Cliffside Contemplations
He had his hands wrapped around a mug of tea by the time I returned from clocking out and putting my apron away. I wondered if Emma had brought it to him, if she had said anything.
When he shook his head if I asked if Emma stopped by, then I knew. That girl was practically a vault. She wouldn’t reveal a single thing to anyone, ever, if I didn’t want her to.
She was the best kind of friend to have.
I slid a plate to Reid as I sat down across from him. We had his favorite strawberry chocolate marbled cheesecake in the back, and I snagged a slice before Mason noticed.
“Thanks,” Reid said, unwrapping the fork from the napkin bundle I swiped on my way over.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, cutting right to the chase. If this was last year, it would be almost a daily occurrence. Sometimes he would drop me off at work, if I had already been out with him, or he would pick me up. Either way, he would always stick around for a bit, grabbing a slice of cheesecake, some tea, or a full meal. He had become a regular, mainly when I was on shift.
Reid shrugged and ignored my question, as if his answer didn’t even matter. “Did you work on the clue more last night? I didn’t see you…”
I nodded. “I think I have it. Want to hear my theory?” After he had disappeared, I gave the clue some more thought. The first two had gone deeper than our original solutions. If the answer was the lighthouse, then where in the lighthouse was the question. The beam is what sold me—it had to be up inside, by the actual light.
I had left the actual paper list back in the guest room of his house, but I remembered what it said.
“After I say something,” Reid answered, his face turning solemn. He pushed the plate away and clutched his mug instead, tighter than normal. “My parents called last night.”
I stared at his long fingers wound around the bright coral ceramic Seaside Cafe mug. “I know.”
He let out a frustrated breath, which made me look up and catch his eye. They weren’t sparkling right now. There was no hint of joy behind them.
There was sadness. Concern. Worry. And maybe a little anger, based on the way his upper lip twitched.
“They’re coming back in three days.”
My jaw dropped. I quickly closed my mouth, trying to regain some sort of control. Three days? They were supposed to be gone for the rest of the week, at least.
“They weren’t expecting to hear that I was in town, but they saw some of my credit card charges from here and that’s why they called. I didn’t tell them I’ve been here the whole time.” He gulped and stared into his tea.
“Charges… you mean they haven’t seen the airfare fees or anything? They didn’t connect those dots?” It must have been nice not to have to worry about every dollar and where it was going. One thing I learned on this island was the Crescents and the Baysiders never looked twice at prices. They didn’t even blink when handing over their cards.
Reid shook his head. “I used their miles. Didn’t charge them a dime.”
“Sneaky,” I whispered, sort of in awe.
“They asked about you.”
My gaze snapped to his, my heart plummeting to the floor. Did he tell them I had been staying there and conning them for their money? I had tried to do my best and keep up with the dogs, feeding them, taking them out, and all of that. And even though Reid was cleaner and more organized than I was, I made sure the kitchen and living room were kept tidy, as well as the guest room and bathroom. Working in housekeeping gave me some skills, even if it wasn’t my favorite thing to do. I wanted to earn the money.
“They told me to do this,” he said, picking up his phone. He swiped in, clicked a few things, then put it down.
A moment later, my phone chimed. Reid and I locked eyes as I slipped it out of my bag.
Once in my hands, I swiped it open and finally broke eye contact. A little red dot sat on top of my Venmo app.
I had a payment.
I swallowed, my hand shaking a bit as I clicked into the app, then gasped.
“You earned every cent and more, Mars,” Reid said as my brain tried to process the number in front of me. It was about one and a half times the amount Mrs. Bennett originally told me. “They also said to ‘let the poor girl go home and stop holding her hostage.’ Their words, not mine.”
I couldn’t stop looking at the screen as a sad smile tugged at my lips. “Oh.”
Let the poor girl go home. I laughed internally at the hostage part, remembering what I had said to Reid when he first showed up.
But the ‘go home’ part outweighed the happiness from the joke.
Leave the Bennett house. Leave Reid.
Leave behind whatever it was we had just started again…
My heart flip-flopped in my chest, the beating going all sorts of out of order.
“But,” Reid started, talking in a lower voice now, “like I said, they won’t be back for three more days.”
I put the phone face down on the table in front of me and sucked in a deep breath. Three more days. I nodded, understanding what Reid was trying to say.
I should stay. For three more days.
It gave me three more days to figure out what to do about the us situation.
Three more days to keep kissing him whenever I wanted. If he wanted.
I jumped when something brushed against my hand. Reid had reached across the table and laid his hand on top of him, his thumb brushing over my knuckles. “Tell me about the clue. What did you figure out?” he said, snapping me back to reality. He knew exactly when and how to distract me before I spiraled down the anxiety rabbit hole.
I didn’t want to talk about the clue. I wanted to talk about us. About what happened by the pool yesterday. About what almost happened in the car the other day.
About what I was feeling. About what I wished for.
Once again, I shoved it all down and ignored it. If that was what he wanted, then fine. Besides, it would delay the inevitable heartbreak.
“So we figured it had to be the lighthouse, right?”
He nodded, still staring at me. I shifted in my chair, becoming uncomfortable. What if I was wrong?
“Well, the dollhouse and Livvy’s guard chair made me realize it wouldn’t just be, like, out in the open. Looking at the clue, it said something about the beam and about craved. I thought, what would a sailor crave when getting close to shore in the moonlight? The light. The beam.” I couldn’t hold back the grin that appeared, feeling rather proud of myself. It seemed so simple, but also complex at the same time.
“So, you think the envelope is up at the light source?” The solemn features of his face disappeared, the little wrinkle between his eyes lessening as he looked at me. I nodded, and he cracked a full smile.
He grabbed his keys and phone off the table and stood. “Want to go on an adventure?”