Chapter 18
Kendra and Scotty strolled along the Riverwalk as the sun started to lower in the sky, looking at each of the boats. Scotty knew a lot about boats because it was his family’s business. His uncle and grandfather had built boats for a living, and Scotty spent a lot of time in their shop.
“Look at that one! I love the red stripe down the side.”
“Looks like a race car,” Scotty said. Kendra liked the feel of him holding her hand as they walked. The prom had been more than she could’ve ever asked for, the most romantic night of her life.
“Want to sit down?” she asked, pointing at one of the many park benches lining the Riverwalk. There weren’t many people along the river, surprisingly. That was probably because everybody was pitching in on the main street, trying to raise the money for Campbell’s.
“Sure.” They sat down, still hand in hand, looking out over the river.
“Did you have fun last night?” she asked, smiling over at him.
“I always have fun with you. But if you’re asking if I enjoyed walking into the prom with the most beautiful girl in school, I absolutely did.”
She swooned, her face turning red, as she laid her head on his shoulder. They sat that way for a few moments before a group of teenagers walked over to them. There were two boys and three girls. Josie didn’t recognize any of them, but that wasn’t surprising given she had only been at the school for a short time.
“Hey, y’all,” one girl said. She had long blond hair and a face caked in makeup. “You’re Kendra, right? I’m Kiki. This is Amber, Kimmy, Dusty, and Billy.” She smacked her gum as she waited for a response.
Scotty looked at them with confusion. “Okay...”
“Nice to meet you,” Kendra said, stepping in. She felt Scotty shift slightly, clearly uncomfortable in this awkward situation. “Did y’all need something?”
“We just wanted to know if y’all wanted to go on a boat ride with us. All the adults are busy over there at that fundraising thing. My cousin has a boat down there, a pretty cool one. Wanna go?”
“No, thanks,” Scotty said, his tone sounding rude. He didn’t mean to be that way. He was just very blunt.
“Thanks, but I think we’ll hang around here.”
“Okay, but you’re going to be missing out. We’ve got some beer in the cooler, and we were going to do a little fishing. Either one of y’all like fishing?”
“I do,” Scotty said under his breath.
“We can go if you want. There’s nothing else we can do around here today except help, and I think neither one of us wants to do that,” Kendra said, laughing.
“Great! Follow us,” Kiki said.
Kendra wanted to believe they were just some nice kids asking to hang out, but she had a weird feeling about it. Still, going out on a boat sounded fun. She hadn’t gotten to do that since coming to Happy Harbor.
“Kendra, we don’t know these kids at all,” Scotty said, whispering in her ear.
“Don’t you recognize them from school?”
“No. That’s just it.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine. Everybody around here is so friendly.” She quickened her pace to catch up to Kiki. “Hey, do y’all go to Happy Harbor High School?”
The girl shook her head. “No. We go to school over in the next town. First Avenue High.”
“Never heard of that one,” Scotty said.
“It’s pretty lame. Not a big school. Are y’all coming or not?” Kiki asked.
“We’re coming,” Kendra said, pulling Scotty’s hand as they moved toward the boat.
* * *
“Hold still, sweetie,” Josie said, forcing a smile as she desperately tried to paint a butterfly on the fat cheek of a toddler. Why on earth do toddlers squirm so much? “Almost done...”
“Sit still, Robbie!” the frustrated young mom said for the umpteenth time.
Josie had not wanted to work in face painting. First, she was about the least artistic person she knew. She had tried to paint a robot on a kid’s face earlier, but it looked like a murder scene mixed with a hideous gray moth. Even the American flag had been challenging for her. All the colors were running together on the sweaty faces of young children. Thank God she wasn’t trying to go into the face painting business because people would not be calling her anytime soon for that service.
“Okay, all done,” she said, trying not to make eye contact with the mother. She was completely embarrassed. But the woman just smiled and handed her the money. Josie felt bad taking it, but this was a fundraiser after all.
“Thank you so much for your contribution,” Josie said, waving as they walked away. The little boy looked in the mirror his mother had in her purse, and then he yelled back to her.
“This don’t look like a butterfly!” His mother smiled, a look of apology on her face, before putting her hand over her son’s mouth and dragging him down the road.
“Another happy customer?” Diane said, walking up with a lemonade in her hand.
Josie laughed. “An artist I am not. Do you want to take over for me?”
“Lord no. I’m just now getting a break. I’ve been working at different booths all day. I handed out hot dogs, I made cotton candy, and I just helped set up the dunking booth.”
