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rocketed toward the courthouse as if he were late for a date. Or court.
    “Finn?”
    I shook myself. “Huh? Oh, right. Let’s order. It’s getting late.”
    She shot me a quizzical glance, then shrugged. “Lobster roll. Fries. Vanilla shake.”
    I ordered the same, but with onion rings. I paid for it, stood in silence until the greasy bags were handed over, and faced her. “Did Sawyer just tell me I’m gonna be rich?”
    She gave me a crooked smile. “He sure did.”
    I frowned, still not accepting it. “I thought so.”
    “Are you going to reject all those riches, so you can keep working for me? I need you around the stables and gardens, bud.”
    I laughed. “I might. I did it ten years ago. No reason to change my behavior now.”
    She snorted. “You’re nuts. You should take the money. Maybe you could do some good with it.”
    I considered her words, still feeling negative about the whole thing. Lose a family and wife, gain a fortune. It felt so wrong. “Maybe.”
    She grabbed her paper bag and tossed a wave over her shoulder. “Remind me to get you a membership at the club. They might actually accept you now that you’re not a bum.”
    I laughed and took a bite of an onion ring, tossing the hot piece around in my mouth. “See you at home,” I mumbled. “Society girl.”
     

Chapter 10
    July 9 th , 1997
    6:30 P.M.
     
    I avoided Jax and sneaked out of the house after dinner on my ten-speed. I expected to get my license in the fall, and couldn’t wait to get my first car. I’d been saving up for years, and already had over five hundred in the bank. For months, I’d had my eye on a red Camaro that had been sitting on a lawn down the street. The price tag was $850.00. I didn’t know if it even ran, but it sure was a beaut. I planned to save every penny from my meager salary this summer. If it didn’t sell by October, the Camaro would be mine.
    In the cooling summer evening, I pedaled steadily along the sandy trail to Paines Creek Beach, curving around bends ruffled with wild roses and orange daylilies.
    Would Sassy make it? Would her parents let her go out alone?
    I skidded to a stop by the bicycle stand, slid my old bike into the rack, and clipped the cable lock around it. Craning my head, I tried to see over the dunes blocking the panoramic view of the shore. Her bike wasn’t here, but that didn’t mean she didn’t get a ride, or maybe she walked. I wasn’t sure where she lived.
    Sweet peas and purple beach plums lined the sandy path to the shore, and the screeching of gulls provided comforting background noises to the swirling, salty wind whistling through the sharp grasses blanketing the dunes.
    A man jogged with his black lab in the distance. Two old men had set up chairs and fishing rod stands on the north end of the beach where the water was deeper, and where the fishing was reported to be excellent. They slumped beside each other, baseball caps drawn low and heads hanging. I wondered if they’d fallen asleep. Other than the jogger and the fishermen, the beach was empty.
    No Sassy.
    I felt my expectations deflate, just a little. I checked my watch. Five ‘til seven. It was still early.
    I tried to find a good vantage point to keep watch, and decided on the breakwater rocks that reached from the parking lot to the sea, following the shining green and silver flow of Paine’s Creek, just before it merged with the ocean. I climbed to the top of the jumble and sat on the warm granite, still oozing heat from the day. Unlacing my sneakers, I tossed them down to the sand. It wasn’t cool to walk the beach in running shoes.
    A car pulled up.
    My heartbeat quickened and I peered into the car, unable to see due to the setting sun’s rays reflection on the windshield. Holding my breath, I waited for someone to emerge.
    A woman got out, maybe in her forties. Looking frazzled, she shaded her eyes and gazed at the fishermen. Jingling keys in her hand, she passed me, mumbling. “Geez, I think they fell