Ava put a hand out to the nearby wall to steady herself. Then she took the brochure from Mia.
Sure. No problem. She made her living by writing.
Writing a letter to secure her house? How hard could it be?
From the ferry, the town of Jonathon Island looked like a movie set. It spread out before him as the ferry docked. Picture-perfect storefronts, with window boxes full of flowers, lined the streets. Several places had sandwich boards out front, advertising sales catering to the anticipated Flavor Fest crowd coming in over the weekend.
Zach took his first deep breath since the last time he was here. He walked up Marina Way and crossed onto Main Street, Jonathon Island.
“Zach!” A voice called from behind him. He whirled to see Ollie jogging toward him. “Hi! I was hoping to catch you.” Ollie swiped a dark lock of hair from his forehead. He wore an EdgarAllen Poe T-shirt over his muscled frame. “I’ll walk you to my place.”
They turned to the right down the cobblestone road.
“Are you glad to be back so soon? Dani’s wedding was only a month and a half ago.” Ollie wove around a couple of tourists.
“Honestly, I’m conflicted.” Zach tugged his rolling suitcase over a dip in the road. “But it’s nice to be out of my suffocating job for a while.”
“Is your head chef still insufferable?”
He recalled the criticism Chef Louie had given him a few days before. “He recently spat out a mouthful of a dish I’d made and told me that my sea foam was oversalted. Which is hard to believe, considering he never lets me create my own recipes and I have to follow his to a T. And he’s always giving me the worst shifts.”
“I’ll never understand why you stay there.”
“Well, the money is good. And you can’t beat having Escargot and working with Chef Louie on your résumé.” In the restaurant world, people expected some verbal abuse. Although if he ever had his own place again, he wouldn’t tolerate it in his kitchen. “Plus, I don’t really have any other options right now. At least I have a job.”
“Hopefully, these two weeks will change everything for you.”
“Fingers crossed.” They halted for a moment to let another tourist family pass by. Their smallest child darted across the road, his mother chasing after him. “Good thing there’s that rule about not having any motor vehicles here. No worrying about getting run down by a cab.”
Ollie laughed. “No kidding. They should watch out for the horses, though. Conflicting feelings?”
“What?”
“You said coming home made you conflicted.” Ollie waved at Patrick Kelley, who was rushing down the street in the oppositedirection. The tall, slim older man was probably headed to his bar and grill, Kelley’s. The Kelley family nearly had a monopoly on the food service in this town.
Zach shrugged. “I don’t know. I just…How do you not feel like everyone is judging you all the time? Everyone knows our family’s dirty secrets, Mom’s affair…Dad burned down the hotel, for crying out loud.” He tried for a smile. Hopefully Ollie didn’t notice it was more like a grimace. “At least I was away at school when all the bad stuff was happening. Dani had to live here. And now you’re back…”
Ollie shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s always felt like more people were caring about us than judging us. At least, once I gave them a chance.”
Outside Smith’s Hardware, Martha Kelley marched toward them, her hands on her heavyset hips and her gray-streaked hair frazzled. A firm line formed her mouth. “Zachary. You’re back in town.”
“Hi, Mrs. Kelley.” He tipped his head to her. She frowned at them before passing by.
Zach raised an eyebrow at Ollie.
He threw his hand in the air. “Seriously? You can’t judge the whole town based on Martha Kelley. No one ever knows what she’s thinking anyway. Her face always looks like that, even when she’s happy.”
True. He remembered her sour face after her son took the best time in the rope climbing competition in fifth grade. “Fine. But you can’t deny that people looked at us differently back then and still do. It’s embarrassing.”
Ollie crossed his arms. “Is that why you never come back to the island except under extreme protest?” He held up a hand. “Don’t say it. I know you came back for Dani’s wedding, but we all know it was only because Dani called you and begged.”
“Look, Ollie, the truth is, a small part of me wishes I could come back home for good. But also, this place hasn’t felt like home in a long time.” In fact, nowhere felt like home. After finding out that his parents had split and he didn’t have a place to come back to, he’d bounced around the country. Nothing ever seemed to stick. “Add in the judgmental—” He held up a hand to ward off Ollie’s rebuttal. “Fine—the curious looks of everyone—I just need to forge my own path. I’ve been doing that for a while now, and it’s all I know.”
Ollie crossed his arms. “I dunno, man. I think it’s all in your head. And I have almost two weeks to prove it to you.” He moved ahead for a few steps. Zach gave his bag another tug over yet another cobblestone and followed.
“Wait up.” He jogged a few steps. “The town looks amazing. It’s even better than when I was here for Dani’s wedding.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty great seeing tourists coming back. And most of the businesses are full too.”
