Page 83 of Happy Harbor
“Nice to meet you,” Kendra said, stepping in. She felt Scotty shift slightly, clearly uncomfortable in this awkward situation. “Did y’all need something?”
“We just wanted to know if y’all wanted to go on a boat ride with us. All the adults are busy over there at that fundraising thing. My cousin has a boat down there, a pretty cool one. Wanna go?”
“No, thanks,” Scotty said, his tone sounding rude. He didn’t mean to be that way. He was just very blunt.
“Thanks, but I think we’ll hang around here.”
“Okay, but you’re going to be missing out. We’ve got some beer in the cooler, and we were going to do a little fishing. Either one of y’all like fishing?”
“I do,” Scotty said under his breath.
“We can go if you want. There’s nothing else we can do around here today except help, and I think neither one of us wants to do that,” Kendra said, laughing.
“Great! Follow us,” Kiki said.
Kendra wanted to believe they were just some nice kids asking to hang out, but she had a weird feeling about it. Still, going out on a boat sounded fun. She hadn’t gotten to do that since coming to Happy Harbor.
“Kendra, we don’t know these kids at all,” Scotty said, whispering in her ear.
“Don’t you recognize them from school?”
“No. That’s just it.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine. Everybody around here is so friendly.” She quickened her pace to catch up to Kiki. “Hey, do y’all go to Happy Harbor High School?”
The girl shook her head. “No. We go to school over in the next town. First Avenue High.”
“Never heard of that one,” Scotty said.
“It’s pretty lame. Not a big school. Are y’all coming or not?” Kiki asked.
“We’re coming,” Kendra said, pulling Scotty’s hand as they moved toward the boat.
* * *
“Hold still, sweetie,” Josie said, forcing a smile as she desperately tried to paint a butterfly on the fat cheek of a toddler. Why on earth do toddlers squirm so much? “Almost done...”
“Sit still, Robbie!” the frustrated young mom said for the umpteenth time.
Josie had not wanted to work in face painting. First, she was about the least artistic person she knew. She had tried to paint a robot on a kid’s face earlier, but it looked like a murder scene mixed with a hideous gray moth. Even the American flag had been challenging for her. All the colors were running together on the sweaty faces of young children. Thank God she wasn’t trying to go into the face painting business because people would not be calling her anytime soon for that service.
“Okay, all done,” she said, trying not to make eye contact with the mother. She was completely embarrassed. But the woman just smiled and handed her the money. Josie felt bad taking it, but this was a fundraiser after all.
“Thank you so much for your contribution,” Josie said, waving as they walked away. The little boy looked in the mirror his mother had in her purse, and then he yelled back to her.
“This don’t look like a butterfly!” His mother smiled, a look of apology on her face, before putting her hand over her son’s mouth and dragging him down the road.
“Another happy customer?” Diane said, walking up with a lemonade in her hand.
Josie laughed. “An artist I am not. Do you want to take over for me?”
“Lord no. I’m just now getting a break. I’ve been working at different booths all day. I handed out hot dogs, I made cotton candy, and I just helped set up the dunking booth.”
“A dunking booth? That ought to be interesting.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Where is Walker?”
“No idea. He has some surprises set up for tomorrow, so he’s probably doing that. But he did ask me to take a walk with him by the river this evening.”
