was originally. But I guess it’s not really all that shocking that she would leave like this. Not when you think about it.”

“Okay if I read it?” Julia asked, craning her neck to look over at the note.

“Of course,” Ellis said. “It’s addressed to all of us.”

Dorie came wandering into the kitchen then, barefoot and dressed in a navy blue Dare County Police Academy T-shirt over her shorty-pajama bottoms. She yawned and ran her fingers through her tousled strawberry blond locks. “What’s addressed to us?”

“This,” Julia said, holding the note. “It’s from Madison.”

“Madison?” Dorie scrunched up her face in confusion. “Isn’t Madison in the hospital?”

“Not anymore,” Ellis said. “Read the note, Julia.”

Dear Ellis, Dorie, and Julia: I’m no good at good-byes, so this will have to do. The ER docs say I don’t have a concussion, and they managed to stitch up my head and pop my shoulder back in place, so aside from some cuts and bruises, I’m good as new. Which means it’s time to hit the road. I want to thank the three of you for giving me something I’ve never had before—friends. Real, true girlfriends. I know I’m not easy to warm up to—hah!—understatement, right, Julia? The three of you—and Ty—saved my life this summer, not to mention last night, literally. Now it’s time for me to start over. Not sure where I’ll end up, or what I’ll do next, but I do know I’ll try hard not to screw up this time around. You guys take care. Your friend, Madison.

P.S. The nurses at the hospital tell me Don has a fractured skull—and something they call “blunt force trauma” to the testicles. Bravo, Ellis! P.P.S. Dorie, your friend Connor is a nice guy. He called the police in Jersey and found out that the cops in Camden discovered Adam’s body Friday morning. It was stuffed in the trunk of his car, parked in a mall. I would have been in that trunk too, if it hadn’t been for you guys. So, thanks again. -M-

“Aww,” Dorie said, sniffing and blotting her eyes with the tail of her T-shirt. “Where’d you find this, Ellis?”

“On the front porch,” Ellis said. “I woke up around six thirty, because I thought I heard a car door. After everything else that happened last night, I guess I was still on edge. I ran downstairs and looked out the living room window, just in time to see a taxi pulling away. Madison’s Volvo was right behind it. She left the note and those shoes.”

“Wow,” Dorie said, sinking down into a chair. “Poor Madison. First she finds out the only person she trusted betrayed her, and then she finds out he’s dead. That’s a lot to handle.”

Julia plucked a peach from a bowl on the kitchen counter, and sank her teeth into it. For a moment, she chewed busily, letting the pink juice dribble down her chin. “I know it’s awful, but I’m not gonna waste any time feeling bad for that guy. I’m guessing Adam’s the one who told Don where he could find Madison. He sold her out!”

“I don’t guess we’ll ever know the truth about that,” Ellis said. “I suppose there’ll be a trial, either here or up in New Jersey. Wonder if Madison will show up to testify? Or if she’ll just disappear all over again.”

“I bet she’ll testify,” Dorie said loyally. “She cared about Adam, even after she was pretty sure he’d turned on her. She’s a good person at heart. I mean, she could have taken off with all that money, if she’d been a crook. But she didn’t, did she?”

“About that money,” Julia said slowly. “What happens with that? A hundred thousand dollars is nothing to sneeze at.”

“I saw one of the cops putting the laptop bag in the back of his cruiser,” Dorie volunteered. “Maybe they’ll give it back to the company Shackleford stole it from? I’ll ask Connor.”

“And when are you seeing your new boyfriend again?” Julia teased.

“He’s coming over this morning to pick up the rain slicker I borrowed last night, and to help me pack the van,” Dorie admitted. “But you’ve got to stop calling him my boyfriend. He’s just a friend.…”

“Who happens to be a boy, who has a major crush on you,” Ellis pointed out. “What’s he think about you heading home to Savannah today?”

Dorie sighed. “He wanted to help me drive home, since Julia’s not coming back with me, but I told him I didn’t think that was a good idea. I’ve got so much to do when I get home, getting the house packed up, meetings at school, and classes start next week. Not to mention, I’ve got to have a long talk with my mother. Oh yeah, and meet with my divorce lawyer! Connor’s got a week of vacation in October, and he wants to visit then.”

“Have you decided where you’re going to live?” Ellis asked.

Dorie’s face brightened. “Willa—bless her interfering heart—managed to work that out for me. I think she must have laid a major guilt trip on Phyllis. Can you believe it? Mama called this morning and told me she wants me to move into my nana’s house in Ardsley Park! Rent-free! She says my brother is fine with it.”

“Of course Nash is fine with it,” Julia said. “He’s probably thrilled at the idea of you living there and cooking and cleaning for him.”

