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CALEB

His speech to the Chamber of Commerce was short and sweet. He’d gone to the dais with the never-ending ocean view behind him. The moment he began to speak, his phone, which he’d left in his jacket’s breast pocket, began to vibrate.

He ignored the first set of buzzes, but the second, third, and fourth were distracting. What was going on? He stumbled over a couple of words. Lost his place. Then glanced at Dad and Mom in the front row to see if they were checking their phones.

Bentley was skating with the Feinbergs. So the vibrating probably wasn’t about him. It probably wasn’t Cassidy. She’d ring their folks in a true emergency. She’d done so once before. Was it Emery?

Across the room, every eye was on him, waiting, appearing impatient by the hesitations of their speaker. The few dozen on their phone did not look alarmed.

His phone went off again, but he ignored it and powered through, delivering his speech without conviction.

“What I learned in Seattle is simple: Trust and respect are paramount to every relationship, to business, to government. T his Chamber has supported business growth and recovery for years. It’s time we focus on the East End.

Opportunities abound for those who want to open a retail space.

Take a chance. There are tax breaks and grants for start-ups.

Attracting tourism to the East End is attracting tourism for us all.

Which leads me to the biggest chore before us: unifying the East and West Ends.

Sea Blue Beach deserves better. How did a simple rivalry between football teams grow into a—”

“We know it was you Nickle High boys who trashed our football field.” The voice came from the back of the room. Caleb kept his head down and continued talking.

“You trashed our beach first.” That was Shift, who’d come to support Caleb.

“With a few plastic bottles and ice cream wrappers. You dumped garbage on our field.”

“I never forgot that smell.” Another voice from the crowd.

From the corner of his eye, Caleb saw Mac move as if he were about to stand, take charge, be the man.

“You’re right,” Caleb said. “Simple high school pranks got out of hand, and somehow between now and then, the growth of the West End and a football rivalry divided us. We’re us and them.

The haves and have-nots. The old and the new.

Our history is a royal prince and a freed slave working together to build our town.

Who are we to tear it apart? Do we really want the West End to break off into their own municipality?

” Low, rumbling voices rose from every table.

“What will your history be then? That you used to be a town with royal and freedom roots, but now you’re just about hotels, restaurants, tourist spots, and—” He glanced at Mac. “Golf courses?”

“The East End is dead weight,” a voice called out.

“Stop shouting from behind one another.” Caleb stepped to the side of the podium.

Healing might as well start now. “Stand u p if you have something to say.” From his chair, Simon nodded, approving.

Dad sat up a bit taller. “Look, I don’t mean to preach here, but we need something, someone to bring us together. Sea Blue Beach deserves better.”

“Caleb! Caleb.” Emery burst through the doors, breathless and flushed, hair wild about her shoulders. “The hostess said you were—” She stopped. Froze, really, and glanced around the room. “Um, Emery Quinn,” she said with a deep resonance. “From the Sea Blue Beach Gazette . Am I late?”

Nice save , Quinn .

“You’re just in time,” Caleb said.

He closed out his speech with a couple of platitudes he found on the internet and handed the room over to the Commerce president, Yolanda Vargas, and beelined for Emery.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered as they walked out of the Skylight toward the large dock over the water. “The hostess said the meeting was over. To go on in.”

He pulled out his phone. All the calls and texts were from Emery. “What’s going on? Why were you blowing up my phone?”

EMERY

Now that she was here, looking at Caleb face-to-face, she couldn’t just blurt out the news. Not with Chamber members and Skylight patrons milling around, wine glasses in hand, walking on the deck as if walking on water.

She’d drawn attention to herself by barging into the banquet room, yelling for Caleb like she had no sense, awakening curiosities. She caught a few glances, smiled at his parents, their interest undisguised.

N o, this news was too big to drop as casually as if she’d discovered a new muffin flavor at Sweet Conversations.

“Let’s meet at your place. Wait, now that I think about it, I should tell Simon too.” Emery paced along the dock’s railing. “But just Simon.”

“You drove all the way here and burst into the room just to say you want to tell me later ?”

“I lost my head for a bit. However, I’ve found it now. It’s best if we talk in private.” She squinted through the shadowed glass wall of the banquet room. A handful of people were watching them, talking together. “Text Simon. Tell him we’ll be at his place after dark.”

“After dark. Got it. Should we dress in black? Wear ski masks?”

