I wiped down the table near the window and used the proximity as an excuse to look up and down Main Street. It was a sunny day, the sort that turned my thoughts to summer.
Of course, in a shore town, summer was generally on everybody’s mind most of the time. That was our bread and butter. At least, for the businesses closer to the beach. We were a few miles back and as such catered more to the people who lived in Cape Hope year-round.
Still, business always started picking up in mid-May. Mom was already preparing, as I knew from experience most of the businesses that made up the town’s commercial district would be. Right down to the brand-new awnings, their vibrant colors a welcome change after a year’s worth of sunshine had faded the last bunch.
“You’ll rub a hole in that table if you don’t stop wiping,” Mom advised. At least she waited until she was by my side rather than calling it out across the café for everyone to hear. “Your gentleman friend will be here when he gets here.”
“Mom. For the love of everything, don’t call him that.”
“Why not? Is he not a gentleman?”
“I wouldn’t know either way. But it’s the connotation I don’t appreciate. He’s a guy my editor threw at me, just like I’m the girl she threw at him. If it wasn’t for the case, I’d be perfectly fine never seeing him again.” I cornered her behind the counter. “And I would appreciate it if you would please, please not make any romance-centered remarks while he’s here. I’ll just die of embarrassment.”
“The last thing I want to do is embarrass you,” she cooed, stroking my hair.
The thing was, I believed her.
It was just that she had no idea how embarrassing she could be simply by being herself. I loved her dearly, with all my heart, but there was times when the woman went out of her way to embarrass me.
Like when she fanned herself upon Deke entering the café. “Is that him?” she asked, which of course meant every pair of eyes in the café turning his way.
He paused, looking around, looking slightly dazed at the silence which fell over the room. Yes, that was him. Yes, he looked good. It seemed button-downs tucked into well-worn jeans were his uniform, and I was okay with that. He made it work.
Rather than respond verbally to my mother, I chose to step out from behind the counter and greet Deke by the door. “Hi,” I whispered. “And forgive her. She’s… my mom, and she’s great but… you know.” There I went again, tripping over my tongue. It looked like the apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree.
He grinned. “It’s okay. This place is great, by the way. The whole street is so charming, for lack of a better word.”
“It is, isn’t it?” I glowed with pride. At least, it felt that way. Here, especially in the café, I was stronger. I felt like we were on even footing. “Have a seat. Can I get you a coffee? Something to eat?”
A few minutes later, I sat across from him with coffee and croissants between us. This was going to be great. I had everything under control.
“Would you like some coffee with your sugar?” he asked.
“Hmm?” I looked away from the stream of white granular heaven which poured into my coffee.
“Maybe some diabetes, instead?” Deke snickered. “I watched you pour those packets into your coffee at the station, too, and I thought for sure you were joking until you took a sip.”
So much for thinking this was going to go smoothly. I placed the glass pourer on the table and picked up my spoon before very deliberately stirring the sugar into the drink. Never once did I break eye contact. “I like sugar.”
“Evidently.”
“I didn’t think that was a crime.”
“It isn’t. Murder, on the other hand…”
“Lower your voice, please. We’re in my mother’s café, remember, and you know I didn’t kill anybody.”
He leaned closer, which was unfortunate since it meant smelling his spicy cologne. “I’m practically whispering, and nobody else besides your mother is under the age of eighty.”
“Which means they wear hearing aids and can turn them up real, real high,” I informed him. “Trust me. They can hear everything.”
“Sure can!” Mrs. Merriweather chimed in from clear across the room.
I grinned, wiggling my fingers in a wave, before turning to Deke with a flat expression. “The defense rests.”
“Point taken,” he whispered, glancing at Mrs. Merriweather and her yellow-veiled bluebird hat before looking back to me. “I guess sugar comes with the territory around here. Your mom being a baker and all.”
I decided to let that slide rather than countering with the fact that he, too, was acquainted with the white stuff. After Raina’s reveal of Deke’s family history, I’d done a little digging. Mr. Bellingham’s family was basically made of candy.
But for whatever reason, he chose to keep this quiet rather than speaking of his illustrious background. There had to be more to the story. I was willing to bide my time.
