Page 22 of Midnight Whispers
“Was?”
“Yeah. He was involved in an accident with a drunk driver and was gone on impact.” Bile rises in my throat as the images of the accident flash through my mind.
“I’m so sorry for your loss, Lillia.” He reaches out and touches my hand, but without a thought I pull my hand back. His brows furrow at the interaction. “I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable,” Cedar remarks.
“No. You didn’t. I don’t know why I pulled my hand away from you. I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to apologize, darling.” The use of the nickname makes my stomach flip, but I can’t tell if it’s a good or bad thing. “So, you inherited it then?” he continues, and I nod. “Is this what you wanted to do?”
“No, but Alcott’s was so important to my dad, and it’s become such an important part of Emolyn Cove.”
“Have you lived here your whole life?”
This conversation is starting to feel like interrogation.
“No. I moved here when I was a kid.”
“I’ve always moved a lot.”
“Oh, no. I’ve only moved a couple of times. I mean I’ve moved like four times within the Cove, but there was only one house before that.”
“Why did you move?”
Thankfully I am saved by the bell, literally, when a customer walks in.
“Can we continue this another day?”
“Yes. Of course. See you later, Lillia,” he smirks. I smile out of politeness, but something about him is putting me off.
I finish the day,clean up, and close the shop so that I can go meet up with Flora. After my interaction with Cedar today, I’m in desperate need of spending time with my best friend. I close the door and lock it, but there’s a cold breeze that drifts behind me. I’m painfully aware of a tingling sensation at the base of my neck, almost as if my skin is warning me that someone is watching me. I look around the basically empty street, except for the couples piling into the nearby restaurant.
Quickly, I place our drinks in my basket and get on my bicycle. Next to the main street that heads up the mountain and toward my cottage, there’s a second road that leads along the base of the mountain and to the beach. I ride along the road, grateful for the recent addition of streetlights.
There are two types of people who live in Emolyn Cove: the ones who love the small town feel or the ones who can’t wait to get away from it. I am one of the ones who loveseverything about it. I’ve never felt more at home than I have while living here, especially with my dad.
I get to the spot where the asphalt meets the sand and lay my bike against the fence, right by Flora’s parked car. The sound of the waves rolling onto the land, crashing relentlessly and randomly, makes my body feel immediately relaxed. I have always felt at home with the ocean, finding peace with the beautiful chaos that the waves provide to the land as they meet. Flora looks up as I’m walking over the white sand and waves.
“Hey!” she exclaims as she’s pulling food out of the basket. “I packed your favorite cheese and before you ask, no, I didn’t forget the berriesorgrapes this time.”
“Oh good. Here’s your iced green tea.” I hand her the cup and sit down on the blanket, tossing my satchel in front of me.
“Long day?”
“Weird day,” I sigh. “First, Parker came in. Which wasn’t a surprise because he comes in like all the time. But Cedar, that guy I met at the bookstore, came in.Thatwas weird.”
“Ohhh, tell me. Did he come in to seduce you?”
“No. It was almost like he wanted to play twenty questionsor something.”
“He got too personal.”
“I mean…yeah, kind of.”
She takes a sip of her tea. “Did he ask about your dad? Or your mom?”
“I mean he didn’taskabout either of them necessarily, but it was like why I opened Alcott’s, if it was what I always wanted to do, where I’ve lived.”
“Okay, so what’s the real problem? Someone trying to get to know you is okay.That’snormal, but something is telling you not to trust him?”