Summer Rental (48 page)

“Yeah, we totally rocked it,” Julia agreed, herding the women in the direction of the table. “But you guys, I think the birthday princess needs to go home now, before she turns into a pumpkin.”

“Sounds good to me,” Madison said readily.

They piled into the red van, with Dorie behind the wheel, and were almost home when Julia, trying to sound casual, pulled out her cell phone and groaned.

“Oh, no. My battery’s dead. And I promised Booker I’d call him before midnight. Damn!”

“I’d let you use mine,” Dorie offered, “but I’ve used up all my minutes for the month.”

“Here,” Ellis said, rummaging in her purse. “Just call him on mine.”

“Okay,” Julia said, holding out her hand.

“Well, hell,” Ellis said, sounding puzzled. “It’s not in here.”
She dumped the contents of the purse onto her lap, and pawed through the lipsticks, pens, billfold, Kleenex packets, and a notebook of lists.

Julia turned around from the front passenger seat. “Are you sure it’s not there?”

“Positive,” Ellis said. “And my keys are missing too. Dorie,” she cried, “turn around. We’ve got to go back to Caddie’s. I think maybe my phone and keys fell out of my purse back there.”

“What?” Julia said, sounding panicky. It was ten minutes before midnight. “I didn’t see your phone and keys on the table. And I was sitting right beside you all night.”

“They’ve gotta be there,” Ellis insisted. “Dorie, please go back. You guys can stay in the van, I’ll just run inside and check the table and be right back.”

“It can’t be there,” Julia countered. “Right, Dorie?”

“When was the last time you remember seeing your phone?” Dorie asked. “Think back.”

“I don’t know,” Ellis said. “I’ve been running around all day, between the house and the beach, and packing, and cleaning, and starting to load the car.”

“The beach!” Dorie cried. “Oh my God, of course. Ellis, it completely slipped my mind. When I was picking up my chair and towel this afternoon, I noticed your phone and keys on your beach chair. I meant to say something, but I just figured you were planning to go back down there later in the afternoon.”

“Dorie!” Ellis said, annoyed. “Why didn’t you say something sooner? Or just pick it up and bring it to me?”

“I’m an idiot,” Dorie wailed. “It was so hot out there today, and then Willa called me on my cell to yell at me some more, and I just forgot.”

“For Pete’s sake,” Ellis grumped. “That means my phone and keys have been out on the beach for hours. Somebody probably already walked off with them.”

“Maybe not,” Madison said helpfully.

“Look,” Julia said, “we’re almost home. You can just hop out of the van as soon as we get back to Ebbtide, and go check. I’m sure they’re still there.”

“Not likely,” Ellis said gloomily.

*   *   *

Ty’s hair was still wet, but he’d managed to shower and change out of his work clothes in ten minutes flat and walk down the beach from his new cottage to the stretch in front of Ebbtide. Now, at exactly five minutes ’til midnight, he stood on the beach, wondering if coming back here tonight was a mistake.

He glanced up at the spot where the garage, and his apartment, had been only twenty-four hours earlier, and looked quickly away. He’d done the right thing, what needed to be done, but he’d miss the old rattrap.

Somebody had left a folding beach chair in the middle of the spot where the Ebbtide girls had pitched their camp for the past month. A pink-and-orange striped beach towel was tossed across the back of the chair, and as he looked closer, he saw a cell phone and set of keys under the edge of the towel. He picked up the phone, pushed the on button, and seeing the call log, realized it belonged to Ellis.

Ty sat down on the chair to wait.

*   *   *

He was waiting, sitting quietly in the dark, on the chair by the window—the same window Madison looked out countless times, every morning and night, searching for any sign of trouble. A bead of sweat trickled down his back as he sat in the stifling closet-sized room. He’d considered turning on the rusty air conditioner stuck halfway into the window by the bed, but then decided to do so would alert her that somebody had been in the room.

He glanced down at the LED display of his wristwatch. Nearly midnight. Had she met another man? His eye twitched at the thought of Maryn with somebody else. Then he shook his head. Impossible. He’d seen the red van roll away from the house hours ago with the four women inside. Girls’ night out. Completely harmless.

