Page 55 of Beaches, Bagels & Babes

“You’re not very good at it if it’s taken you all this time. You deserve to fail.”

“These kinds of projects don’t happen overnight.

The pier was hit hard during Hurricane Sandy, and for years, the town’s politics were more split.

Now, things are different. Funding from the Solid Rock Group was the final piece.

Although the rent Ms. DeMarco here has paid over the years has been greatly appreciated. We–”

Daisy had enough. Out of the corner of her eye, inside Horace’s bucket, she saw the screwdriver Candace used to free her from the pier office. In a viper-fast snatch, she grabbed it and thrust the shaft into Lamarka’s foot.

“Appreciate that! C’mon! ”

Lamarka flailed in pain. While he struggled to pull the screwdriver free, Daisy and Candace took their chance to run deeper into the Manta Coaster loading depot.

“This wa— woah!”

Daisy staggered back as a “Are you tall enough to ride?” sign flew past like a spear-toss.

It landed in the wall right in front of her with a reverberating twang.

Candace ended up further ahead, towards the ride operation booth.

Lamarka bull-rushed right behind Daisy. He tried to shoot her, but missed.

The bullet ricocheted off a metal line divider that Daisy ducked behind and went wild, almost hitting the man himself.

She tried to lose him between the lone coaster left on the track.

Unlike the little, sit-down Mouse Kart, the Manta Coaster was a big, top-down contraption that latched onto its riders like a claw crane.

With five cradle-like seats across, six rows down, it rocked back and forth at the wind’s violent pull.

Daisy wove around the seats, narrowly avoiding Lamarka’s reaching grasp.

“Shit!”

Daisy’s ankle caught in a gap in the floor grating. She managed to pull herself free, but it gave Lamarka time to catch up. Sandwiched between two seat rows, with a barrier rail blocking her rear, Daisy was trapped.

Down the way, Candace stood with her hands hovering over the ride controls. She urged, “Push him!”

Daisy shoved without thinking, without realizing why , until she was mid-motion.

When she understood, she put everything she had into forcing Lamarka back into the coaster seat.

As soon as he was in place, Candace proved once and for all that she was the claw-machine master—she slammed the pressure restraints down and locked Lamarka in.

“Shall we send him on a ride?”

Lamarka thrashed impotently while Daisy picked up his gun. She stepped back, nodding with grim determination, and cleared the way. As reality set in for the man, he became enraged .

“Don’t you dare, you bi—AGHHH!!”

Lamarka’s insult turned into a scream as he was launched forward.

In addition to being larger than the Mouse Kart, the Manta Coaster did not start out at a gentle climb.

This roller coaster was for thrill seekers.

It launched its riders straight up at a tongue-swallowing pace, before careening them back down into a series of loops and corkscrews.

It was one of the East Coast’s favorite coasters.

By the sound of it, though, Lamarka did not have very much fun.

They let him do one lap before leaving him at the depot.

After what he did to her parents, and who knows how many other innocents, there was a part of Daisy that wanted more bloody vengeance.

Even so, she was merciful enough to give him a sliver of survival.

Then, Daisy and Candace (with Horace in tow) bolted for shelter that was not over the ocean.

Thanks to Wonderwood’s healthy duneline, the water seemed to be holding at the boardwalk level.

However, with the chaos around them, they deemed it too dangerous to go far.

Instead, they managed to break into Bagel Bombs!

through the back entrance Daisy had forgotten to board up in her panic over Candace.

While the storm buffeted the whole building so hard it shook, they did what they could to bunker down .

With a flashlight upturned for light, and beach towels spread out over the backroom floor, they made themselves comfortable. It was almost cozy. Daisy leaned back against a chest freezer, and Candace leaned against her. She listened to the discordant dripdripdrips , hypnotized by nature’s fury.

Candace nuzzled her head against Daisy’s shoulder like a cat. She said, “I won’t ask if you’re okay, because there’s no version of the word that covers this. There’s no way to make up for what they did. But… I’m here for you, whatever you need.”

“I need you ,” Daisy begged. She did not even realize she said the words until they left her tongue, did not register the want until it was voiced, yet it came like a tidal force.

She caught Candace’s chin between her thumb and pointer finger so that she could turn her face.

As their mouths met, her lips tasted like ocean, rain, and tears—of truth and lies untangled to the very last thread until their essences were bare.

One tender kiss turned to several, each one more urgent than the last. Gentle caresses became needful pulls. Piece by piece, their clothing littered the floor. Before long, it was not the sounds of the storm that Daisy focused on, but Candace’s building pleasure.

It crested along with the adrenaline still pulsing from their escape, leading to a gasping release.

They collapsed back onto beach towels and bagel bags, blissfully spent.

While Hurricane Mandy continued to wreak havoc, the world outside was cast to ruin, in this tiny corner, there was only contentment.

Daisy was not sure which of them fell asleep first. She was glad, though, that Candace had the foresight to throw a towel over their naked bodies.

It made the scene a small sliver less awkward when the Coast Guard came bursting in for their heroic rescue.

Thankfully, and with a fair amount of eye-contact avoidance, they all made it back to inland safety with relative ease.

A small crowd was waiting for them at the marina.

“Demi?! Rio? How did you find us?”

Smirking, Rio pointed to Horace. “You can thank her for that.”

Daisy smacked her forehead, saying, “The livestream! Wait, does that mean…?”

Demi nodded and, to her credit, at least tried to hold in her laughter. “People saw the whole thing. The attempted murder, Lamarka’s confession, and er…Let’s just say the nature center cut the feed off before it turned too X-rated.”

Daisy found Candace’s hand with her own.

The gentle pressure of her squeezing back was better than a thousand verbal reassurances.

There was more to be said, so much to unpack emotionally, but the marina dock in the middle of a hurricane was not the place.

As Ed Cando charged up with some of Peter Perry’s other friends to call for Candace and Daisy’s arrest, they ignored him.

Ted, meanwhile, had a car waiting to take them to a hotel.

“You two deserve rest after the day you’ve had,” he said, speaking over his blustering father. “If the station is still there after this storm blows through, you can come down and make a report once you’re up to it.”

While Demi and Rio went back to the high school with Ted, Daisy and Candace went their own way.

And they always would.