The Sweetest Summer(135)

            Duncan nodded. “And Da?”

            “He doesn’t know jack. Something like this would freak him out.”

            Duncan laughed. “The mayor always seems to be the last to know.” He headed for the door.

            “So, you gonna let Ma know you’re here or make her worry until tomorrow night?”

            “I’m on my way to see her right now.” Duncan’s hand touched the doorknob and froze there. “So this Evie . . . she had long, wavy hair back then, didn’t she?”

            “Yep.”

            “So she came here for help? You stayed in touch all these years?”

            Clancy laughed. “No. She never wrote me after that summer, and I never saw her again, until Friday, when she showed up here, trying to stay under the radar with her niece. We recognized each other, and she confided in me.”

            Duncan spun around. He had an odd look on his face, but Clancy couldn’t pinpoint what was wrong. “What?”

            “Nothing.” Duncan laughed uncomfortably. “So it was fate, eh? A coincidence that you found each other again?”

            “More fate than coincidence, I think.”

            “Interesting. Catch you later, bro.”

            With that, Clancy’s hard-to-read big brother was gone.





            Eighteen years ago . . .

            Ah, man. This was it. Evie’s fingers slid along the inside of Clancy’s wrist and brushed down the center of his outstretched palm. She took one step forward—and she was gone. Her scent stayed in the air for an instant before it was washed away by the breeze.

            She walked off between her mom and dad and headed up the ferry gangway.

            Right then, Clancy felt like a museum specimen or psychology experiment on public display. Even Old John noticed he was bawling. The ferry conductor winked at him and gave him a salute. Maybe other people, even Old John, understood how it felt to be so in love with a girl that your heart couldn’t keep beating when she left. Maybe Clancy wasn’t the only guy in the world whose bones and guts felt like they were being ripped from his body because she had just walked away.

            Evie leaned against the outer railing of the ferry for a good five minutes, staring at him, the wind tossing around her long brown hair. She started crying, too. It was too much. She waved good-bye one last time and disappeared into the passenger cabin.

            The ferry horn made its racket, and the big, smelly beast pulled away, bound for Nantucket. Clancy had no idea how long he stood there, stiff on the outside and crumbling on the inside.

            Chip suddenly appeared at his shoulder. “I know you really liked her. I don’t blame you. She was awesome.” He patted Clancy on the back real quick, then pulled his hand away. There was a big difference between being a friend and being completely dweebish, and Clancy was glad Chip knew the difference. “I’ll stand here with you if you want.”

            Clancy couldn’t thank him, because trying to talk would make him cry harder. He stayed there until the dark plume of the ferry’s diesel smoke disappeared over the horizon. “I’d better go home,” he told Chip.

            “I’ll walk with you.”

            They were on the boardwalk when he sensed that Mickey Flaherty just snuck up behind them. The stale Marlboro stink traveling upwind was always a dead giveaway. Clancy ignored him. He really wasn’t in the mood for whatever Mickey had to contribute.

            “So the fish bitch got you after all.”

            Clancy twisted around, his arm already cocked. Chip held him back, growling at Mickey. “Leave him alone!”