AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Can I ask you a question?” I asked, looking between them.
Mom looked at me, a soft smile on her lips. “Of course.”
“Did Archie Kasper write you a letter?” I wasn’t sure why I needed to know, but this felt like the final piece of the closure my family needed.
Mom shook her head. “No, I don’t think so, honey.”
“He did.” Dad’s voice was raw, rough.
I turned to look at him. “Did you read it?”
“No.”
“Gabe,” Mom said, her voice almost a whisper. “You didn’t tell me?”
Dad looked at Mom through eyes full of pain and exhaustion. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t face it.”
“Did you...do we still have it?” Mom asked.
My father dropped his eyes to the deck and nodded almost imperceptibly.
“Maybe we should read it now,” she suggested.
“Soon,” Dad agreed.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Find the Girl with the Map
GHOST
This right here. This searing pain in my mind, my body...this was why I hadn’t opened myself up to anyone in years. Was the high worth this low? Was the gleeful excitement of getting to know Emily, of believing there was really something there, worth the disgust, embarrassment, and sadness I felt now?
She’d taken me for a fool.
I was a fool.
I am a fool.
“Shit, man, is the resort in the red again or something?” Wiley asked when he popped into the bar the next day to find me staring into space from the end, my laptop propped in front of me. I had a proper office in the back, but I thought having people around might help focus me. I’d been wrong.
“Why?” I asked, snapping my gaze to his. “What?”
“You look awful. I haven’t seen you look like that since before we officially opened and started making money. What’s going on?”
I closed the laptop and looked up at him, not ready to bare my soul. “Nothing. Everything’s great.”
“Everything except you.”
He ducked around the back of the bar and searched around for a minute, withdrawing something and sticking it in his pocket. “My lucky pop top.”
“What?”
“I have this soda top I got when I was a kid, and I was pretty sure I left it up here. I want to keep it close, you know?”
No. I did not know. “Um, okay. Aren’t you supposed to be on daddy leave?”
“Lucy and Penny just showed up with the other kids. I needed a little break, so told Aubrey I was coming up here to find this. Now I just need a reason not to go back quite yet.”
