Page 23 of Sandbar Summer (Summer Cottage #3)

“This is all well and good, switching, but I’m not clear on what’s going on.”

“J.J. is going out the front, all the way to the airport. We’re gonna pretend you’re flying out of here.”

“Hope’s out front with Aunt Emma’s Lincoln Town Car. It’s got tinted windows. Hope’s your driver.”

“Okay?”

“Except, you’re not going to the airport. J.J. is.”

J.J. struck a pose, back of her hand on her forehead. “No picture, no pictures!”

It was starting to get clearer.

“And where am I actually going?”

“On a boat ride,” Libby said, grinning.

“In the words of Princess Leia, ‘Here they come,’” Joe called to them from the window.

“I think you should haul out a few suitcases to really sell it,” Libby said.

“Good idea.” Goldie pointed to her room. She hadn’t unpacked two of them, so it should be easy.

“Okay, so, if they’re going to believe this, they can’t get too close. What do you advise? You’re the one with the Oscar.”

Goldie looked at J.J. And assessed her best acting coach's advice.

“You’re an open book, old friend, so maybe act like you’re trying to hide. Like you know they’re out there. But don’t look straight at them. Also, don’t be nice to Joe. Be the diva they think I am.”

“Got it. Come on, beefcake. Let’s hit it.”

“Oh, and Hope is going to drive through town once,” Libby explained. “At the stoplight, we’ll roll the window down enough that they get a glimpse. They’re congregating at Green and Lake Manitou.”

“I’m going to be the best bait this lake has seen since Jared put filet minion on his hook after Mama brought it home in a doggie bag.”

“Good luck,” Libby said to J.J.

“You too.”

Joe opened the door for J.J.

Goldie tried not to laugh, watching J.J. adopt a totally different posture. She was perfect. “Uh, maybe she is the real actress among us.”

“She’s for sure a ham,” Libby replied.

“Now it’s time for my performance?”

“You got it. We’re going out the way I came in. And if anyone spots you, they’ll think you’re J.J.—they certainly won’t think you’re Goldie Hayes slumming it back here.”

Goldie followed Libby out to the deck.

“The place doesn’t have a working dock. I found that out a few days ago.”

“Right, take off your tennis shoes.”

Goldie did what Libby said. It was easy to fall right back into that dynamic. Libby was good at rallying the troops and, in this case, mounting a mobile diversionary operation.

“You’re giving four-star general energy.”

“Okay, then, march!”

They waded through the weeds and out to the water, right into the muck that Goldie had gotten stuck in on the first day. She still wasn’t a fan, but with Libby’s long legs and assured direction, Goldie didn’t have a chance to really get grossed out.

The water was up to Goldie’s knees and then, as they waded further out, her hips. She was falling behind.

Goldie tried to buck up and match her lanky friend, stride for stride, but wasn’t succeeding.

Libby turned around and saw the struggle. “Here.” Libby reached a hand back to Goldie.

“I can do it, I’m—whoa.” She rethought her independence and grabbed Libby’s hand.

“Okay, where’s the little goldfish I grew up with?”

“It’s ugh, well, I am used to poolside, I guess.”

“You peeled a leech off your butt cheek with your bare hands without blinking an eye. Remember?”

Goldie remembered. Libby was right. She’d been so buffed, polished, and pampered lately that she’d forgotten how she used to be.

“Aha!” Libby waved her long arms, and a fancy-looking boat turned toward them.

“OOOH, that looks like something Jack Kennedy would take Jackie out on at The Cape.” Goldie had played young Joan Kennedy in a miniseries back in the early aughts.

“Yeah, Keith’s Chris-Craft is a beauty, isn’t she?”

“Wow, okay, so is that George Clooney behind the wheel?”

“Do not tell Keith you think he looks like George Clooney.”

“That’s Keith? Wow, nice one, sister.”

“Stop, but yeah, George Clooney wishes.”

They held hands and started laughing. They were both more or less soaked.

“Stop, this is making me have to pee,” Goldie said as the situation grew more and more absurd.

“Well, you’re in the lake. Go for it.”

“I mean, I am really falling down the shoot here now.”

“There’s not a potty on the boat, Goldie.”

“Right.”

A moment later, Keith got as close as he could get to them.

“You’ll have to swim out. That seaweed is gonna muck up the engine. Hi, Goldie.”

“Hey Keith, thanks for the lift.”

“You okay to swim a few feet?”

“I am, I am.”

Goldie took Libby’s lead again, and they got close to the boat. Libby tread water easily, but Goldie wasn’t as sure of herself.

“Here!” Keith flung a life preserver to Libby, and she slowly slid it over to Goldie.

“I’m really okay.” As Goldie said it, a little lake water went up her nose.

“Take it. It will not be good for tourism if an Oscar winner drowns in Lake Manitou.”

Goldie gratefully grabbed the life preserver. The little panic she had been starting to experience ebbed. They’d be fine. They’d be just fine.

