“Can I sit by Mr. Hank?” Luna asked.
“Of course.” Skylar scooted over and I still felt the residual effects from our brief contact.
“Everyone find a seat!” Stewie stepped up onto the trolley and moved to the front grabbing the handheld PA mic. He was wearing a black hat, white button-up shirt, black bow tie, and red suspenders and, in my opinion, looked ridiculous. I wanted to have a few words with him about the damn article that he’d written, but I knew this wasn’t the time or place. “Hello, ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to Firefly Island Trolley Tours. I’m Stewart and I’ll be your guide today. First off, let me ask, where everyone is from?”
“Nashville,” the elderly couple sitting in front called out.
“Boise,” the family in the center relayed.
“Austin!” the group of college-aged-looking kids whooped.
“Boston!” a bridal party who were all wearing sashes announcing their titles in the wedding yelled out.
Luna wiggled in her seat. “Can I say it, Momma?”
“Of course!”
“Seattle!” Luna shouted excitedly.
Seattle. That was one more piece of the puzzle. Now I just needed to know why they’d moved here and most importantly where was Luna’s father and were he and Skylar still together.
Stew looked in the back and I clocked the moment he recognized me. I hoped the death stare I was giving him would deter him from speaking to me or about me.
“Welcome out of towners.” The smile he wore on his face told me that the stare wasn’t working. “You are in for a treat, folks. Today we have a local celebrity joining our tour. You may have seen him on the Netflix documentary What is Love? Or read about him on the front page of the weekend edition of the Firefly Island Tribune written by yours truly.”
I felt Skylar’s stare as she turned her head and looked at me. This was a bad idea. A very bad idea.
“Ladies and gentleman, please put your hands together and give a warm welcome to Mr. Hank M. Comfort!”
Luna cheered loudly beside me and Skylar clapped as well. The Nashville couple just looked at me confused as to who I was. The Boise family gave me a spattering of applause. And the Austin and Boston groups both had their phones out and were either snapping pictures of me or taking video.
Everything in me was screaming for me to get the hell off this thing but I knew it would upset Luna so I stayed seated.
“Now you’ll soon learn that Mr. Comfort comes from a colorful heritage and is part of the tapestry of Firefly Island. You’ll be hearing all about his family history a little later on that involves love, betrayal, and a generational curse.” Stewart moved on continuing the rest of his spiel and I tuned him out.
Luna squealed with delight as the trolley began to move and she grabbed my arm. Moments before I’d had to fight the strongest urge to get up and off this ride from hell, but as I looked down at the genuine joy and excitement in Luna’s expression I could honestly say that there wasn’t anywhere else I’d rather be in the world.
CHAPTER 8
Skylar
He’s just being neighborly. That is what I kept reminding myself. This is not a date…no matter how much it felt like one.
I knew it wasn’t a date for two reasons. First, I didn’t date, so there was no way that it could possibly be a date. And second, Hank didn’t seem like the sort of man that was hard up for female companionship. We hadn’t discussed it, but I was sure that he either had someone special or was living his best bachelor life.
Women had to be throwing themselves at him. He stood around six foot four, broad shoulders, muscular arms and chest, and large hands. And that was in addition to his thick brown hair, soulful hazel eyes, and chiseled jaw. He was tall, dark and handsome on steroids. And that was just how he looked. His voice was hormone catnip.
The only other reason I could think that he was single was The Comfort Curse, which I’d just learned about. I wondered if that had made him wary of getting serious with someone. Which begged the question, what had his brother meant when he’d said, “You’re the one. The one to put a smile on Hank Comfort’s face.”
During the trolley ride I kept replaying the words Billy said to me at the start of our interview. When I asked him what he meant, he said, “You’ll see. But it might take a while cause in case ya hadn’t noticed, Hank doesn’t talk much.”
“That one!” Luna exclaimed as she pointed to the flavor she wanted, which was vanilla.
I set my cup of cookie dough ice cream on the glass partition and started to reach for my wallet to pay for the ice cream but Hank’s hand covered mine. “I got it.”
“No.” I continued to dig into my purse. “You got the tickets for the trolley.”
“I suggested ice cream, it’s my treat.” He insisted in a way that made me feel special and taken care of, two things that I rarely, if ever, felt.
My breath caught in the back of my throat as I retrieved my frozen treat. “Thank you.”
Not. A. Date.
“Tell Mr. Hank thank you, Lu Lu,” I told my daughter as the girl behind the counter handed her a scoop of vanilla on a sugar cone.
“Thank you, Mr. Hank.” Luna hugged Hank’s leg.
“You’re welcome, Luna Luna.”
I wasn’t sure where the Luna Luna thing had come from, but Luna lit up every time he said it. We made our way outside and Luna ran over to the play area.
“Be careful with your ice cream,” I called out after her. “Stay where I can see you!”
“Got it.” She shot me a thumbs up.
I couldn’t help but smile. That kid was my everything. Well, her and Ashley. But Ashley was in California living her best life. She didn’t need me anymore. Luna, I still had for at least thirteen more years. I was already plotting what I could do to keep her at home when she went to college.
“She’s somethin’ else,” Hank commented as we took a seat on a picnic table that overlooked the play area and the ocean.
“Yes, she is.” I sat for a moment and took in the scenery.
It was breathtaking. Being here was like living in a live-action Disney movie. There were canals that weaved through the town with adorable white pedestrian bridges to cross over them. Vibrant, colorful flowers were everywhere you looked nestled in lush greenery including massive weeping willows that lined the streets. And that was just inland.
The coastline was filled with sandy beaches that filled with fireflies each night. The late eighteenth century and early to mid-nineteenth century architecture that populated the town, specifically in the downtown area, looked like it belonged on the set of a period movie. I wasn’t surprised when Stewart said the buildings had been featured in multiple architectural magazines.
I scanned the panoramic view as I dipped my spoon in my ice cream. “It’s so beautiful here.”
Hank didn’t respond.
“Hank doesn’t talk much.”
That’s what Billy had said. Which was a shame because I had a lot of questions about the information I’d learned on the trolley tour. Starting with the Comfort Curse.
Billy obviously didn’t believe in it since he had mentioned he was engaged, but I wondered what Hank’s take on it was. I really wished I would have read that article that was sitting on the bartop. I planned on seeing if I could get my hands on a copy and once I got my internet hooked up, I was going to watch that documentary that Stewart had mentioned.