“No, I’m not sure he did this,” I admit.
“You were once very adamant that he did.”
“I know, I know what I said,” I say quickly. “Can I read the story?”
“I cannot give you evidence before a trial, no.”
“Well, did you read it?” I ask.
“No, not fully,” he says.
“I need you to read it and tell me what happens.”
“You want me to read this three-hundred-page, single-spaced book from a madman and give you the CliffsNotes?”
“Yes...”
“No.”
“Can you at least tell me what happens at the very end? Tell me who he wrote that the killer was.”
Grange sighs. “Enjoy your spring break, Miss Sawyer, you deserve to relax.”
The sun sets behind the McCavern beach house on Nantucket when I finally arrive, and it’s even more stunning in person. Large white-trimmed windows cover gray slatted siding, with a double glass-paneled door welcoming you in the front of the house. As I walk down the stone driveway with my suitcase, I imagine the big sign in the front yard that’ll say “Margot’s Bed-and-Breakfast.” I pretend I’m a guest there. I know when I enter, Wesley’s face willbe at the front desk to check me in, and I’ll be drawn in by his smile and kind eyes, and I’ll never want to leave.
It’s half true when I walk in and Wes meets me at the door to take my bags. “Welcome to the soon-to-be Margot’s,” he says.
“Wow,” I say back, taking in the open, airy layout of the first floor. The foyer opens up to a grand living room surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows that look out into the backyard. Cream couches with light blue accents are placed on white stone floors. To the left is a white marble kitchen that looks like it’s never seen a stain a day in its life.
“Wait until you see the back,” Wes says, leading me to the sliding glass door. We walk out to a deck that overlooks an inground pool and hot tub surrounded by lush grass and an outdoor dining gazebo. Just past the grass is a trail to the beach. Our friends are all back there when we walk out, watching the sun set over the beach horizon. Dani and Annica come back up the beach path toward the house.
“Yay! You’re here!” Dani calls out to me. I smile and wave.
“Sloane!” Jake yells from the pool. “Glad to know you weren’t really the Pembroke Psycho after all!”
I look over to the hot tub, where Asher sits with Erin. She’s drinking white wine right from the bottle. Real classy. Seeing them together makes me wonder how he treats the girls that he’s actually seeing. Is he sweet to her? Does he hold her at night?
I’m not jealous, just curious.
“Glad you could make it,” Asher says. “It reallysuckedwithout you here.”
I give him a tight smile. “I’m sure it did.” I look back at Wesstanding with his arms crossed over his Cape Cod sweatshirt, and with a backward cap. He looks like he belongs here. “Why don’t you show me to my room.”
“Ourroom.” He winks, placing a hand to the small of my back and leading me inside. We walk down the long hallway on the bottom floor and stop at the door at the end of the hall. “This is the master bedroom. We’ll be in here until Saturday, when my family visits.”
“Your family is coming?” No one said anything about the rest of them showing up. I’m not sure how I’d even go about seeing them all again, now being with Wes and not Asher.
“Yeah, we’re having, like, a ‘last party at the house’ kind of situation before renovations start.”
“Oh, okay.”
The master room is huge, with white plush carpet and a bed on a two-step landing. It has its own sliding door to the patio as well as a bathroom with a claw-foot tub and a heated toilet seat. Wes drops my bags by the bed.
“There’s another room I want to show you real quick. It’s my favorite.” I follow Wes out of the bedroom, back down the hall, and up the stairs leading to the second story of the house. We pass more bedrooms and bathrooms, even a small library, before getting to a ladder leading up to an opening in the ceiling.
“The attic?” I guess.
“Not quite,” he says, grabbing on and hoisting himself up. He climbs to the top and I follow. The room is empty, aside from a few boxes and old containers of paint, but I know immediately why this is the best room in the house. The glass-paneled ceilingslants down to meet glass-paneled walls, like being in a bubble in the sky, which is now streaked with pink and orange. “Cool, huh?”
