Harbour Falls (A Harbour Falls Mystery #1)(41)

Helena was behind the coffee bar, leaning on the counter and laughing along with a tall, smartly dressed woman with short, dark hair. Though she looked different than I remembered—more chic, more polished—I recognized that she was Adam’s sister, Trina.

Glancing up as I approached, Helena called out a cheerful, “Maddy!”

Trina smiled as I reached the counter, and Helena turned to her and asked, “You remember Maddy Fitch, right?”

“Of course I remember,” Trina said warmly. “It’s good to see you again.”

The next few minutes were spent engaged in reintroductions and small talk. Trina confirmed she was staying until Monday and then confessed she had come up to the island a day early because she’d gotten into an argument with Walker. Helena asked her if it had been about anything serious, but Trina said no. They’d just been getting on each other’s nerves with all the planning for the upcoming wedding.

“Men,” Helena said exasperatedly, shooting Trina a look of solidarity.

“Speaking of which,” Trina said slowly as she turned to face me, her stunning blue eyes so similar to Adam’s that I had to keep myself from staring. “I want to know your secret for getting my boring brother out on a Friday night. If he’s not out of town on business, he’s usually holed up in his study working.”

Helena broke in with, “Aha, I heard you two had made up. But Nate didn’t tell me you had another date.”

“It wasn’t really a date,” I explained. “We just watched a movie together at my place.”

“That sounds cozy.” Helena nudged Trina’s arm. “Come on, tell us all the gory details.”

“Uh, maybe not everything, Maddy.” Trina grimaced. “We are talking about my brother here.”

“It’s not like that anyway,” I insisted. “We watched the movie, and then Adam left.”

Sure there’d been a little bit more than that, like some amazing kissing, but I had no desire to share those details.

“Oh sure,” Helena said with a roll of her eyes. “Editing for Trina’s sake is fine for now. But you know I’ll be expecting the unrated version later.”

“Um…” I trailed off.

Thankfully Trina saved the day when she said, “Really, Helena, leave Maddy alone. You really need to get off this island more often.”

Helena laughed and agreed, and I jumped at the chance to ask how she and Nate had come to live on Fade Island.

She explained that after college, Nate, who’d been trying to get picked up as a quarterback, was drafted by an NFL team across the country. But during training camp, he suffered a career-ending injury, thus halting their plans to move west. Adam, who had moved out to the island following Chelsea’s disappearance, then asked Nate if he’d be interested in “managing” Fade Island. Nate had a degree in a computer-related discipline as well, so Adam went even further, offering Nate a chance to do some work for him on the side. Made sense, and I’d already suspected as much. Nate and Adam had been computer whizzes back in school. But it made me wonder once again just how involved Nate was in Adam’s business. That would better explain why they so often traveled together.

As for the “managing” the island offer, Nate was immediately interested, but Helena wasn’t so sure. When she expressed concern that there’d be nothing for her to do on the island, Adam came up with the idea of running the café. Though it would be dead in the winter, the summer clientele promised to keep her plenty busy. Still waffling, Nate and Helena made up their minds without further ado once they saw Adam’s more-than-generous final offer. They quickly accepted, moved onto the island, and never looked back.



“I do love this island, don’t get me wrong, But it does get boring from time to time,” Helena confessed.

“You could always come down to Boston for a break,” Trina offered, her expression hopeful. “Help me with wedding stuff. There’s so much to do before spring.”

“Hmm, maybe,” Helena began. “This time of year, Adam wouldn’t care if I closed up the café for a week or two.” She paused and then, smacking her hand on the table, said, “Yeah, let’s do it!”

Trina looked delighted. “Oh, Helena, I promise we’ll have lots of fun. I’ll keep you plenty busy.” She then turned to me. “Maddy, you should come down for a few days too. You must be getting kind of bored yourself here on the island.”

“Oh, thank you,” —I had to think fast to get out of this one— “but I really need to stay here. I’m supposed to be trying to write—”

“Yeah, Maddy came here to cure her writer’s block,” Helena interrupted.

Uh-oh. Despite Adam’s claim that nobody but he knew why I was really here, I couldn’t help searching Helena’s face for any sign that she was onto me and my phony cover story. But thankfully she appeared to be none the wiser to my ruse.

“That’s right! You’re a writer,” Trina said. “I’m definitely going to check out your books as soon as I get back to Boston.”

“I started the first one,” Helena chimed in, surprising me completely with her admission. “It’s really good.” I met her eyes, and she smiled warmly. “I highly recommend them.”