Lost Lake (Lost Lake, #1)(41)

“But we grew gills, remember?” Wes said.

Kate actually reached up and touched a place behind her ear. “I remember.”

She also remembered the story she’d made up about the three girls who went swimming in the cypress knees and got trapped, about how they had stayed there forever and grown up underwater, their hair floating like seaweed as they watched their parents look for them every day. And how, when they were grown, they figured out how to harness the fog and appear above the water. Ursula, Magdalene, and Betty. The ghost ladies.

Devin hopped off her stool. “Let’s go back to the lake. I want to check out these knees!”

“Are you coming to Eby’s party?” Kate asked as she stood. She called for Devin to wait by the door.

“I’ll be there,” he said.

“So will most of the town, apparently. It’s snowballed into something bigger than Bulahdeen expected.”

“I can come out later today, if you’d like. I can help get the place ready.”

“I think everyone would be grateful for that,” Kate said.

“Mom, come on!”

Kate smiled as she walked away. “I’ll see you then.”

*

“Does she know you’re a part of this development deal, the one that’s going to take Eby’s property?” Grady asked, his timing perfect as he poked his head out of the kitchen the moment Kate and Devin left.

Wes shrugged. “Unless Eby has told her, no.”

Grady hooted. “You’re going to be in hot water when she finds out.”

“Why?”

“Has it really been that long?” Grady shook his head. “I keep telling you, you need to date more, son.”

“I date enough.”

“Going bowling with me doesn’t constitute dating. You never even buy me dinner.”

Wes grabbed a wipe from under the counter. He paused, then asked, “What makes you think I’m even interested in Kate?”

“That right there, what just happened, is called attraction. A-trak-shee-un. Look it up in the dictionary.”

Wes smiled and turned to buss the counter. Grady knew that Wes had had girlfriends in the past. Not that they’d ever lasted very long. Everyone his age always seemed to be in such a hurry to leave. His longest relationship had lasted two years. He and Anika had fallen in love their senior year in high school. But not long after graduation, Anika had started making plans for them to leave. They had jobs that could travel, she’d said. He could fix anything, and she could waitress anywhere. His foster mother Daphne had encouraged him to do whatever his heart told him to. The problem with that was that his heart didn’t belong to Anika. Not all of it, anyway. A big part, sure. He did love her. But he also loved Daphne and Eby and the town. And Billy.

It really all came down to Billy.

If he left this place, he would have to leave his brother. And he couldn’t do that. He and Billy had been inseparable. Wes had never minded changing his diapers or teaching him to swim or walking through the woods with him to the lake every morning. Everything Wes did, Billy did. Everything Wes liked, Billy liked. Wes had almost died trying to find him in that burning house. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t find him. Maybe he was still looking for him. Maybe he always would be.

There had never been a single force, a single person, who could compete with that memory, with that place in his heart. Except Kate. She’d made him want to leave all those years ago. Even then, he’d been planning to take Billy with him. But even she couldn’t make him leave now. Not that that would ever happen. No matter what Grady said, what he and Kate had now was just a memory of something good.

It, and she, would be gone before he knew it.




9


The groceries were ready when Kate and Devin walked back to the Fresh Mart, and Kate tipped the bag boy who helped load Lisette’s boxes into the Subaru. Devin had already buckled herself in, and Kate was about to get behind the wheel when she heard voices coming from inside the store. A window cleaner on a ladder was squeegeeing the glass above the door, leaving the doors open.

“Why do you keep coming in here? He’s married.” Kate recognized that voice. It was the young woman with the ponytail at the business counter—Brittany.

“I don’t see your father complaining,” Selma said as she walked out. She didn’t see Kate standing there. Her skirt swished with agitation, and her heels clicked so hard on the sidewalk that they sparked and made black burn marks on the concrete. The air around her was charged with a bright red electricity that every woman recognized. So did every man, but for entirely different reasons.

“What’s the matter with Selma?” Devin asked.

“Nothing,” Kate said, climbing into the car. “She’s just in a bad mood.”

“The alligator likes her.”

“Does he?” Kate asked absently as she started the car.

“He likes everyone. I think he’s upset that he might not see them again. He doesn’t want them to leave.”

“Even Selma?”

“He thinks she’s pretty.”

Kate turned to back out of the space. “Well, that means he’s definitely a he.”

*

They were a few minutes ahead of Selma in arriving back at Lost Lake. When Selma arrived, she got out of her red sedan and walked to her cabin without a word.