“Nothing. I promised my coworker I’d drive this box up and deliver it to her cousin while I’m here. She didn’t want to spend the money to have it shipped.”
At the time I agreed, I figured I’d want a reason to leave town for at least an afternoon, but with Riley standing beside me, delivering the box sounded like a bigger ask than I wanted to endeavor upon. Still, I’d made a promise.
Riley stared at the box. “Is it important?”
“Um, well, it’s clothing for her new baby niece, but Mandy is concerned I get it there. She promised her cousin or something.”
“What if you delivered this later and instead did something fun with me?” he asked, with a twinkle in his eyes, which meant Riley was up to something. He wove his hand through his hair and looked at me with his big puppy dog eyes.
I figured I’d grown immune to them, but after being gone for so long, they affected me again. Even realizing he was up to no good, he was still Riley Jefferson. I’d known him long enough to be aware of when he was looking to cause mischief, but it never stopped me before and it wouldn’t now either.
“Exactly what do you plan to do today?”
“Oh nothing,” he said, but his gaze laughed, implying he was bending the truth. “Just a ride in a helicopter.”
A helicopter ride? Didn’t sound too crazy. “Really? Where?” It’d be cool to see Pelican Bay and the ocean from a helicopter.
“The chopper takes off in an hour. They’re going to a private airport in Portland, and I figured we’d take a brief vacation. See a beach with sand and not rocks.”
“Where?” The northern East Coast of the United States didn’t have many sandy beaches. It was more of a rocky area. If Riley wanted to see sand, he wasn’t staying in Maine.
His smile grew as if he read my thoughts. “How does two days on Miami Beach sound?”
“Hot and sunny.” Which were not two negatives in my opinion. “But what about Henry’s cat?”
Whiskers might miss me. I had to feed her fifteen treats to apologize for getting ice cream.
Riley glanced at Henry’s place and pinched his lips together in thought. “It’s only two days and I bet I can get my dad to check on her. If not, Katy will do it.”
I tapped my foot against the grass that was still wet from the morning dew. Two days in Miami Beach with Riley Jefferson. Could I survive the experience?
“I thought you were responsible now? How are you taking an unplanned vacation to Florida?”
Riley had a job and reputation to uphold in the town. I didn’t want to rush back to Pelican Bay and ruin it for him.
He laughed. “It’s not as crazy as it sounds. Ridge just closed a big case for one of the Kensington twins. As thanks, the twins offered the use of their condo in Florida and the helicopter to Portland. I’ll cover our plane tickets to Florida.”
“Oh.” It seemed reasonable, but he couldn’t fault me for asking. He and Katy were friends for a reason. He often went along with Katy’s crazy ideas or helped her find the means to see them through. He’d gotten quite the reputation in school.
When we were young, he didn’t have to have a plan and stick to it. Responsibility wasn’t the name of the game, or any of those other cliché things people say. Riley had a great family who’d be there for him if he ever messed up too big. He’d been a bit reckless as a teen because standing behind him were a clan of Jeffersons to pick him up if he ever fell.
He never understood why I took everything so seriously, even in high school. I grew up without those same safety nets. Whatever choices I made affected me for the rest of my life. I didn’t have a father who owned the town hardware and gave me work sweeping the floors during the summer when I needed money.
I didn’t have a big brother who left to become a Navy SEAL, and when he returned, gave me a guaranteed job at his security firm. The only thing I had were the things I worked for, which made me very protective of them.
But it didn’t mean I planned to turn away a vacation to Miami Beach. I hadn’t taken a single vacation since I started my job five years ago. The biggest excitement in my life was coming to Pelican Bay to watch my brother’s cat and hide from the townspeople. So far, I’d sucked at both. Katy hunted me out with Riley on my first day in town and here I was already considering leaving Whiskers.
But…
Cats were survivors. Right?
“Okay, let’s do it,” I agreed and then twisted my hands together. Technically, I was on vacation in Pelican Bay, so this was like a vacation from my vacation, but it was time I lived a little. As long as my brother never found out.
Thankfully, Whiskers didn’t talk.
“I’ll call Katy and see if she can check on Whiskers. With our luck, she probably has a key. You go pack.”
I considered stopping on the sidewalk to ask exactly what he meant by Katy having a key to Henry’s house, but if a chopper really was ready to leave in an hour, I needed to move.
