Kaleidoscope Summer (Samantha's Story) (9 page)

Pastor Jim grasped my hand. “
Well hello, Samantha
.
We’d be honored if you’d join us for services while you
’
r
e
here.”

“Th
ank you, I look forward to it
.”

Maggie placed her fingertips
on my arm.
“T
his is Dr. Ellie Clarimonde
. Dr. Ellie
is
a counselor here at the church.”

Dr. Ell
ie clasped my hand
,
sandwiching
it between hers
. “I’m
sorry f
or your loss. If
I can help, please let me know.”

“I’m fine, but thank you.”

“See you on Sunday.
” I’m sure Maggie had
said more—I hadn’t caught it.
Lilyan’s words t
aunt
ed
me as I tried
to shake off what had happened
.
We continued on our way
and
stepped down
to
the
asphalt
parki
ng
lot
. W
e stopped
. Maggie’s
car
tilted to one side
.

“Two flat tires
?
Really?
I don’t believe this
.”
She
grabbed her cell phone from
her bag.

I h
ad the feeling of being watched, and when I turned
someone
duck
ed
behind the
wall
to
the main entrance
.
I caught a glimpse of
a cap
,
which made me rule
out Lilyan
as
she hadn’t been
wearing one earlier
. I guess she cou
ld have put one on, but it
didn’t look like her
.
Goldie inched in front of me and pressed against my knees.

“Maggie
, someone was
spying on
u
s.” I pointed
to
ward
the front edge of the building
.

“Are you sure?”
Maggie
’s eyes scanned the length of the property.

“Positive
.
”

“
Good thing
Logan’s
on his way.”

One
neat
thing about a small town—twenty
minutes will
take you from one end
to the other.
Logan
spe
d
into the
lot
less than five
minutes later
.

“How doe
s som
eone get two flat tires at once?
” He walked around the car to check out the deflated tires
.

“
I d
on’t know, maybe I thought it would add some excitement to the day
.”
Maggie raised her eyebrows and shot him look
.

“
D
oesn’t matter.
Arnol
d’
s on his way
w
ith a tow truck. T
ake my
wheels
and I’ll
catch a ride with Arnold
.”

“Thanks for the rescue.
” Maggie
held
out
her hand
. “Keys?”

“I
n the ignition
.” He
glanced at me
. “Hey, Sam, you doing
okay?
”

“
I am
.”

Logan reached down to greet Goldie and
pulled his hand back. “S
he has her vest on.” Goldie
stayed right next to me, but she
looked at Logan wildly wagging
her tail.

Logan smiled at Goldie
and
reached for me. “L
et me help you get
up into this cab
.
”
His hands
went
out around my waist and
applied a slight pressure
.
I
t
seemed
he meant to pick me up and place me
in
that
passenger seat.

“Seriously
?
Y
ou
really
think
so
?
”

His face reddened. “Why don’t
I
give you my arm?”
He helped me onto the seat. F
or some
ridiculous reason
,
we both
began laughing.
“See you
later.
”
He shook his head as he closed
the door
.

Maggie
rolled her eyes, and
maneuvered
out of the lot.
“You and my brother.”

“What?
” I tried to look baffled
.
If I’d
been checking o
ff attributes I wanted
in a man, ea
ch i
tem would hav
e
a huge
check
next to it
.
L
ogan
had
a kind
nature
and
not only
with people.
T
he way
h
e treated Goldie spoke volumes—a
t
le
ast it did to me. T
he
person Maggie called
when she needed someone, a huge point
in his favor
.
H
e exude
d
warmth
.
And
looks—
he
would’ve
rated
an exclamation point
or three
.
I tried to suppress my smile
and
glan
ced at
Maggie
.

“Oh, I think
you
do
know what I’m talking about
. The dance has begun.
”
S
he
parked
in front of her shop
.

“Send me a text when you’re ready to go hom
e.” I waved bye and
headed to the bookshop.
Goldie and I
passed Julia’s
house.
Her home
separated
Magnolia
Antiques
and
the
Sea Glass
B
ookshop
.
T
he
bookstore had been divided and
Julia
rented
the smaller po
rtion for her cof
fee and pastry creations
.
M
any
of the shops on Main Street
displayed benches out front
. Red hibiscus
shaded
it all
and
created
perfect places to sit on
summer days.
These plants,
bold and bursting wit
h color
,
w
ere plentiful through
out S
erenity Cove. Maybe hibiscus was the town’s
official flower.
I plucked a
scarlet
bloom and
stuck
it
in the ribbon of my straw hat
before going inside the bookshop. I flipped
the switch
,
illuminating
the
overhead fluorescent lamps
, and
reminded myself of my mission
to find answers.

The
letters
remained
on Anne’s desk
where
I’d left them
.
Unwilling
t
o revisit the deception and lies
,
I shoved them aside.
With a move of th
e m
ouse
,
the computer came alive
.
Two
new
emails
waited.
I quickly scanned them both, and neither contained good news.
At home
,
Allan
Clifford
, one of the board members for the school
,
would
have called me through my video
phone
and we would have sign
ed to each other. In this case
,
I preferred the email.

Doors were closing behind me, and even if my aunt
welcome
d
me back to Stone Valley
,
I may no longer have a life there
.
I could fall in love with Serenity Cove, but the town scarcely mattered unless I solved the mystery of me.
M
iss Emmy
taught me that when God slams
a door
,
a window is sure
to open
.
She also used to say
,
“B
reath
e
out the negative and inhale
His hope.
”
Where’s the window
,
God? Where’s the hope?

Chapter Five

In the passenger seat of Arnold’s tow truck, I buckled up and gripped the handle
.
How many speeding ticket
s
did
this guy have?
“A
ny ideas
on two tires going
flat?”

Arnold
lifted and
adjusted the greasy cap covering his balding
head. “
We’l
l
know
soon enough, o
nce we get to the garag
e and pull
’em o
ff. Could be Maggie
drove near a construction site and pick
ed up nails
.
Lots of building going on in Serenity Cove these days.
”
He
swerved
into
his auto r
epair shop
a
bout a half-
mile from the shops on Main Street.
W
e exited the truck
and met i
n the back where the red convertible sat on the flatbed of the tow truck.

I stepped back as
Arnold
unhooked one of the chains from
Maggie’s car
.
“I’m going
to
Jake’s while you check out the tires
.”

“W
on’t take
long. Bring
me a
sand
wich?”
He
reached into his pocke
t
and
pulled
out
a ten-dollar bill folded in half
.

I waved
away his money. “A
ppreciate your help.”

I
trekked the half-mile to Jake’s
,
and returned as
Arnold
lowered the hoist with Maggie’s
car
.
I put the
bag from
Jake
’
s
on his workbench.

Arnold
rubbed
his
greasy
sleeve across his forehead.
“
Not a thing wrong with the tires. Someone must’ve let the air out.”

“
S
trange.
”

“It doesn’t take long to take the cap off and depress the stem
with a key or something
,
a minute or two
at the most. Only
enough
air was let
out
so the tires were too flat to drive on.”