Provocation Page 2

  My breathing grows more ragged. I click off my light and consider hiding behind a boulder or slipping into the bayberry bushes that line the shore and letting him pass. But if he is truly tailing me, letting him draw so close would be utter stupidity. Instead, I opt for a strong deterrent. Steadying the pistol with both hands, I aim out to sea and pull the trigger.

  The thunder of the shot rolls across the water and loses itself at the far horizon. Instantly, the man dodges out of sight. But his failure to call out or identify himself sets off further alarm bells. He has simply vanished, as if he doesn’t want to be known.

  I have no desire to lead the man to my front door, so I make a break through the bayberries and bound up to the road. Every neighbor from here to my grandfather’s would shelter me if I need it. My steps pound the gravel in front of their homes, and my breath comes in frightened gasps. I’m not much of a runner. Ruby’s the athlete in the family. I much prefer the slow, steady pace of a long hike. But tonight not even Ruby could catch me. I dart into my own yard and onto the porch. The man has not reappeared.

  Standing in the kitchen with the lights off and the gun in my hand, I peer through the screen door and catch my breath. I want to be absolutely certain I haven’t been followed. After waiting a full five minutes, I lock the door and plunge my face under the kitchen faucet for a long drink. Then I drop into a spindle chair and set the firearm on the table.

  As I stare at the faint gleam of metal in the darkness, I tell myself I am overreacting. It is not uncommon for townspeople to wander down the coast. Especially not on this night, when the commencement ceremony has interrupted the usual schedule and graduates will be up and active for hours. No doubt the man was local, known to me, and too startled by my gunshot to call out. I heave myself off the chair and turn on the kitchen light, though I am careful to close the shades first. I still have plenty to do to prepare for Ruby’s graduation party.

  Granddad has already gone to bed. His door is closed, and his teacup sits empty on the table. Earl Grey with a spoonful of honey and a swig of brandy. That’s been his nightly routine ever since Ruby and I came here to live with him. We used to own one of the nicer homes in town, a small Cape Cod with dormers on the upper story and a pretty flower-lined walk out front. My father was a lawyer in Tidbury, which earned him a modest income. When our parents died four years ago, Ruby and I couldn’t swing the mortgage payments, so we sold the house and moved into our Granddad’s tiny cabin where we spent so much time as children.

  Still keeping the handgun within easy reach, I begin tidying up for tomorrow’s party. Ruby has invited forty people for a picnic supper—the Wildons, our nearest neighbors, a few families from church, and her closest school friends. I’ve been baking all week. In the morning, I’ll assemble a variety of sandwiches and fill platters with produce from the garden. I’ve spent a significant portion of my week’s salary, but I want to give my sister the celebration I was unable to have.

  I hear Granddad’s door open, and his white head peeks into the kitchen. “You girls home?”

  “I’m sorry, Granddad. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

  “Nonsense. I never rest easy till you two are tucked in safe at night.”

  I reach up and kiss his cheek. It used to be a stretch; he’s tall and spare. But I’ve grown some since moving in, and he seems to stoop a bit more every week. “Ruby’s still out with Georgina. They met some friends in town and drove to a movie in Bedford.”

  “She dropped you off? I never heard the car.”

  “I walked.”

  He frowns. “Alone?”

  “I had Daddy’s pistol.” There’s no way I’m going to tell him about my mysterious follower.

  His frown deepens. “Opal, you shouldn’t take chances like that.”

  “You know I’m a crack shot, Granddad. Daddy saw to that. Besides, we’re protected by sheer remoteness. Who would come all the way to Tidbury Bay to cause trouble when there are so many more convenient locations?” I might be trying to convince myself that I was never actually in danger.

  “Anyone who wants to claim the two prettiest girls on the New England coast, that’s who.”

  “Oh, Granddad.” I wave away his comment. I don’t hold a candle to my sister in the looks department.

  “The two most precious, certainly.” He pushes aside a strand of my long brown hair and cups my cheek with gnarled fingers. “Promise me you’ll make her drive you home next time.”

