“I’m not a tourist. You could almost call me a resident. It’s my sister’s house.”
“Well, then… It’s a pleasure to meet you, neighbor! My name’s Ridge, and this is Emma’s Place, my home and my business. I doubt there’s a better spot on the whole island, if you don’t mind me saying. Welcome to Petit Prince!”
He was so enthusiastic that I couldn’t help laughing. I shook his hand and nodded with feigned seriousness.
“Glad to meet you, Ridge. My name’s Harper, and I hope you can tell me how to get to Old Bay. That’s where my home for the week is.”
“Old Bay? That’s on the other end of the island.”
I took the map out of my pocket and smoothed it out on the bar so he could look at it.
“I’ve got these directions my sister gave me, but I’m not sure if they’re right.”
“Did you try following them?”
“Yeah, and I went in a gigantic circle and ended up here.”
“Well, you were lucky to even be able to do that. This is all wrong. It’s not a big island, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get lost if you don’t know it well, especially at night.”
“Do you have a decent map, then? A real one?”
“I’ve got something way better. Me.”
“You?” I smiled when I realized he was offering to come along. I threw my bag on my shoulder, ready to get up. “Thanks!”
“No problem. But I can’t take you until I close up here.”
I fell back on my seat. I’d been awake for nineteen hours, and I was tired. Each minute felt like an hour, and for some time now, my pants and shoes had felt like they were cutting off the blood flow to my legs. Not to mention, I badly needed to brush my teeth.
“When’s that, then?”
“A couple of hours. During the week, people don’t stick around very late. In the meantime, are you hungry? Thirsty?”
I nodded and my mouth started watering. I’d never been so hungry, and the scent of food was so tempting I could hardly think of anything else.
“I saw those dishes you brought out… They looked pretty good.”
“Fish and chips, plus mussel sauce. I promise you’ve never tasted anything better in your life.”
“I’ll take five,” I joked.
He chuckled and looked me in the face, and I saw something in his eyes that made me nervous. You know the story: boy meets girl, boy likes girl… Well, it wasn’t that. He looked interested in me, actuallyinterested, curious, somehow knowing, as if he could already sense I was running away from something and wanted to know what and why.
He served me a plate overflowing with fish and potatoes topped with an orange sauce with aromatic herbs. The first bite was divine. The second, third, and the rest I swallowed so quickly that I was hardly able to taste them.
When I was done, he gave me a piece of apple pie and a cup of coffee on the house. By then, I was satiated and could take mytime with them. I actually didn’t need either, but turning them down would have been rude. The pie was delicious. It tasted like real apples, not that gooey brown mush I was used to at the cafeteria at university.
Ridge smiled from the other end of the bar, where he was closing out his last few guests. I smiled back. He was a nice guy, extroverted, and nothing like his sister, who’d been glaring at me the whole time while I tried to ignore her and be empathetic. I guess if someone had forced me out of my city and made me move in with my brother in the middle of nowhere with no better distraction than fishing, I’d probably be that hateful, too.
I closed my eyes. Thinking that, I suddenly felt that my situation wasn’t that different from Carlie’s. I mean, there were differences, obviously—big ones—but in the end, it was the same thing: she was there because she’d been pushed to go, and so was I.
I smiled at her when she came over to clear my dishes. I wanted to be nice. I thought that would make her act nice, too. But instead she lifted an eyebrow and frowned. “Sucking up to me won’t make my brother sleep with you. You’re not his type.”
I sat up straight as a ramrod. So much for friendliness. She was a bitch. I was about to tell her where she could stick her attitude, but Ridge beat me to the punch.
“Carlie, what the hell is up with you? Are you trying to scare off all my customers?”
“If it gets me off this goddamn island…” she replied, walking off.
