Page 49 of Hideaway Heart

“I’m going to wear it the first day of school,” Adelaide announced, her cheeks flushed with anticipation.

Veronica and Kelly came out the back door, each holding a glass of wine, and made their way over to the table. My brother rose to his feet and held out his hand. “Hey. I’m Austin.”

She smiled brightly as she shook it. “Nice to meet you. I’m Kelly.”

“That’s her real name,” Adelaide said excitedly, hopping from foot to foot. “I thought her real name was Pixie Hart!”

Kelly laughed as she came around the table and took the chair next to me. “Nope, that’s just a name a promoter liked back when he was booking me at county fairs and the like. Apparently, he didn’t think Kelly Jo Sullivan was catchy enough.”

“Does it bother you?” Veronica asked as Austin pulled out the chair next to him for her. She gave him a grateful smile as she sat down.

“It didn’t back then. Now it kind of does,” Kelly admitted. “Like I wonder if maybe I should have fought harder to keep my own name. But fighting doesn’t come easily to me. I’m sort of conflict-avoidant.”

“Could have fooled me,” I mumbled, which earned me a sharp elbow to the rib.

My dad and Owen came over, and Kelly stood up to introduce herself, giving them both a handshake and smile. Owen mumbled his name and stared at the ground, while my dad doffed his cap, beamed excitedly, and pumped her hand up and down for a solid twenty seconds. Taking a seat at the end of the table between her and Veronica, he looked delighted with his luck.

“So how do you like our town?” he asked Kelly.

“Well, I haven’t seen much of it yet,” she said. “Xander is a bit of a dud when it comes to letting me get out and about. But from what I saw out the car window, it’s lovely.”

My dad scrunched up his face. “Why can’t you let her out of the car?”

I gave Kelly a dirty look and saw her eyes were lit up with mischief as she took a sip of her wine. “I never said she couldn’t get out of the car. I just don’t want her driving herself or walking around alone or broadcasting her location to the internet.”

“But this isn’t some big, dangerous city,” my dad argued. “It’s Cherry Tree Harbor. It’s perfectly safe to walk around alone.”

“Not if you’re Pixie Hart,” I argued. “She’s not the same as you or me, Dad. People follow her everywhere. And things can get out of control quickly.”

“He’s right,” she said, forgetting the no-touching rule and patting my leg. “I just like giving him a hard time.”

“But Cherry Tree Harbor is full of good people,” my dad insisted. “You should take her around, Xander. I bet she’d like to see the lighthouse, take the ferry ride, have dinner at the Pier Inn.”

“She definitely needs to eat some fudge while she’s here,” Veronica said. “I highly recommend the ice cream too.”

“And Moe’s Diner!” shouted Adelaide, her mouth full of potato chips. “That’s my favorite. It has a jukebox.”

“All that sounds wonderful.” Kelly gave me the side-eye. “What do you say? Will you play tour guide for me?”

“Not this weekend,” I argued. “Cherry Tree Harbor is packed to the gills with tourists. Once they all go home on Monday, then I’ll take you around.”

“Deal,” she said with a nod.

“You should take her out on the boat, Xander,” said Veronica.

Kelly gasped and whacked my shoulder with the back of her hand. “You’ve got a boat? You never mentioned that.”

“I just met you two days ago,” I reminded her. “And I wasn’t hired to amuse you, just to make sure you don’t get into trouble.”

“What kind of trouble could I get in out on your boat?”

I could think of plenty, especially if she was going to be wearing the skimpy white bathing suit I’d seen in that photo, but I kept my mouth shut.

“I think it’s going to rain all day tomorrow,” said Austin, “but Monday is supposed to be nice.”

I looked up at the sky. Earlier it had been a bright, clear blue, but now I noticed clouds drifting in from the west. “I didn’t realize it was going to rain.”

“Yeah.” Veronica made a face. “It’s supposed to be kind of a big storm. They were talking about it in town today. Such a bummer on a holiday weekend.”