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“Violet’s a real islander like us, younger, though.

She graduated from Bainbridge High a few years ago.

She seems to like hanging out with the bad boys.

Her dad’s the mayor, so it makes life interesting for your uncle.

I bet he has lots of stories.” He opened the door to his truck and reached down to pick up Watson, then lifted him inside.

“Okay if you wait here while I grab some things off the boat? I don’t like to leave things out, especially since I’ll be at work tomorrow. ”

“I thought you were off for the weekend,” Meg asked, but either Dalton didn’t hear her, since he’d already walked away, or he didn’t want to answer the question.

As he drove her home, they talked about the bonfire and the people who’d been there. Natasha had been right; it was like an outdoor singles club. She thought about what Luna had said about Dalton.

“So are you dating someone?”

“That’s a strange question coming from a woman I’m not supposed to be dating.” He grinned at her. “According to your mom.”

“Luna likes you. She thought you were interested in me. She said you don’t bring girls to the bonfires or leave with them.” She pointed out what she’d learned about Dalton tonight.

“Until today.” He pulled the truck in front of her aunt’s garage and left the engine running. “I’m not interested in Luna. Have a good night, Meg.”

Her dog in her arms, she got out of the truck, and she and Watson watched as Dalton drove away. He hadn’t answered her question, except to tell her that he wasn’t interested in Luna. Meg found herself smiling as she and Watson headed upstairs to go to bed.

* * *

Meg had been awake since five, thinking about Dalton.

Then she compared him to Romain. Frustrated with her focus on men, she went to the pile of wedding gifts she needed to return.

Nothing better than dealing with returns to push romance out of her head.

There were several she needed to mail back, but she wanted to call each giver and make sure they didn’t want her to take the gift back to a store to get a refund on their card.

It would make it easier on both her and the giver.

The only problem with that plan was she’d have to listen to how sorry everyone was that she and Romain had called off the wedding.

She decided that she wasn’t ready for that much sympathy. She’d pay the postal charge.

Meg pulled out ten of the gifts. Five were from island residents, and she could stop by their houses and drop them off this morning on her way to get coffee and see Natasha.

The other five she wrapped in boxes to send back to the givers.

She needed to go grocery shopping, but that would wait.

She needed to get all the final canceled wedding to-dos off her list. Every time she looked at the gifts, she felt stupid.

She wrote down a plan for the day, which included finishing the assignment for Lilly and stopping at the post office.

With a fresh cup of coffee, she sat down at her desk and pulled out the folder from Lilly.

She would call her Ms. Aster at the house, but in her head, she liked calling her Lilly.

It made it sound like they were already friends.

“I know. I’m projecting again. Romain would have a field day with this. ”

Watson jumped off the couch and went to get a drink of water, ignoring her comment.

Meg got to work. Without Romain to tell her what she was doing wrong, she needed to become her own conscience. Watson clearly wasn’t going to help.

When she reached Natasha’s bakery a few hours later, she was pleased with her progress.

Lilly’s assignment was done, so she’d be ready to head up to Summer Break tomorrow.

Since she was at the post office, she’d mailed the signed paperwork to Lilly Aster’s attorney.

She’d dropped off the five wedding gifts from local residents.

The packages she’d left at the post office made her a lot less emotional.

If there was no way her mom would find out and have a cow, Meg would have mailed all the gifts back, including the few she had left from island residents.

She needed to suck it up and do it. Her new motto.

Suck up the sucky and go on. Or maybe, Every BODY has history .

Not bumper sticker material, but this was her life now.

“Good morning, sunshine,” Natasha called out from behind the counter. “Coffee? Black?”

“Please, and a large. Okay if Watson’s in here?” She leaned in the doorway until she got an answer.

“Of course. Come on in. Just stay out of the back kitchen. I don’t want to get in trouble. Does he need some water?” Natasha filled a travel cup and grabbed a dog bowl for water.

“He’d probably appreciate it. I’ve been doing the apology tour this morning and dropping off the wedding gifts.” Meg sank into a chair at a table near the front window.

“You should let someone else handle that. It feels punitive. You didn’t call off the wedding. Romain ruined your day.” Natasha set the coffee on the table and the water bowl under the table.

“I’ve got a system. And maybe feeling all the feelings until it’s done will speed up my mourning for losing what could have been. Can you sit?”

“For a few minutes. We’ll have a rush as soon as the next ferry docks.” Natasha glanced at the clock. “But we’ve got fifteen minutes before that happens. Did you enjoy last night? Did Dalton sneak a kiss when he dropped you off?”

“No.” Meg felt her face warm as she remembered their discussion last night.

“Anyway, I’m ready for tomorrow’s meeting with Lilly Aster.

I’m working tomorrow night at the bookstore, but I’m done at nine.

Do you want to grab dinner with me? Mom said she’d take me shopping on Monday morning. So I’m enjoying eating out until then.”

“Sure.” She stood up and went back to the counter. She came back with a bag. “I’ve got some day-old pastries and bread that you can have. It’s a lot of sugar, but you won’t be hungry.”

“You don’t have to do this,” Meg protested.

“We’re friends.” Natasha hugged her as a noise sounded outside.

They looked up and saw Uncle Troy’s truck, followed by the only police car on the island, take off from city hall. Meg stood and watched them go by. Before she could ask Natasha anything, she saw the ambulance following the police car. “What on earth is going on?”

“I don’t know,” Natasha said.

Then a man stepped into the bakery. “Quite the show, right?”

“Todd, what’s going on? Do you know?” Natasha stared at the ambulance, which was followed by another truck. “Isn’t that Kevin Call following the ambulance?”

“I was chatting with him at city hall when the call came in. A body was found at the Aster place out by Haunted Cliffs. Jolene called it in. She sounded shocked.”

Meg froze. She couldn’t believe this was happening. “It wasn’t Lilly Aster, was it?”

Todd shook his head. “No, Jolene said it was a man. That he must have fallen off the dock. I’m betting it’s a tourist.”

Natasha helped Todd with his coffee order, then rejoined Meg at the table. “You move back, and everything becomes interesting again.”

“Natasha, someone’s dead. That’s horrible.

” Meg glanced at her watch and made a note of the time.

That was important in an investigation. What time law enforcement was called in versus the time of death or, worse, the time of discovery.

If Jolene hadn’t called right away, there might be a reason.

“I guess I’ll find out more tonight, when I have dinner with Aunt Melody and Uncle Troy. I’ll let you know what I learn.”

“It’s like back in high school, when we used to solve mysteries. Just like in the Nancy Drew books. What did we call ourselves?” Natasha grinned at her friend. “The Mystery Crew?”

“I don’t think we settled on an actual name. We never investigated a death. We just figured out what we didn’t know. Like who was stealing the band treats, which we found out was Mr. Higgins, the band teacher.”

Meg wondered what she’d find out tonight. She hoped Jolene was right and the victim wasn’t Lilly Aster. Selfishly, she didn’t want her job to disappear before she could even prove herself to the mystery author. And, worse, she couldn’t see a future without the author’s books.