Chapter 12 #2
Viggo kissed her cheek. “It’s sad when adults don’t have friends. But who am I to talk? I didn’t have any friends till you came into school.”
Sometimes Minnie burned with curiosity about Viggo’s time before she’d come to Nantucket, about his relationship with Stacy, about whether they’d kissed this much. But she was nervous about her jealousy. Sometimes it felt like something she couldn’t control.
She told herself to stay in the moment and continue building from where she was.
On the final day of school at Nantucket High School, the final day of their sophomore year, Minnie and Viggo did what they always did.
They drove off for the harbor, sailed for hours, then came in, just as the sun dipped its orange and red lights onto the ocean.
Minnie had drunk maybe two too many sips of wine, and she felt languid and happy and goofy.
“Let’s get burgers,” she suggested. “Let’s celebrate.
” Viggo kissed her again and again, then guided her down the dock, toward the historic district, where their favorite burger place awaited them.
Already, the guy who owned the burger place—Stanley—knew Minnie and Viggo well. Twice, he’d called the couple “Mickey and Minnie,” but Viggo had very quickly put a stop to that. “An onion burger, a bacon burger, and a side of onion rings?” Stanley said when they entered.
“And a strawberry milkshake!” Minnie called.
“Coming right up,” he said.
Minnie and Viggo sat at an outdoor picnic table, people-watching while they ate their dinner. Viggo was warning her about the incoming tourists and how different the island would be, sooner rather than later.
“Am I still a tourist?” Minnie asked. She felt gooey with love for him, as though everything she said was flirtatious.
Viggo wrapped his larger hand around hers on the table. “You’re an islander,” he said. “Through and through.”
It was then, as Minnie gazed at him adoringly, that something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention.
There was someone, someone on the other side of that large van over there.
It felt like they were being watched. But that was silly, wasn’t it?
Minnie felt her smile drop. She returned her attention to the onion rings, telling herself it was nothing.
But Viggo could tell something was up. “You okay?”
Minnie blushed and wiped her mouth with a napkin. Trying not to make any swift motions, she let her eyes drift back to the van, where she saw a man in a hat, hovering. His dark eyes seemed to penetrate her. Something cold and hard filled her chest, and she couldn’t breathe.
“Minnie, what’s going on?” Viggo sounded frightened.
“I don’t know. I’m probably making it up?
” But even as she said it, her intuition took over, and she sensed that she was not, in fact, making it up.
There was something creepy going on in Nantucket, something she’d felt since they’d arrived.
Just because it was sunny now, just because she was in love, didn’t mean that that creepiness had gone away.
“I don’t know how to say this,” she breathed, “but I feel like that man over there is watching us.”
Viggo didn’t move. “What does he look like?”
“Six foot, maybe a bit more. He’s wearing a black baseball hat,” she said.
“When did you first notice him?”
Minnie thought for a moment. Had she seen him when they were getting off the sailboat? It was certainly possible. Maybe he’d been spying on them for hours, watching them from shore till they came in. “Maybe a while,” she said, shaking her head.
“I’m going to see if I can figure out who it is,” Viggo stated.
Minnie was stricken. “Don’t.”
“Don’t worry about me,” Viggo said. “Just sit here, eat your burger, and wait. I’ll be back in five minutes.”
Without any hesitation, he got up and went back into the burger restaurant. Minnie watched as he chatted easily to Stanley, who let him into the back room, presumably to use the bathroom. She knew there was a bathroom back there, but there was also a back door.
Minnie told herself to remain calm. She ate an onion ring, crunching it, and allowing herself momentary glances to make sure the guy with the hat was still there.
It wasn’t for another two or three minutes that she spotted Viggo, creeping at a distance from the man.
So far, she didn’t think the spy had noticed Viggo.
If and when he did see him, all the man could do was run away.
Right? Minnie told herself not to cry. She squeezed a packet of ketchup and forced herself to smile.
It was probably a misunderstanding.
For another three minutes, Minnie stared down at her ketchup, chewing on a bite of burger.
Her pulse was skyrocketing. It wasn’t till Viggo sat down across from her, having entered the burger restaurant through the back entrance and returned the way he’d come, that she could breathe easier.
He grinned at her. “He’s gone, now,” he said.
“But I got a picture of him before he left.”
Minnie squeezed Viggo’s hands. “I’m sure he’s nobody. I’m sure I was making it up.”
“Do you want to see a picture of him?” Viggo seemed really pleased with himself.
Minnie shrugged. She wasn’t sure she did. But before she could stop him, Viggo flipped his phone screen around to show a photograph of a man Minnie very much did know.
She nearly fainted on the spot.