  I make one final protest. “Granddad, I’m fine.”

  “Promise me.”

  “All right. I promise.” Then I turn him around and give him a playful shove toward his room. “I’ll wait up for Ruby. You get back to bed or you’ll be an old crank for the party.”

  “That’s one of the privileges of living eighty-seven years,” he teases, but he goes willingly enough. Less than ten minutes pass before the soft, familiar rumble of his snores sifts under his door.

  I fill a pot with water and set it over the flame of the gas stove, taking extra care to muffle my movements. I’ll boil eggs tonight and peel off the shells to make egg salad in the morning. While I wait for them to cook, I chop up a celery heart and several onions. I’m just turning the burner off when I hear a step outside on the porch.

  My ears prick up. The tread is too heavy to be Ruby’s.

  I slip the handgun into my pocket as I move to answer the tap on the screen door. “Who is it?”

  “Billy.”

  My heart flip-flops at the answer. Until he adds, “Is Ruby home?”

  I twist the lock and join him on the porch so our conversation doesn’t wake Granddad. Even in the dim light seeping through the window, he’s incredibly handsome. As rugged and enduring as the rock in the harbor. “No, she’s at a movie with some friends. She should be back within the hour.”

  I expect a flicker of disappointment. I assume he’ll turn and leave, but he keeps his eyes fastened on me. They’re deep and brown and serious, those eyes. I once knew them so well. They had the ability to see straight down inside me.

  “I, ah—” Billy clears his throat. “I didn’t actually come to see Ruby. I came to see you.”

  My stomach performs more acrobatics before I bring it under control. Billy no longer belongs to me.

  He strides away, stopping at the porch railing, then turns around to face me. “I have a confession to make, and I’ve come to ask you to forgive me.”

  I close the door and lean my back against it. “Billy, you don’t owe me any apologies.”

  “I think I do.” The kitchen light reflects off the buttons of his shirt. “I’ve been thinking a lot lately. About our families. And growing up. And how things used to be.”

  Those are good memories. Always paired by age, Billy and I were as close as two children could be. It wasn’t that I didn’t have girl friends. I did. They came and went through the years. But there was always Billy. He was my buddy. My partner in crime. And as we outgrew our elementary years, my built-in date for any function we had to attend. I always assumed we’d stay close as adults. Maybe even get married.

  Then we graduated. And my little sister grew up.

  “I know how much I hurt you when I started dating Ruby.”

  I shake my head. “We made no promises to each other. I had no claim on you.”

  “Perhaps not. But I knew how you felt. We always had the ability to understand one another. But Ruby—” He shrugs helplessly.

  I know. My sister has that effect on people. Ruby with her engaging personality, quick wit, and bright smile. Ruby with her petite figure, honey blond hair, and blue eyes. Next to her, I’m just an oversized field mouse. When she started gunning for Billy, well, the results were a foregone conclusion. For two years I’ve made a tremendous effort to keep my feelings buried for the sake of their happiness. So why is Billy bringing this up now?

  “Billy, it’s okay. I understand that you love Ruby and she loves you.”

  “Does she?”

  My hear
t rate picks up again, and I press my back more tightly against the door. “Of course she does.”

  He turns and leans his weight on the porch railing, his eyes skimming the yard. “Ruby is a tropical bird. She’s lively and beautiful. But no one can cage her, Opal. No one can tame her. I’ve known it for some time.” He spins back to face me. “And I’ve come to realize that two years ago, I made the biggest mistake of my life.”

  My breath catches in my throat.

  He re-crosses the porch and pauses three steps away. “You were the one who helped me practice my fast pitch. You were the one who saw me through Mrs. Benningham’s great novels class. You held my secrets. You kept me grounded. You can probably read my mind. I’ve done us both a great disservice, and I wonder if you can ever forgive me.”

  My voice sounds strained, even to my own ears. “There’s nothing to forgive.”

