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The streets were packed. Christy thought that the 40,000 predicted visitors to the island might have been a conservative number. She jostled shoulders with people as she made her way from her car to the front of the shop. She was grateful for the small lot behind the store, but even that short walk around the building took several minutes. She knocked on the door and watched as Diane hurried to unlock it. Christy shimmied in through the partial opening, then Diane quickly turned the latch behind her. The heady aromas of fresh brewed coffee and recently baked and fried doughnuts flooded her senses.
“It’s only six a.m. I can’t believe how many people are out there. What time did you get here?”
“The swim is early this year. Everyone wants to be in their spot before eight. I got here at five, so not too long ago.”
“We’re nowhere near the water. These people won’t see the swim at all. They’re not heading toward the channel.”
“Oh, they know where they’re going. They can watch the swim on the big screen at the carnival grounds, and they’ll see the ponies as they’re paraded through the town on the way to the corral.”
“Will we see them going by?” Christy hadn’t thought about that possibility.
“I’m afraid not, hon. I’m sorry. They’ll come up the southern part of the island and turn into the fairgrounds long before they reach this far.”
Disappointed again, Christy reminded herself that she was already resigned to not seeing the ponies swim across the channel, so this shouldn’t bother her.
“Makes sense. I forgot where the route was.” She looked at the people outside and wondered where Molly was right now and what time they had gotten up to arrive at the boat. Christy and Jared had dropped off Molly at the condo on their way to the dance. Christy was excited for her sister and hoped she had as much fun today as Christy had had the night before. She felt her mouth curl into a wide smile as she recalled the evening and how she felt in Jared’s arms while the music played.
“Must have been a good night,” Diane said, reading her thoughts.
“How did you know that’s what I was thinking about?”
“Because lately, every time I see that smile on your face, I know there’s a certain scientist on your mind.”
Christy laughed. “Is that how everyone knows him? As ‘the scientist’?” She punctuated the phrase with air quotes. “And what about your scientist? Where has he been this week?”
“Busy with all the visitors to the facility. This week is as crazy for them as it is for us.”
“I love the excitement, but I have to admit, I can’t wait for it to be over so I can catch my breath.”
“Well, that won’t happen today. Are you ready? As soon as I open the door, we’ll have customers.”
“Let me put my stuff in the back.” An alarm sounded in the kitchen. “And I’ll grab those doughnuts.”
“Thanks. I’m going to turn on the lights.”
Diane wasn’t kidding. From the moment the doors were unlocked, people flooded in, ordering coffee, tea, and doughnuts by arm loads. She barely had time to breathe between orders.
“Iced coffee with a Sandy Shore, please,” said a familiar voice, and Christy looked up with a smile, her insides warming at the smile she was given in return.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. “Shouldn’t you be working?”
Jared shrugged. “Yeah, but I decided to take the day off, just like everyone else within a thousand-mile radius.”
She frowned. “Almost everyone.”
“Hey, look at it this way. I’ll be close by when you ladies close, then we can go get a look at the ponies after everyone else has gone to take their naps.”
“I like that idea. I’ve wanted to get to Assateague all week to see them after they were herded, but I haven’t had a chance.” She looked at the line behind him. “I’d better get your order. Be right back.”
She floated to the coffee machine and thought back to the first time he’d shown up ordering doughnuts for work. Diane said he couldn’t keep his eyes off her. She couldn’t resist glancing back at him now. He was watching her with a wide grin. She smiled back, feeling a tug in her stomach.
“Are you making an iced coffee?” Diane asked.
“Yeah. Need one?” Christy asked.
“I need three,” Diane responded. “Would you mind? I’ll get Jared’s payment while you get the coffees and his doughnut. I’ve got six other doughnuts to pack up.”
“Got it,” Christy said, and she performed her steps in the dance that she and Diane had choreographed in the past few days. They made each other’s drinks, doubled their efforts to take orders, using both registers at once, and handed each other doughnuts at a frenzied pace while Marge and Molly—both absent today—had cleared tables and listened for the oven.
“Thought you could use some help,” Christy heard Jared say from behind her. “Don’t worry about my order. Tell me what I need to do to help Diane with hers. She just got an order for ten coffees and two dozen assorted doughnuts.”
Christy hastily showed him where to find wax paper and boxes under the counter and how to figure out which doughnuts were which inside the display case. She grabbed the ticket from Diane and began filling drink orders. Diane continued working the register, telling Jared what doughnuts she needed while Christy made drinks. By the time eleven-thirty rolled around, the shop was empty, and all three of them were drenched in sweat and spilled coffee with frosting in their hair and chocolate in places on their bodies they couldn’t explain.
