Page 179 of Secrets Along the Shore

THE GIRL BETWEEN US

JULIA BLYTHE

PROLOGUE

Fifteen Years Ago

Flathead Lake, Montana

July 4th

I feltthe fireworks more than I saw them—I sealed my eyes shut as the pounding booms vibrated through my body, exhilarating me. I couldn’t hear them as my ears had been closed to sound since I was a toddler by an illness that stole my hearing from me. I opened my eyes to the lights rippling through the sky, across the lake, and into my body, buzzing inside my chest and skull. A thousand colors bloomed above me like wildflowers caught in the wind, and it felt as though the world was cracking open and, for a second, I could almosthearit.

Then the silence returned with wisps of leftover smoke wafting away, and I was alone on a rowboat in the middle of the lake, realizing my friends never rowed out to watch the spectacle with me as they had done for the last four years.

The sky, cleared of smoke and light, became black velvet sprinkled with stars. Thick darkness settled over the water, draping me like a soft blanket. I sighed in disappointment at missing my friends. My hands loosened on the oars. The lake, once chaotic with the wakes of ahundred boats, stilled again. I dipped the oars into the water, propelling my small rowboat toward the girls’ house across the lake, attempting to see if they were on their deck. The middle of the lake was our meeting place, but something must have kept them away.

I didn’t want to believe they stayed away because of me.

Please don’t let it be because of me.

It was always here in this place, the halfway point, that we would meet every Fourth of July night beneath the bright lights and thunderous booms that even I could hear through the vibrations. I hadn’t known their names the first summer I saw them—only that they lived in the grand white house that faced the lodge where I came to stay. Their windows were always golden with the setting sun and filled me with warmth across the cold water, their exuberant waves sent across the lake in a silent invitation to join them. Their clothes were always prettier than my basic school uniforms colors of tan and navy, their hair brushed long and smooth, their mother always nearby on the deck, barefoot and smiling, waving at boats as they passed. They were what I imagined a loving home and family would be like—ifI had had one.

We weren’t supposed to meet. Not really. I was one ofthem—a student from the Bayberry School for the Deaf, selected to stay at the headmaster’s summer lodge—chosen, he said, for our excellence, our resilience, and our growth. But I knew better. It wasn’t about grades. My scores barely reached average. There was something else, something he saw in me. Headmaster Scanlon would say, “Scarlett McBride, you’re almost there.” Though I never understood wheretherewas. And no one at the school ever told me. They just resented us, the chosen ones, avoided us even. So when I saw the sisters across the lake watching me one morning four years ago, and they signedhello, the older one more clumsily with both hands, I nearly cried.

Each summer after that, we’d wave, then sign. Then finally met—rowing out to the middle of the lake, where no adults could see. Just the three of us. In the beginning, I was too shy to say much. But they didn’t seem to mind. They knew a little sign language, though I never asked how. I didn’t care. I was just happy to have their friendship. Iread their lips, and they brought candy and stories, and once, they let me hold a duckling they’d rescued from the rocks.

That was the thing about them. They made me feel like I wasn’t broken. Like I wasn’t invisible.

Tonight, I expected them to be waiting once again to begin our summer together. But instead, for the first time in four years, I felt rejected by them like all the others at school rejected me.

I stopped rowing, letting the water rock the boat beneath me in a small, steady lull. The surface reflected the stars like tiny glass shards—perfect and sharp. I turned to look toward their lodge, halfway up the slope on the opposite bank, its wide balcony like a stage set for a story.

Nothing.

I squinted into the darkness. Waiting. Watching.

Three blinks of a flashlight. That was our cue.

One blink meant not tonight. Two meant we would meet halfway. Three meant to come over. But there was no light at all. Just black windows. Stillness.

I set the oars beside me and folded my arms over the side of the boat. It was late, yes, but nottoolate. They always stayed out until the fireworks ended—until the lake cleared and the adults were too tired or too tipsy to keep watch.

I looked again. The trees bowed in the wind, leaves catching just enough moonlight to glint like silver. I could almost imagine I saw something moving in the shadows, but it was just the wind. Just my imagination.

Another minute passed. Then another. Still, nothing.

An itch started in the back of my throat, crawling down my spine. I sat up straighter, heart thudding without reason. A sliver of panic whispered that maybe something had happened. Maybe someone saw them and stopped them from coming. Maybe they were in trouble.

I raised my flashlight and blinked it three times in a row, quick and desperate. The tiny beam barely reached the shore. I waited again, counting the seconds in my head.

Ten. Twenty. Thirty.

Darkness.

A cold knot settled in my stomach. My hands curled into fists in my lap. What if they changed their minds? What if they didn’twantto see me anymore?

No.