Chapter 7 June #2
June had never wished so hard for a mini sinkhole to open up beneath her chair and pull her into its depths before.
She even childishly thought about ducking beneath the table in a pretense to drop her teaspoon and make as if she didn’t see or hear the woman.
But it was too late. Mina’s eyes were focused on their table, and then June’s daughter’s head shot around toward her.
“Mom, I didn’t know you knew Mina,” Willa whispered, looking between June and the approaching woman with curiosity.
“Yes, well, I know her from Miami many years ago, before you were born,” June said carefully. It wasn’t a lie, exactly, just an incomplete truth. “She and her family used to live there.”
Willa nodded and turned to wave politely at Mina, unaware of the way June’s hands had begun to tremble slightly in her lap. Then, to June’s mounting horror, the teenage boy with Mina spotted Andy at their table.
“Hey, Andy,” the boy called out with a friendly wave and a smile that made June’s breath catch in her throat.
“Tyler!” Andy grinned back, waving. “Come meet my Grams! She’s here for the whole summer.”
Tyler. June’s vision narrowed as she looked at the boy more closely.
The dark hair, the blue eyes, the strong jaw, he was already a very handsome young man.
She sucked in her breath when the young man’s smile looked so achingly familiar that her heart gave a double thud.
June had a sinking suspicion she knew exactly who that teenage boy was related to.
Before she could fully process what was going on, Mina approached their table with the smooth confidence June remembered from her younger years.
“Hello, again, Willa,” Mina said warmly, offering June’s daughter a genuine smile.
“Hello, Mina,” Willa greeted her politely. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stay for tea earlier when I dropped off Tyler. I had to get home as my mother arrived.”
“No problem at all,” Mina assured Willa, and then her gaze shifted to June, and there was something knowing in her expression that made June’s pulse race. “Hello, June. How are you?”
June forced herself to stand, her legs feeling unsteady as she embraced the other woman and accepted the polite kiss on the cheek. “Hello, Mina. I’m fine, thank you, and yourself?”
“Keeping busy,” Mina told her. “So you’re here for the summer?”
“Yes, my mother is recovering from a bad car accident,” Willa blurted out before June could stop her.
Mina’s head spun around, and her eyes shone with worry as she looked at June. “Oh, goodness, June. How badly hurt were you?”
“It’s nothing,” June said, waving it off. “I’m recovering, and that’s all that matters.”
June had to grit her teeth and push back the memory of a car smashing into her from behind and pushing her into the path of oncoming traffic. She curled her hand into a fist, letting her nails bite into her soft palm to quell the crazy surge of panic the memory brought back.
“We must catch up over tea,” Mina told June. “It’s been far too long since we’ve done that.”
“Yes, of course,” June said, nodding, knowing that would never happen. Her eyes moved to Tyler. Especially if this was Mina’s grandson. Or at a guess, June thought it would be Mina’s great-grandson.
Over the past thirty-eight years, June and Mina had maintained sporadic contact, including visits when Mina came to Miami, Christmas cards, and the occasional phone call.
But aside from holiday greetings, they hadn’t actually spoken in nearly ten years.
June had been careful to keep their relationship cordial but distant, for reasons only her sister knew the truth about.
“Gran,” Andy interrupted, getting June’s attention. “This is Tyler, my new friend I was telling you about.”
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t know your mother hadn’t met Tyler yet,” Mina said, stepping back with an indulgent smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“Mom arrived when I was dropping him back with you,” Willa explained, smiling and totally unaware of the tension between the two women.
Tyler stepped forward with the polite confidence of a well-raised child. “Hi,” he said, offering her a handshake with surprising maturity. “It’s really nice to meet you.”
“Hi, Tyler,” June managed, her voice sounding strangely normal despite the chaos in her head. “It’s wonderful to meet you, too.”
She took his offered hand, noting the firmness of his grip, the way he met her eyes directly without shyness. Good manners, she thought automatically, even as her heart hammered against her ribs. Someone had raised this boy well.
“How do you know my great-grandmother?” Tyler asked, glancing between June and Mina curiously.
The words hit June like a physical blow.
“I met June…” Mina’s eyes snapped to June, and she nodded approval at the use of her first name. “When she was seventeen or eighteen.” She smiled. “She was a good friend of the family.”
“Oh!” Tyler said, pursing his lips. “Then you must know my grandfather, Holt.”
The name hit June square in the chest, and it took everything she had not to gasp and to keep her knees from buckling at the impact.
June’s head swung around to meet Mina’s steady gaze, and what she saw there confirmed her worst fears.
The feeling June had experienced outside the Miami hospital rushed over her again, stronger now and impossible to ignore.
She was standing at the center of a collision between past and present, and there was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide from it.
Her eyes shot to her daughter, Willa, and her throat went suddenly dry as her heart sped up.
This wasn’t good! She swallowed and mentally pulled herself together.
Stop it, June. You are overreacting. So, Tyler is Holt’s grandson, but that doesn’t mean Holt is here or that anyone knows anything.
June forced herself to smile and to pretend that her world wasn’t crumbling around her.
“Yes, I do,” June said, trying to keep her voice as matter-of-factly as she could and refusing to look at Mina even though she could feel the woman’s eyes boring into her.
“June and your grandfather used to be…” Mina paused, forcing June to look at her, and one of the woman’s eyebrows arched knowingly, making June’s eyes widen. “Very close.”
“Really?” This time it was Willa, as she drained her coffee and stood. “That’s quite a coincidence.” She looked at her mother. “What a small world.”
“Your grandparents used to visit Sandpiper shores,” Mina explained to Willa. “That is how my son and your mother met. Right here, one summer, when they were about Grace’s age.”
June’s mind flashed back to the summer when she was thirteen, the same age as his younger sister, Carly.
Holt was fifteen. It was the summer right before his father was shot.
The three of them had become instant friends and remained so, especially after discovering they lived a block apart in Miami.
“You never said you came to Sandpiper Shores before we moved here,” Willa said, looking at her mother questioningly.
“I’m sure I did,” June hedged and then changed the subject. “Don’t you have a shift soon, sweetheart?” She looked at Willa.
“Oh, shoot, you’re right,” Willa said, glancing at her wristwatch. “Come on, Andy.” She smiled at Mina. “I’ll drop Andy off before I go to the station.”
“Okay, Willa dear,” Mina said with a big smile, then turned to June. “It was good seeing you again, June. I hope you take me up on my offer of tea and a catch-up. We have a lot to talk about.”
June gave her a tight smile and nodded. “Of course, I’ll give you a call.”
She said her goodbyes and followed her daughter from the shop, hoping her legs, which felt like jelly, would hold her up for the few steps it took to leave the establishment.
As she walked away, June had Mina’s words ringing in her head.
She wasn’t sure if that was just conversational or a threat.
Then another thought hit her, and her eyes widened. Did Mina know June’s biggest secret?