Persuaded (21 page)

Hanna
kept her eyes down, but she couldn’t control a reactionary beaming grin. There
it was again, that same playful tone.

“Finally,”
Derick said with relish. “I’ve been waiting for that smile.”

When
she looked up at him, he wasn’t teasing or baiting her. He was completely
serious. And her hand was still in his. Then his eyes drifted down to the sand
and a brief scowl crossed his face. Without letting go, he reached past her and
picked up the sketchbook. Hanna panicked, stuttering out an explanation.

“I was
. . . really intrigued by that story last night . . . the one you told CJ . .
.”

Derick
studied the page for a few moments. “I didn’t know you were an artist,” he
murmured.

“I’m
not,” she assured him, burning with shame. “It’s just something I do once in a
while.”

After
a prolonged pause, he set her drawings aside. “You should do it more often.”
His eyes were on Hanna’s hand in his, his thumb swiping invisible prints on her
palm. “You’re kind of amazing, you know that?”

Hanna
was about to knock the compliment aside, but then Derick fastened his eyes on
hers. The look was so familiar, so intense and
intimate
—that she
couldn’t for a second doubt his sincerity.

“Thanks,”
she mumbled, wondering how long he would keep holding on—wishing he would never
let go.

She
all but jumped out of her skin at the sound of Ella’s voice calling her name,
ripping her hand from Derick’s and folding it safely in her own lap. “Yes?”

Ella,
dressed for a good long sunbathing session in a Ferrari-red bikini, came from
the direction of the house. Hanna sincerely hoped she hadn’t seen anything that
might upset her. “Mary’s looking for you. She’s in one of her moods again,”
Ella informed her as she passed by, ignoring Derick entirely.

Derick
watched her go before facing forward again.

“Ella
is . . . unnaturally antisocial these days,” Hanna observed. “Everything okay?”

Derick
gave her a sidelong look before answering. “We’re kind of taking a break right
now, but she’s not too happy about it.”

A
burden Hanna didn’t know she’d been shouldering lifted. “What brought that on?”

“Charles
inadvertently tipped me off that she was making plans for the future.
Matrimonial plans,” Derick clarified.

“I
thought you were too, that night you sent me to bed for being sick.”

He
turned to her. “You thought I was giving you a heads up?”

“It
seemed like something you would do. With us trying to be
friends
and
all.”

Derick’s
eyes raked her face for a moment, as he took that in. “I asked you because I
needed an outside opinion. After you told me what I already knew, I decided to
stay on the
Laconia
for a few days while I worked out what to say. I was
on my way back to Kelynch when I heard Eli’s phone call.”

So
that was why he’d been in no hurry to talk to Ella that night. Derick really
had been there for Hanna—in fact, he’d risked a confrontation with Ella to tell
her about Eli.

“Looks
like you’ve been found,” Derick said as Mary strode toward them.

“Must
be important if she’s risking sun exposure,” Hanna said, getting to her feet.
With an apologetic glance at Derick, Hanna hurried toward Mary with her heart
racing.

TWENTY-SEVEN

ABDUCTION

She was deep in
the happiness of such misery, or the misery of such happiness, instantly.

—Jane Austen,
Persuasion

The
rest of the day passed in a daze for Hanna. She couldn’t stop thinking about
Derick taking her hand and giving her that unfathomable look. Calling her amazing.

Even a
text from Eli, asking her to meet him at the marina for dinner, couldn’t derail
her thoughts. One of the neighbors had gone door-to-door earlier, issuing
invitations for a
Jaws
movie-athon on the beach. Hanna had already
accepted, and besides, she wasn’t comfortable meeting Eli on his grounds given
the new intelligence. Instead she invited him to the movie, belatedly
considering the possibility that Derick might be there as well.

Mary,
who had always been squeamish when it came to horror films, declared her
intention of staying in, freeing the rest of the household up to be thoroughly
traumatized. Ella, evidently finding herself with an overwhelming amount of
free time since that long walk with Derick, had made friends with a girl named
Callie who was staying a few houses down from Uppercross. Around nine-thirty,
the two of them tagged along with Charles and Hanna to the movie. Callie looked
like a blond version of Ella. With the same perfect hourglass figure and long,
white-blond hair, she could easily have been the poster child for Hawaiian
Tropic. Hanna made sure not to sit next to them. She didn’t need them comparing
their sun-bronzed legs to her corpse-white ones.

Whoever
was hosting the event had set up a projector and aimed it at a large white
sheet draped over the volleyball net. The movie was already underway, the first
victim of the film tearing her clothes off and diving into the water without a
clue that she was about to be a midnight snack.

A
fizzy bomb of nerves erupted in Hanna’s stomach as she surreptitiously scanned
the crowd for Derick or even the Crofts. Instead she found Eli walking toward
her, and a little pit of disappointment settled in her stomach.

He
looked the same as always: brown curls, beach-casual clothing, twinkly eyes.
But when Hanna looked at him now she couldn’t help noticing a deficit in her
own feelings. Add to that the echo of Derick’s warning,
I just get the
feeling that Eli is not what he says he is . . . that there’s more going on
below the surface
, and Hanna had an absence of positive emotion where Eli
was concerned.

“Hi,”
he said, pulling her in for a hug as he came upon her.

Hanna
squeezed him briefly and stepped back. “Feeling better, then?”

“Much.”
He paused, falling into step beside her as she scoped out a place to spread the
blanket. “Man, it’s good to see you. You are a sight for sore eyes.”

