Cries in the Night (39 page)

Kelly looked up eagerly. “I already have an idea.”

“Oh really? Where’s that?” Jane set her glass carefully on the table.

“Disney World. I’ve heard they really go all out to decorate everything for the holidays. I’ve always wanted to see it. We had talked about going there … but we never had the chance.” Kelly felt her eyes fill with tears and she tried to blink them back. The pain of her parents’ death was still so fresh and raw.

“I’m so sorry, Kelly. I miss your mom too,” Jane’s voice was soft. “Disney World? It’s hard to get a reservation on-site around the holidays, but I have a travel agent who’s pretty well-connected.”

Kelly thought about all the trips she’d already taken this summer … 1966 here in FMB which had looked a lot different than it did today, 1980 to a beautiful island off the southeast coast of Florida and the last one to 1927 through several Texas towns, but she couldn’t tell her aunt anything about those adventures. Instead, she said, “That would be awesome.” Her phone was sitting on the table when it chimed and the screen lit up.A glance confirmed her suspicions. “It’s from Scott. He’s been texting me whenever he has a signal. He thinks his parents are avoiding all the interstates so he won’t have strong signals and would have to stay off his phone.”

Her aunt smiled. “Go ahead and see what he has to say. I don’t mind.”

Kelly wiped the paint off her hands with a rag and picked up her phone. She would have been a ton more excited had it been from Austin, but it was good to hear from Scott.

“
Hey, u there
?” The text read.

“
Working on doghouse
,” Kelly quickly responded, “
U home
?”

A long minute went past. “
Still trapped in the back seat. CU
Sat.
”

Kelly smiled.

“Good news?” Aunt Jane queried.

“He’ll be home Saturday!”

“So let me get this straight … Scott’s the one you went out with and that you like?”

“Yes and no … Austin’s the one I really like.”

“I thought he and Zoey were a
thing
.”

“Thing? Oh … no…she’s in love with Jesse …”

“Who’s Jesse? Is he a boy at school?”

“Uh … not really.” Kelly had frozen as soon as Jesse’s name had slipped out, so she jumped at the chance to change the subject. “So, how was your trip?”

Now it was Jane’s turn to freeze. “Uh … it was good. The witness will make the case for us.” She took another drink.

“Austin’s dad was staying there, too. Did you see him?”

Aunt Jane choked, spitting out a mouthful of wine and having a coughing spell.

Kelly hesitated. Should she go pound on Aunt Jane’s back? She was coughing, so that meant she didn’t need a Heimlich, right?

Aunt Jane’s cheeks were pink when she finally recovered and managed to croak out, “We ran into each other and had dinner.”

“That’s good. He seems like a really nice man.”

“He is,” Aunt Jane said … too quickly. “I mean, yes, he’s … uh … interesting.”

Kelly gave her aunt a curious look.

Aunt Jane stood up so abruptly that her chair almost fell over. “I’ll get dinner started. I think we have some lasagna in the freezer. It’ll be ready by the time you finish painting and cleaning up.”

Kelly watched as her aunt practically ran into the house.

There was a squawk and a flutter of brightly colored wings. Kelly looked around and saw that the beautiful scarlet macaw that woke her almost every morning was perched on the peaked roof of the doghouse, an intrusion that send Josie into a spasm of barking. The puppy lunged at the bird that was just out of her reach. Unfortunately, the paint was still wet and the pads of Josie’s little paws were smudged with yellow.

“Josie, don’t!” Kelly lunged for the dog and held her tightly while she reached for the rag.

Nico, the macaw, cocked his red head to one side and eyed the girl and her dog with one shiny black eye. Then he whistled, a perfect imitation of Kelly’s whistle, which sent Josie into a renewed frenzy.

Kelly struggled to hang onto the wiggling puppy. “Nico, you naughty bird, go away. You had to pick this moment to try to make friends?”

With a cackle like the wicked witch from
The Wizard of Oz
, he shook, sending a shower of red, blue and yellow feathers down onto the still wet paint, before stretching his wings and flying off. Normally, Kelly would have been delighted to be so close to the notoriously wary bird, but this wasn’t the right time or place. She finished wiping as much paint as she could off Josie’s feet before the puppy bounded away in the direction Nico had gone even though the bird was now thirty feet up in a palm tree. As he continued to taunt Josie with his whistles, Kelly tried to pick the bigger feathers out of the paint. What else could go wrong? There was Austin’s blood on the floor, Josie’s paw prints on the side and Nico’s feathers in the paint.

She finished the final section of yellow, but decided to leave the print and the feathers. It gave it character.

Dinner was a little awkward with her aunt not mentioning anything else about her trip and Kelly not bringing up the subject of Austin’s injury or her illegal dash to the hospital. Aunt Jane pleaded exhaustion and went to her room as soon as the dishes were loaded in the dishwasher. Kelly watched a couple of her favorite
TV shows, then sat outside with Josie for her last potty break before going up to her room. She had just finished brushing her teeth when a ping on her phone indicated she’d received a text message.

Josie was already asleep in her crate in the corner of the bedroom as Kelly plopped down on her bed and picked up her phone. Her heart did a little flip-flop when she saw it was from Austin. He had mentioned going to the mall to buy a wallet, but hadn’t called her, so this was the first time they had spoken today.

“
Parade @ 10. Lv @ 9:30?
”

Kelly typed back, “
OK. r we coming back here b4 beach?
”

“
No.
”

“
I’ll pack food.
”

“
Hopin u would. Hear from Scott?
”

“
Yes. He’ll b back Sat,
” Kelly answered.

“
2 bad 4 him. Lol.”

“U working?”

“Yes til midnight. 3 trucks 2 unload.”

“Good exercise.”

“Wanna help?”
Austin asked.

