Chapter 14
Fourteen
“I don’t want to go to the Flying Horses,” Maisie said mid-munch of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. “My mom said she might take Bryce and me to the candy store later.”
I glanced over my shoulder, the kitchen thankfully not as crowded as usual.
Topper and Peggy were sipping coffee and absorbed in a crossword puzzle, and across the room, Connor was busy helping Teddy man the waffle maker.
Erica and my dad had gone on a walk. The others were sleeping in after a late night.
“You have all day to swing by the candy store,” I told her instead of pointing out that Erica’s might was code for maybe, not an iron-clad definitely. “Please, Maze?”
My sister slurped some more cereal.
“Annie went there once,” I tried. “Don’t you want to go somewhere she’s been?”
Maisie’s brow furrowed, a sign that she was now truly considering.
Because before Annie’s decline, she used to find our grandmother’s adventures fascinating—fantastical, even.
“No, no, I don’t believe you!” she said when Annie once told her about a long-ago tour of Russia.
“You went to a circus and actually pet the tigers?”
“Of course I did, darling,” Annie told her with a smile and mischievous glimmer in her eye. Circus? Yes. A face-to-face with the felines? Hmm. “Their fur was like butter on warm toast…”
Butter on warm toast.
It was such an Annie expression, one that now made the corners of my eyes sting.
“Okay.” Maisie nodded as I blinked twice. “Bryce and I will come—”
“Yes!”
“—if you promise to drive us to the candy store afterward.”
I gave her a look. “What about your mom?”
Maisie shrugged. “I’m not sure she’ll really take us,” she said. “Aunt Beth keeps telling her she needs to work on the scrapbook.”
Ah, the scrapbook, I thought. Topper and Peggy’s anniversary album.
The other night, Erica hadn’t seemed too enthused about it. Maybe she was just tired and behind editing footage, but maybe something else was stopping her from crafting the crap out of those blank pages.
I wondered which one it was.
* * *
If Connor was caught off guard when he saw my siblings, he had a master poker face. “Excellent!” he called when we all rallied outside. “A full bus for today’s field trip!”
Bryce grinned, but Maisie extended a small fist to Connor, her pinkie finger raised. “The Candy Bazaar?” she prompted.
He arched a brow. “The Candy Bazaar?”
“Yes,” my sister clarified. “Do you promise you’ll take us to the Candy Bazaar after the Flying Horses?”
Connor smiled, and then before my eyes, locked in a pinkie promise.
“I call shotgun!” Bryce chirped as we loaded into the Jeep, and I wished more than anything that my brother could legally ride in the front seat. But alas, he wasn’t thirteen.
I admit, part of why I wanted my siblings to come with Connor and me was because I didn’t love the idea of being alone with him.
Things had ended awkwardly between us last night, and Teddy and Finn weren’t here to buffer; they were spending the day with their grandparents.
Apparently, Beth and her husband had a surprise for the boys. Connor claimed he knew nothing.
The fireworks finale might’ve ruined the ambiance for rooftop romance, but Connor hadn’t been deterred. “Tell me I’m not off base, Olivia,” he’d said, blue eyes bright in the flashing light. “Tell me you feel something too.”
“I…” I started, but my tongue thickened before totally lolling in my mouth. It stopped me from mindlessly spouting off that while I liked spending time with him, I knew anything more wouldn’t go well between us. No, my loss of words was forcing me to think.
But being so close to him made that nearly impossible; we hadn’t kissed, and I knew we weren’t going to kiss—the mood had dampened—yet my heart still hammered hard, and I could feel each and every single hair on the back of my neck standing tall. The air around us felt charged with electricity.
Fantastic, I thought. Fan-fucking-tastic.
“Olivia?” Connor prompted.
I closed my eyes to focus on stringing some words together. “You’re not off base,” I barely heard myself say over the blood in my ears. I couldn’t outright lie to him; he didn’t deserve that. “But…”
But?
But what?
What was I trying to say?
I aborted, switched to a half-baked tactic. “You’re so nice, Connor.”
“And let me guess…” He released a deep sigh. “That’s the deal-breaker? You don’t go for nice guys?”
Again, I weighed what to say. Most of the guys I’d hung out with were nice—well, nice enough. And that was all they needed to be for me. I preferred to keep an arm’s length between us. No guy had ever seemed to have a problem with it.
But Connor will, I knew, my stomach stirring. Forget about an arm’s length.
Because everything I’d learned about Connor McCallister in the last few days signaled that he would want to be close.
Not only physically, but emotionally—especially emotionally.
I mean, he’d been more than happy to open up about his relationship history during our first true conversation.
