Chapter 17
CHAPTER 17
Two huge bags were delivered to the front door right at six o’clock. Anna recognized the logo on the white bags. Was Colt trying to impress her or her mom? Whatever the intent, he’d succeeded. He’d ordered from one of the best restaurants in town. She hadn’t even realized Maggie’s delivered!
Colt hadn’t been kidding when he’d said he ordered a bit of everything. It took all three of them to lay out the feast. There was barely room on the round table for plates and silverware, with all the takeout boxes, but they managed.
Steamed shrimp, fried fish, beef tips and rice, green beans, onion rings, seasoned red potatoes and corn on the cob. The key lime pie had been placed on the kitchen counter, since there was no room for it on the table. The three of them made their plates, dug in, and continued their conversation.
They’d been catching up, avoiding all bad news. They didn’t talk about the fire, the murder in downtown Seawolf Beach, or Aunt Sally’s health. No one mentioned Jack. Now and then Anna glanced around the room. She couldn’t see him but maybe there would be a glimmer, a shift of a chair, a sign of some kind… but no. Did she want to see? Did she want to know ? Seeing ghosts hadn’t made Colt’s life any easier.
Eventually she gave up looking for signs of her brother and just enjoyed the conversation. Emily loved talking about her boys and her husband. Anna shared that she’d been thinking about devoting more time to song writing, a confession that seemed to surprise her cousin, and her mother. Nina was even a little pleased that her daughter wanted to pursue a creative path.
Nina didn’t have a lot to say herself, as far as good news went. She’d closed herself off from the world in so many ways. It hadn’t happened immediately after Jack’s departure — his death, Anna now knew — but when months went by and there was no word, she’d insulated herself. She’d waited by the phone and jumped when it rang and spent each morning looking out the front window waiting for mail to be delivered. At first she’d continued to do the grocery shopping, she’d had lunch with friends now and then, but after a couple of years all outside activity stopped. She didn’t write Jack off, the way her husband had; she descended into an ever deepening hole of despair.
Anna had never seen it so clearly, not until now.
Was Nina’s despair higher and tighter because she somehow sensed that Jack was near? Deep in her heart, did she feel his presence and realize he was no longer living?
Emily pushed back from the table, groaned, and stood. “I haven’t eaten that much in one sitting in ages!” She smiled. “It’s been a very long time since I had an entire meal where I didn’t have to get up and fetch or clean something at least twice.”
“Those boys keep you on your toes,” Nina said.
“They do.”
Anna’s mother looked at her hard. She wanted grandchildren, of course she did. She didn’t harp on the matter, but she’d mentioned it a time or two. Or twenty. “I’m sorry if I’ve been hard on Coltrane lately. He seems to care for you, and you for him. He’s… different, but he’s also nicer than Trent. I never liked your husband, but I didn’t want to say anything while you were married to him. I suppose if Coltrane is what you want…”
“Mom, it’s been a week. We don’t have to go there.” There was no need to compare Colt to her ex-husband. Not yet, anyway.
Emily held up her hand. “This conversation sounds very interesting. Pause while I run out to the car. I left my cosmetics bag in the trunk, and my eyedrops are there. I’ll need them in the morning.”
Colt had told them to stay inside and he had his reasons. But… there was no reason to tell Emily what was going on. Especially when she knew so little. Even if she wanted to, she had no idea how to explain!
Anna stood. “I’ll walk outside with you.” It would be a quick trip, to the car at the curb and back again. An extra pair of eyes wouldn’t hurt.
“No need,” Emily said. “I’ll be right back.”
Anna started toward the front door, in spite of Emily’s insistence. Her mother’s words stopped her.
“I meant what I said. If Coltrane is what you want, you should go for it. I just want to see you happy, Anna. You haven’t really been happy for a very long time.”
She looked at her mother. “Neither have you.”
“It’s too late for me, but not for you.”
“It’s never…”
The table, still laden with food, shook. A plate moved across the surface and would’ve fallen to the floor if Anna hadn’t caught it. The chair Emily had been sitting in fell over. The floor seemed to rumble, to shake all on its own. And then it stopped.
“Those darn little earthquakes,” Nina said. “I’ll miss many things about Seawolf Beach, but not that.”
Jack . Why?
Anna ran for the front door. As she reached it a quick, high-pitched noise broke through. Was that a scream? She threw the door open just as a large man wearing a baggy black hoodie raised a knife, his focus on Emily who lay, far too still, on the sidewalk.
The light spilling out of the house must’ve caught his attention. Face in the shadows of an oversized hood, Emily’s attacker turned toward Anna as she lifted her cell and began to dial. The man looked down at the woman on the ground; maybe he grumbled, said something. There was a moment’s hesitation before he turned and ran.
Twice in a week, flashing police lights lit a Seawolf Beach street. It wasn’t even prime tourist season.
Colt parked his truck at the curb three houses down from his destination. Mac’s patrol car, an ambulance, and neighbors parked on the street made it impossible to get closer.
Paramedics gathered around a woman on the ground. All Colt could see beyond the two first responders and an inquisitive Mac was blond hair. Anna . No. Just no …
He heard his name, glanced toward the front porch, and there in the lamplight stood Anna, her mother… and Jack, of course. Colt ran. All he wanted to do was touch Anna, hold her tight, tell her that he couldn’t lose her, not like this, not ever. As much as he wanted to go to her now , he made himself stop beside Mac and ask.
“How is she?” What happened would come later.
“Fine, they tell me,” Mac said. “Or she will be. Someone jumped her. She fell and hit her head pretty hard, so the paramedics are insisting on a trip to the hospital.”
Anna and her mother joined them. Jack was so close to Nina Miller he was almost a part of her.
“I’ll go with her,” Anna said.
“No, I will,” Nina insisted. “Emily doesn’t need to be alone, and you two…” She looked at her daughter and then at Colt. “You two need to figure out what the hell is going on around here.”
Mac looked insulted. “That’s normally my job.”
“You haven’t exactly been succeeding lately, now have you?” Nina said.
The police chief looked chastened, like a little kid who’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
Anna took Colt’s hand and held on tight. He liked it. He wondered how he’d survived the last dozen years without this.
The paramedics loaded Emily into the back of the ambulance, against her weak objections. The reluctant patient asked Anna to fetch her purse, and she did. It probably didn’t take a full minute for Anna to run into the house and come back with the small bag. Emily clutched the purse to her chest and asked Anna to contact Curtis and tell him she’d call later.
When the patient was settled, Nina joined her. The paramedics tried to insist that the older woman meet them at the hospital, but she argued for staying and they soon relented. Jack remained close to Nina, more faded than usual but still strong.
The ghost looked at Colt and flickered as he said, “I have to go with her, I don’t have the strength to separate myself again right now. But Colt, you have to know… he thought it was Anna.”