Grady. I had to see Grady. I didn’t know what I was going to say … but I had to say something. No way was I losing the love of my life to a heart attack thirty years from now in an office cubicle. Metaphorically speaking. And yes, I also realized that we’d have to figure out a way to do things differently—I mean, he was already a whole new person—but I needed him to know that I wanted to try. I’d do anything. Frick, I’d go to all of my mother’s retreats to get another chance if that’s what it took. I just wanted to hear him say that he wanted that too.
We were wasting so much time.
The more I thought about it, the faster I drove Lightning—which wasn’t smart given how dark it was.
I didn’t want to hit anything. Oh God, or worse yet, I could flip the boat and die and Grady would never know that I wished it could’ve been me … or him … or however that went.
I slowed the boat and took a deep breath.
I needed to calm down. I looked over at the lights twinkling from the shoreline.
I slowed the boat even more.
Besides … maybe it was a good idea not to just rush right over there anyway.
I could take my time. I needed to think about what I wanted to say. Maybe just do a drive-by of the marina. Just one. I didn’t want to give myself too much time to back out. Then I’d head right over to Grady’s. I didn’t want to get over there shouting gibberish … like … like Ebneezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol. That wasn’t romantic. That was weird.
Okay, one drive by the marina and then I would go over.
I turned the boat and as I circled back around, the headlight swept across the town gazebo. What the…?
The light was only on it for a second, but … I could have sworn I saw someone.
Okay, that was strange.
Why would someone be hanging out on the gazebo with bins of wedding decorations?
I swung the boat around again for another look.
Crap! That was definitely a man.
What was he doing?
I think he saw me spot him—I guess a boat shining its headlight on you twice in quick succession was a tip-off. He ducked down behind a stack of bins. A stack of bins that was now toppling to the floor. Son of a—
“Easy on the bins!” I shouted, wondering just for a second when the wedding had become more important than catching a potential murder suspect.
I tried to bring the boat in closer, but I didn’t want to ground it. If I could just get the headlight of the boat on him. Just then I remembered that Freddie had one of those expensive beams that swiveled. I killed the boat’s engine and grabbed the handle for the light and focused the beam on the spot where the man had disappeared. At first I could just see the tangled mess of bins, but then a man jumped up. A man with spiky hair! Lyssa’s boyfriend! Frick! He was running down the planks that bridged the gazebo to the shoreline. “Hey! Stop! I need to talk to you!” Even though that was potentially a really bad idea seeing as he was our prime suspect for murder. I almost yelled Actually, never mind! but he never stopped running. Again the calling-out thing never worked.
I hit the steering wheel hard with the heel of my hand. There was no way I could tie off the boat and get there in time to be sure it was him.
But I had to do something!
I pulled my phone out from my back pocket.
“Freddie, you need to borrow my mother’s boat and get over to the gazebo.”
“What? Why? I’m making real progress here. My question was—”
“I think I spotted Lyssa’s boyfriend rummaging through all the wedding stuff.”
“Seriously?”
“I’m going to call over to the sheriff’s department—”
“What? You will do no such thing! She’s going to arrest you. She told you that.”
“I know she did, but…” I chewed the corner of my thumbnail. “She probably didn’t mean it.”
“Let’s just check it out first. We’ll call if—”
“Check it out? We are a legitimate business now. The police tape is still up. You know we cannot cross that line to see what he was after.”
“Fine, we won’t cross the line! But don’t call yet either. We need to find out what it is he’s looking for. Then if it’s important, we’ll call. Anonymously. There’s an app for that.”
“I don’t know—”
“Just hold on. I’m coming.” He chuckled. “Hey, it’s just like that song—”
“We don’t have time for songs, Freddie!”
“Right. Right. Just don’t do anything till I get there.”
Freddie ended the call. I rested my phone at my chin and looked over the still water. Okay, what was Freddie thinking? If we weren’t going to cross the police tape, how were we going to find out what Lyssa’s boyfriend was looking for—
Oh … no.
I knew what Freddie was thinking.
We were going swimming.