Castaway Cove (31 page)

“Okay,” Kara said, laying out a map of Shelter Bay. “We’ll start here.” She tapped a pencil point on the place where Emma’s suitcase had been found, “and work in quadrants. Because I know there’s no way I’m going to keep you home,” she told Mac, “you’re assigned this one. And don’t go all Lone Ranger on me, okay? Because this only works if everyone does what he or she is supposed to.”

Mac didn’t like the idea. At all. But he had to admit that it made more sense than just randomly driving down streets. Hell, shortly after they moved here, he’d lost Emma for five damn minutes in the Newport Fred Meyer store, which, until now, had been the scariest moments of his life, even worse than being blown up by the jingle truck.

“It’ll be all right,” Annie assured him as he left the house.

“You can’t know that.”

“No. But I believe it.”

“What happened to always preparing for the worst?”

“That was then,” she said. “Before you and Emma and Charlie and your father taught me to look for silver linings. I know she’s safe and out there waiting for you to find her.”

He gave her a quick, hard kiss. Then, as the sun began to sink over the ocean, Mac began to walk the section Kara had assigned him, in search of his daughter.

•   •   •

Emma knew she was not supposed to talk to strangers. But it didn’t take her long to figure out that she was lost. Like really, really lost.

She’d been so mad when she left Peggy’s house that she hadn’t really been paying attention. And it wasn’t as if she’d actually ever walked there before—she lived far enough away that whenever they had playdates, either her father or her grandfather or Peggy’s mother drove.

So, even though she liked to think that she was just like the bravest princess of all, she was beginning to get scared. And cold, as she got closer to the ocean and the wind started blowing and it began to rain.

She’d lost all track of the time, and she wondered if Peggy’s mother had gotten home yet. Had Peggy even bothered to tell her that Emma had left? Because what if no one was looking for her? What if no one found her before it got dark?

The longer she walked, the more Emma began to realize that she just should’ve hit Peggy. Because when she finally got home, she was probably going to be grounded for life.

She finally stopped at a big house on the top of a hill. She thought maybe since she could see the whole town and the harbor from here, she’d see her grandpa’s house. But she couldn’t, so it was time to admit she was in trouble.

The house had a sign out in front which read
HAVEN HOUSE
. And it had pretty flowers in the yard and a stained-glass front door that was reflecting the setting sun like rainbows. Emma rang the bell.

A woman who looked at least as old as her poppy opened the door. She was skinny and wearing jeans and a red shirt with a ballet dancer on the front of it. Which had Emma looking down at her feet, which instead of ballet slippers were wearing sneakers covered in gold sequins.

“Why, my goodness. You must be Emma,” the woman said, opening the door wider.

“How did you know my name?”

“Oh, you’re famous.” Her warm smile told Emma that she’d picked the very best house. “I’m Zelda. Why don’t you come in and have some cookies and milk while we call your daddy to come pick you up?”

“You know my daddy?”

“Only from the radio,” she said. “But I know how to get hold of him. He’s going to be very happy to hear you’re safe.”

“I was always safe,” Emma explained as she entered the house. “I was just lost.”

“And doesn’t that happen to all of us from time to time?” Zelda assured her.

A
nnie had never been as relieved in her life as she was when Mac called to let her know that Emma had been found. He’d arrived back at the Buchanan house with her just as Boyd and Marian pulled into the driveway.

“Annie,” Emma said as she squirmed out of his arms and went running toward her. “Guess what? I was lost!”

“I know,” Annie said, kneeling down to hold her tight. “We were very worried.”

“I’m sorry. I was a little scared, but then I met this really nice lady and guess what else?”

“What?”

“She’s a famous ballerina who’s going to teach me how to dance. Just like Angel!”

Annie looked up at Mac, who while obviously looking better than he had when he left the house, still showed signs of stress around his eyes and his mouth.

“Isn’t that special?” she answered Emma, even as her gaze assured Mac that she knew ways to relieve that stress. Later.

•   •   •

The good news was that Mac had his daughter back. Safe and sound, thanks, in large part, to Zelda Chmerkovskiy. The bad news was that while Emma was still recounting her adventure, wishing she’d thought to take pictures with her new camera, Kara showed up at the house.

