16

I’m not saying Zoe and I are totally let off the hook, because we did sort of, kind of, actually, technically trespass, but Mom does talk to Hubert again after she’s interviewed Dominic. I listen at her office door to her side of that call.

“Have you looked at the footage?” Mom asks in her sheriff’s voice. “Well. I’m going to strongly suggest that you do that and then give me a call back.”

After that comes the sound of Mom rocking in her chair. She must have ended the call. I guess she’s giving Hubert a chance to put two and two together and realize he may have cooked bad crabs.

I go upstairs and text Dominic.

Me: Where are you now?

Dominic: At home, waiting to be sentenced. Want to sit on the steps?

Me: Bad idea right now.

Dominic: Come on, you have never not wanted to sit on the steps. There’s only so much step time left.

This is killing me, and I’m not sure why I’m even saying no. I want to sit on those steps and touch shoulders and be less freaked out and have the last handholds of warmth, but that’s all just going to make me cry and look dumb. I don’t want to cry again. I need to stay focused. I’ve got to protect Gusty’s, and I’ve got to toughen up and get ready for lonely hands.

Me: She told me to stay in my room.

Dominic: Okay. Keep me posted.

Ugh. I feel a little hurt from Dominic in that text.

* * *

At bedtime, I hear Mom and Dad talking in their room. The door is closed, so I creep up and, with my ear to the crack, listen to their worried conversation. Their voices are hushed and serious.

“I’ll tell you what, Margaret, when I close the books for June, it’s going to be brutal. The inspection, the dishwasher, the cooler, the power, people eating at Hubert’s . . .”

“There’s more traffic, right?” Mom asks. “I mean, the contest is bringing in more people. Isn’t it?”

“Sure. But even with that, it’s a net loss this month.”

“At least you’re not poisoning people,” Mom says. The bed springs squeak like she’s getting under the covers.

“What the heck happened with that?” Dad asks. “What did Quinnie have to say for herself?”

“After I told Hubert to look at the footage, he called me back. He’s backing off pressing any charges against the kids. I think he realized what happened with the crabs and that the girls saw it. Suddenly he wants the issue all over with, short and sweet. All I can say is, if the girls hadn’t seen him leave those crabs out, they would be in a world of trouble.”

“I wonder how much this is going to cost Hubert,” Dad says. “I’m sure that will turn out to be an expensive dish of crabs.”

“Never mind that—what are we going to do to Quinnie?” I can imagine Mom shaking her head as she says this. “I mean, I told her she couldn’t go out, but long term—what do we do?”

“She’s got instincts for trouble, like her mother. Maybe she’ll go to college for law enforcement.”

“Oh my gosh, Gus. She’s fourteen. First she needs to survive high school without getting thrown into a juvenile center or worse.”

“Relax,” Dad says. “Sometimes kids just get into stuff, play pranks, you know.”

“This wasn’t a prank. She’s worried about Gusty’s. And I’m worried about what she does when she gets worried.”

The light goes off under their door, and I pad back to my room. Once I’m there, I open the window a crack and let the Atlantic air in. There’s something about the waves hitting the rocky beach at night. Even when clouds don’t let the moonlight through, the surf is still frothy white. It’s familiar. It’s normal. Unlike my life right now.

Thankfully, I’m not getting charged for breaking and entering, but I still feel in my bones that someone’s up to no good in this town. Until this moment, I was convinced it was Hubert, that he was trying to make life miserable for Dad, but now I’m not sure. He can’t seem to keep his own restaurant under control. My fingers are itchy. I have to blast out a group text.

Me: So maybe it’s not Hubert.

Zoe: I refuse to talk about this.

Ella: We can’t just stand by and watch Gusty’s get run out of business.

Ben: What would happen if Gusty’s shut down? Would you still live here?

This socks me in the gut.

Me: Of course we would! My mom’s the sheriff, the mayor, the real estate lady and the postmaster. We ARE Maiden Rock.

Zoe: What would your dad do?

Ben: He could hang around and drink coffee with Owen Loney.

I don’t think Ben was intending to knock the wind out of me again, but he did.

Dominic: They could come to New Jersey and live with us.

My eyes water at that.

Ella: They can’t leave Maiden Rock. They can live with us.

Zoe: They would live with us, first. I think. We’ve known them our whole lives.

Me: We’re not going anywhere! Gusty’s is not getting run out of business. We are going to save it.

Zoe: I’m not doing any more break-ins. I am not going to jail.

Dominic: I’ll go to jail with you Q.

Ella: Me too.

Ben: I guess I will too.

Zoe: I’ll write you guys.