  “Yes, there is. You know there is.” He takes a step nearer. “I’m hoping you and I can go back and start all over.”

  As much as I’d like him to close that gap between us, I sidestep away. “Have you spoken to Ruby about this?”

  “No.”

  “Then I can’t. We can’t. She’ll be devastated.”

  “I don’t think she will.”

  He spots my frown and tucks his hands in his back pockets. “She’ll be upset for a while, but you and I both know she’d never be happy with me. Not in the long run.”

  I can’t deny the truth of his words, though I’m sure Ruby will. Animated, effervescent, impractical Ruby. I shake my head. “You can’t break it off with her yet, Billy. This is her special weekend.”

  “Not yet. But soon. I’ve thought about this for months. It’s not fair to Ruby for me to stay in a relationship with her when my heart belongs to someone else.”

  My breath stops altogether. This time I don’t move away as he closes the distance between us. I have just told him he’s committed no offense, but some spiteful part of me wants to make him pay for hurting me. Wants some kind of retribution for the past two years. I lift my chin and look him in the eye. “I think you’re fickle, Billy Wildon. And presumptuous if you think I’ll just let you make the leap between sisters again.”

  His shoulders rise slightly, his hands still in his pockets. “You’re right. I’ve been an idiot. And I have no right to even ask. But I can read you, too, Opal Parnell. I know you cared for me before. And I believe you care for me still.”

  Only inches separate us. He still doesn’t touch me, but I can smell the familiar scent of his shampoo.

  “I know you set your own feelings aside because you always place everyone’s happiness above your own. You’re selfless that way. And you’re steady. And beautiful.”

  I shake my head in denial.

  He pulls one hand out of his pocket, and the back of his fingers brush gently against my cheek. He’s never touched me like this before. I shiver at the intimacy of the gesture. “And not just on the outside. You have the kind of beauty that reaches all the way to your core. It shines out your eyes and makes everyone around you feel better about themselves.”

  My chest pulls so tight it hurts.

  “Opal, I know this seems sudden, but it’s not. I just haven’t been able to figure out how to tell Ruby that you are the woman my heart belongs to. The woman I want to spend the rest of my life with.”

  I swallow. “Billy, did you just propose?”

  His lips form a half-smile. “Maybe I did. You and I belong together, Opal, planted right here in Tidbury.”

  I can only stare at him slack-jawed. This is crazy. Like an episode straight out of my dreams. I’m not sure if I should kiss him or laugh at him or send him packing.

  “I don’t expect an answer,” Billy continues. “But if you can deny that you love me, too, do it now. If you can tell me that you haven’t known since you were a little kid that this moment was inevitable, I want to hear it.”

  I blink. And blink again. I can’t refute either statement. “We can’t hurt Ruby.”

  “We won’t. Next weekend I’ll let her down easy. We’ll give her time to recover.” His fingers brush a strand of hair and tuck it behind my ears. “We have all the time in the world.”

  My eyes are still locked on his, my head in a fuzzy haze of disbelief, when he takes my face in both his hands. I have never been kissed before, but I have imagined this moment a thousand times. It almost seems predestined. But the powerful vortex of emotion that engulfs me when our lips meet is something no young girl could possibly predict. I am lost to a force as uncompromising as the tides, surging upward from my feet to my head.

  The kiss deepens, our mouths moving as if they’ve always known each other. My arms snake around Billy’s neck. His circle my back. Neither of us hears the sound of a car motoring up the dirt road until it pulls into the drive and headlights sweep across the yard, over Billy’s pickup truck, and latch onto us.

  TWO

  We break apart and exchange a troubled glance.

  The car door slams with unnecessary force, and Ruby comes to stand at the foot of the porch steps. I can hardly see her against the deeper darkness of the woods, but from her position, our guilty stances are plainly visible in the light from the kitchen window. Her tear-choked voice trembles across the distance separating us. “Billy? Opal? How could you?”

  After a few horrible, awful seconds, Ruby plunges into the woods.

