Thanksgiving morning, and the island had pretty much returned to normal. The storm had moved out to sea and the roads were drying out, although the sun hadn’t yet returned to shine on us.
The gloom and clouds fit my mood.
I sat at the kitchen table, nursing my second cup of coffee and picking at the pumpkin muffin Ethan had made me. It was delicious, but I had no appetite. I still hadn’t heard from Lucas, and he hadn’t yet returned to the island. I wasn’t sure what could have caused this, but it couldn’t be good. My mind was jumping to all sorts of bad scenarios: He was secretly married and had a family somewhere, he was in the Mob (were people still in the Mob these days?), he’d been kidnapped by a terrorist.
Why wouldn’t he answer his phone?
“You better get dressed,” Ethan said, poking his head in the kitchen. “We’re going to be late.”
We were heading to my parents’ house for dinner. Well, everyone except Val, who was overseeing Ava-Rose’s big Thanksgiving bash. Ethan was a little sad about that, I could tell. But my mother had been cooking all week. And we had a guest joining us. Leopard Man had been staying with us since he got out of the hospital two days ago. Grandpa wouldn’t let him return to his trailer, said he needed people to keep an eye on him. So he was coming to Thanksgiving dinner.
And rumor had it, he had a date this weekend with a certain librarian.
I was happy about all that. But in general, I wasn’t feeling happy.
“I’m coming,” I said, getting up to refill my coffee.
Ethan watched me. “Doesn’t look like it.”
I sighed. “I am. It won’t take me long.” I glanced at the clock. It was only ten thirty.
“You probably want to hang out and relax before dinner,” he said, reading my mind.
“Why don’t you give me a break?” I sank back into my chair.
He sat across from me. “Look. I know this whole thing with Lucas is weird.”
“Weird? It’s more than weird. He freakin’ ghosted me, pretty much.”
“That’s being dramatic. He has a business here. He’s coming back. Maybe something just happened.”
“Obviously,” I sniffed.
“I mean something that has a good explanation,” Ethan said pointedly. “Meaning, don’t just jump to Doomsday scenarios without any information.”
“Hey, I have some good news,” Grandpa said, coming into the kitchen and cutting off my reply. He was all dressed up today for the festivities, wearing a dashing purple shirt with his favorite black trousers.
We both looked up expectantly.
“Ava-Rose convinced the board to drop the charges against Dr. Drake. And she paid his outstanding hospital bill.”
My eyes widened. “You’re kidding.”
Ethan grinned. “Val knew she was a sweet lady underneath all that bluster.”
He was right. She had. And I think Val had forgiven me too, mostly because after the real reason Drake had been stealing was revealed everyone felt terrible for him. Ava-Rose had clearly stepped up to help, and beyond that, her party had come together nicely and she was happy with Val’s work.
All’s well that ends well. Except, of course, for Jason Holt. Ugh. I needed to stop thinking about sad things and go have a nice day with my family. I’d been looking forward to this, after all.
“That’s great,” I said, getting up. “I’d better go get ready.”
Grandpa nodded. “You should. Carl will be right up. And we have another guest coming with us.”
I frowned. “Another guest? Who?” I suddenly had a bad feeling. “Grandpa, please tell me—”
The doorbell rang.
Ethan and I both looked at Grandpa. He smiled and went out to answer the door.
“What did he do?” I asked.
He looked worried. “I don’t know.”
I peered out through the kitchen door and nearly groaned. My grandpa apparently had too much time on his hands now that this murder was solved and felt like I needed a distraction from my worry about Lucas.
Because he’d invited Craig to Thanksgiving dinner with us.