Not that it mattered. He patted the laptop case on the floor, its sides bulging with the cash he’d easily discovered hidden on the top shelf of the armoire. His cash. He’d earned it. He meant to have it, and he would have it, just as soon as he dealt with Maryn. He’d had time to count it, waiting for her, stacking the bills in rows that completely covered the bed. And it was all
there, save for one hundred dollars. That surprised him, that Maryn hadn’t spent the money, hadn’t fled the country as soon as she figured out what she had. Maryn had never struck him as a particularly noble type. She was a hard-edged realist, just like he was. Which was why he’d been attracted to her.

He saw the play of lights on the opposite wall of the darkened room and stood up to look out the window. The red van was bumping down the driveway at a fast clip. It didn’t stop until it was directly in front of the porch. Then the engine switched off, and a petite redhead jumped from the driver’s seat and raced for the front porch. A moment later, the back doors of the van opened, and he watched, his pulse quickening, as Maryn climbed out, stretched, and said something to the lanky blonde who got out the other side of the car. The two of them looked up at the house, and he stepped back, qu
ickly, even knowing that there was no way she could see him up here, in the dark. Still …

Getting up and walking softly to the door, he opened it just far enough to hear the front door opening below. Lights clicked on, and there were more voices. This time he was certain he heard Maryn, and one of the other women, giggling conspiratorially. He closed the door and took up a position just to the side of it.

Minutes passed. He heard steps coming up the stairs. “G’night, y’all,” an unfamiliar woman’s voice called gaily. The steps stopped at the second floor, and he heard a door close, water running, and then the flush of a toilet, the sound of the bathroom door opening, and moments later, another door closing.

He resumed his wait, slumped against the wall, listening to his own even breathing. He heard more footsteps on the stairs, and tensed. His hands were slick with sweat. He dried them on his jeans, stood, moving towards the door, his hand on the pistol shoved into his waistband. The footsteps paused at the second-floor landing. Maybe it was one of the other women, Maryn’s housemates? But then the footsteps resumed, slowly climbing the stairs to the third floor.

It was serendipity, really, that she’d chosen this room, isolated on the top floor of the house. Not a surprise though. Maryn didn’t trust anybody, especially other women. The big surprise was that she’d moved in w
ith these strangers at all. Didn’t matter why she’d choosen this room, all that mattered was that it was perfect for his needs.

The footsteps were coming closer now. And she was humming. What was it? “They just wanna,” she crooned, “they just wanna-uh-uh.” Cyndi Lauper? Maryn? He’d never known her to hum, let alone sing. Was she drunk or high? The footsteps paused in front of the door, and he held his breath as she fumbled to fit the key into the lock.

The door opened slowly. “They just wanna, they just wanna-uh-uh.” She stepped inside, her hand searching for the light switch.

He waited until the light was on, then he stepped forward, throwing his forearm across her throat, dragging her into the room, closing the door quietly behind them.

Her eyes widened in terror, and before she could scream he clamped his hand over her mouth. “Welcome home,” he whispered in her ear.

*   *   *

Ellis grabbed a flashlight from beneath the kitchen sink and hurried out the door towards the walkway over the dunes. How on earth, she wondered, had she managed to leave her phone and keys at the beach? She could have sworn she’d seen them in her beach bag once she’d gotten back to the house, but the day had been so busy, maybe she’d just imagined it.

She kicked her sandals off at the landing on top of the dunes, and pointing the flashlight at the steps, gingerly climbed down, holding tight to the railing. It seemed especially dark tonight, she thought. Glancing up, she saw that dense banks of purple-edged clouds obscured the moon. The temperature had dropped, and the wind had picked up. Heat lightning crackled over the water, and she heard the low rumble of thunder. She prayed it wouldn’t start raining until after she’d found her phone.

When she reached the beach, she played the flashlight back and forth until she spotted the forgotten beach chair, with her towel still draped over it. And Ty Bazemore seated in it. She inhaled sharply and grabbed the stair rail, her instincts telling her to turn and run back towards the house.

But before she could move, Ty was standing up, and he was looking at her, and, wait … Was he smiling? At her? Anyway, it was too late to run now.

She made herself walk towards him, like it was the most natural thing in the world. But her mind could not form a sentence that wouldn’t sound idiotic. In the end she settled for, “I think I left my phone and keys down here today.”