“Get her first,” Libby said as Keith put out a hand. Libby slid Goldie toward the boat.

“I got you.” He grabbed her hand and lifted her ball cap to toes out of the water. She landed on the deck of the boat like a fish.

“Whoa, you’re heavier than you look, bubble butt,” Keith said and gave her a wink. He kneeled down and looked at her like he was a surgeon. He was the same old Keith, and she was inclined to either punch him in the shoulder or hug his neck.

“You’re okay, just waterlogged.” He was kind and patient with the antics of the Sandbar Sisters. In between teasing them. He really was an honorary member of the club.

“I’m okay.”

“Okay, Q, get in here.”

Libby was on the back of the boat. Goldie watched as her friend confidently used her arms to push herself up.

“Wow, someone has been doing her pushups,” Goldie said.

“I’ve just been doing a lot of skiing. This one got tired of hauling me back in when I dumped.”

“Never.” Keith stood up and now reached over to Libby. He kissed her on the lips.

Goldie was amazed to see these two gorgeous adults together after all this time. She remembered the details of their breakup better than the plots of some of the movies she actually starred in.

“I’ve got some towels in the seat,” Keith said.

Libby lifted the top of the bench seat and produced beach towels.

“You have my phone?” Libby asked Keith.

“Yeah. You want me to do a few slow circles?”

“I think it’s best if we stay on the water until we know the diversion did the trick.”

“Here, kiddo, dry off.” Libby handed Goldie a towel and wrapped one around her own waist.

“Keith,” Goldie said, “I can’t believe we’re all meeting here like this, again, after all this time.”

Keith was behind the wheel of the boat now. He turned and smiled at Goldie. “We’ve always been so proud of you. I brag about you all the time. My sons do not believe I knew you when.”

“How many?”

“Three boys. All smart as heck, their mom did a good job. Can’t take any credit,” Keith said.

Goldie noticed Libby smiling at the comment. “She sure did. The world owes her a debt. The boys are great. Braylon works at Hope’s place. He can make pastry that you’ll die for.”

“Margo had a heck of a sweet tooth.”

From the conversation, it was clear to Goldie that Keith was a widower. Her heart broke a little for him. They all had stories. They all had full lives between the lake of 1989 and today.

The sun was warm. It helped make up for the fact that she was soaked.

“Ah ha!” Libby picked up her phone. “Victor, what’s your vector?”

Goldie laughed. She wasn’t sure when she’d laughed this much. Or when she’d last peed in a lake. Libby put her phone on speaker.

“Well, they bought it,” J.J. said. “I had four cars trailing me. Hope is a speed demon. By the way, she is not authorized to drive the next time we road trip to Ann Arbor.”

“You’re exaggerating,” Hope said.

“No, it’s dramatic license. Look it up. Anyway, they followed all the way to the Lenawee County Airport. They helped us out of the car and unload bags at the airport. I made a real show of being in a panic. I am telling you, doing hair was the wrong career choice.”

“They followed all the way, took pictures, from the fence. They thought it was Goldie,” Hope said.

“Okay, so we need to be sure. You’re heading to town?”

“Yep, we’re checking the hashtag online. It looks like the pictures are showing up. The fanboys are trying to figure out where Goldie’s headed. But they’re sure she’s not here. They’re all theorizing. I think it worked.”

“Great.”

“I’m swinging by to pick up the dinner from the restaurant, and do you want to change?”

“Heck no, I’m going to dress like this for Dean. It’ll spice things up.”

“TMI,” Hope said. “We’ll do a circle around town, make sure no one is snooping there too. But things are looking pretty quiet, situation ghost town once again.”

“Okay. So, rendezvous at Nora House, ninety minutes or so? And make sure Joe knows he’s invited. He was critical to Operation Get Goldie Gone.”

Libby ended the call.

Goldie leaned back in her seat on the boat. She looked at Keith and Libby. They had gone to the end of the earth to protect her just now. While Hollis had sold her out for money, her old friends had done the opposite.

She also realized that not only had they diverted the press. They had done so to the detriment of their main goal, to get people to Irish Hills.

“Irish Hills was crawling with people, for a hot second. That was weird,” Keith commented, as though reading her thoughts.

“Yeah, there was almost a traffic jam,” Libby said.

“You could have capitalized on this,” Goldie said. “You could have called more press in. That would change the game for tourism. I’m more famous than Chef Ellston, if I do say so.”

“Damn straight you are, but you’re our friend. Not our meal ticket.”

“But, I mean, I just—”

“—I promised you that you would be safe here, that you could rest here. I was serious about that.”

Goldie wanted to thank them. She wanted them to know how much of a revelation this was to her. Everyone in her life lived off of her or tried to sell a piece of her.

Keeping her secret was in direct opposition to what all of her old friends were trying to do. But they’d done it anyway.

Half a dozen people that she hadn’t seen in more than two dozen years had gone bananas to keep her hidden.

Goldie let that fact sink in. And she started to wonder, what could she do to show how much it meant to her?