The Sweetest Summer: A Bayberry Island Novel by Susan Donovan Page B

because she hadn’t heard from him. No one had any idea where—or how—he was. True to form, Duncan arrived the evening of the annual Flynn family cookout on the last ferry, without a word of warning. He called Clancy to pick him up and drive him directly to their mother’s cottage.
    It had always struck Clancy as funny how his brother’s job required him to slip unnoticed into hostile territories, yet he loved making an entrance when he came home—the bigger, the better.
    Clancy smiled to himself. “Hey, Row, maybe this year a Navy helicopter will fly directly over Ma’s backyard, you know, and just air drop the bastard right into the crudités platter.”
    Rowan laughed. “Don’t joke. It could happen.”
    “I’m prepared for anything. Well, sis, I’d better go.”
    “Wait a sec. The other reason I called is that Ma told me you wanted your boxes that were in the attic.”
    He took his feet off the desk and sat up straight.
    “
Were
in the attic? You already threw them out?”
    “What? No, of course not. What’s the big deal—you looking for a long-lost lotto ticket or something?”
    He chuckled. “I wish.”
    “Anyway, we found three boxes of your stuff—trophies and kid junk and even some college crap. I put it all in the carriage house . . .”
    Clancy was already on his feet.
    “. . . So come over anytime after festival week. Maybe you can join Ash and me for supper.”
    He put on his cap. “I’ll take a rain check on the meal, but I’ll be right over to get the boxes.” He grabbed the keys to the Jeep.
    “Uh . . . now? Seriously? Aren’t you just a little busy?”
    “See ya in five.”

Eighteen years ago . . .
    A manda grabbed Evelyn’s wrist so hard it hurt. “Oh, my God. There he is!”
    “Where?” She looked all around but didn’t see him. There were thousands of people crammed onto the boardwalk and the edge of Main Street for the parade. How was she supposed to pick out one single teenage boy in this craziness?
    “Don’t do that!”
    “Don’t do what?”
    “Look around like that, like a gopher on a PBS nature show or something.”
    “How am I supposed to find him if I don’t look for him?”
    “Oh, my God. You just don’t know anything, do you?”
    “So I’m supposed to use ESP to find him? Or Baldwin radar?”
    Amanda cracked up. “God, that would be great, wouldn’t it? But, no. I’m just saying you need to be low-key. If he sees you looking for him, he’ll think you’re dying to see him again.”
    Evelyn
was
dying to see Clancy again, but decided to keep it to herself. If Amanda knew how interested shereally was, this vacation would be a living hell. Could there be anything in the world more embarrassing than having your twelve-year-old sister teach you about the art of seduction?
    “He’s looking over here. He sees you.”
    Evelyn puffed up her hair with her fingers and tried to appear casual. She must have been crazy, but she actually let Amanda help her get ready that morning. On her sister’s advice, she’d applied mousse to her damp hair and let it dry naturally. After Amanda borrowed a pair of scissors from the front desk, she cut off the bottom of two T-shirts so they both could wear crop tops to the parade. They had to hide this from their parents, of course, because people from Maine thought stuff like that was indecent.
    So there she was, hanging out on the boardwalk waiting for the parade to start, pretending not to be looking for the boy she was desperately looking for, all while having big hair and an exposed belly. Evelyn felt kind of silly.
    “Don’t look. Don’t look. He’s coming over here!”
    The parade started. Evelyn tried to appear really, really into the high school band now playing “Achy Breaky Heart,”
something that was almost impossible to do.
    “Hey!”
    She turned to see Clancy standing in front of Amanda and herself. She smiled like she was surprised to see him.
    “Hey!”
    “Want to go for a