“This is what you do all day while I sit at a desk? How are you still moving by the end of the day?”
Christy laughed. “Not every day is like this. Believe me.”
The bell rang and six very excited people hurried in.
“Christy, it was awesome. I saw all the ponies, and I didn’t lose your phone. I took lots of pictures. And we went clamming, just like we did a couple weeks ago, and we saw Taylor on her horse.”
“Slow down, Squirt. You’re making my head spin.”
“She had a ball,” Mrs. Kumar said with a smile. “Thank you for letting her go with us.”
“Oh, gosh,” Christy gushed. “Thank you. This might be the highlight of her summer.”
“No, that would be the rocket launch, but this is a very close second,” Molly piped up, and Christy felt her cheeks turn red.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Kumar. She didn’t mean it the way it sounded.”
Avi and Anya’s mother laughed. “Of course, she did, and it’s fine.” She leaned close to Christy. “I have one just like her, remember?”
Christy smiled. “Thanks. Would you all like some doughnuts? My treat.”
“Oh, that’s sweet of you, Christy, but it’s not necessary. We’re on our way to lunch and thought we’d pop in to let you know that we’re off the boat and to return your phone.”
Molly pulled the phone from her pocket and handed it to Christy. After a slight hesitation, she leaned in and gave her sister a hug. “Thanks again, Christy. This summer has been the best one of my whole life.”
Christy held back tears as she said goodbye and watched the Kumars, Molly, and Chloe leave the shop. She noticed Chloe and Avi holding hands and thought, it’s about time.
A pair of hands wrapped around her waist from behind. She felt Jared’s breath as he leaned down and whispered in her ear. “Did you notice Chloe and Avi?”
She smiled and turned in his arms to face him. “I did. It took him long enough to open his eyes.”
“Sometimes it takes us guys a while to see what’s right in front of us.”
She beamed as she looked up at Jared, feeling a warm glow spread through her, but the moment was shattered when the bell jingled. Several loud voices sounded behind her. She turned to see a family with four small children heading toward the counter.
She turned back to Jared. “And now the lunch rush begins.”
🌙 🌙 🌙
“Wake up, sleepyhead,” Jared whispered into Christy’s ear as he gently prodded her side. He watched her slowly come to life, lazily opening her eyes then drawing her mouth into a slow, spreading smile.
“Hey,” she said quietly.
“Hey. How was your nap?”
They’d each taken a shower after leaving the Sugar and Sand. Christy had given Jared a plain blue t-shirt to wear with his black running shorts. There wasn’t much he could do about his shorts or underwear, but at least he was wearing a clean shirt, though it was a little short on his long, lean body.
After his shower, he’d found Christy half asleep on the couch, so he’d slid in next to her and watched her until he fell asleep, too. He awoke with one leg and his left arm wrapped around her, and he’d never felt so comfortable in his life.
“Do you still want to go see the ponies before we grab something to eat?”
“I do. I just need to tell my body to get moving.” She started to get up, but he put pressure on her to stop her from moving.
“In a minute,” he said, closing his mouth over hers.
Christy’s arm circled around his neck, and she held onto him. Their mouths explored each other for several minutes before he stopped and looked at her with a smile.
“Ponies,” he said, reminding himself that they needed to stop and untangle themselves before he did something he’d regret later.
“Ponies,” she said breathlessly. Christy blinked her eyes a few times as Jared reached behind them for the glasses he’d laid on the table next to the couch. Christy traced his jawline once before gently pushing him to get up.
“Anywhere in particular you want to eat after we see the ponies?” Jared asked as he stretched, his hands grazing the ceiling.
“I doubt we can get in anywhere,” Christy said, sliding on her flip flops.
“I can cook for us again,” Jared offered. “We can hang out, watch a movie or a show before you go to bed. Another early morning for you, right?”
“Yeah,” she said expelling her breath with the word. “This week has made it infinitely clear to me that I do not want to work in a bakery for the rest of my life. Honestly, I don’t know how Diane does it. It’s exhausting. Maybe teaching wouldn’t be so bad after all.”
“I think that’s a different kind of exhausting,” Jared said, standing and reaching for her hand.
“Agreed. My mother did not have an easy job.”
“Nor does my father. Want to ride or walk?” Jared asked her as they headed outside. She locked the door behind them.
“Let’s walk. Parking’s going to be impossible.”
He took her hand as they walked side-by-side to the carnival grounds where the ponies were corralled.
