“Loew!” Agent Price appeared at the end of the group, waving. He bounded over, dressed in athletic pants and a Friendship High Football hoodie. May was one of those months where it could be summer and winter, all in the same day. Life on the bay was tricky like that. “It’s almost time for the First Annual Friendship Oyster Festival!”
“You’re perversely excited about this,” I said to him.
“This event calls for a considerable amount of excitement,” Ranger said. “I believe the agent’s excitement is spot-on. Not perverse in the least.”
Friendship had claimed another with Agent Price. He’d permanently transferred to the Providence office of the FBI and lived down the street from my parents’ house now. When he wasn’t traveling on official business, he could be found at every festival, athletic event, and town council meeting on the calendar.
That I was also present at these outings was far less of a hardship than I’d allowed myself to imagine. Especially now that I could stand off to the side with Noah Barden while the women in our lives talked to everyone on the entire planet. The addition of beer at many of these affairs only improved them in my eyes.
Since Agent Price—or Naeem, as he was known to his neighbors—had convinced his bosses that I had no better idea where my mother was than they did, I didn’t glare at him anymore. Not here, not around town, not even when he jogged by the house in his FBI t-shirt. Also, he’d broken through a window to save Sunny. I’d never finish thanking him for that. All the oysters in the world for him. Every day.
“I’m ready to see this thing come to life,” Agent Price said.
I slipped my hands into my pockets, nodding. The Friendship Oyster Festival was a two-day event featuring food from Small Point and other local oyster companies, shucking demonstrations and contests, games, and—thankfully—a beer garden. Since I was the last person anyone wanted at the helm of a festival, I’d assigned Hale the task of making this idea into a reality. Hale being Hale, he’d turned that directive into a planning committee and convinced Agent Price, Phil Collins, and Mars Murtagh to come along for the ride, among others.
For better or worse, we had most of the FBI agents in this region descending on Friendship this weekend, along with all of Mars’s biotech buddies.
“As am I,” I said. “It’s going to be one hell of a weekend.”
With a tip of his hat, Ranger said, “I need to get this crew fed and watered so we can stay on schedule. I’ll see you all tomorrow.”
I led Sunny and the dogs toward the oyster company to steal a few more minutes with her. They had enough staff working at Naked now that she didn’t need to rush over there to help them survive the crush of orders that came with the arrival of the walking club.
Since I wasn’t content to ask Sunny to marry me just the one time today, I said, “So, I was thinking we could take the boat out tonight and go down to—”
“Who is that?”
I followed Sunny’s stare into the restaurant, to the raw bar where Dex was shucking his way through several dozen oysters at a speed that was frankly concerning, given his wrist and elbow issues. Beside him stood a redhead with teal sunglasses propped on her head and a safety glove on her left hand as she matched him oyster for oyster.
I dropped my hand to Sunny’s shoulder as I blinked. I couldn’t believe it. Of all the people I’d expected to find at the oyster company today, either of my parents and my dead uncle Buckthorne were higher up on the list than that woman.
“That’s Jenn,” I said. “Decker’s wife.”
