“Wait, Willa Hollingsworth?” She’d been a couple of years behind me in school and one of Gwen’s best friends.
“Yep. Total stealth operation. Whole town found out when they came back wearing rings.”
“Wow. Didn’t her parents disapprove of him?” Sawyer Malone hadn’t remotely been of a social class the Hollingsworths would’ve approved of. I knew because my parents were cut from the same cloth.
“Well, probably, but Willa basically told them to fuck off and entirely cut them out of her life when she came back to the island at eighteen.”
I tried to imagine the quiet girl I remembered doing such a thing and couldn’t quite see it. For a moment, envy flared that she’d gotten out from under her controlling parents. “Good for her.”
“I thought so. They’re disgustingly happy.”
“Double good for her.” She’d always been an incredibly sweet girl. She deserved whatever happiness she’d managed to carve out of life. “What else is good news?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear any other kind.
“Ford’s back on-island, and he just proposed to Bree last week.”
“I thought she hated him.” They’d been besties from elementary school, but a few years after high school, there’d been some falling out. I didn’t ever hear the details.
“So did we all. But whatever happened, apparently they worked it out. Oh, and he’s got a teenage daughter. Not Bree’s.”
I blinked. “Wow. That’s… unexpected.”
“Took the whole island by surprise. Ford, too, from what we all know. She’s a smart kid.” Astrid took a sip of her drink. “Let me think. Oh, Lindsay has a new beau. None other than Corbin O’Connell.”
My brain spun, sifting through names and faces and bits of old knowledge about people I hadn’t thought of in ages. “Didn’t he go into the Coast Guard?”
“He did. Came back to help out when his daddy’s knee surgery had complications. Lindsay’s been working as office manager for their fishing company for years, and she ended up getting attacked at the office one night.”
My hand shot out to close over Astrid’s wrist. “Attacked?”
“She’s okay. Promise. She was just concussed. Anyway, Corbin found her and went all bodyguard on her until they caught the guy, so she’s been living her best romance novel life.”
That dragged a chuckle out of me. “I love that for her. She’s had a crush on him since, like, freshman year.” I nibbled at my taco. “Sounds like it’s been an eventful few years.”
“It has.” Her expression sobered, and I knew what she wasn’t saying.
As if the universe was determined to bring it up anyway, a woman at another table murmured, “I still can’t believe the mayor killed that man. Crazy world.”
The words hit like a glass dropped on tile. The clatter of the patio kept going, but all the air seemed to thin.
The mayor. My cousin. Gwen’s older brother, Miles, who’d been convicted of voluntary manslaughter for killing his blackmailer.
Astrid shot me a quick look. “Ignore them.”
“I do.” But it wasn’t true. I’d been ignoring ghosts for years, and they were better at waiting me out.
Her hand brushed mine briefly, grounding. “How’s your uncle?”
“He’s… holding together.” I managed to keep my voice steady. “Still working boats out of Beaufort. I think keeping busy is the only thing keeping him upright.”
In the wake of his daughter’s disappearance, he and my aunt had eventually gotten divorced. With this latest scandal involving his son, I’d been really worried about him.
Astrid nodded. “Grief’s funny that way. The motion’s sometimes the only thing that keeps you from sinking.”
“Yeah.”
For a while, we just ate, the rhythm of it easy again, until she pushed her tray aside. “Listen, we’ve got a couple nests likely to boil Friday night. You should come out. Bring coffee and watch the hatchlings run. It’s magic every time.”
I hesitated. The invitation was so casual, so normal, it caught me off guard. “Are you sure I wouldn’t be in the way?”