They made their way through the crowds, which were much lighter than they had been earlier. There were about a dozen people standing by the fence, but it seemed that most people had cleared out for dinner or shopping or maybe a nap like they’d just had.
Christy went to a step ladder by the fence. Following the lead of some of other onlookers, she climbed up to look over the top. Jared, tall enough already, stood next to the ladder with his hand protectively on Christy’s lower back. He liked the way she oohed and aahed as she pointed out the foals standing beside their mothers.
“They’re so beautiful,” she breathed.
“The most beautiful site I’ve ever seen,” Jared said quietly, his eyes not on the ponies at all.
Christy turned to meet his gaze, sending a fire forming through his abdomen. He’d spent twenty-four years avoiding close relationships, swearing off love, vowing he’d never have to look someone he cared for in the eye and lie to them. He knew he was going against everything he’d ever promised himself, but he had already fallen faster than a shooting star and knew it was too late to turn back now.
🌙 🌙 🌙
“You’re not leaving at the end of the summer?” Christy repeated Jared’s words over what could be referred to only loosely as dinner. Instead of going back to the house, they’d grabbed a bite at the carnival—a high-carb, sugar-laden, fried heart attack disguised as a meal.
Jared vigorously chewed a large bite of a fried clam sandwich. He nodded and reached for a napkin to wipe his mouth. “I’m staying through the fall. We won’t start getting any information from the Cubesat until October. I want to wait and finish my dissertation after we see what it finds.”
With her stomach doing Olympic caliber somersaults, Christy licked the powdered sugar from her fingers but promptly ripped off another spiral of funnel cake. “So, we don’t have to say goodbye next month?”
Jared stopped, his hand hovering over the sandwich, and peered at her. “Not unless you’re planning on going somewhere I don’t know about.”
Christy suddenly felt shy, a ridiculous feeling after the passionate kisses they’d shared. A warm flush spread into her cheeks. “I thought...”
She looked away and then back, staring into his blue eyes. “If you’re Italian, how come you have blue eyes?” she asked suddenly.
Jared blinked once, then again, puzzlement evident by his tilted head and slightly open, crooked mouth. “Um, Italians have blue eyes. Mostly in the north, but they do have them.”
“Is Stevenson your birth name or adopted name?”
Jared opened his mouth to speak but closed it again. A myriad of emotions rolled over his face.
“It’s not a hard question,” Christy said, unsure why it even mattered except, now that he wasn’t leaving her, it suddenly occurred to Christy that she still knew very little about his personal life. Even now, after the late nights and long talks and many kisses, she really didn’t know him. Well, she supposed there wasn’t much talking going on during the kissing. Still, Diane was right about her feelings. Christy was head over heels in love with this man, but she knew little about him.
“So, are you happy I’m staying through the fall, or were you looking forward to getting rid of me?”
He’d stopped eating and looked serious. Christy had the impression that he was changing the subject. Again. He almost always changed the subject when it came to his family. To be fair, she recognized that she had changed it first, but she had been so afraid to think about the possibility that he might stay, she didn’t know how to answer him.
For several weeks now, his leaving was the thing she dreaded the most. But now that he wasn’t going anywhere for at least three months, she was too scared to even consider that this relationship—this growing, deepening, evolving connection—might have the chance to become more than she hoped it could be. Did she even dare to begin thinking about a future with him? A permanent future?
“Christy? You okay?”
It was Christy’s turn to blink while she pondered her answer. She looked into those beautiful Italian eyes and felt her entire world shift.
“Jared,” she said quietly. “Are you happy you’re staying?”
He reached across the table and took her hand, still sticky with sugar, still holding the torn piece of funnel cake. “Christy, there isn’t any place in the universe I’d rather be, unless you’re going somewhere, because I’d follow you to the moon and back.”
🌙 🌙 🌙
Jared had completely lost his heart to Christy. He thought about that as they walked, hand-in-hand, into the movie theater. While she used the bathroom, he leaned against a wall and took his phone from his pocket. His thumbs skillfully moved across the screen, and he glanced up every few seconds to make sure she wasn’t heading his way.
I get it. Or I’m starting to. You do what you have to do to protect the ones you love. It’s not just about physical safety. It’s about protecting them from the mental and emotional ghosts of your past. It’s about protecting them from the knowledge that evil may lurk right around the corner and that your lives can be taken and changed in an instant.
He paused, looking toward the ladies’ room, then continued.
