Chapter Eleven
Lena
We walk away from the Rusty Anchor with Cade carrying his prize—a medium-size bottle with a cork stopper.
“What am I supposed to do with these things?” Cade drops his wooden coin and wooden heart into the bottle, sealing it with the cork and then tucking it in his jacket pocket.
I know the answer but Cade isn’t supposed to know until later. But I’ll only tell him if he answers all the riddles and challenges.
I’m beginning to believe he’ll master them all. I’m beginning to believe I should have had someone else give him the tour. It’s all I can do not to reach for his hand as the winter wind buffets us.
“Where do we go next?” Cade stops and looks at me. His eyes are a clear brown. But nothing about him is clear to me anymore.
I want to tell him there’s no point in continuing.
I want to go back inside the Rusty Anchor and tell Wade I need him to take over my duties as tour guide so that my heart remains intact.
But…my heart doesn’t seem to want protection.
And while I’m having an argument with myself about continuing as Cade’s guide or not, his cell phone rings and he answers.
“Yes, Dad.” Cade moves away, his tone unusually conciliatory, his shoulders bending to the wind. Or to his father’s will. Or both. “I know. I’m here now. Everything is as I promised you.”
Everything?
His shoulders may be bent, but mine thrust back.
“Yes, I can do this. I’ll debrief you tonight.” Cade hangs up and turns to me. “Sorry. That was my dad. Where to next?”
“There’s no need to continue.” I don’t recognize my voice. It’s tone is a blend of ice and hurt. “Your mind is made up.” I head toward the pier and the Mermaid Café, feeling as if we’re breaking up.
Who knew the protection I’d put around my heart could be so easily unlocked?
“Wait.” It takes no time for Cade to reach my side, to take gentle hold of my arm. “Talk to me, Lena.”
“Why?” I stop. But only because I’ve got the Mermaid Café in view, as well as Serena’s statue. Both have weathered as much, if not more, than I have. “We’re on opposite sides of this issue.”
“Opposite sides?” Cade scoffs. “I know you care about the people who run businesses here. I care about them, too. I can see what they need. They need a good retirement strategy, maybe even a senior retirement complex here in town.”
I roll my eyes. “No one wants a high rise for seniors in Mermaid Bay. No one wants the businesses their families have run for generations to be demolished to make room for chain stores with no heart or personality.”
“How quick you are to judge.” Cade stares at the ocean instead of at me.
“I haven’t met your father,” I say in softer tones. “I don’t even know his name or reputation. But I know his kind. Men like him have been showing up here since before I arrived.”
“Driven away by eel pie,” Cade murmurs, smiling slightly, still looking toward the ocean.
I like it when he utters words only I can hear. I like that sense of intimacy. But I’m not a sell-out.
Cade’s gaze meets mine, a mournful look in his brown eyes. “What will happen to the Barnacle Diner when Dee can no longer run the place?”
“I’ll buy it,” I say. Chin rising.
“And who will you pass your businesses to when you’re too old to run them?” Cade’s question is barely above a whisper but those words strike me hard and fast in the chest.
In the heart.
I swallow thickly, eyes filling with unshed tears. But my tears won’t drop to the sand and make something beautiful, like sea glass. My tears will only impress upon Cade that I’m weak and vulnerable to his sales pitch.
Cade puts his arm around my waist. “That’s why we need to complete the tour, Lena. So that you and all the others know that I may stand for change but I’m not the devil.”
That, I think, remains to be seen.