“I hate to tell you this,” she told Mac, her expression echoing her words, “but your grandfather’s gone missing.”

“What?”

According to what the bartender had told Kara when she’d responded to the call at the sports restaurant, Charlie had had the bad luck to see the AMBER Alert about Emma, and had, for some reason known only to himself, decided to go find her.

Which had resulted in the second AMBER Alert of the day.

Were they having fun yet?

Emma, who’d been remarkably calm, though still angry at her former friend when Mac had picked her up at Haven House, burst into tears when she heard the news about her grandfather.

“It’s all my f-f-fault.”

“No,” Annie, who’d stayed calm throughout the ordeal, assured her as she wiped away the tears streaming down Emma’s cheeks. “It’s just one of those things. Your grandfather used to wander off before you even arrived in Shelter Bay.”

“Which is why he’s living in Still Waters,” Mac’s father reminded her. “To keep him safe.”

“I know. That’s why I never should have told him about the cave.”

“Cave?” Kara asked.

“The cave with the diamonds on the beach. I told him if he ever wanted to run away that would be a good place to hide out. And I’d bring him food and stuff.”

Kara and Mac exchanged a look.

“I know the one she’s talking about,” Kara said. “I’ll go check it out. Meanwhile, now that it’s dark, I want you to stay put. Besides, your daughter needs you.”

“Peggy said you had P-P-PMS,” Emma told Mac. “And that you might shoot someone because of it. So I left because you told me I’m not supposed to hit people anymore.”

Mac could practically feel the gray hairs sprouting on his head. “It’s PTSD,” he said. “And no, I don’t have it, and it’s good that you didn’t hit her. But the next time you decide to leave someplace like that, I want you to call me, okay?”

“Okay.” She snuggled closer to Annie. “Or maybe I could call Annie.”

“Absolutely,” Annie said.

“Okay. So, I’m not going to be spanked?”

“Of course not.” Mac wondered what he’d ever done to make her think she might.

“Or grounded?”

“No.” He was too grateful to have her home safe and sound. But they were going to have to have a talk about her tendency to fly off the handle.

“Do you think Poppy will be okay?” She sniffled and her eyes welled up again.

“Absolutely,” Annie repeated.

As Mac thought about Charlie, out there in what had become cold, pouring rain, perhaps walking along the cliff in the dark, lost and confused, he only wished he could feel as confident as Annie, who he knew was as worried as he was.

“And isn’t this a fine mess you’ve gotten yourself into,” Charlie muttered as he stood in the center of a grove of towering Douglas fir trees.

Although he hated to admit it, even to himself, Charlie was lost.

Somehow, although he’d been walking for what seemed like hours, he had the feeling he’d been going in circles.

Then again, maybe that could be all in his mind. Maybe, he thought, he was actually back in bed at Still Waters and all this was just a bad dream. Like the one he still sometimes had of the
Lexington
sinking. Or Annie dying.

“It’s not a dream, darling,” he heard a familiar voice say.

He spun around, almost tripping over a damn stump, only to see her standing on a trail he hadn’t even noticed while stumbling around through the trees like the old man he was.

“Are you real?”

“I suppose that depends on your definition,” she said. “But I’m as real as I am whenever I visit you, and no, you’re not dreaming and no, I’m not a hallucination.”

“Are you here to finally take me with you?” he asked hopefully.

“I’m sorry.” Her expression was the same one she gave him every time he asked. “But I’ve told you, Charlie, my love—”

“We all have our own time,” he finished the damn words for her.

“Exactly.” She reached out and ran her fingers down his cheek. Or perhaps it was simply a gust of soft sea breeze blowing in from the coast. Wherever the hell
that
was. “Just as you told Emma about her fish.”

“I was looking for Emma.”

“She’s home. Safe and sound and with her father.”

Relief flooded over him. “That’s good news . . .

“I miss you.” He felt his damn eyes filling up. “I don’t know what to do without you, Annie.”

“You’re doing just fine,” she said.

“We both know that’s not true. I’m out in the middle of the goddamn woods in the middle of the night even more lost than when I was bobbing around in the sea after my ship went down. I miss you every day. And every damn night. And it’s just not fair.”

“I can’t argue that,” she answered.