“Haha. How’s ur thumb?”

“Sore. Still bandaged. Cu tomo.
”

Kelly plugged her phone into the charger next to her bed. She was really excited about spending the whole day with Austin, but she was also a little nervous. His high school friends would be there and she wouldn’t know anyone except Austin. If he went all macho and ignored her, it would be a long, horrible day. She didn’t even have the back up of Scott and Zoey to talk to.

She looked over at Josie, sprawled on her bed inside the crate, her tiny head filled with fun puppy dreams. At least Kelly would have her newest friend along, so things wouldn’t be too bad. But in her heart, she had her own dreams about tomorrow. What would it be like if Austin were to kiss her? Or put his arm around her? Or just hold her hand?

Kelly dropped a few flakes of fish food into the two bowls on her dresser. The goldfish with the white spots was the one Scott had won for her at the carnival, and the one with the long, flowing tail was Zoey’s that Kelly was babysitting. She watched the fish nibble the big flakes, then turned off the overhead light and climbed into bed. She was being ridiculous. Austin didn’t look at her like anything other than a friend. Even worse, she was in the buddy zone. Friends could move up to girlfriends, but buddies rarely could. Was she doomed to forever be the kid next door?

She sighed. He was out of her league anyway … handsome, popular, star quarterback. He could have any girl he wanted. Why would he ever want anyone as ordinary as she wa
s?

FRIDAY, JULY 4, PRESENT DAY

Josie loved going for walks even when on a leash, and she had almost mastered the tricky art of heeling. As Kelly and Austin walked toward the beach, the little dog trotted along on Kelly’s left side, only occasionally getting distracted by an interesting smell or a butterfly.

“I’m glad we live close enough to walk.” Austin glanced back at the rolling ice chest that they had filled with sandwiches, fruit, water and soft drinks. They had strapped an umbrella, a blanket, their towels and beach bags on top of it. The load was precariously balanced, so he had to keep an eye on it in case it tilted and stuff started falling off.

“I’ll bet it would have been a hassle to park your truck.”

“It’s a nightmare downtown,” Austin agreed. “Thousands of people come over. The traffic will be backed up all the way across the bridge.”

“We went to Galveston on the Fourth of July a couple of times when I was younger. The fireworks were great, but it wasn’t worth sitting for hours getting off the island.”

“Yeah, we’ll have to stake our claim on a good spot on the beach, the further down, the better. The pier area will be packed. And, if we stay to the north of the pier, we’ll be able to see the fireworks on Sanibel Island, too.”

They reached Estero Blvd. and found that crowds were already settled onto beach chairs or on the curbs.

“Let’s keep moving. I want to be on the other side of the street.”

“I’m following you,” Kelly told him as he started weaving around the chairs, strollers and kids. It was made more difficult by their own overloaded wheeled ice chest in front of her and Josie lagging along behind, slowed by the many hands that were reaching out to pat her. Finally, they broke through, crossed the street and continued until they were as close as they could get to the beach.

“You sit here. I’ll run down to the beach, set up our umbrella and spread out our blanket to stake our claim.”

Kelly helped him transfer some of their things into his arms, then watched him jog off until he disappeared behind the buildings.

“It’s just you and me, Josie,” Kelly said as she positioned the ice chest as close to the street as possible, took a bottle of water out, then sat on the top and waited.

Josie was fascinated by all the sights and sounds around her. After spending her first two months traveling with the circus, the crowds and noise didn’t bother her. She sat at Kelly’s feet, accepting the attention of the kids that passed by, giving them a lick and a wag of her tail, but not trying to run away.

In the distance, Kelly could see the traffic inching along, bumper-to-bumper over the bridge that connected the small island of Fort Myers Beach, called FMB by the locals, with the mainland. She had never thought she’d be living this close to a beach. It was a drastic change from the small farm she had lived on with her parents in Friendswood, Texas. Of course, that was before they were killed in a car accident at the beginning of the summer and Kelly had been forced to move in with her aunt. That, of course, had changed everything. In the fall, she would be going to a school for the first time which would be a new experience since she had always been homeschooled by her mom. Kelly was kind of looking forward to that.

A hand touched her shoulder, and she jumped.

“All done,” Austin said, out of breath from his mission. “Can I get a water?”

Kelly popped up and held the lid open while Austin fished a bottle of water out of the ice. She shut the lid and they both sat down on the ice chest which was barely big enough. Kelly didn’t mind that at all.

“What did your dad say about your thumb?” she asked.

“Not much.” Austin was baffled. “I thought he’d hit the roof, but he looked at it and said, ‘
Doesn’t look too bad
,’ then went to his room. But that’s not the strangest part … later I heard him talking on the phone … and I think it was to a woman!”

“Is that unusual?”

“He dates some, but he was laughing and sort of whispering, like he didn’t want to be overheard.”

“My aunt has been acting weird, too. I asked her if she saw your dad when she was in Palm Beach Gardens, and she said they’d bumped into each other …” Kelly gasped and her green eyes widened. She turned and met Austin’s equally incredulous gaze. “You don’t think …?”

“Holy cow, I hope not.”

“That would be pretty creepy, right?”

Austin shook his head. “Nah … it can’t be…”

“Hey, bro! Where’ve you been all summer?” A muscular young man wearing baggy shorts and no shirt jumped in front of them, interrupting their speculation.

Austin stood. “Just hanging.” He grabbed Kelly’s arm and pulled her to her feet. “Brack, meet my new neighbor, Kelly.”

She wasn’t sure whether she should hold her hand out for him to shake or not, so she just gave him a little wave. “Hey.”

Brack’s gaze swept over her, then he gave her an approving smile. “Hey, Kelly. Wish I had neighbors like you. I’m surrounded by people who are at least a hundred years old.”