Chapter 19
19
“Who’s here?” I ask. I rise from the table to look out the window.
The clouds have parted, leaving red streaks across a slate-blue sky. It’s starting to grow dark, but there are countless boats on the lake, all heading in the same direction. Charlie’s drifts just out from our dock, and there are two people inside. I glance at him over my shoulder.
“My brother and his wife.”
“How lovely,” Nan says.
Judging from the look on Charlie’s face, he doesn’t agree.
“What are they doing here?”
“Wreaking havoc. I’ll go get rid of them.”
“Whatever for?” Nan says, but he’s already on his way outside.
We share a look.
“Go out there,” she says. “Report back.”
I do as I’m told and follow Charlie to the dock. As I’m walking down the steps, I hear him say, “You two are the worst busybodies.”
“I have nothing to do with this,” replies a deep voice almost identical to Charlie’s. “It’s all Percy. Though I don’t hate the opportunity to make you sweat.”
“I’m not sweating.”
“No, you’re sparkling ,” a woman says.
I step onto the dock, and all three of them look at me. I raise my hand. “Hey.”
“You must be Alice,” the woman says. It’s too dim to see her very well, but I can tell she’s a big-eyed brunette. She’s also pregnant.
“That’s me.”
I stand next to Charlie at the edge of the dock. “Sorry,” I tell him. “Nan sent me on a reconnaissance mission.”
“I’m surrounded by spies, then,” he says, but there’s no bite to it.
“We’re not spying,” the woman says to me. “It’s just that Charlie has been refusing to give up any details about the mystery girl across the bay, so I thought we’d come say hello ourselves and drag you out for a bit. Happy birthday, by the way. How was the cake? Charlie refused to give me, his pregnant sister-in-law, a taste.”
I glance at Charlie.
“I know. She talks a lot,” he says. “You forgot the part where you introduce yourself, Pers.”
She waves. “Sorry. I’m Persephone, but please call me Percy, and this is Sam.”
“Nice to meet you, Alice,” Sam says. His hair is darker than Charlie’s and a bit of a mess, but I can’t see much more than that. “Happy birthday. Sorry for interrupting your evening. Percy would not be deterred.”
“No need to apologize. It’s good to meet you both.” I give Charlie a pointed look. “It’s such a nice surprise.”
“They just drove up from Toronto today,” he says.
“Charlie has been trying to keep you to himself,” Percy tells me. “But he knows I’ve wanted a cottage friend, so I’ve come to claim you.”
I let out a laugh. “What does that involve?”
“I thought you might want to come with us to see the Canada Day fireworks.”
“Is that where all the boats are going?”
Sam nods. “It’s pretty cool seeing the show from the water.”
I look to Charlie.
“I’ll go if you want to,” he says.
“I do,” I tell him. “It sounds like fun.”
We join the parade of boats, and even though I’ve changed into sweats, it’s chilly in the wind. Charlie and I are sitting at the front; Sam and Percy are in the driver and passenger seats. Nan almost pushed me out the door when I told her where I was going.
We swerve around a corner, and there are dozens of vessels bobbing in the water. There’s a beach and a playground on one part of the bay and a causeway from the mainland out to a large island. Vehicles are parked around the shore, ready to watch.
“This is…” I look at Charlie and then back to the bay, a huge smile on my face. “So cool.”
“I haven’t been in ages. We used to come every year when we were kids.”
Despite Percy saying she wanted to claim me, she and Sam move to the back of the boat while we wait for the sky to turn black. I sneak a glance at them. Sam is handsome like Charlie, but there’s something softer about him. More boyish. Percy is sitting on his lap, and he’s looking up at her with awe. He pulls her to his lips, kissing her softly.
“They’re always like this,” Charlie says.
I look at him with disbelief.
“Tell me about it,” he says, but he’s smiling. “How come you didn’t mention that you spent a summer here?”
“It didn’t come up.” A half-truth. “But it was amazing. One of those formative teenage experiences, you know?”
“Sure.” He stares at me for a moment. “It surprises me, though.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t remember you.”
I look up at the sky, where the stars are blinking to life. “I guess I’m not very memorable.”
“Well, that’s bullshit,” Charlie says, and I turn back to him. “You know you’re hot.”
“I wasn’t digging for a compliment,” I say, a bit defensive. “It’s just true. And it was especially true when I was seventeen.”
“I don’t buy that. We were neighbors. I’m sure I would have noticed you.” The first firework whistles toward the sky, but neither of us turns to watch it. It bursts overhead, and the glitter on Charlie’s face shimmers in reply.
“Well, I guess you didn’t,” I say, before a series of bangs echoes around the lake. I settle lower into the seat and lay my head back, watching blooms of gold flower into the night.
“You must have seen us,” Charlie says. A dog with a bone. “We would have been on the water from dawn till dusk, and we weren’t quiet. Why didn’t you say hi?”
I can feel his gaze on me, but I don’t look. I feel each firework in my chest.
“I was shy,” I tell him. “I could have said hello, but I wouldn’t have known what to say next.”
“I can’t picture you as shy.”
I snort.
“Why is that funny?”
I turn my head to the side, and my breath catches. Charlie has his arms behind his head, one ankle crossed over the other, the picture of ease, but he’s studying me with sharp intensity.
“It’s funny because I’m the turtle.”
Charlie looks appropriately confused.
“I have three siblings,” I explain. “Heather is two years older. Luca and Lavinia are twenty-four.” I can’t remember when or why we came up with the animal thing, but it’s fundamental to being an Everly child. “Heather is the lion, Lavinia is the flamingo, and Luca is the monkey.”
“And you’re the turtle.”
“Right. My family is full of big personalities. Aside from my mom, they’re all loud and opinionated and…I don’t know…brighter than me? I’m the quiet one, the level head,” I tell him. “And I’m still shy.”
Charlie frowns and we both fall silent. I look back to the display of red and white fizzling above us.
“You’re not quiet around me,” he says slowly, a minute later, as if he’s been thinking it over.
“No.” I turn to him. There’s something about Charlie that calms the part of my brain that constantly worries about saying the wrong thing. “But I would have been shy…back then, I mean.”
But I wonder if that’s true, or if I would have found him easy to be around when I was seventeen.
“I guess we’ll never know.”
“Did you have a nickname when you were younger?”
“Yeah,” he says quietly. “My actual name is Charles. But my dad always called me Charlie.”
“What were you like?” I ask.
Charlie shifts, propping himself on one elbow, facing me. “Terrible.”
I laugh. “So basically the same?”
“See, that’s why I like you.”
“Because I make fun of you?”
“Because you’re honest. And, for the record, I think you’re very bright.”
“It’s the glitter,” I tell him.
Charlie’s gaze roams my face slowly. “It’s definitely the glitter.”