113
Lucy
I changed into the swimsuit a came downstairs. David looked up from his phone and smiled. There was something in his eyes. The look made me nervous, but I wasn’t afraid.
“This one suits you better, I think,” he said. “Though… it’s hard to say for sure.”
I ducked my head and shuffled my feet in my sandals. “Tha-Thanks… Sarah picked it out.”
He chuckled. “I’m not surprised.”
When everyone else came downstairs, we got into the car. Uma drove us into town. Before we got to the pier, I could hear children laughing and the sound of music. Uma stopped on the other side of the barricade and we got out, heading towards the crowd that seemed to be growing by the second.
There was so much going on it was hard to know where to focus. The scent of food lingered in the air. Sarah went darting off into the crowd.
“Seems like she and Henry found each other,” Amy said, shaking her head. “What am I going to do with her?”
Duke laughed. “Come on. Let’s see what’s going over there. It looks like face painting.”
David grinned. “The artist is the best. Come on.”
He offered me his hand. I took it and followed him, Duke, and Amy toward the face-painting booth. The artist was a woman. There were a bunch of pictures around her little booth. She was drawing a butterfly on a little girl’s face.
“Good to see you honing those skills,” David said.
She wrinkled her nose and looked up at him. “It pays the bills and I don’t hate it. I heard you were in town. Happy belated birthday.”
“Thanks.”
She glanced across us. “You have friends?”
He sputtered. “Of course, I have friends!”
She laughed and waved us in. “Well, come on. What can I do for you today?”
Amy sat down first as I looked around all the pictures of people with their faces painted and images of tattoos.
“She does tattoos?” I asked looking up at David.
“She has a parlor in Blood Moon City,” David said.
We met gazes and something told me that she wasn’t human. Was she a werewolf or something else? I didn’t know, but it made me relax a little for some reason.
When it was my turn, she grinned at me. “Anything in mind?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I’ve never gotten my face painted.”
Her eyes lit up. “Does that mean I have full creative license?”
I glanced at David who grinned before nodding.
“I’ll get you something to eat,” David said. “You’ll be here a while.”
I tried to hold still. The paint felt a bit tingly on my face as she worked, looking absolutely gleeful.
“It’s not often I get full range.” I glanced at her and noticed the soft glow in her eyes. “I promise to do you justice.”
“Thanks.”
David came back a while later with paper bowls of food and drinks just as she finished. David let out a low whistle.
“You’ve out done yourself…”
“I know!”
She gave me a mirror so I could see. The face painting was a beautiful scene of the ocean at sunset. The same flowers on my bikini floated across the scene on my cheek. The sunset looked so real it was like she’d taken a photo and put it on my face. In the middle, a dolphin leaped out of the water.
“It’s so beautiful, thank you.”
She beamed. “You’re welcome. Get some food in you. I think the announcements are about to start.”
I got up and followed David, Duke and Amy out of the tent. Amy had a fairy on her cheek holding a seashell. Duke had a tiger on his cheek. As we walked and ate, I heard someone tapping on a microphone.
“Hear ye, Hear ye… Don’t stop stuffing your faces on my account.” Everyone laughed and I looked up at the mayor’s husband standing on a podium. “Now that I have your attention, our lovely mayor, who is looking more delectable by the day, has a few words to say.”
The woman walked onto the podium, draped in a cover up that revealed part of her swimsuit and shaking her head. She swatted her husband on the shoulder but let him kiss her cheek before he slipped down the stairs.
“Welcome to the party!” She said raising her hands. The whole crowd cheered. “Locals, visitors, long-standing trouble makers all, welcome! We made it another year and we’re doing better than ever. I’ve never been so proud to be mayor of Shell Cove. Give us all a hand for making it!”
The crowd seemed to go wild cheering and clapping. David joined and I smiled at how caught up in their energy he was.
“Now, you know Shell Cove isn’t one for grand gestures, but I think we can all agree that this one is well overdue,” she said grinning as someone came up with a box. “David Bloodborne, get on up here or I’ll have someone carry you.”
His jaw dropped and he shook his head.
“Gentlemen?”
“Wait!” David cried as four men lifted him above the crowd and carried him toward the podium. I laughed as did Duke as the crowd parted.
They set him down on the podium’s platform beside the mayor who caught him by the arm before he could escape.
“No escaping now,” she teased. “You knew this was coming. Gentle little David here has been an adopted son of Shell Cove since he was barely old enough to spell shell. He’s grown into a great young man who probably has to fight college women off with a stick.”
Duke laughed. “All except one.”
I elbowed him and he laughed again.
“But more than that, he’s played such a major role in our town's growth and prosperity. So while his birthday was yesterday, we have a little gift for him today before he goes back home.”
She turned and let him go as the woman with the box walked to him and offered it to him.
“David,” she said softly. “You’ve been family since the first time you waddled on our shores to help pick up trash, and we want you to remember that as you move forward and eventually can’t make monthly or even yearly trips down. We give you this key so you know that you’re always welcome, you are always home with us.”
David looked down in the box. He looked like he might cry before he turned to the mayor and pulled her into a tight hug.
“Careful, my husband is a jealous man, and I wouldn’t know what to do with a young lover.”
He threw his head back and laughed with the rest of the crowd as she handed him the microphone.
“We all know at least half of that isn’t true,” David said, earning more laughter from the group. “Maybe all of it…. But, thank you for this. I…I’m so honored, I don’t know what to say, other than I’m pretty sure I’ll be coming back more often than you think.”
She clapped him on the shoulder. “I think that’s more than enough. Now, if we could all?”
She lifted her hands and started waving them back and forth.
“Wait a second!”
“Happy Birthday to you,” the crowd started singing. The song started playing from the speakers too. I sung along with the crowd as David smiled and shook his head. When the song was done, the crowd burst into applause and noisemaker were blown. A loud horn followed.
“Alright, you beach bums,” the mayor said, taking the microphone. “Get back to the party!”
The music cranked up and while David stayed up there to talk with the mayor a bit, I finished my food and went to look for a trashcan. The music and everyone were so loud that I was sure that people from the next town could probably hear it.
I turned back, edging along the crowd as David came down the stairs and was greeted by a bunch of people. Someone pulled me into a long line of people that were walking and wiggling to the rhythm of the song. I didn’t know what was going on, but I held on to the person in front of me and tried to follow the rhythm. We snaked around most of the pier before I was out of breath and feeling a little breathless. I guess it was because of the heat.
“Lucy, watch out!”
I frowned. Turning toward Duke’s voice when I felt something yank on my leg like a rope. I stumbled. My legs seem to be swept out from under me as I went tumbling over the edge of the ropes. My stomach plummeted as I felt myself falling and unable to scream. My heart skipped a beat as I found myself plunging into the deep water below, knowing that I didn’t know how to swim. The last thing I heard was the splash of the water rising up around me and pulling me under.
“Lucy!”
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