Chapter 5
The combination of the woman’s quick departure from my store and her phone conversation intrigued me.
“How about a walk?” I said, and headed down the street at a brisk pace to see if I could find her. I did still have her change after all.
“For the record, I’ve had more romantic walks before,” Peter said, following me.
I thought I saw the woman head into the Hub, the town’s newspaper store, but my view was blocked by a group of ladies who were chatting on the sidewalk.
I took Peter’s hand and pulled him farther down the street with me.
We entered the Hub, but the woman was nowhere to be found.
“What’s up with you?” Peter said, refusing to budge another inch. “Cherry’s managing the cash register, in case you were worried.”
“What do ‘mission’ and ‘exfiltrate’ mean to you?” I said.
“Nothing,” he said. “Why?”
I stepped outside of the Hub for one last look, but the woman was nowhere in sight.
“Listen,” said Peter, and I realized he looked serious. “I was thinking, for your birthday, I know you don’t want a party, but can we have a special dinner that night, just the two of us?”
I knew he was asking me to dinner so that he could get me to the party. Up until that moment, I’d enjoyed playing along, but now I couldn’t stop thinking about the woman.
“We should get back to the store,” I said.
We started up Main Street.
“Is that a yes?” he said when we arrived at the door to the Wick & Flame.
“To what?” I said.
“Dinner.”
“Yes,” I said. “Absolutely, yes.”
Peter was smiling at me. I could see he was excited about his success at having secured a way to get me to the party.
“I’m looking forward to it,” I added a kiss to suppress my smile.
“So, what were you saying about a ride in the harbor?”
“I’m thinking after witnessing a murder and being up for over twenty hours yesterday, I should probably relax a bit.”
“I like your thinking,” he said.
Our embrace was broken as my morning’s guests now began to stream out of my store. First, Millie exited with the birthday boys.
“The men have invited me to golf,” she said as Emily motioned for their van to pull up.
“She’s one of us,” said Lennie.
I guessed that after hearing her Amazon speech, Lennie had caught Millie Fever. He now slung his arm around my mom in a way that seemed to bother Nathaniel and amuse Millie.
“Thanks for hosting us, Stella,” said John Pierre, as he exited next with Laura and Olive. “We’re going to take one of Barrett’s Tours around the island.”
“They’ve kindly agreed to take me with them,” said Olive, looking pleased about the outing. “We get to see all of the highlights, and there’s a special stop at one of the cranberry bogs. A preview of your upcoming Cranberry Festival.”
As the Mortons and Olive headed toward the Barrett’s bus stop, the door of the Wick & Flame opened a third time. Now, the Candleers joined the sidewalk scene.
“We’d like you to run a candle-mold class for us, inspired by those wonderful photos you took of the heads in Paris,” Cherry said.
“Start tomorrow,” said Millie as she boarded the van. “Then I can join too.”
It was no surprise, but with Millie in town I knew we’d have a party every day. It wasn’t often that I had the opportunity to include my mom in one of my classes, so I immediately agreed we should start bright and early.
When the morning crowd left, I settled into my workday. I had some paperwork to catch up on and a steady stream of customers, but during the occasional lulls, my thoughts drifted to the Mysterious Woman’s phone conversation, especially given the shadow I’d seen across from my store last night. I looked through my store window more than a few times in hopes of seeing her again. By closing time, I was happy for a diversion when Millie and Nathaniel showed up at my door.
“I won the putting contest,” said Millie, with a bow. “My prize is that Nathaniel has permission from the guys to join us for dinner. I’m starving. Let’s join the early-bird crowd.”
“I’m hungry, too,” I said, texting Peter to see if he could meet us.
Millie looked through the open door to my workroom, and suddenly took an abrupt step back.
“Shoo, cat,” she said. “Stella? You promised.”
Tinker was perched on my worktable. He had behaved admirably all day, and now gave Millie a friendly look and swish of his tail. I could see by the way he stood and then leaned against his paws that he had plans to befriend my mom. Big plans. Having picked up on Millie’s disdain, he was ready to prove his charm.
He began by jumping off the table and padding over to her, where he circled her feet by way of a greeting. Unfortunately, he’d lost her from the moment he’d left the table. The more he tried to prove his charm, the more Millie inched backward toward my workroom, her hand reaching behind her for the door. By the time I was able to intervene, she had had enough. She dashed out the Wick & Flame’s door with Nathaniel behind her. The two were halfway down the block before I’d flipped my sign to CLOSED and turned the lock. Walking behind them, I noticed that after a day of golf they were now comfortable holding hands in public.
