“You’ve got quite an arm on you. Did you switch from track to baseball?”
“You remembered!” He gave her a shy smile, which struck her as charming. A smile like that didn’t fit with his grown-up, rugged, and got-everything-covered cop personality. Evelyn took it as a compliment—even after all this time, he was still willing to let her see him. “Nah,” Clancy said. “I stayed with track. I knew a good thing when I saw it.”
Evelyn stared at him in wonder for a second. Could they have ever competed at the same event? “I ran women’s distance for Middlebury College. We were regional champions while I was there.”
Clancy’s mouth fell open. “I ran the five thousand meter for Amherst. You know we had to be at the same Division III meets many times over.”
“You’re right.”
“Fancy that.” Clancy put his arm around Evelyn’s shoulder. “This okay with you?”
She nodded, slipping her arm around his waist. “This okay with you?”
“Oh, yeah.” Clancy remained silent for a few strides, then squeezed Evelyn tightly. “Thank you for sharing your reasoning with me, Evie. I’m sorry I was slow on the uptake, but I do understand now. You love that kid fiercely, and Christina is incredibly lucky to have you.”
“Look! Look! What is it, Sir Clancy? A frog?” Christina jumped to a stand and pointed into the tidal pool.
“Well, look at that!” Clancy reached down and gently removed a partially buried horseshoe crab.
Christina let go with one of her high-pitched screams.
“It won’t hurt you.” Clancy squatted so he was at her level. “It’s strange-looking but it’s just the shell of a harmless sea creature.”
“What its name?”
“A horseshoe crab, probably a girl crab, and she got too big for her shell so she had to leave it behind. Have you ever seen one of these?”
Chrissy reared back and shook her head slowly.
“She has, actually, back home at the shore. But it wasn’t anywhere near that big.”
Chrissy reached out her hand tentatively and Clancy held the shell, turning it so she could see it from all angles. He didn’t push it on her, which made Evelyn smile. He was doing it again, but this time it was a one-on-one question directed only to Christina. Do you trust me?
Evelyn decided to step back and see what happened. The dogs suddenly realized no one was paying them any attention, so they ran over and began to sniff the shell, which made Chrissy laugh. “Do they want to eat it and chew it?”
“Nah. They’re just sniffing it because they’re curious. Remember how they snuffled and licked you when you first met?” From his squatting position, Clancy threw the ball and the dogs forgot all about the crab shell.
Christina leaned forward and began taking big sniffs, though she kept a good two feet away.
Clancy glanced up at Evelyn, his eyes crinkling with laughter, his face golden in the setting sun. She felt her heart drop. It was as if she were fourteen again, coming alive in the company of a boy who fit her, made her laugh, kissed her lips, and touched her soul. It had been the sweetest summer of her life. Though they’d both changed in many respects over the years, that feeling remained.
The physical differences in Clancy were obvious. On his way to becoming a man, his bones had lengthened and his muscles filled out. He face was still boyishly handsome, but with a harder edge to it and a lot more than the beginnings of peach fuzz. His hair was shorter than it had been as a wild island child. And he was far more confident than he’d been as a gangly fourteen-year-old. The kinks had been smoothed out in the way he moved, spoke, and filled a room with his presence.