Page 19

As I stepped through the truck door, Sway glanced at me. “Did you have a good break?”

“Sorry,” I muttered. “Had to stretch my legs. I’m back now.”

I glanced at the people standing in front of our counter. Shane was nowhere to be seen.

“Hmm. Hey, Sway.” As I filled the bowls with soup, I turned slightly toward her. “Weren’t there two surfer guys here before I left?”

“You mean your surfer and another dude? They were here. One of them even asked about you, but you left so quickly that all we saw was a cloud of dust.”

“What? Which one?”

“Which one?” She mimicked my tone but didn’t lose her smile. “Yours, of course. I forgot his name.”

Fortunately, my hands worked without me having to think, because my stupid heart was beating in my throat.

“Where did they go? I can’t see them anymore.”

Sway handed a bowl of stew across the counter to a waiting customer and tilted her head. She pointed her chin somewhat randomly across the lawn in front of us.

“That way, I guess. I didn’t check to see where they went. I was busy here.”

My guilty conscience battled with my curiosity about what Shane wanted to know. “Sorry!” I muttered again. “That was . . . but you know what?”

Narrowing her eyes, Sway turned to me and gave me an angry glare. “What?”

Even though I had decided that I had to get Shane out of my head as quickly as possible, this was my last chance to find some kind of closure. I quickly lifted an empty pot off the stove and put it in the sink.

“I’ll be gone for two minutes and back right away.”

As I disappeared from my truck for the second time in half an hour, I clearly heard Sway muttering, “Kindergarten.” She was right, but just as in kindergarten, I had to fail once more to understand that the situation was hopeless.

With every step, I got faster. But Shane and his partner remained missing.

A hole ate away my stomach. I had only myself to blame for missing the opportunity. Melancholy took the place of the hole.

I scolded myself inwardly. It was goodbye. One way or another.

It was my own fault that it happened this way.

I turned around. People. Too many people. And the forest surrounding the town. Autumn in New England was truly one of the most beautiful things in the world. It was time to leave that behind too.

The cold season couldn’t come soon enough. Hopefully it would bring me to my senses.