“Hey, that’s not a bad idea, Ransom.” She patted his chest. “I’m starved. Is the food any good here?”

“At fifty bucks a plate, it better be. Come on, let’s go grab something from a food truck and pretend you don’t have this big secret to tell. Am I going to like it?”

“You’re going to like it. I think. Yes, you will. Oh man, I hope so. If not, I’m in trouble.”

Thirty minutes later, they sat on a Beachwalk bench with sandwiches and soda, not talking about Emery’s big news. The sun was high, warming the afternoon, and several spring breakers tossed a Frisbee on the beach.

Two bites in, Emery couldn’t eat any more. She was full of excitement. The Royal Blues were coming to town.

After lunch, they passed the afternoon playing a game with Bentley until he went out to ride bikes with friends. Then the conversation turned to Caleb’s unpacked boxes.

“Are they holding up the walls or something?” Emery peeked into the box marked Mementos .

“ Bentley used them to make a fort. I can’t mess that up, can I?”

Finally, the late winter sun set enough for them to knock on Simon’s door. A dog barked. The porch light came on. An eager-looking Simon invited them in.

“Emery, this is my wife, Nadine. So, what’s this all about?” Simon sat on the edge of the couch next to his wife.

The living room was beautiful and comfy, with rich hardwood floors, beams on the ceiling, and a western window framing the winter skyline.

“Well—” She glanced at Caleb, then Simon and Nadine. “I’m not sure how to say it now that the moment is here.” She wanted to hold onto this special news a moment longer. It’d become a part of her. What if they didn’t think it was a big deal? What if they rejected the idea?

“Em?” Caleb said.

“Here goes.” She adjusted her position on the loveseat so she could see her audience better.

“About a month ago, I wrote to the House of Blue in Lauchtenland, using Rachel Kirby’s private email address to the Chamber Office.

” She paused for any questions. There were none.

“The idea came to me after one of the Main Street meetings where someone, I think Duke, maybe Adele, said we needed a big event to bring attention to the town, especially the East End. And hopefully bring us all together. So I took a shot and requested a visit from the royal family. This morning Sted from the Chamber Office called. Their Royal Highnesses Prince John and Princess Gemma want to visit Sea Blue Beach at the end of April. He asked if that worked for us and—” The moment needed a drum roll or trumpet blast. “I said yes.” Ta-da.

Her audience gaped at her, wide-eyed. What was her interpretation of their expression? Unbelief? Maybe, “That’s it? Your big news?”

“ Why are you looking at me like that? Did you hear what I said? The royal family, descendants of Prince Blue, want to visit Sea Blue Beach. I hope it’s okay I said yes.” This wasn’t going at all like she imagined.

“Well,” Nadine began, a bit breathless, glancing at Simon, “that is usually prom weekend.”

“True.” Simon nodded. “Emery, do you think they could come the weekend before or after?”

“What? Ask them to ... You’re not serious, are you?”

“Of course we’re not serious.” Nadine launched to her feet, shouting. “This is incredible . Emery, you brilliant, brave soul! How come we never thought to ask before?”

“Emery, you’re going to get a Citizen’s Star Award for this.” Simon pumped the air with his fist so hard he strained his arm.

“You have those?” She waved off the compliment. “So do you think we can pull this off?”

“Absolutely.” Simon started pacing. “I’ll make sure we pull this off.”

When she looked at Caleb, he was smiling so wide, so bright, so proud, she felt it in her veins. Without a word, he scooped her into his arms and whirled her around. “While I was making a speech about coming together, you were doing something about it.”

“Not true, Caleb,” Simon said. “You did something powerful today. You confronted the division. I was so proud.”

“Not sure I did any good.” He glanced at the small group. “How do we handle this?”

“Right now, the four of us will be the initial committee.” Simon made a face. “Why does everything in this town begin with a committee? Anyway, since you’re the contact, Emery, we’ll follow your lead.”

“I’d like to hand it over to you, Simon. You’re the mayor. There’s a call with Sted on Wednesday at ten. How about we meet in your office just before?”

“Emery, you’ve breathed life into me. I was beginning to lose hope. If the West End broke away on my watch, I’d have failed this town, the mayorship, and broken my own heart.”

“Darling, I keep telling you...” Nadine said. “You’re a wonderful mayor. Those West Enders are blowing smoke to get us to bend to their will. Forget them for now. The royals are coming. Let’s celebrate. Who wants ice cream?”