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trouble," Gina said, still trying to look into the bathroom. "My family owns the place. The bakery, I mean. It’s a lemon cheesecake. Our specialty."
    "Ah."
    "Can I meet your son?"
    "He’s taking a bath. Maybe some other time."
    "Is he . . . Cassie said something was wrong with him."
    Every instinct inside Maddie stiffened. "He’s fine," she said shortly. "Look, I’ve—"
    "Cassie said you don’t remember living here before." Why the hell was everyone so fascinated by that? "I left young," Maddie snapped.
    "So you don’t remember anything ?"
    Maddie didn’t answer. Her heart was thumping hard. Gina rushed on, unperturbed. "Cassie said you’re going to stay for three months."
    "Cassie is a regular font of information, isn’t she?" "Huh?"
    She couldn’t decide if she liked Gina Gallen or not. On one hand, the woman was nosy, intrusive. On the other hand, she had gone out of her way to bring the cheesecake, and she had an infectious grin. Maddie shook her head.
    "Never mind."
    "Well, listen," Gina went on, "what I really stopped by to tell you is that on Friday nights—tomorrow night—we all gather down at the Sandbar for happy
    hour. It’s a great time. Everybody’s there. I mean, if you want to have any kind of life at all while you’re here, then that’s the place to find it."
    "The Sandbar," Maddie repeated.
    "It’s all the way down at the south end of the big island, on the beach."
    All the way, Maddie thought. She grinned to herself. What, five miles?
    "I'll think about it." She wouldn’t go, of course. She couldn’t. She could just see Josh in a raucous, smoky bar. He’d shrink completely into himself, even if it was the kind of place one might take a six-year-old, which it didn’t sound to be.
    "My little sister can baby-sit, if you want," Gina went on, as though she had read her mind. "Dana’s real good with kids. She’s fifteen. The high school’s over on the mainland now—they cut this one back to kindergarten through eighth when the mainlanders started moving in and there were too many kids. But the ferry brings the high schoolers home by five. So Dana could be up here by five-thirty, just in time to get you to the Sandbar before all the fun starts."
    "I’ll let you know."
    "Well, you can call me at the bakery. Lucisano’s, on Tenth Street. Or you could just tell Cassie. You know where to find her."
    "Yes." She would not leave Josh with Dana, Maddie thought. Certainly not under the current circumstances. But she shrugged enigmatically, not willing to argue about it, and something told her that this woman would argue.
    Gina flashed that grin again, then the door banged as she waved gaily and went out. Well, Maddie thought, turning back to the bathroom.
    "You okay in there, Josh?"
    Silence. Maddie felt ashamed, knowing that on some level she’d thought she might startle him into answering. She knew, she knew that it was not something he could control.
    She went and peeked into the bathroom. He was fine, still sitting down, playing with some of the boats she’d allowed him to bring, slicing them through the bubbles. "That lady brought a cake. When you get out of there, we’ll cheat and have some for breakfast, okay?"
    It seemed to her that he almost smiled.
    She carried the cake to the kitchen, untying the string and peeping inside. It looked delicious. She ran a finger through the lemon goo on the top and popped it into her mouth as she headed back to the bathroom.
    She realized that she was humming to herself. She decided that for all their quirks, some of the people on Candle seemed friendly enough, and it struck her again that coming hadn’t been a half-bad idea at all.
     
    Chapter 4
    Angus came back early that afternoon.
    Maddie was making lunch when she caught sight of him out of the corner of her eye. He was standing quietly and politely on the back deck this time, his hands thrust deeply into the pockets of his baggy, dirty khakis. She went to the kitchen door and stuck her head