He also genuinely wanted to know about my life, and when I clammed up, he wasn’t deterred.
Instead, he waited. It was like he wanted to someday smile and take my hand and spin me into this shimmering world, one where there was no secrets between us.
That, I thought, imagining La La Land’s planetarium scene, is what being more than friends with Connor would be like.
Meanwhile, I didn’t have the courage to show him my favorite hiding spot. It was too good; I was rarely found during hide-and-seek. If Erica had given up searching, I didn’t blame her.
Now, I shook my head, trying to shake away the scene, but Connor kept looking at me. I had to say something, had to say anything. “Listen, Connor—”
“Olivia!” someone unknowingly swooped in to save me. “Connor!”
We both leaned forward to see Charlie below us, standing on the deck and giving Luke a goofy piggyback ride.
“Sweet spot.” Charlie sounded bemused. “I don’t mean to interrupt—”
Flushing, I resisted the urge to cover my face with my hands.
“—but if you guys want a lift home, Nick’s firing up the boat.”
“That’d be great!” Connor said before I opened my mouth. He promptly rose from the roof and descended the same way he’d ascended: a calculated leap.
“Smooth,” Luke noted once Connor’s feet hit the ground.
“Not smooth enough,” I swore I heard him say, and I tried to swallow a lump in my throat as I carefully climbed down the rope ladder.
There’s no point anyway, I told myself later, after stealthily climbing up to my bunk.
I’d helped my dad, Nick, and Allison cut into and polish off a peach pie to give Connor space to get ready for bed.
He’d taken the liberty of turning off all the lights.
There’s no point whatsoever. Even if he could be casual, we’re only—
His voice in the darkness jolted my pulse. “We’re still on for tomorrow?”
“Yes,” I whispered after a beat of surprise, thinking of Annie and her Martha’s Vineyard memory book. She was far more important than whatever was or wasn’t happening with Connor. “I wouldn’t miss it.”
* * *
It was an overcast day, so most people were forgoing the beach in favor of town.
Oak Bluffs was buzzing. “Look over there!” Bryce shouted and I turned in my seat to see him point toward the water, to a beige-shingled restaurant.
Big blue letters spelled out NANCY’S on the side, and underneath hung a great white shark sculpture. “It’s Nancy’s!”
I gave him a blank look. “So?”
“Teddy says they have the best hot dogs.”
“Hmm,” I said. “Teddy sounds bound for a bigshot job at the island’s chamber of commerce.”
“What’s that?” my siblings asked as Connor chuckled.
I felt a smile twitch at the corner of my mouth.
“A chamber of commerce is…” I began, but quickly lost the twins; they were all but craning their necks out of the Jeep.
There was too much to see. Big Dipper Ice Cream, a bike rental shop, and more restaurants.
Just the masthead for Martha’s Vineyard Chowder Company made my stomach rumble, remembering the amazing clam chowder I’d eaten before our ferry out here.
Connor skillfully navigated around the other cars and black dog and menemsha blues T-shirt-wearing pedestrians, but he shrugged back his shoulders while inching up Lake Avenue.
“There it is!” Maisie exclaimed. “Up ahead!”
And I had to beg you to come, I thought to myself.
The historic carousel was housed in a barn-esque building, red with white trim. FLYING HORSES was written just below the roofline in antique lettering. My heart turned with excitement, ready to see the merry-go-round in Annie’s picture come to life.
Connor’s voice made me blink. “How about I drop you guys off and then find someplace to park?” He scanned the street, which was tightly lined with cars. “Options here aren’t too promising.”
“A Mini Cooper literally just left,” Maisie pointed out. “You can definitely fit.” Pause. “Well, maybe.”
“And a Subaru is pulling out right now,” Bryce added.
Connor was quiet, and I knew what that meant. The parallel parking scene was too intimidating. “I’m happy to teach you Erica’s pizza steering wheel trick,” I told him, then I checked that the coast was clear before unlocking my door. Maisie followed suit.
But Bryce adorably offered to stay with Connor. “He might need me to spot him,” he justified. “And if we walk by Nancy’s, we can stop for hot dogs…”
“America’s oldest carousel,” Maisie read the sign aloud as we climbed the front steps. She turned to me. “How old is it again?”
“Almost a century and a half,” I said, recalling what I’d read on the Vineyard Preservation Trust’s website. “It was built in the 1870s, and originally was a ride on Coney Island. I think it was moved here ten years later, give or take.”
Maisie looked intrigued, oblivious to the modern-day arcade lobby we were passing through. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a pair of pinball machines. “Why?”