Page 10 of As a Last Resort

SAMANTHA

The boat pulled in just after sunset with still enough light to make out the familiar shoreline I’d grown up with. Luckily, my first work meeting had been pushed to the next morning so I had the night to settle in and relive all my high school nightmares in private.

It was exactly as I had remembered it.

The Starfish Hotel faced Main Street, its brightly colored bungalows seen from any boat ferrying in.

Charley’s Lobster Shack cheerily greeted you from the dock, while its white awnings and picnic tables waved at you from the shore, all basked in the warm glow of the sunset.

A small crowd buzzed with their mouths full, chatting over clear plastic cups of cold beer and baskets of fried food.

Rosy cheeks, flip-flops and Nantucket Reds, aviators and windswept hair.

Shell-paved roads lined the island closest to the water and palm trees were evenly spaced along the sidewalks.

It was charming and quaint.

And gave me a sweeping sense of nausea.

Where people saw a cute mom-and-pop pharmacy, I saw the building I would drag my mom out of when they wouldn’t give her pills.

Where people saw a perfect plucked-out-of-a-film-set ice cream store, I saw the metal bench she normally passed out on.

This town was full of memories everywhere, and it dawned on me I hadn’t brought any Xanax.

“Here, let me grab that for you.” Austin reached for my luggage. His arm brushed against mine and the small dusting of blond hair tickled my skin and gave me chills.

“No, it’s okay, I got it.” I struggled to get the rolling suitcase, carry-on, and purse to balance as I walked along the ramp.

I shook my head, scattering the memories that were trying to pour in through the cracks of the fortified dam I had built over the years. Of course, the first person to welcome me to town was Austin.

Austin Marcs.

I had more than a few dedicated pages in my diary pairing my first name with his last— Samantha Marcs —written in pink glitter pen with hearts doodled around it. I’m pretty sure my mom kept the scrapbook I made for our future wedding, chock-full of red roses, puffy silk sleeves, and tulle.

Not that I would ever admit something like that to anyone. I was a lovestruck eight-year-old with a crush on my best friend’s older brother, which happens, like, all the time so it absolutely officially belongs in the not-a-big-deal-let’s-move-on column.

I made a mental note to burn the diary if I found it while I was here.

But Austin’s baby face looked different, with a five-o’clock shadow that had darkened into something more rugged—closer to a seven-o’clock. His eyes crinkled at the edges and he was so tan . I didn’t know skin cancer could be such a positive thing. He smelled like salt water, too.

I mean, we were on a dock. The water probably smelled like salt water.

Whatever.

“You’re seriously going to break your ankle.” His eyes narrowed. “Drop it.”

I glared back at him and relented.

“You heading to your mom’s?” he asked.

Right. This was going to happen a lot here.

People knew things about me—where I was from, who my mom was, that I lived in the little house on Rocky Point with the blue shutters that never brought the trash cans in.

There was a familiarity that existed on this island I was all too happy to give up when I left, and here I was being blasted back into it within five minutes of setting foot on the soil.

“No, I’m staying at the Starfish.” His eyes flicked over to me questioningly. “I’m actually here for work. Not really to visit.”

“Well, looks like she didn’t get the memo,” he said casually.

“Wait, what?”

“Your mom.” He nodded toward the shore. “She’s across the street walking over here.”

“Crap. Duck!” I crouched behind a large plastic dock box on the pier.

“What?”

“Duck!” I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him down next to me so we were both out of view.

“Why are we hiding from your mom?” We were huddled so close. The gold flecks in his eyes shimmered as they widened, the truth dawning across his face. “You didn’t tell her you were coming.”

“Shh! She’s going to hear you.”

“She’s across the street. She’s not going to hear me. Why doesn’t she know you’re here?”

“Did she see me?”

“Umm, I don’t think so,” he said.

I peeked around the container. “I told you I’m here for work. I didn’t really want to deal with her and the whole argument of staying at her place.”

“So you’re avoiding it until…”

“Until it’s unavoidable.”

“This doesn’t count as unavoidable?”

“Not yet.” I peeked around the container and watched in horror as she crossed the street and walked toward the dock.

Austin dipped his head to mine and dropped his voice to a whisper that shot goose bumps down my neck. “I feel like we’re approaching unavoidable .”

I couldn’t tell if my heart was ping-ponging out of my chest from my mother walking toward me or Austin’s lips that were right there .