“A dunking booth? That ought to be interesting.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Where is Walker?”
“No idea. He has some surprises set up for tomorrow, so he’s probably doing that. But he did ask me to take a walk with him by the river this evening.”
Diane grinned. “Oh, that’s a very romantic thing to do.”
“I don’t know what to think.”
“Yes, you do. You absolutely know what to think.”
“Changing the subject, my friend from Atlanta called me earlier. She got engaged and wants me to come to her bridal shower next Saturday. Do you think you could keep an eye on Kendra for me while I’m gone?”
“Of course. I mean, I’ll be working at the restaurant that day, but I’m sure I can shift around some of the schedules if I need to.”
“She does a great job of taking care of herself now. I don’t really worry about her too much. Scotty is a great influence, and Kendra seems to be flourishing here.”
“It seems that way. I’m so happy she’s doing so well.”
“Hey, ladies. How’s it going?” Walker asked, strolling over.
“I have learned that I am not a good face painter. I’ve destroyed the cheeks of many little children today,” Josie said, giggling.
“I’m sure that’s not true. I saw a kid who had a beautiful unicorn on her cheek earlier.”
“Yeah, I didn’t do that one. Ethel was manning the booth when the unicorn happened.”
“Oh well, at least you did your best. I was hoping I could borrow both of you for a little while.”
“Okay, but for what?” Josie asked.
“Let’s just say that the community wants something, and if we can give it to them, I think it will earn us a lot more money.”
“This doesn’t sound good,” Diane said, as they both followed him like two lambs being led off to slaughter.
* * *
As soon as they got out on the boat, Kendra knew they’d made a mistake. She rummaged around in her backpack but couldn’t find her phone. Kendra must have stuck it in her mother’s purse when she asked her to hold it earlier.
“We need to get back,” Scotty whispered to her. She felt terrible. Scotty was a straightlaced kind of guy. He didn’t get into trouble. He didn’t make rash decisions. She did, and she thought she had gotten better about it—until now.
“I know, but they’re not going to take us back. Half of them are drunk already,” she said, looking around the boat. The two guys were taking turns jumping into the water and climbing back into the boat. The girls were giggling and lying out, trying to get darker suntans. Music was blaring.
“Aren’t y’all about ready to go back?” Scotty asked, louder than he needed to.
“Go back? It’s not even dark yet,” Kimmy said, rolling her eyes. Kendra was surprised that one of her fake eyelashes didn’t fly off in the breeze.
“It’s just that we didn’t expect to be gone this long. We appreciate y’all inviting us, but we really need to get back,” Kendra said, trying to be the mediator.
“Then I guess you can swim back,” Dusty said, his arrogance on full display. Out of all the kids, he was the one Kendra liked the least. She thought several times about just pushing him off the boat, but it seemed he could climb back onto it easily. Maybe if she knocked him over the head with an anchor?
“So you’re going to hold us hostage out here?” Scotty said, sounding a little dramatic. She patted his leg.
“Don’t antagonize them,” she whispered. They were out in pretty open water, and there was no way they could swim to shore, even with life preservers. Plus, they’d probably get eaten by gators long before they made it back to the Riverwalk.
“Y’all aren’t even drinking! What are you? Straight edge?”
“What does straight edge mean?” Scotty asked.
“It means that you don’t do anything cool, like drink or smoke weed. I bet y’all are like on the debate team or something,” Kimmy said, rolling her eyes again. The old Kendra would’ve already punched her in the face by now, but she was trying to be better. She wanted to stay in Happy Harbor. If she started getting in trouble, her mother was going to make her go back to Atlanta.
“Then I guess we are straight edge,” Kendra said. “Look, just take us back to the dock, and you’ll be rid of us. You can have your fun party on your fancy boat.”
They all started laughing. “You actually think this is our boat? Y’all are so stupid,” Kiki said sarcastically.
Kendra’s stomach churned. “What do you mean? This isn’t your cousin’s boat?”
“No. Duh.”
“We just stole a boat?” Scotty said, standing up. She could tell he was on the verge of completely freaking out.
“Scotty, calm down. I’ve got this, okay?” She stood in front of him, speaking in a calm voice. He was starting college soon, and stealing a boat and going to jail certainly wouldn’t help him keep his scholarships. He finally sat down.
“Y’all need to relax. We’ll get it back to the dock before anybody notices,” Justin said, turning the wheel with a cigarette hanging from his mouth.
Kendra slowly walked toward the group. Being nice hadn’t worked, and now she was turning on the version of herself she thought she’d left behind. She stood right in front of Kiki, who seemed to be the ringleader.
