“Ray posted a picture with your plate of pancakes sitting there full.”
Mark closed his eyes.
“Of course he did,” he said. “Of course Ray did that.”
I almost laughed. Almost.
“And Carol?”
“Carol owns the Gull’s Nest. She’s owned it for thirty years. Before it was the Gull’s Nest, it was the bait shack. Remember? Where we sat on the dock that night.” He looked out the window. “When I called to reserve the deck, I told her why. I told her everything. I don’t know why. She just had that kind of voice. She cried on the phone. And then she said she’d do the whole thing at cost. She wouldn’t take a dime over.”
Oh, honey.
“She thought I found out,” I said. “When I called. She thought the surprise was ruined.”
“Probably.”
“I hung up on her.”
“She’ll forgive you. She’s tough. She’s got a tattoo of an anchor on her forearm.”
