to Gabe. “Let’s split up. We’ll cover more ground if we do. You take the upstairs shops and I’ll take the bottom level. We’ll come back to this spot in thirty minutes. Okay?”
“Okay,” he said and struck out, his pace brisk. She blew out a short breath and focused on where an eleven-year-old kid would likely want to hang out. The shops in this plaza were mostly geared toward tourists and she doubted the kid was looking to buy a coffee mug or T-shirt. Lindy closed her eyes and thought hard. If she were a kid with money at her disposal and she was so angry and hurt that she just ran away, where would she go?
Off island. The answer seemed simple enough. A rich kid with resources and enough savvy was going to try to find a way off the island, possibly to purchase a plane ticket in St. Thomas to fly back to wherever she came from. Knowing Carys, the kid probably knew her way around a terminal. The wealthy were usually well traveled; some kids in L.A. were bicoastal with divorced parents so a plane ride was as natural as hitching a cab in New York.
Lindy jogged to the marina and began scanning. She spied her old friend Billy Janks, unloading scuba gear from his charter. She waved and grinned when his dark brown face split into an easy smile.
“Yah a sight for sore eyes,” he exclaimed when she stepped aboard and gave him a fierce hug. “Heath told me yah were here but I couldn’t believe yah left all dat Hollywood glamour for little ol’ St. John.”
“I didn’t leave permanently,” Lindy said, smiling. “Just a little break until things get more settled with Larimar.” She admired his beautiful boat. “Man, you’ve come a long way. I remember when you were just a snot-nosed island kid like the rest of us. Now you own your own charter company? That’s damn sweet, Billy.”
He grinned and nodded. “Saving up for yah to make me an honest mon, sweet.”
Lindy laughed. “As if I’d keep you from all the ladies who want a piece of that dark island candy,” she teased. “I’d never be able to live with myself if I kept you all to myself.”
“True dat,” he said, laughter in his voice. “So what da real reason yah here? Come for a ride?”
She shook her head. “No. Unfortunately not. But I’ll take a rain check on that, though. Actually, I was wondering if you saw a little imp of a girl come through looking to pay someone to ferry her to St. Thomas. She has serious cash but she’s only about eleven.”
Billy sobered and nodded. “She came tru here about fifteen minutes ago. I told her to go home. She plenty mad when I say dat. I tole her to cool off with a cold drink at the boathouse.”
“Thanks, Billy,” Lindy said, relieved. At least Carys hadn’t found a way off island yet. She waved at Billy and headed toward the boathouse. She stepped inside and spotted Carys immediately. She was trying to haggle with a captain Lindy didn’t know.
“I have cash,” she said, her small face gathering into a dark scowl. “What’s the problem? I’ll even pay you more than the trip is worth! I mean, you’d be stupid to pass up a deal like that!”
Lindy could tell the kid was about to get tossed into the water headfirst by the annoyed captain and for a split second, Lindy was tempted to let him. The kid deserved that and more, but in the end, not even Lindy could allow herself to let that happen.
“C’mon, kid, your dad is worried about you,” she said, startling Carys until she saw it was Lindy, then her face screwed into a fierce glower. “I know, I know, you’re mad. You can be mad in the car. Your dad is about to turn this whole island upside down to find you and you can’t even comprehend how that will make my life hell and I think you’ve done enough of that for one day.”
“My dad doesn’t care,” Carys shot back, but there was a slight tremble to her lip that gave her away. Beneath all that bravado and bad attitude, the kid was hurting. Lindy sighed and wondered why she had to be the one to see it first.
“You know he does so let’s stop with the games and the lies.” Lindy drew Carys away from the clump of island natives and took her to the bar.
“I’m not lying,” she shot back heatedly.
“You told your dad that I called you a b-word. You and I both know I didn’t do that.”
Carys slid her gaze away. “I didn’t say which b-word. It’s not my fault he jumped to the wrong conclusion,” she said with a shrug. “He didn’t believe me anyway.”
“That’s not the point. You can’t just make up stuff about people. Someone could get hurt.”
“If he loved me, he’d believe whatever I said.” Lindy’s surprised laughter caused Carys to scowl. “What’s so funny?”
“You, kid. Loving someone doesn’t give you an all-access pass to being a manipulative brat,” she said, pausing to order two Shirley Temples. “I don’t know your dad but he seems like a decent guy. You and I both know you were the little twerp who ruined our plumbing so let’s just get that out of the way right now. I see what’s going on, though. You’re trying to get your dad’s attention because you’re hurting but trust me, this way isn’t productive and it just hurts you in the end.”
“How do you know?” Carys said, her voice small but defiant. “You don’t know anything about me or my dad.”
“True. But I lost my mom when I was really young and I remember how it felt.”
The defiance in Carys’s body language lessened a bit as she asked, “Really? How’d your mom die?”
“Cancer,” Lindy answered candidly, surprised when the admission still had the power to sting. She straightened and focused on Carys. “How about your mom?”
“Same. Dad said she didn’t suffer too long, though. By the time the doctors found the cancer, it’d spread everywhere,” Carys said, her small voice getting even smaller.
Lindy blinked back an unexpected show of tears. It’d been a long time since she remembered everything her mom had gone through. It’d been tough, but fast, too. Lindy had always wondered if her mom had simply given up because of her divorce. Her mom had never quite recovered from the shock of her husband splitting without warning.
“Dad doesn’t like to talk about it, though,” Carys whispered. “He says it’s not going to bring her back so we shouldn’t dwell on it.”
“How do you feel about that?” Lindy asked.
“I hate it.”
“Yeah, I would, too. My mom was a special woman. I’m sure yours was, too.”
“She was.” Carys sniffed and swallowed. “She was the best mom in the world.”
“And I’m guessing she thought you were pretty awesome, too. I mean, something tells me you didn’t act like this when she was around.”
A hint of pink crept into Carys’s cheeks and Lindy smiled in understanding. “Listen, how about this... I’ll make a deal with you. If you promise to stop trying to kill our septic system with your antics—” Lindy took a deep breath, shocked about what she was going to offer to the kid “—I’ll make a promise to listen to you anytime you want to talk about your mom. We can share stories about our moms if you want. Moms are special ladies. They deserve to get a little