“Why did you ask us to come here?” Kendra asked through gritted teeth.
Kiki giggled. “Because nobody’s arresting the granddaughter of Adeline Campbell, the matriarch of this town. And if you don’t get in trouble, we don’t get in trouble.” She popped her gum again, which only made Kendra want to pop her in the jaw.
“Turn this boat around and take us back. Now.”
Kiki got closer. “Or what?”
Kendra laughed. “Listen up, you overdone little fool. Back in Atlanta, I ate girls like you for lunch. I’m trying to be a better person in Happy Harbor, but you don’t even want to know what I will do to you and your friends if you don’t turn this boat around right now.”
“I’m not scared of you.”
Kendra lowered her head slightly and looked at Kiki. “You really, really should be.”
There was a long pause before Dusty finally spoke up. “Fine. Who wants to hang out with these losers, anyway? We’ll take the stupid boat back and go to the beach for the rest of the night.”
Kendra turned and walked back to her seat, reaching down for Scotty’s hand once she sat down. Dusty turned the boat and started back toward the Riverwalk.
“What was that?” Scotty asked quietly.
“Sorry you had to see the other side of me.”
He smiled slightly. “I liked it, actually. My girlfriend is tough!”
“Girlfriend?” she said, looking over at him.
“Too soon?”
She shook her head. “Not too soon at all.”
* * *
Walker led Josie and Diane to the other end of Main Street. As soon as they got closer, Diane started shaking her head and mumbling.
“What’s wrong?” Josie asked.
“I know exactly what he’s doing. I’m not doing it, Walker!” she called to him. He turned around, giving her a slight smile.
“The people want what the people want!” he called back.
“I’m confused...” Josie said as the crowd parted in front of them and she found herself standing right in front of the dunk tank. “Oh, I get it now. And no, absolutely not.”
He put his hands in a praying position. “Come on, y’all. People are offering to pay five dollars apiece to see Josie dunk you, Diane.”
Diane’s mouth fell open. “Why me?”
He scrunched his nose. “It’s a small town. Everybody knows your history as mother and daughter. Think of it like a friendly grudge match.”
Josie rubbed her hands together and smiled. “I feel like it might help me resolve some issues.”
Diane put her hands on her hips. “I can’t believe you two are ganging up on me!”
“Come on, Mom! It’s hot out here, anyway. You’ll get cooled off.”
Diane stared at her, squinting. “You just want to dunk me in that water. You don’t care if I’m cold or hot!”
Josie laughed. “It’s for the restaurant.”
The crowd was clapping and chanting, “Diane! Diane!” She threw her hands up in the air.
“Fine! But I’m gonna get you back for this, Walker Jackson!” she said, laughing as she walked toward the dunk tank.
As Josie watched her take her position, she wondered if she could even dunk her. She had one of the worst aims of anybody she knew. In fact, as a teenager, her grandmother had tried to put her in softball to give her something constructive to do. But Josie couldn’t throw the ball straight to save her life, and she bonked one of the other players on her team in the head with a very fast ball. That was the end of her softball career.
Once Diane was in position, Josie stepped up to the plate, so to speak. Walker handed her the ball.
“You can do this. The crowd is going to go wild.”
Josie turned around and saw one volunteer collecting donations from everybody watching, the bucket already almost full of money. She turned back to face her mother, who had her arms crossed and her bottom lip stuck out.
“If you dunk me in this water, we’re even!” Diane yelled.
Josie laughed. “Not even close!” She figured they might as well give the crowd a show. Even though she wasn’t nearly as mad at her mother as she had been in the past, she knew people loved rumors and gossip. Might as well give them what they came for.
As if in slow motion, Josie pulled her arm back as far as she could, looked at the bull’s-eye sticking out from the side of the dunk tank, and threw the ball as hard as she possibly could. Miraculously, it hit the bull’s-eye on the first try, sending her mother plunging into the cold water with a loud splash.
As expected, everybody in the crowd went wild. Diane popped up, rubbing water out of her eyes and slicking her hair back. She pointed at Josie, laughing.
“Are you sure you don’t want to get in?” Walker asked.
“Do you?”
He shook his head. “Good point.”
Walker ran over and handed Diane a towel. She dried her hair a little and then wiped down the rest of her body before rejoining Josie.
“So do you feel refreshed?” Josie asked, chuckling.
“Actually, I do. I was sweaty, and that was just what I needed.”
“Sure, it was,” Josie said, rolling her eyes.