“I’ve basically been mainlining the stuff since I was in the uterus,” I confirmed. “I was Mom’s first taste tester. She didn’t start the café until she was pregnant with me, and she had to test out her recipes, of course.”
“Of course.”
“If she ended up feeling wonky—nauseated and all that—she knew she had to move on to something else. If it stayed down and I seemed happy, she added it to the menu.”
“Seems logical.” He looked around. “I’ve gotta give credit where it’s due. She opened a café while raising a family. I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been.”
“Neither can I. This was my daycare. I watched her work until she was almost ready to collapse some days, but I was too young to understand, you know? She still wakes up well before dawn and doesn’t leave until closing time. My sister and I practically have to tie her down to get her to take the occasional day off.”
“What about your father? How does he feel about not seeing his wife?”
I winced with a quick shake of my head. “Ix-nay on the ather-fay,” I murmured through clenched teeth, looking to the counter. She was busy steaming milk for a latte, thank goodness.
“Oh.” He grimaced. “Sorry. That was clumsy.”
“Though maybe that answers your question, somewhat,” I offered, looking down into my creamy, sweet coffee. Coffee loved me and made it possible to sit across from this man without starting an argument like I’d already become so good at. I took another sip.
“The café got in the way?”
“It’s not like he wasn’t married to his job, either,” I made it a point to say, like I felt the need to defend my mother. Nearly five years had passed since the divorce, and I still felt the need to take sides. “Darcy and I always used to joke that we felt like the whole town was our brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles. Because he cared just as much about them as he did about us.”
“But not all jokes are funny,” Deke mused.
“Exactly. Sometimes we joke when we’re trying to get a message through to somebody. He never got it. But he’s happy now with his g-i-r-l-f-r-i-e-n-d.” I spelled it out from behind my hand, just in case anybody was reading lips along with listening in.I then realized I’d spilled half my life story to this stranger to whom I didn’t owe anything. “You’re probably wondering why I can’t stop talking,” I offered before sipping my brew again for lack of anything else to do.
“I figured you’re buzzing off all the sugar you’re drinking. And the caffeine.”
“What’s it feel like, up there on your high horse? Ever get a nosebleed?” I took note of the way he drank his coffee. Black, no sugar. What kind of monster…?
“It’s unhealthy, is all.”
“Thanks for your learned medical advice, Doctor.”
He rolled his eyes and obviously decided to let the matter drop, since he leaned in with his hands folded on the pink tabletop and generally looked like he was ready to get down to business.
“This probably isn’t the best place to talk about this, now that I’ve found out how… curious the townspeople are,” he whispered, “but I went through all the photos I took that night and studied them. I mean really studied them. And there’s one point where James’s demeanor changes visibly. It’s like night and day. You remember how he was early on in the night.”
“Sure. Mr. Personality. Big smile, a million teeth. Wants to sell you a used car.”
He sputtered, choking a little on his coffee. I handed him a napkin. “Yeah. Something like that,” he agreed when he’d gotten himself under control and his color came back to normal. “Then, after the toast Robbie gave, he changed. According to the timestamp, I don’t have him in any pictures for twenty minutes after that. And when I do, it’s like Jekyll and Hyde.”
“Jee-kill,” I corrected without thinking.
“Excuse me?”
“A common misconception. It’s actually pronounced Jee-kill, not Jeck-yl.”
He blinked. “And?”
“I don’t know. It’s just something I picked up. Anyway, go on.” Me and my big mouth. Deke didn’t seem like the type to discuss random literary trivia early on a Sunday morning.
“As I was saying,” he continued with a little sigh, “something must have happened between the speech and the next time he showed himself.”
“And the next time he showed himself, he must’ve been on his way out to the beach,” I mused.
“Yes. There are no more pics of him after that. Except…” He looked down into his coffee, and I couldn’t see his expression.
“Tell me you didn’t take pictures of the body,” I whispered. When he didn’t, I wasn’t sure if I admired him or what. “The police couldn’t have been too happy when they found them.”
“The police didn’t find them.”
I stood, holding onto the table for support. “I’m gonna get us to-go cups. We need to talk about this outside the café.
Yet before I had the chance, the door opened and revealed someone I would never have expected to see stepping foot inside that café ever again.
Once again, the room went silent.
This time, for my father.