Your suspicions were right when you asked if she was someone special. She is. Her name is Christy, and she’s the most special person I’ve ever met. When my work is done, I’ll bring her home. You will love her as much as I do.
Jared felt Christy before he saw her. He looked up and smiled, realizing that he was the tide and she was his moon, influencing his every thought and move by the gravitational pull she had on him. He put his phone away and pushed up his glasses. He’d finish his text later.
“All set?” he asked.
“Yep. Is it totally cheesy that I’m super excited about this? I’ve wanted to see this movie ever since I first stepped foot on this island.”
Jared chuckled. “Can I be honest?”
“With me? Always.”
His heart skipped a beat as he thought about her words and what he had been in the middle of telling his mother. He would be honest with her as best he could.
“I’ve wanted to see this since July Fourth when we saw the ponies on the beach.” It was the night he began to fall for her, and he would forever associate the wild ponies with his desire to kiss her with wild abandon.
As if reading his mind, Christy leaned up and kissed him gently on his lips.
“I’m glad we’re seeing it together.”
As he led her into the theater, he thought, I want to do everything together, you and me, forever.
They took their seats, nestled among the many families. Jared put his arm around Christy, pulling her to him. He didn’t care that they were the only people their age in the theater. He just wanted to be with Christy, wherever that was, whatever they were doing. When the movie started, the title, Misty of Chincoteague, flashed on the screen, and he found himself clapping along with the dozens of families and young kids around them.
Christy had told him that she’d never seen the 1962 classic based on the best-selling book that put this little island on the map. He loved watching her reactions to the story and smiled at her as she laughed and cried her way through the motion picture. When it was over and he’d asked her if she had liked it, he already knew the answer she would give.
“I loved it. I loved everything about it. I loved the story and the characters and everything.”
Christy never stopped talking about the movie the entire walk back to her house. She delighted in the quest of the brother and sister to buy the Chincoteague ponies, Phantom and her foal, Misty. And Jared delighted in Christy’s innocence and childlike enthusiasm.
When they reached the house, they slowly walked, hands intertwined, up to the front door where they shared a long, tender kiss and then said goodnight. Jared made sure Christy got safely inside, not that he worried about her safety on the island. He just liked the idea that he was her protector, the one who would do whatever was necessary to take care of her. He didn’t know what would happen come October, but he knew that he wanted to spend the rest of his life protecting her the same way his mother had spent the past twenty-four years protecting him.
🌙 🌙 🌙
Christy closed the door and sighed. Their kisses stirred feelings she’d never felt with anyone else. They weren’t just physical. Her mind and her heart were as alive as her body was. And now, there was good reason for her to let herself feel this way.
Jared was staying through the fall.
Was it too much to hope that he might stay forever? They’d been spending a lot of time together, not just the two of them, but all three of them. Molly loved Jared as much as Christy did, and Christy knew that Molly saw him as the brother they never had. Christy, on the other hand, did not feel at all sisterly toward the man though she felt that the three of them were on their way to becoming a family. Weren’t they? That’s what it felt like.
Which made her wonder about his family. Why did she always feel like he was holding out on her when it came to his family? He loved them. That was apparent in the affectionate way he talked about them in those few times he allowed himself to open up about his home life. He loved and looked up to the father who adopted him, but there was a darkness about his birth father that went beyond the abuse Jared didn’t remember but thought might have taken place. Was that why he was reluctant to tell her more? Did it make him sad? It certainly made him anxious. She felt it every time the topic came up. Maybe, now that Jared was sticking around, she could get him to share more.
Christy locked the door, kicked her flip flops to the side, and made her way toward the bathroom to get ready for bed. As she reached for the light, a hand snaked its way around her head and over her mouth. She started to fight, but the cold, hard metal of a gun against her jaw stopped her.
“Hey, there, Christy. You and me got some unfinished business to tend to.”
She felt sick as the carnival food and movie popcorn whirled in her stomach, but she knew that the feeling wasn’t caused by the sugar or the oil-drenched food. It was caused by the familiar New Jersey accented voice that whispered in her ear.
Coastal Storm Predicted, Damage Could Be Severe
The National Weather Service has issued a coastal storm warning for the Mid-Atlantic area which could have devastating effects on Assateague and Chincoteague. The warning has been issued for late Thursday into Friday. Primary threats associated with this system are heavy rainfall, tropical storm-force winds and powerful gusts, isolated tornadoes, and hazardous marine conditions. Storm surges may exceed twenty feet in height. The risk of severe flooding is high. All residents and visitors are warned to take precautions or evacuate.
The Chincoteague Herald, July 28