another car. We couldn?t stop. I lived. Tristan didn?t.? She searched Guy?s face for a flicker of recognition, but he looked away before she could read his eyes. ?Was Gregory jealous of Tristan?? he asked.
“Was Gregory in love with you?? ?No, I was the target. I had run into Gregory the night he killed his mother and—?
?His mother!?
?—he thought that I knew he had done it.? ?Even so,? Guy said, ?was Gregory in love with you?”
?For a while he pretended to care. I would wake up from terrible dreams, and he would be there. He was so gentle with me. He would hold me until I went back to sleep.? ?So, maybe—?
?No. At the end it was clear — Gregory hated me.”
?Love can fuel hate,? Guy observed He drew a triangle in the sand and traced it twice, frowning. ?What is it?? Ivy asked. He shook his head. ?I don?t know.
Sometimes something seems familiar, and then I lose the thread again.”
Ivy reached and smoothed his cheek with the backs of her fingers. ?I?m haunted by a past I can?t forget, and you?re haunted by a past you can?t remember.?
Guy encircled her with his arms. ?So. let’s live in the present. Every moment I have with you feels like a gift.?
They leaned against the log, gazing up at the stars. His tender kiss became a passionate one. After a while, Guy took off his shirt and spread it on the sand, then lay back on the edge of it, leaving most of the soft fabric for Ivy. She lay down and rested against his chest.
?Sleep, now.” he said, holding her securely in his arms. ?We?re together now.
Sleep.?
With one finger she traced the shape of his lips. His eyes opened. ?Good morning,” he said softly. ?How?d you sleep??
?Great. I found a good pillow. How about you??
He raised himself far enough to kiss her shoulder. *I found a sleep mate who doesn?t have fleas.? She shoved him down, laughing. ?What time do you have to be at work?? he asked. ?Work!? Ivy sat up and fumbled for her cell phone. It was dead. ?Do you know what time it is??
Guy pulled his phone from his pocket. ?A little after five.?
?The inn?s almost an hour away, and I start work at six thirty!?
?Back to reality,? Guy said, rising to his feet, then extending a hand to her. She picked up his shirt and shook it clean.
Guy, who had parked his motorbike by the visitors? center, caught up with Ivy and followed her down Route 6. By the time they arrived at the Seabright’s lot, the sun was shooting yellow rays through gaps in the dark scrub pine. Climbing off his bike, Guy checked his phone again. ?Five fifty?eight,” he told her.
Ivy leaned against her car, reluctant to say good?bye. ?You know, Beth has always said that cars are like clothes — details that develop a story?s character.”
?And??
?What kind of car would you like to drive?? she asked. ?Something with a lot of horsepower that looks good with dents.? Ivy grinned. Hand in hand, they walked the path toward the cottage. “What do you think you did drive??
?Probably somebody else?s old car. Like my parents? or — I don?t even know—?
His voice cracked. ?I don?t even know if I have parents.?
?What kind of parents would you want to have? How about a mother who?s a doctor?? Ivy felt Guy pull back. ?That?s dangerous. Ivy.? ?What is?? she asked defensively. ?Imagining things about me. I don?t want to get confused. I don?t want to mix up what really happened with the things that I want?—he hesitated
—?that I want so badly to be true.?
What do you want to be true? Ivy was about to ask, then she saw him turn his head toward the cottage.
Beth sat on the swing. Will on the doorstep, both of them with arms folded.
?Where have you been?? Beth asked, her voice hard.
?Race Point,? Ivy replied.
?Why did you go back? Why did he?? Ivy bit back anger at Beth?s reference to Guy in the third person. ?We wanted to.?
Will stood up abruptly and strode away without a word. Beth rose from the swing. At the same time Kelsey appeared at the cottage?s door, still wearing her satin nightie.
?Well, well, well,” she said, holding open the screen door. ?Ivy, the good girl, who?d never sneak off on a midnight adventure, returns at dawn.” Kelsey winked at Guy. ?Looks to me like Ivy had a lot better night than we did.?
Beth pushed her way past Kelsey, entering the cottage. Kelsey glanced over her shoulder, then said, ?You owe me, Ivy, for not letting Beth run to Aunt Cindy, getting you in a heap of trouble. And you owe me and Dhanya for a lost hour of sleep Beth was hysterical.”
Ivy turned to Guy. ?You had better go,? she said softly. ?Talk to you later, okay?? He squeezed her hand and silently headed back to the lot. A half hour later, Ivy was the last one to arrive at the inn?s kitchen, dressed for work.
It must have been obvious from Will?s grim expression, Beth?s stiffness, the gleam in Kelsey?s eye, and the furtive glances from Dhanya that something had occurred overnight. Aunt Cindy quickly assessed them, and instead of assigning jobs said, ?Today I?ll need one of you in the garden, one with me for breakfast, one cleaning the room that was vacated late, and two to wash down the porch.
Figure it out.? Then she left them to make her usual pot of high?powered coffee.
Ivy, wanting to be away from the others, chose the least favorite job, cleaning the room. With work light that morning, all of them finished up early. Ivy headed for the beach below the inn. She walked halfway down the fifty? two wood steps that descended the bluff and sat for a few minutes on the landing with the benches.
She wanted to think about Guy, to remember each sweet moment with him, to run through every sign mat Tristan had come back to her. After a while, she descended the remainder of the steps and walked by the water.
Darker thoughts began to creep into her mind. What if Lacey was right, Ivy wondered, and Tristan had done something forbidden when he saved her? If he was hiding inside of Guy, could her loving Guy damn Tristan?s soul forever?
At last she returned to the inn and climbed the steps, deep in thought.
“Ivy.”
Lifting her head, she saw Beth and Will standing on the landing. Grim?faced, shoulder to shoulder, they made Ivy think of sword?bearing angels forbidding Adam and Eve?s return to Eden.
?Excuse me,? Ivy said, trying to get past them. They blocked her way. ?We need to talk,? Will said. ?Things have gone too far.? Ivy blinked. ?What is this, an intervention?? ?Call it whatever you want,? he replied. ?We?re doing it because we care. Ivy, you?re not making good decisions.?
?You?re taking huge risks/? Beth said. ?I?m taking the same risk as anyone who has ever loved a person.? Beth shook her head. ?But you don?t know who Guy is.?
?Actually, I believe I know Guy better than he knows himself.?
?Which,? Will reminded her, ?is just what you said about Gregory when his mother was found dead. You felt sorry for him and made excuses for his reckless ways. You said that living with him, you understood him. Now you?re making excuses for Guy.?
?You?re making excuses for a person who can?t remember why he was in a fight brutal enough to kill him,?
