Page 88 of The Summer Inn on Plum Island
“We thought you knew that?” Lila’s brows furrowed.
“I do now,” Dawn said with a little nod. “And I think a certain older brother of mine and I need to have a serious talk.”
Her fingers closed around her pendant as her mind whirled with irritation.How dare Scott do that! I told him I didn’t want a security detail.
But before she could ponder it for too long, Harper continued. “We went to see Carl this morning. We took the bus to Newbury Port. We wanted to know if he’d found out who was doing this.”
“Why on earth would you two do that?” Dawn looked at them, concerned. “You two can’t go running off like that.”
“Our security detail was with us,” Harper assured her. “Carl said he’d been injured before he could find out anything.”
“After Carl, we came to invite you and Dad to a picnic,” Lila confessed. “Then we planned to go to the movies with Aunt Betty and Sam.”
“You girls organized a picnic?” Dawn’s heart melted. They were really trying their best against all odds, and even when their initial plan went awry, they switched to plan B. “You two are so special but in so much trouble.”
“Yeah, we figured,” Lila said with a shrug.
Lila and Harper looked at each other and grinned before high-fiving each other and saying in unison. “But so worth every bit of our punishment.”
Dawn smiled.How do you punish that?Everything they’d done was to try and give Dawn and Liam happiness. She sighed. Being a parent was hard. As she watched them pick up the one oar and take turns to paddle the boat, a thought struck Dawn.
“Does anyone else know about my book?” Dawn asked. “I mean, before my laptop was stolen?”
The paddling paused as Harper and Lila exchanged another glance.
“I borrowed your laptop, Aunt Dawn,” Harper told her. “Sorry. I was going to drop it off when we came to get clothes for me.”
“That’s a relief,” Dawn said. “At least I know that wasn’t taken.” She looked at the teenagers questioningly. “You haven’t answered my question about anyone else knowing about my book.”
Harper’s following words were hesitant, “I… I let Bailey Blackwell read it. She thought it was good and said you should finish it—“
“Harper!” Dawn’s voice was sharp, more from shock than anger. “You didn’t?”
“I’m sorry,” Harper said, wringing her hands. “But she also let her friend’s brother read it.”
Lila jumped in to defend her friend’s actions. “We didn’t know Bailey was going to do that. She was so excited and said it would make an excellent television series.”
Harper’s admission that the manuscript had passed through multiple hands sent a chill down Dawn’s spine as her heart raced. “Which friend? Did Bailey say?”
Harper and Lila nodded before saying in unison, “Arno Littleford.”
Dawn’s breath left her lungs as if she’d been hit in the stomach. Her eyes filled with a roaring sound, and the palm of her hand felt warm. As the dinghy bobbed on the open sea, Dawn felt the weight of the situation settle around her. Their little adventure, inspired by fiction, had become a dangerous reality manipulated by unseen hands. Now, more than ever, she needed to keep her wits about her. The sea around them seemed endless, and as the sun dipped a little lower in the sky, casting long shadows over the water, Dawn felt the gravity of their predicament.
Was Ben right about Bailey Blackwell?Dawn glanced around. They were lost, adrift, and surrounded by the consequences of a story that had leaped off the page into the real world. Ben had told her another similar story that involved Bailey Blackwell, where things hadn’t ended well for him or Wade.
Her thought was interrupted by Harper’s and Lila’s sharp intake of breath as they stared at her.
“Why’s your hand glowing red, Aunt Dawn?” Harper asked, pointing at the hand that was fiddling with her pendant.
“What?” Dawn’s brow knitted together.
Her heart jolted as she looked down at the glowing pendant. Just like it had done earlier that day and right before… The sound ofengines caught their attention, and they turned to see a speed boat hurtling toward them.
“That’s the Coast Guard,” Lila said.
Relief washed over Dawn at the sight.
“I guess I’d better thank you and your father for giving me this pendant for Christmas after all,” Dawn said.