Ty held up the phone. “You did,” he said. “They were right here on the chair.” But he made no move to give them to her.

“I wasn’t sure you’d really come tonight,” he said. “Hell, I wasn’t sure I’d come. But I’m glad you asked me to. I don’t want things to end like this, Ellis.”

“What are you talking about?” she asked, coming to a dead stop inches from the chair. “Asked you to do what?”

“Come on, Ellis,” Ty said, feeling his face grow hot. “This was your idea, not mine. Don’t do this.”

“Ty,” Ellis said. “I really have no idea what you are talking about. What are you doing here? Why did you come out here tonight?”

He reached out and brushed a strand of her hair, tucking it behind her ear. “I came because you texted me and asked me to. I came because you said if I loved you, I would come. I do love you. I’m here. I’ll meet you more than halfway, if you’ll just give me a chance.”

“I texted you?”

He frowned. “What is this? Some kind of sick joke?”

She took her phone from him, checked the log of text messages. It was empty. She held it up for him to see. “I did not text you today. I swear.”

“You did, by God,” Ty said. He pulled his own phone from the pocket of his cargo shorts, pulled up the screen, and showed her. “See! Why would I make up something like that?”

Ellis read the messages, glancing up at Ty, whose face had gone stony. Her own face was beet red.

Suddenly, she knew. “Julia!” she cried. “And Dorie! They did this. They stole my phone while I was asleep on the beach this afternoon, and they sent these texts to you. I woke up, and Julia was fiddling with my beach bag. I thought she was getting my sunblock out, but she must have just been putting the phone back. And then sometime later, she must have stolen it again, and planted it out here.”

“And why would they pull a juvenile stunt like that?” Ty demanded. “They’re your friends. Why would they punk you like that? Or me?”

Ellis wanted to die. She wanted to sink into the sand and disappear from the humiliation.

“Because,” she said, biting back tears, “my idiot, deranged, meddling friends have this stupid idea that we belong together. They feel sorry for me, because they know I’m a loser, that I have no life outside my job. They know you’re the first man I’ve been with in eleven years, and they probably have this stupid idea that we’re in love.…”

“Hey,” Ty said softly, catching her hand in his. “That’s not so stupid.”

She looked up at him, tears streaming down her face. “It’s not stupid for them to send you fake texts from my phone to lure you down here?”

He chuckled. “That part was totally stupid. But it worked, didn’t it? Here I am. And here you are.”

She sniffed loudly. “Because they stole my phone and my car keys. I thought I’d left them back at Caddie’s, but Julia forbid Dorie to drive back there so I could look. Dorie had this lame-ass story about how she’d seen them down here when she was leaving the beach this afternoon. I should have known. She’s the world’s worst liar.”

“They wanted you here at midnight,” Ty pointed out. “Because they knew that I’d damn sure be here, especially after that last text of yours.”

Ellis blinked back a fresh set of tears. “Which one was that?”

He put his arms around her waist and pulled her close. “The one that said ‘If you love me, you’ll come.’ I do. I did. So what should we do now?”

It started to rain. Fat, seemingly random drops full of August heat. Ellis rested her cheek against Ty’s chest. Right here, in this moment, safe in the arms of a man who would do anything to make her happy. She had the answer. And all she had to do, she realized, was let him love her. Let go and let love happen. She felt the sand swirling around their ankles, the wind tearing at their clothes, the rain, coming down harder now, and above it all, she heard the crash of the surf.

She leaned her head back to look up at him, and his hair was already plastered to his head. “I think we better run for it,” she said.

Ty grabbed her hand, and the two of them raced up the steps over the dunes. Ellis stopped at the top of the stairs to catch her breath, and her eyes drifted past the boardwalk, to Ebbtide, a shadowy gray hulk. The lights were on in the top-floor bedroom, Madison’s room, and silhouetted there, she realized, were two figures. And one was a man.

“Ty,” she said, pointing. “Up at the house. That’s Madison’s room. There’s a man in there with her.”

“Good for her,” Ty said, tugging at her hand, pulling her towards the house.

“No,” she said, stopping dead in her tracks. “It’s got to be Adam. The man she worked with in New Jersey. She was expecting him a couple of days ago, but he never showed. We all thought there was something fishy about him, but Madison insisted he’s harmless.”