“Go stop her,” I ordered.

“And you’re going to…”

“Stay here until you get her to walk the other way. The Starfish is right there. I can make a run for it.”

“In those heels?” he questioned, eyeing the three-inch monstrosities I had put back on.

“Heels are like sneakers in the city. It’s fine.”

“You’ll break an ankle.”

I peeked around the storage container again. “You have ten seconds to stop her from walking onto this dock. If you don’t, I will shove you into the water and somehow find a way to sink your boat.”

His eyes dipped to my mouth. “You’re not exactly the tongue-tied awkward teenager you used to be, Scuttle.

” Amusement dripped from his lips as he popped up and jogged off toward the marina walkway.

I hadn’t even stepped onto the dirt of the island yet and I was already hugging a dock that smelled like fish guts and hiding from my mother.

It took less than half an hour for my I have my shit together grown-up facade to go up in flames.

Mom’s eyes glittered up at him as he walked closer. She always loved Austin. Well, she loved generally any man that paid her attention, but Austin always had a way of making people feel seen.

He towered over her small frame and guided her with a hand behind her back to look the opposite way of where I was crouched.

He was completely dialed in and listening intently as she spoke with her hands flying all over the place, a Leigh family trait.

We both did it—like the energy we felt coursing through us needed some sort of physical outlet.

I watched as she laughed and he chuckled. She grabbed his arm. Oh my God, did she just squeeze his biceps?

She had put on a little bit of weight since I’d last seen her. Her jean skirt was still too short and her polyester shirt was still too tight. But she looked better, like maybe her diet consisted of more than just pills, vodka, and string cheese.

She hugged him and headed in the other direction. She walked into Charley’s as Austin made his way back to me.

“Were you flirting with her?” I said, still crouched on my knees.

“You told me you’d sink my boat if I didn’t get her to leave.”

“Well, I appreciate your dedication to my anonymity, but ew .”

“Anything for a guest.” His boyish grin turned mischievous. “Give me your bags.”

“As I said before, I am perfectly capable of taking them myself.”

“Let’s not add an ER visit to your stroll down memory lane today. I do have other plans and can’t be your invisibility cloak all night.”

“I don’t need—”

“Don’t argue with me.” He stepped closer to me, his gaze towering down from above me.

“I don’t remember you being so bossy.” I stood up and straightened my skirt.

“I don’t remember you being so violent.” He leaned in and grabbed my bags from my hands without breaking eye contact.

So, apparently there’s a navy-blue circle around the outside of his eyes that compliments the green and the gold and all the other wonderful shades of color that I could perfectly see because he was two inches from my face and I forgot what I was supposed to be doing.

“You need me to draw you a map?” he asked, still way too close for rational thought.

My heart stutter-stepped. The Starfish. Right. “No, thank you. I’m going.” I turned and walked up the dock.

“You’re welcome,” he sang as he followed behind me. I could hear the smile in his voice.

Bells jingled above my head as I pulled open the screen door to the hotel. The lobby was small, overrun with pale yellow and bright teal accents, trying to make up for the drab tile floor.

The woman behind the desk lit up as we walked into the lobby. Her name was Josie, according to her name tag that had a little starfish hot glued to it. “Hello there, handsome,” she said, beaming at Austin, before she turned her focus to me. “Checking in, darling?”

“It’s under Sam,” he answered.

“It’s actually Samantha.”

“Great! Just give me one second.” The humming from her old-school desktop computer cut the thick silence that trailed us from the dock. “Samantha Leigh. Looks like we have you for a month?” She glanced up to confirm.

Austin’s gaze pierced my cheek. Busted.

“Uh, should be for only two weeks. Here on a work trip.”

“Oh, wonderful! I love having a face around here a little more than a night or two. I get tired of looking at this one’s mug day in and day out,” she said, smiling at Austin.

She looked at me again, this time holding just a tad bit longer.

“You look familiar.” She looked back down at the reservation.

“Samantha Leigh? My goodness, Bonnie’s daughter? ”

My smile tightened as I nodded.

“Oh my, you have grown up! I’m friends with your mother, and I’ve seen about a thousand pictures of you. I can’t believe I didn’t recognize you. Your mother didn’t even tell me you were coming into town!”

Panic set in. I forgot how small of a town this was. Luckily Austin jumped to my rescue. Again.

“How about we keep it on the down-low for now since Sam is surprising her mom once she gets settled in?” He added a wink.