Had someone brought us back here? That felt like the scariest part of the whole thing.
“Where’s Effie?” I asked.
“I’m right here,” she called out. She was coughing too, and I looked over to see her sitting on a bed across from me.
“We should get you both back to the main island so I can give you a proper checkup, I don’t know what gas you’ve both inhaled and it could be—” Brielle began.
“Don’t be such a nerd,” Kate interrupted. “They got knocked out by a little bit of mysterious fog, it can’t be that serious.”
“Pardon me?” Brielle said, her eyebrows so high up on her forehead in disbelief that I feared they might fly off.
“Dude, I’m obviously joking!” Kate laughed. “Yeah, you guys need to get on a boat a.s.a.p.”
“We need to get to Skerry,” I said. “This whole thing isn’t over. I think we got too close to the truth and we were attacked because of it.”
“Sadie, you need to let Brielle look at you both. What if you’d been killed out there?” Miller asked.
“I was with her!” Effie protested. “I wouldn’t let anything bad happen.”
“Okay… but you both got knocked out by some random gas bomb and woke up on the other side of the trees with no memory of the last few hours. Doesn’t that sound like something bad did happen?” Miller said.
“I see your point,” Effie conceded.
“Effie, you go with Brielle and Kate back to the main island,” I said. “Miller and I will go to Skerry, then meet you later on. Kate, you stay with Jeff and keep him safe until we get back. We still have to catch a blackmailer today.”
“You can’t be serious,” Miller whispered. He looked pained; I could see that he was worried.
“I am,” I insisted. “I feel fine, I promise.” It was mostly true. There was so much to do, and everything felt like it was top priority. How was I supposed to focus?
“You’re nuts, but I like you,” Effie smiled. “Come on Dr. B,” she said to her cousin. “Let’s get this freak show on the road. I could do with swinging into the café anyway, we have a big delivery of decorations for Shell’s Day, and I know Rosie is gonna mess that up if she is left unsupervised with it.”
“Thanks, Eff,” I grinned.
“Anytime, boss!”
I lowered my feet to the floor and jumped off the bed, leaning on Miller for support. I could still smell his cologne from when he had carried me, and it was intoxicating. I remembered that I had told Kate and Effie that today was the day I was going to invite him to the Shell’s Day parade. I felt as if I was losing my nerve, though.
A few more sips of water had helped me clear my throat and now I felt completely normal. It made the whole incident even more bizarre as it seemed we had no long-term side effects. It was like we’d been put under a general anesthetic, weird.
Miller and I were heading straight down to the dock to take the boat over to Skerry. I spent the walk silently trying to build up the nerve to ask him out, miming the words that I was planning to say, then shaking my head. I didn’t even know how to bring it up. We were in the middle of a murder investigation; the mailman was attacked in his own home and I was knocked out less than twelve hours ago. Maybe the timing wasn’t right.
“Are you talking to yourself?” Miller asked. “Your lips have been moving for, like, five minutes and you look like you are really concentrating on something.” Well, this is embarrassing.
“I have a thing to say, now, out loud,” I blurted. Smooth.
“Okay…” he said, stopping to face me. Oh, darn it, he had stopped so that he could really pay attention to what I was about to say. I was kinda hoping he would just keep walking and I could make the whole thing seem super casual and like it didn’t matter if he told me that he didn’t want to go or that he had secretly had a girlfriend this entire time. Actually, that would suck.
“I would like to, Miller, you see the thing is… and I’m sure you know that…” I was floundering. I could feel the heat rising on my face and I was starting to panic. If I passed out from humiliation then I could blame it on the weird gas bomb that had knocked me out, right? Claim it was another side effect or something. Why was I so nervous?
“Is this you trying to tell me that you have a date with Ryder?” he said flatly. He looked down at his shoes and was visibly disappointed.
“No! I want a date with you!” I said. The smile on his face made me realize that my worries were unjustified. I should just say the things I was thinking. “Miller, there is no one I would rather be with on Shell’s Day than you. We have barely had two seconds of alone time since I moved here, and I would love to spend time with you in a non-work way. Am I blowing this?”
“Not at all,” he grinned. “I was planning to ask you to be my date for the parade, I just thought you might want to wait until all this was over.” He gestured vaguely at everything and I laughed.
“Yeah, I know this isn’t the most romantic timing on my part,” I said. He closed the gap between us and nudged my chin upward with his
