Page 41 of Secrets at Seaside
Tony couldn’t help but feel the sting of jealousy at how easy Caden and Evan’s relationship was compared to the conflicting interactions he’d had with his own father the last summer they’d spent together at the Cape. He forced the jealousy aside, knowing he couldn’t change the past.
“Okay.” Evan looked at Amy. “You’re all set. Just bring the stuff back with you.”
“Thanks, Ev.” Amy stood and hugged him. She whispered something in his ear, and he pointed to a backpack he’d left beside Bella.
Amy joined Tony again on the blanket, and it was all Tony could do not to pry her for information. It turned out he didn’t need to. Within a few minutes everyone made excuses and left early. Caden and Bella were the last to leave. Being the ever-responsible police officer, Caden doused the fire with a few buckets of water before taking off, leaving Amy and Tony alone beneath the stars.
Amy rose to her feet and reached for Tony’s hand.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see. Can you grab Evan’s bag, please?” Amy grabbed their blanket and folded it over her arm.
Tony picked up the backpack, and before he could reach for Amy’s hand, she reached for his and led him toward the dunes. Tony’s heart hammered in his chest with each step as they walked along the empty beach, past the protected area, and toward the place where they’d shared their first kiss—where it was dark and cool, and they could see the tips of houses above the dunes. Erosion had desecrated the beautiful dunes, taking away much of the buffer in front of the houses. Their decks were now visible from below. Amy stopped by a knee-high pile of towels.
Tony eyed the towels with curiosity, then set the backpack down to help Amy spread out the blanket. “What’s in the backpack?” he asked.
“You’ll see.” She crouched beside the pile of towels and carefully folded each one, then set them aside.
Tony crouched beside her to help fold the towels, quickly unveiling the projector Caden bought Evan last Christmas so he and his friends could stream movies from his computer onto the exterior wall of their house.
Amy met his gaze with a smile that reached her eyes.
“I can’t believe you got Evan to leave this out without anyone to watch it.”
Amy pointed up toward the dunes, where a flashlight was waving back and forth. She pulled a flashlight from the backpack Evan had left for her and waved it up at them. The light on the dune faded into the distance.
“That’s mine and Evan’s clever signal. He would never leave his goodies out here alone.” Amy smiled at Tony; then her eyes grew serious. “I’ve been thinking a lot about us and about our families.” She pulled Evan’s computer from the backpack and hooked it up to the projector. “I told the girls about that summer.”
“I assumed you did by the looks on everyone’s faces when I showed up at your place. How did they take it?”
Amy’s eyes warmed. “They were great. You know how they are. It was really hard to tell them, but once I started, it got easier.”
He pulled her to him. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“It’s okay. I feel so much better having told them, but I went down to the woods this afternoon, and it made me realize something.”
Tony’s chest tightened. She hadn’t given him any reason to worry that she’d changed her mind about them, but he didn’t know what to make of her bringing up the past instead of avoiding it.
“Before what happened at the end of that summer, I had such good memories. But I think all the good memories have been clouded over by what happened. And I got to thinking. I can’t change what happened, and I can’t change how it affected either of us.” She took his hand in hers. “And I can’t change that I wasn’t there for you when your father died.”
“Amy.”
She stepped closer and pressed her hands to his chest. “I should have been there.”
“You were there.” Physically at least, which was more than he could have hoped for after what they’d been through.
“Not the way I should have been. We were so young, and in some ways so selfish and naive. I mean, those woods are not exactly buffered by much, right? We could have been caught. I began to wonder what else we missed. Remember how my parents were always taking pictures?”
“Sure. We spent a lot of time ducking them.” He smiled at the memory of Amy’s mother asking them tosmile prettyand the girls all making faces.
“Well, a few years back, my mom made a collage of the pictures and sent them out to everyone.”
“Yeah, I got mine.”
“Did you look at it?” She narrowed her eyes as if she already knew the answer.
“No. It was too painful. It was one thing to see you afterward. I mean after the first few years of avoiding you. That was hard, allowing myself to be close to you again, even as friends, but seeing my father? I couldn’t do that. It was too much.”