  “Ruby!” I run to the edge of the porch and grab the roof support. “Ruby, wait!” I can hear her crashing through the underbrush, ignoring me.

  Billy grips my shoulder. “Let me talk to her.” He rushes past me and disappears into the darkness of the trees.

  I sink onto the top step and let my head drop into my hands. What just happened? I feel like in a matter of minutes I have been launched skyward and then shoved from the plane without a parachute. As fantastic as that kiss was, as often as I have dreamed of it, I would take it back to save my sister this heartache.

  I replay that anguished cry and smack my forehead with the heel of my hand. Why did I give in to Billy? Why didn’t we wait till he could break things off with Ruby? Now that she’s done with school, something new would have captured her attention. Quite likely she would have signed on to a ship making for foreign ports or caught wind of some expedition or another. Life was bound to separate her and Billy eventually. Why couldn’t we have just been patient?

  A tension headache springs up behind my eyes. I rub two fingers against each temple and decide to make a pot of coffee. When Billy drags Ruby back, the three of us are going to have a lot to talk about.

  I sigh. This could be a long night.

  An hour later, the moon has risen and casts planes of black and silver across the yard. I’m back on the porch step nursing my third cup of coffee and growing steadily more agitated when Billy finally stumbles out of the woods and sinks down beside me. His posture is one of utter defeat. “I can’t find her.”

  I rise and pitch the dregs of my cup into the bushes. “I’m going after her.”

  He catches the leg of my jeans. “Not by yourself, you’re not.”

  “Ruby’s out there alone,” I point out.

  He pinches the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger. “Just give her till morning. She’ll be back when she’s ready.”

  “I’m not leaving her out there all night,” I say, remembering the man from the shore. “Not with things as they are in the nation.”

  He follows me inside. “It won’t do any good. She doesn’t want to be found.”

  “I know the woods better than you do.” I grab the handgun and shove it in the waistband of my jeans then flick on my flashlight. “I’ll find her.”

  Billy catches me by the shoulders. His eyes hold a depth of sorrow. “Opal, I’m so sorry. I really messed this up.”

  I meet his eyes, agreeing with him, yet knowing I share the blame. But any discussion of the matter can wait until Ruby’s back safe and sound. I push past him. “There’s coffee
on the stove. Don’t wake up Granddad.”

  He sighs and lets me go. “I’ll drink a cup and look again. Be careful.”

  It’s pitch black in the woods, the moonlight unable to penetrate the thick canopy of leaves. But I’ve been in the woods at night before. Lots of times. I’d be completely unafraid if only I hadn’t encountered the figure on the rocks. The anxiety I’ve lived with all day is nothing to what it has become. Since leaving town, it’s grown. Layer upon layer upon layer.

  I shine the light in slow arcs over the ground. It reveals broken grasses and snapped twigs that show someone passed through recently, but there’s no way to know whether Ruby or Billy caused the damage. If I try to follow the trail, I could be going in circles. Better to think through the destinations Ruby might have chosen.

  She doesn’t spend as much time in the woods as I do. She’s never taken to nature. Never loved it as I do. She prefers to pass her time with friends, engaged in sports and various social activities. But on occasion she comes here with me. And her favorite destination is the meadow at the edge of the heights where the pine forest begins and a cold spring trickles at the base of the rock. I make for it immediately.

  The meadow is half a mile distant. The whole way there, my eyes and ears remain on full alert even as I mentally rehearse what I will say to my sister when I find her.

  Ruby, I’m so sorry. Billy and I never meant for this to happen.

  No, too trite.

  Ruby, I’ve been in love with Billy my whole life. You pushed me aside and stepped in where you didn’t belong. But things have a way of working out the way they’re meant to.

  All true, but I don’t think she’ll be very receptive. No, I’d best stick with the plain and humble sister act she’s far more familiar with.

  Ruby, I would go back to the beginning of the evening and do everything differently if I could. I would rather suffer silently and see you happy.