The
cliché comment might have made her blush before, but now it just irritated her.
She couldn’t think of a response, so she folded herself onto the blanket, and
Eli followed suit.

“How
is the photography going?” Hanna asked, her eyes still darting around.

“Really
well. I think I have just about everything I need here. I actually wanted to .
. .”

Hanna
didn’t hear what he wanted, because she had just spotted the Crofts coming
toward them. Her heart skittered unevenly as Sophie waved and set up her
blanket next to Hanna. Benny was there too, but no Derick. Charles attached
himself to Adam as Ella introduced Benny to Callie.

“Earth
to Hanna . . .?”

“Sorry,”
Hanna said, turning to face Eli. “What did you say?”

“I
said, it’s weird that Ella is here without Derick. Don’t you think?”

“I
think they might be cooling things off,” Hanna offered vaguely, redirecting her
eyes to the movie, coming to terms with her disappointment. Derick didn’t
really care for throngs of people. Perhaps coming tonight had been too big a
risk for him.

“I
wonder what brought that on?”

“What
brought what on?” Hanna repeated, but she didn’t register his answering
clarification, because at that moment her phone buzzed in her pocket. The
display told her it was a text from an unknown number.

Looking
for me? Try turning around.

Hanna
slowly pivoted, trying not to fly in a million directions at once. There he was,
standing a few blankets back, lounging against the refreshment table. In the
dim light from the moon and the movie she couldn’t see him clearly, but she
could feel him there—as if tiny fibers of electricity were running between
them. Derick was here.

As
calmly as she could manage, Hanna faced forward, trying with all her might to
keep her face expressionless as she answered:

H: How
did you get my #?

D: I’m
super sneaky.

H:
Stalker.

D: J
Having fun?

H: Not
really

D:
Meet me at the pier in a few.

Hanna’s
heart was beating in her throat; she could hear the blood rushing in her ears,
as if her veins had burst and her ear canals would soon be flooded with the
stuff. How was she going to do this? It didn’t occur to her that it was rude to
ditch Eli, that it was spontaneous and daring and reckless. The only thing she
knew was she had to go.

“Hey,
you okay?” Eli asked in a dissatisfied tone. “You don’t seem like yourself
tonight.”

“I’m
sorry, Eli. You’re right, I’m not really feeling well, and this gory movie
isn’t helping. I think I’m going to just go home.”

“Let
me walk you back.”

“You
don’t have to,” Hanna said. “It’s just right over there.”

“I
want to.”

 
Arg.
Other than screaming
You can’t come with me because I’m meeting Derick in
secret!
Hanna couldn’t really see a way out, so she agreed. While Eli was
distracted brushing sand off his pants, she tapped out a quick message to
Derick:

Need
more time.

To
which he responded with:

I’ll
wait

Needing
something to focus on other than her frayed nerves, Hanna turned to Eli as they
walked to Uppercross.

“Sorry
I’ve been off tonight.”

“No
problem,” Eli assured, taking her hand as they walked. She had to resist the
urge to let go. Doing so would bring on the conversation they needed to have, but
tonight was not the time. Not when she had somewhere else she wanted to be.

“Are
you going to be around tomorrow?” Eli asked as they arrived at Uppercross.

“There’s
nothing going on that I know of,” Hanna qualified.

“Okay.
I’ll give you a call in the morning to see how you’re doing.”

Nodding,
Hanna moved for the door, but Eli grasped her hand and pulled her toward
himself. She panicked. There was no way she could allow him to kiss her. Not
now. Instead she hugged him tightly.

“I
don’t want to get you sick,” she explained to the side of his head. “You know,
in case I’m coming down with something.”

He
shook his head at her, a wan smile curving his mouth. “See you tomorrow, crazy
lady. Get some sleep.”

As he
walked away with his hands in his pockets, Eli threw one of his trademark
dimpled smiles over his shoulder. It did absolutely nothing for her.

Hanna
let herself into the house. As much as she hated it, she would have to wait a
few minutes for Eli to put some distance behind him before she went back out.
The soundless house told Hanna that Mary and the boys were out cold. Checking
the time, she saw that it was just after ten. She snuck upstairs to check her
reflection. A flurry of nerves, she finger-combed her hair, splashed some water
on her face, brushed her teeth, and considered putting on some mascara. Facing
her reflection, she saw that it was hopeless. Her hair was a hectic mess, her
clothing (knee-length cargo shorts and a fitted T-shirt) were plain and almost
boyish, and she knew from experience that the high color in her face wasn’t
going anywhere anytime soon.

The
thought called up Derick’s last virtual words:

I’ll
wait.

Derick
was waiting for her. A nameless rush of something went through her at the
thought—nausea? Depthless joy? Fear? Whatever it was, she liked it.

With
one last frenzied glance in the mirror, Hanna went back downstairs and let
herself out of the house. Texting Derick to let him know she was on her way,
Hanna scurried toward the pier.

A
gaggle of people met her coming the opposite direction, movie-athoners who had
reached their tolerance for mechanical sharks and fake blood. To her dismay,
Charles, Adam, and Sophie were among them.

“There
you are,” Charles scolded, “we were wondering where you went.”

“Is
the movie over already?” Hanna asked.

Sophie
made a disgusted noise. “The effects are craptastic. I can’t handle it.”

Adam
snorted. “Yeah, okay. She jumped about a foot in the air when that disembodied
head popped out of the shipwreck. You should have seen it, Hanna.”

Hanna
stayed and listened for a moment, wondering how she could disappear unseen. As
she turned toward the pier, they all fell into step behind her.