Fortunately, I had my own date. Over dinner, Peter and I honestly had a hard time keeping straight faces while the newest couple on Nantucket chatted about things that made no sense to us. If Millie and Nathaniel had broken into a secret handshake, I wouldn’t have been surprised.
“I can’t believe you didn’t see that lady at The Bean today,” I said to Peter over my last French fry. “She was on the phone when you met me. There’s something strange about her.”
“I didn’t notice anyone but you,” he said, with a wink that told me he was channeling Millie and Nathaniel’s mush.
“Aren’t you sweet,” said Millie. To be honest, I was surprised she’d heard anything we’d said.
“Dark leggings, dark baseball cap? Dark hair?” I said. “She was talking about an operation being on track and referred to it as a mission.”
“How clandestine,” said Nathaniel. I could tell he thought he was playing along with some far-fetched story I was telling.
“Be careful,” said Peter. “Stella has a knack for following up on clandestine things. Before you know it, she’ll be sending you on an investigation to find the lady.”
“Millie warned me,” said Nathaniel.
My mother waved me off as I flashed my eyes at her.
“I tell everyone,” she said. “It’s in the genes. We Wrights don’t like to let things lie when they don’t sit well with us.”
The waitress arrived and returned Nathaniel’s credit card, which he’d somehow slipped to her without our noticing. This time I joined my mom in gushing over Nathaniel. Peter looked polite, but I could tell he felt I’d jumped ship.
“Dessert is on us,” said my mom. “Ice cream at the Juice Bar. Where’s my sweater?”
We all searched for her navy sweater with the big, black buttons. Under the table. Beside our chairs. Alas, it was nowhere to be found.
“I’ll swing by the Wick & Flame. You probably left it there,” Nathaniel said.
“Brilliant idea,” I said. “Here’s the key. Then we can have a minute to talk about you over our coffee.”
We tortured Peter with girl talk for a few more minutes before we finally left the restaurant. As we stepped outside, Nathaniel was crossing the street with the sweater in hand. In spite of his chivalry, I thought he was starting to look a little tired. I understood. Millie could be hard to keep up with.
“Found it,” he said.
“Thank you,” said Millie with a wave.
Unfortunately, Nathaniel’s adventures were not over. At that moment, I knew I’d forgotten to relay to him a critical piece of information: Tinker never gives up. Behind Nathaniel, my cat pranced along, happily wanting to join the party after successfully darting out of my store, unnoticed. He does that, the rascal. Millie had just stepped off the curb and taken her sweater when she caught sight of my furry friend.
“Oh no,” she said.
I knew in that moment that we were all in for some trouble. Main Street is not a road to traverse with speed, especially in heels, which Millie was now wearing. The entire street is paved in cobblestones of all shapes and sizes—some high, some low, some bigger than others. Off she ran, however, with her sweater flying behind her like the flag of one of the Peace Jubilee’s attendees. Nathaniel, not having realized that Tinker was behind them, looked understandably concerned by my mother’s outbreak. He followed her down the street and jumped from stone to stone as if they were hot coals. Neither stood a chance. Tinker is fast. Three car lengths away, my cat jumped into Millie’s arms and began to lick her.
“Nghahh!” Millie cried, loudly, as she fell backwards, still struggling to free herself from Tinker’s affections.
As Millie backtracked, she bumped into Nathaniel who was still hurtling toward her. Suddenly, both were falling to the ground. They hit heads as they did, and lay, unmoving, in the street. Tinker looked at me, aware that something had gone wrong. He skulked over to a car tire, his eyes wide with concern.
Within seconds, Main Street filled with people coming forward to see what the commotion was and who the two people lying in the street were.
“Call an ambulance,” I heard our waitress say.
“Oof,” said my mom, rubbing her head. I could see a bad cut on her knee where her pants were now torn.
Nathaniel sat up, rubbing his wrist.
A moment later, I heard the sound of an ambulance heading toward us. As I looked toward the source of the siren’s blare, I noticed something unexpected. While people on the sidewalk headed toward the commotion, one person walked away. I knew by her outfit that she was the Mysterious Woman who’d fled my store. She dropped her head and continued, down the street. I took a few steps to follow her.
“Hey,” I said.
She looked up and caught my eye. Then she disappeared into the night.