“Ha! I thought once you got to heaven you had all the answers.”

“And wouldn’t that be lovely,” she agreed. “All I can say is that my time isn’t the same as your time. I can’t explain it, but you’ll understand someday.”

“Why not now? If I just found the damn cliff and threw myself off it, would that finally work?” Remembering what Emma had said about Dory and Nemo, he realized he was now thinking like a six-year-old.

“It might solve one problem. But it would create a host more. Your grandson’s doing better than he was. Mac’s fallen in love and he’s learning to be a father. But he still needs you, Charlie. As does Emma.”

And
he
needed his Annie. But she’d always been wiser than him.

“They’re probably going nuts,” he said.

“They’ve very worried,” she agreed. “Which is why you’re going to take my hand now. And I’m going to lead you out of the woods and help you find your way home.”

“
You’re
my home. You’ve always been.”

“Just be patient a little longer and know that wherever you are, darling, I’ll always be with you.”

She led him to what he recognized as the Coast Highway.

“Now take this.” She pressed something into his hands. “And wait just a minute. And you’ll be all set.”

And then she did what he’d been dreaming of ever since she’d had that stroke that had taken her from him.

She kissed him. Full on the lips, a familiar, wonderful kiss that had stayed in his mind all during the war and helped him make it back home to her. And at this moment, it warmed him all the way through.

And then, like morning mist over the harbor, she was gone.

At the same moment, a log truck came barreling around the corner.

Charlie looked down at what she’d pressed into his hand. Turned it on. And waved the flashlight like a beacon signal, bringing the truck to a stop with the squeal of air brakes.

The driver’s window rolled down.

“Hey, man,” the bearded guy called out to him. “Everybody in the state’s been looking for you. So why don’t you get the hell out of this rain and I’ll take you home.”

Th
ey were waiting for him. All but Emma, who, having arrived safely home herself, had fallen asleep, exhausted after her adventure, so they’d put her to bed.

“You had us worried to death,” Mac said, looking pretty much like death himself, Charlie thought. But he’d be okay. Because he had
his
Annie.

“Sorry about that,” he muttered. “I guess I screwed up.”

“Well, you’re all right,” Annie said, putting her arms around him for the first time since they’d met. At least the first time he remembered her doing that. “That’s all that matters.”

“Absolutely,” said Boyd, who didn’t look that good himself.

“I thought maybe I was going to die out there,” he admitted. “But Annie,
my
Annie, told me that it wasn’t my time yet. That I needed to come back because you”—he shot a look at Mac—“can’t convince this lady to marry you.”

“I’m working on it,” Mac muttered.

“Well, work on it a little faster,” Charlie advised. “Because, believe me, boy, life goes by pretty damn quick while you’re not paying close enough attention.”

Then he turned to Annie. “You’re already part of this family,” he said. “You’ve seen us at our best. And well, maybe today not exactly our best. But you stuck with us. You stuck with my grandson here because you love him.”

She was holding Mac’s hand the same way Annie had held his. In both of her soft, pretty ones.

“So,” Charlie demanded, “why don’t you quit keeping us all in suspense and just say yes?”

“I believe that’s my question to ask, Gramps,” Mac said quietly. But Charlie wasn’t fooled because anyone could see the humor in his eyes. His grandson had always enjoyed life. And now that he was finally with the right woman, Charlie knew firsthand that he was going to enjoy it a helluva lot more.

“Well, then? What’s keeping you?”

“Maybe I’d like some privacy?”

“Oh.” That made sense, and although he’d like to hear the girl say the words, he guessed he’d be dancing at their wedding.

“Okay, then. Just make sure you do it right. Women like you to get down on one knee. It may seem old-fashioned, but it gets them every time.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Mac murmured, this time exchanging a laughing look with Annie, who smiled back.

“Oh, one more thing,” he said to his grandson’s Annie. “My Annie says that it’s mostly good around that bend of yours. And what isn’t, you’ll handle together. Because that’s what families do.”

“So I hear,” she said.

Damn. He didn’t mean to make her cry. But, from the way she was still smiling, even wider, Charlie took that to be one of those female crying things that he would never, even if he lived to be a hundred—which it seemed he just might do after all—understand.