Kaleidoscope Summer (Samantha's Story) (28 page)

“
I
’ve o
nl
y made
it
as far as the shops
. I
f your service includes a cold drink
,
I’m all yours
.
”
Her lips
slowly parted
and curved upward
.

She
was definitely flirting with me.
“You got it
.
”
We drove to the opposite end of tow
n.
“There it is.
Serenity
Cove’s
Time Square.
”

“It’s a circle.” She
drew an invisible ring
in the air
.

“It’s the
big clock on the upper portion of the City Hall building
.
Residents
have unofficially christened it
Time Square, not to be confused in any way with New York City.”

“
Dick Clark
doesn’t show up here on N
ew
Year’s?
” She giggled.

“We’re working on it—
a prior commitment issue.”
I parked, hurried
arou
nd as she opened
her door. “My name is
Logan
.
Y
our personal tour guide for the day.”

We made a beeline for
the
food
cart for cold drinks, and neither of us
could resist a roasted hot
dog wi
th the works.
We found a vacant
bench under a drooping willow and
made short work of our food
.
Goldie wolfed
down
her
hot
dog
—no
bread,
no
mustard. D
isposing of the wrappings, we
continued.

Her hand
eased into mine, and
I co
ntinued
my role
of tour guide
.
“The
se
plentiful tall trees tent the square—making it a favorite place for residents.
”
I gestured towar
d the occupied benches, and
blankets
were
spread
on the ground
,
picnic style.
“Over
here
,
w
e have the famous rose garden
planted with
colorful
varieties
named after our nati
on’s
first ladies, including
the
Eleanor Roosevelt Rose.”
I indicated the pastel yellow rose climbing on a small trellis.

We
trekked the walkway circling
the town square
.
We
momentarily stopped
mid
way
to
admir
e the
historic brick building
housing
the
town’s li
brary
across the street, and
ended
at
the
main
entrance
.

Water cascaded
down
a three-tiered fountain
,
filling the bottom bowl
.
I pulled some change from my pocket
and held out my hand
.
“
Toss
a coin
and make
a wish. The
collected money
goes to the children’s section
of our
library.
” She
fished a coin from my palm and we each flipped a quarter into
the
pool.

“So what did you wish
for?” She
sm
iled teasingly
.

“Y
ou first.”
I threw her a wink.

“Oh, no
. If you tell it won’t come true.”

“W
e’ll
wait and see what happens
, then
.”
My wish—she
stay
s
.

“
Notice how the walkway parts and goes a
round eac
h side of the fountain.
”
I pointed to the concrete walkways.
“M
eeting again on the other side. It mimics the roa
d, which circles the town
square.”
We followed the path and
mounted the steps leading up to the doorway of the office building.

Inside, we
went straight to the
City
Hall offices. I placed the
folder in a black metal
tray
, and we
retraced our steps along the marble flooring.

The ringtone sounded on my cell
, and Alec’s number came up in the caller ID.
I wanted to
ignore
the call, but
he
never bothered
me on my day of
f unless there were problems. “
What’s up?”

I heard
Alec
’s sharp intake of breath. “Lilyan apparentl
y overdosed
. She’s in the intensive care unit at Mariner Bay General.”

E
very
muscle
in my body tense
d
.
“Make sure her aunt has been
notified
. On my way
.
”
I f
lipped the phone closed, and shoved it i
nto the case attached to my belt.

“What’s wrong?
” Sam
looked up, fine lines wrinkling her brow.

“
Alec—p
olice business
.
” I
rubbed
the back of my neck
. “I’ll drop you off
.
I need to make a run to
Mariner Bay
.”

We drove the circle and maneuvered
onto Main Street.
I tightened my grip
on the wheel as d
arkness
assaulted
my thoughts—one
s I couldn’t
give voice to.
Was t
his connected to
Lilyan
’s
obsession about me
?
How cou
ld it have gotten so out of proportion to reality
?
What if she succeeded?
I wanted to tell Sam what had happened,
but being
bound by the confidentiality that w
ent along with wearing a badge—I remained silent.

Chapter
Twenty
-one

A
church
on
a
rolling knoll
. P
icni
cs
on a bluff overlooking
the sea
.
Serenity
Cove—
a
s
tep
b
ack in ti
me.
Thoughts
of
Lilyan
cling
to me. Her mental illness
cast a long
shadow
and when
all the perfection becomes
covered by darkness—
it
’s
easier to accept
returning to Stone Valley
.
~ Journal
entry

I
scrambled
out of the
truc
k and held the door for Goldie. In the few
seconds it took for her to leap
down, Logan was at my side.
H
e
ran his hand
s
down the le
ngth of my arm
s
and stepped back.
“Prayers are needed.”
The
gray
pallor of
his skin signaled
bad news.
He crawled back
into the driver
’
s seat
and
I watched
his truck
until he
made a left out of the alleyway.

Wou
ld Maggie know anything
?
A
sign
above the rear door
read
Magnolia’s Antiques
.
Entering the back door,
I f
ound her sitting crossed-legged on the floor
,
unpacking a box
. She withdrew a linen napkin and fingered the in
tricate crocheted
edges.

She gazed up at me, crinkles
forming
around her narrowed eyes
as she
unfolded herself from the floor.
“What’s going on?”

“
S
omething’s
awfully wrong. Logan couldn’t tell me, but said
we should pray
.
”

“Let’s pray
.
Then w
e’ll go to Julia’s.
If
Logan is in danger
,
I want to know.”

The thought of
seekin
g out the story on the street felt wrong
.
I started to tell Maggie as much, but my d
etermin
ation to find out what horrible thing had happened
silenced me
. W
e
ended our prayer with a
blended
amen, and
jogged
to the coffee shop.

Maggie scooted onto a stool at the empty counter.

“Do you mind sitting
in a booth? It’s easier to talk.”

She slid back of
f the seat. “Sure.”

We
chose a booth near the counter. Julia
waltzed over and filled our
mugs.
“Ca
n I tempt
you with
something sweet
?
”

“Maybe later.
”
Food was about the last thing
on my mind
.

Maggie fidgeted with the handle on her cup and looked up at Julia. “Any good gossip making the rounds today?”

“
Randall
Greene
,
Mandy
Harris’s dad
,
was in earlier. She had her baby. A li
ttle girl.” Julia
placed
the carafe on the counte
r behind her
and turned back
. “
You fishing for
some particular reason?”

Maggie updated Julia
about
Logan and his mysterious emergency situation. “I thought maybe you might have heard something.”

Thelma popped into the shop
and joined Julia n
ext to our table. Maggie scooted over and patted the vacated seat.
“
Join us.” She motioned to Thelma. “
Julia, you,
too.”

“This is the shop
’
s slow
time
. It’d be nic
e to sit and chat—rest these feet of mine.
” B
ehind the counter
, Julia
grabbed two more cups.

I slid to the
right and made room for Ju
lia next to me
. Maggie
immediately kicked
in gear
.
“Anything unusual going on around town today?”

“The Harris
’s have a new baby girl.
” Thelma paused for a sip of her coffee.
“
Today’
s my day off
. So
I only heard about the baby because I ran into the new grandma
,
at
Serenity Blooms. Rhonda was ordering a huge arr
angement of pink roses for
Mandy
.
”

Julia grinned a
s though
she was itching to tell
a secret
.
“How did the
baby’s quilt
turn out
?”
I should have known. What
else would Thelma give
the new
est resident of Serenity Cove?