“I think the sergeant enjoyed pointing it out, anyway.”
Lily chuckled. “Did he have anything to say about you being at my place and clearly having dressed in a hurry?”
“Not a lot. He seemed more amused than anything. And he suggested I have my uniform with me in the future, but I already learned that lesson after having to question people in the dark in jeans and a T-shirt. I got some strange looks, and didn’t feel as confident as usual.”
As she started to ask who he’d been questioning, a shrill, high-pitched tone filled the silence and demanded her attention.
Her logical brain knew immediately that the toast had burnt and set off the smoke alarm. It wasn’t her logical brain that pinned her to the couch, though. Goosebumps erupted over her skin, and her pulse skyrocketed.
“Is that your smoke alarm?” Flynn asked in her ear.
Her hand with the phone sank to rest beside her, and she glanced slowly around the room, trying to make sense of her thoughts and the overwhelming sense of déjà vu.
The intense beeping of the alarm dragged her back in time. Each pause between the beeps filled her with fear.
She’d been here before – on a couch in this exact spot, as the blare of smoke alarms pulled her from sleep.
Her uncle had swept her up in the blanket she’d been asleep in and told her everything was okay. But his eyes had been filled with panic, and she’d known that everything definitely wasn’t okay.
“Lily!” Flynn’s distant voice pulled her from her memories, and she hurried to the kitchen, putting the phone to her ear as she went.
“I’ll call you back,” she said, then deposited the phone onto the kitchen table and grabbed the nearest chair to climb up and put an end to the piercing beeps.
With the alarm silenced, she opened a couple of windows and tossed the black toast in the bin. Then she fired off a message to Flynn, telling him she’d just burned her toast.
In a daze, she moved to the couch to try and untangle her memories, with no luck. Finally, she pulled herself together and got on with her day.
With her mind all over the place, the morning dragged on. A busy day was what she needed, but the trickle of customers did nothing to help keep her mind occupied.
Absently, she was wiping down tables in the middle of the afternoon when Jessica appeared beside her.
“Is everything okay?” she asked, looking at Lily with concern.
“Fine.” Lily focused on her young employee. “Why?”
“I was talking to you, but you didn’t seem to hear.”
“Sorry.” She straightened up. “I was miles away. What were you saying?”
Jessica bit her lower lip. “You won’t need me in the winter, will you?”
A prickle of unease crept up Lily’s spine. She’d barely needed Jessica in the past week, so she couldn’t imagine winter would be different. “I guess not, but maybe we just need to come up with a new business plan for the quieter months.” She glanced around the room. “Maybe we could offer kids’ birthday parties… or different events…” Surely they could come up with ways to boost business and keep themselves busy. “We can have a brainstorming session sometime, but you don’t need to worry – I’ll find a way to keep you on.”
“It’s not that.” Jessica shifted her weight.
A jolt of panic hit Lily as it dawned on her why Jessica looked so uncomfortable. She’d been clear from the start that she was only looking for a casual job for the summer. Considering how well it had worked out, Lily had assumed she’d stay on. She hadn’t even considered her leaving.
“Are you looking for another job?” she asked. “Or have you decided on college or something?”
“No. I love working here, but I assumed it would be like most jobs on the island and you wouldn’t need me over winter.”
Lily smiled uncomfortably. “We’ll figure something out.”
Again, Jessica shifted her weight. “I appreciate it, but Rhys also won’t have much work, so we were thinking we might head over to the mainland and work over there for a bit. His dad said we can stay with him in Bristol. We won’t have to pay rent, so we can get jobs and save a bit of money. We thought it would be good to have six months in a city and experience something different.”
“Yeah.” Lily caught the gleam of excitement in Jessica’s eyes. “It’s a great idea,” she said, pushing down her disappointment. “I bet you’ll have a brilliant time.”
She nodded eagerly, and her face broke into a joyful smile. “It’ll be weird to live in a city, but I think it’ll be fun.”