Dorie shook her head. “Nuh-uh. Nash will have another think coming if he thinks I’m gonna be his personal housekeeper. I am done being Dorie the Doormat,” she declared.

“What do you hear from Stephen?” Julia asked.

“He wants to see me as soon as I get home,” Dorie said. “And he asked if he can come to my next OB appointment. He wants to be there for the ultrasound I’ve got scheduled.”

“So, give him a printout,” Julia snapped.

“I told him I’m fine with him coming,” Dorie said. “He’s the baby’s father. I’ve seen Phyllis struggle with being a single mom. And I’ve been the kid whose dad never came to back-to-school night. I don’t want that for this baby. No matter how I feel about the decisions Stephen’s made, he’s not a monster. He’s a good man. And I want him in my child’s life.”

“You are such an adult,” Julia said, shaking her head in admiration. “Really, Dorie. You amaze me.”

Dorie dipped a curtsy. “Thanks. Sometimes I amaze me too. We’ll see. How ’bout you, Julia? What time are you expecting Booker?”

“With Booker, you never know,” Julia laughed. “He’s driving down in the new car he bought me. I haven’t owned my own car in years, but Book insists I’ll need one, working here and living part-time in Atlanta. Thank God I kept up my Georgia driver’s license.” Julia glanced at her watch. “Which reminds me, I’ve got a production meeting at Joe’s hotel in fifteen minutes. I know you need to get your car loaded, Ellis, but do you think Ty would mind loaning me his Bronco? Just for an hour or so?”

“What’s this about taking my car?” The three women turned their heads in unison as Ty walked, stiff legged, into the kitchen. He was unshaven, and dressed in a threadbare blue terry cloth bathrobe, but otherwise looked remarkably fit for a man who’d been shot only hours before.

“Well,” Julia started, “I just need to run up to Kitty Hawk for our production meeting, and I know Ellis probably wants to get on the road, so I thought maybe…”

Ellis and Ty’s eyes met. Ty raised one eyebrow, and Ellis gave a barely perceptible nod. “Ellis,” he said succinctly, “isn’t going anywhere.” He wound an arm around Ellis’s waist, and dropped a kiss on her cheek. “Right? You wanna tell them, or should I?”

Ellis rubbed her face against Ty’s day-old beard, reveling in the casual intimacy.

“That’s not exactly accurate,” she corrected. She turned to Julia and said apologetically, “Actually, I do need to get my car loaded this morning. But I’m sure you can borrow Ty’s Bronco.”

“What?” Ty looked taken aback. “We agreed. You said last night…”

Ellis shrugged. “I changed my mind.”

Ty’s eyes darkened. “Ellis, don’t do this…”

She caught him by the belt of his robe and drew him back towards her, as though she were reeling in a particularly cooperative fish. “You,” she pointed out, “took a bullet in your thigh last night. You can hardly walk. You don’t need to be going up and down these stairs all morning. I can easily load my stuff myself, and move it down to Pelican Cottage. I loaded it in here by myself, and I can load it out by myself.”

“Now wait,” Ty started.

“You mean it?” Dorie squealed. “You’re not going back to Philly? At all? You’re gonna stay here? With Ty?”

“Well, not here at Ebbtide,” Ellis said, trying hard to suppress a smile. “We’ll be shacked up in that little hovel he rented just down the beach. For at least the next three months. Give or take.”

“Give or take?” Julia said with a hoot. “Who are you, Ellis Sullivan? And what about that cushy job in Seattle? I thought you couldn’t live without a job and a 401(k) and a parking pass. And a Kaper chart. What’s the plan, Ellis?”

“There is no plan,” Ellis said blissfully. “I guess I finally figured that out … last night. There’s nothing I need or want in Seattle.” She glanced at Ty, whose arm was around her shoulder. “I’ve got what I want. Right here.”

“Happy ever after, that’s the plan,” Ty said. “I’m going to teach her how to surf.”

“And I’m going to teach him how to read a spreadsheet.”

“If you need us, we’ll be at Pelican Cottage,” Ty broke in. “And it’s not a hovel. It’s oceanfront, and it’s quaint.…”

“It’s a dump,” Ellis said, shushing him. “Just like Ebbtide is. Was. But we can fix that. Fortunately for you, Mister Culpepper, I happen to have a weird fondness for dumps. And their landlords.”

“Ellis Sullivan,” Ty retorted, determined to have the last word. “You are a major pain in my ass. Promise me you’ll be a pain in my ass forever and ever.” He gathered her into his arms as Dorie and Julia danced around them, providing loud, inappropriate, immature smacking, smooching sound effects.

Ellis nodded, and allowed herself to be kissed, right on the lips, and right in front of her best friends. “Yes,” she said solemnly. “I promise. I do. I will.”