“But—”
“Just be ready,” Sullivan says. He doesn’t spare me a backward glance.
And he doesn’t wait for his drink.
“Where is he?” Ashley asks when she gets back. The apples of her cheeks are rosy, her voice pitched higher than normal. She stands for a moment with her hand shading her eyes as she scans the beach. There’s still the hint of a smile on her lips, and I’m grateful for that one small grace. Ashley didn’t see Sullivan touch me.
“He had to go,” I manage, pushing myself to my feet. “Here, toss it to me. I’ll stick it in the cooler. I’m sure we’ll find him later.”
Ashley shakes her head. “It’ll get warm. Is he on the docks? Was his break cut short?”
I don’t know how to lie to her, so I try again to deflect by presenting my catch-ready hands.
Ashley’s wistful gaze cuts to me, and all at once she’s hardened. It’s a tiny difference, a thin glaze of ice, but I know Ashley inside and out. “I don’t get it,” she says, tossing me the black can. It’s sweaty and nearly slips right out of my hands. “What did you say to him?”
I want to tell her that Sullivan’s not worth her time, that he’s a flirt and a liar and maybe worse. But if there was ever a good time to warn her off him, it passed ages ago, before her light feelings of attraction turned into full-fledged obsession. I can’t dissuade her, and any attempt I make will only paint me into a corner that I can’t get out of. I’ve seen the way Ashley looks at me when Sullivan is around. Skeptical, calculating, just a little hurt. It would be so easy for her to blame me. But this is our last summer together, and I can’t lose my best friend.
“You know Sullivan makes me uncomfortable,” I say honestly. “Maybe he picked up on that while you were gone.”
I can see her thaw a little in relief. Better to think I scared him away than wonder if there’s something else going on. I seize my chance and stick the energy drink in the cooler.
“Okay?” I ask my best friend. “Can we go swimming now?”
Ashley sighs and throws an arm lightly over my shoulders. She looks at me as though she’s sizing me up. “You’re a good friend,” she says. “I think I’ll keep you.”
I just wonder how long.
CHAPTER 5
WINTER TODAY
Jonathan was late.
Coming?
Juniper texted, hoping she sounded curious instead of passive-aggressive. The truth was, she was on edge. Her conversation with Mandy had kept her up all night. And though she had balked at the prospect of a private meeting only a couple of days ago, now she needed to see Jonathan face-to-face, to hear firsthand about all the supposedly unrelated attacks resurrecting a past he was trying so hard to dismiss. Between fretting over the details of her brother’s harassment and all of her messages to Willa continuing to go unanswered, she was strung tight enough to snap.
Juniper stared at her phone, willing communication, but nothing appeared.
Ten minutes passed. Then fifteen.
“I thought Jonathan was picking you up today?” Cora called from the circ desk.
“He was.” Juniper wandered over, still staring at the phone in her hands and beginning to sweat beneath her thick scarf and zippered-to-the-chin winter coat.
“Running late, I’m sure,” Cora offered with a smile, but Juniper wasn’t so sure.
She pulled up Mandy’s number, but her call went almost instantly to voice mail, and when she tried a few seconds later, it happened again. Turning away from the trio of a young mother and her two littles who had approached the circulation desk, arms laden with bright books, Juniper tried to make her voice sound casual. “Hi, Mandy, it’s Juniper. Jonathan was supposed to pick me up and he’s late. No biggie, but I was wondering if he’s with you…”
An incoming call interrupted her message, and Juniper drew the phone away from her ear to see who it was. She almost declined but accepted at the last moment, trying to muster patience. “Hi, Mom,” she said, ready to tell Reb that it wasn’t a good time, that they could connect later, when she realized there was a thin, desolate sound leaking through the microphone.
“June? Oh my God, June. He… there’s… I…”
“Mom? Mom, what’s going on?”
“He’s… I—”
“Juniper?” Law’s voice was suddenly on the line, solid and unyielding as a brick. “There’s been an accident. Call Everett Stokes at the Jericho Police Station. He’ll fill you in.”
“The police?” she said, feeling her stomach drop. “What happened?” She heard a honk in the background—were they on the road?—then what sounded like arguing, followed by a click, and they were gone.
Juniper felt her knees wobble, the room tilt precariously as the young mother and her kids brushed past, oblivious to the way her world had tipped sideways. What had just happened?
“Everything okay?” Cora came over. When she caught sight of Juniper’s blanched cheeks and wild eyes, she took her by the arm. “Come on,” she said, leading her to the nearest chair.
“Something’s wrong,” Juniper managed.
“Jonathan?”
“I don’t know.” But in a forgotten corner of her heart, his name echoed clear and resonant. Of course it was Jonathan.
Cora took charge. She put a call in to Officer Stokes, and a few minutes later, when Cora pressed a mug of steaming Earl Grey into her hands, Juniper realized time had become soft and pliable as clay. How long had she been sitting in the chair?
“I have to go,” Juniper said, bolting upright and sloshing hot tea onto her fingers. She barely registered the burn.
“I don’t think so,” Cora countered. “The officer is on his way. Until then, there’s nowhere for you to go. Come on, let’s get you into my office so you can have some privacy.”
Juniper didn’t like being bossed, but she let Cora unzip her coat and slide it off her shoulders. She allowed herself to be led into the office, where she sat in the swivel chair, forced herself to sip the tea, and waited. Juniper was bracing herself to hear the news, however awful, but when the officer appeared at the doorway with a somber half smile, the first thing she thought was: I know you. Average height, average build. Brown hair with a glint of gold and eyes to match. The last time they crossed paths he was handing her a written warning for a broken taillight.
Neither of them mentioned it.
“Officer Stokes with the Jericho PD,” he said, and then seemed unable to decide if he should shake her hand or hover in the doorway. He elected to hover.
“Look, I’m sorry to be the one to deliver the news… Your brother fell through the ice on Jericho Lake early this morning.”
It was the last thing she expected him to say. She had steeled herself for the worst. Perhaps a hit-and-run, a split second of furious courage when Jonathan went after the car that kept driving by his house in the middle of the night. Or—God forbid—a baseball bat, a bit of poison, a bullet. Something fast and violent, an accident that wasn’t truly an accident. Not this. This, Juniper didn’t know how to process. Jericho Lake? Her brother wasn’t a fisherman, and he wasn’t an idiot. The lake was small and brackish; nothing worth catching lived there anyway.
“I don’t understand.” She was cold with shock—disconnected from her own body. She couldn’t feel her hands on the mug anymore or even taste the bittersweet tea. “What the hell was he doing out there?”
“It’s an ongoing investigation, ma’am. We’re following every lead.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like,” Officer Stokes said. “Jonathan is very lucky that Mr. Linden was training his hunting dogs this morning out at the lake. We believe your brother was in the water for less than twenty minutes and unconscious for an even shorter time. He was airlifted to the nearest ECMO center in Des Moines for emergency treatment. His wife and your parents are en route.”
“And what am I supposed to do?” Juniper snapped.