“Where’s the washer and dryer?” Maddy asked, looking around after the tour was over.
“No washer,” Maria said. “If you bring it to me, I’ll wash your clothes for you. It’s an extra charge or you can go to the laundromat, but it’s not close. Also you have to bring out all your trash. There’s no trash service. You can throw it in the bins in the garage when you get back to the house.”
We both nodded.
“Use the house address for mail,” she said, going on. “I’ll leave it for you in the garage. Any problems you call me.”
Maria gave us the cottage key and her number. Then we drove her back to the mansion to drop her off. Maria had made it look easy, but I was glad the boat was old and junky, because it was actually pretty hard to maneuver and I had a feeling we’d be bumping into the dock more than we liked.
We decided to go into town and get groceries since we were already docked.
“It’s great, right?” I asked Maddy as I pulled out of the mansion’s garage.
“Yes, it’s great.”
“Did you see the cute wall art? All the Minnesota lake-life stuff?”
“Yes.” She let her flip-flop fall off and put her bare foot on the seat to put her chin to her knee. “It’s like we just went back in time to 1950.”
I smiled.
“Who do you think owns that house?” I asked.
“Mister.”
I laughed. “Kind of sad he stopped using it,” I said, pulling out of the neighborhood.
“Sounds like it had too many painful memories.”
“Yeah. We’ll appreciate it though.”
We drove about a mile away from the lake to a more commercial side of town that Google Maps said had a grocery store. That’s when I saw it.
“Oh my God,” I said. “I have to pull over.”
Maddy looked out the window. “What?”
“Something for Justin.”
I turned into the mini mall and parked.
Maddy looked around. “What do you need to get for Justin here?”
“Hold on.”
I texted him.
Me: Tell me how many fingers to hold up.
A second later:
Justin: Hey, did you make it to Hawaii? How was your flight? Did you get in okay?
I gave my phone a twisted smile.
Me: I did. How many fingers? I have a surprise for you.
He replied with a smiling emoji and the number 3.
“Let’s go.” I got out.
“What the heck are we doing?” Maddy asked, following me.
“Get a picture of me on this bus bench. Help me make it look good.”
She eyed the bench. “I don’t think anything can make this look good.”
She took the picture and handed me back my phone. I cropped the photo so it was just me and the ad on the seatback. Then I sent it through.
It was a solid fifteen seconds before my phone started to ring.
CHAPTER 6 JUSTIN
When the picture of her came through, I stood up so fast my chair fell behind me, and Brad got scared and ran under the bed.
No fucking way. No. Fucking. Way.
My heart was pounding in my throat. She was sitting on a bus bench. A Toilet King bus bench. She was here.
