tooth, and she says, “You know, Danny collected those. He kept jarfuls in his room. He loved this island. For a long time it was hard to come back here after he died.”
“Did you ever think of selling the house?”
“All the time. But there’s something about this place….” She trails off. “It took him away, but it can heal you. We’ve had our share of tragedy in this family, but generations of us have found solace here. That’s why I’ll always think of this island as ours. It belongs to us in ways you can’t see or describe.”
“The island has this way of giving you what you need.” I say it almost without thinking, as if Miah’s words had been waiting right there for the perfect opportunity to come out.
“That’s right.” She looks at me in a way that tells me she gets it or she’s heard it before.
She hooks her arms through mine and my mom’s, and the three of us walk like this for a while. My mom says, “Claude met a boy.”
Addy quirks an eyebrow at me. “A good one, I hope.”
Mom goes, “His name’s Jeremiah Crew, and he works on the island.”
“I know Jeremiah,” Addy says, and it’s hard to tell if this is a good or a bad thing.
I bend down to pick up another shark tooth, hoping they won’t see how red I’ve gone. The tooth is the best one I’ve found so far. As large as a quarter, smooth and black. I’m thinking about how I can’t wait to show it to Miah when my mind goes to Danny. I hand Addy the shark tooth.
“You should have this.”
She blinks over and over, and I’m afraid she’s going to cry, but instead she takes the tooth and slips it into her pocket and gives it a pat.
“Thank you,” she says. “He would have loved it.”
* * *
—
That night, while Mom and Addy are opening a bottle of wine, I slip out with Miah. We drive down to the ferry dock. He grabs a bucket and two fishing poles from the back of the truck and we go walking out on the pier, where we catch and release, catch and release, as the night settles around us. Across the water, at the end of the world, I can see the glow of the mainland.
When we’re done fishing, we sit on the bench at the edge of the dock and look up at the stars, taking our time, delaying going back.
“We should go,” I say, even though I don’t want to.
“I know.”
We sit for a while longer, and then I get up and he gets up, and my hand is in his and we’re climbing into the truck again.
When we get back to the house, the living room lights are on and I can see my mom and Addy through the front window, right where I left them. Under those stars, up against the side of the house, Miah kisses me. I stand on tiptoe so I can be almost as tall as he is, so I can kiss him as hard as he’s kissing me.
I want you I want you I want you, I think. Now now now.
* * *
—
The next day, the late-afternoon thunderstorm leaves the air cooler and less suffocating, and Addy offers to cook dinner. Afterward the three of us sit on the porch, Dandelion watching through the window, and eat ice cream while I tell them the ghost stories I’ve heard since I’ve been here.
“There’s also a lady in white,” Addy says. “Over at the carriage house by Rosecroft. I saw her once when I was little. She was just hovering at the upstairs window. Watching me.” She stands, ice cream cone in hand, and demonstrates, staring blankly at me, then my mom.
“Who was she?”
“I don’t know.” She sits again, takes a bite of her cone. “No one’s ever been able to figure it out. But if you ask me, it’s Tillie. Some ghosts stay still and some move around. Tillie is one of the moving variety. She supposedly protects Rosecroft, and that includes the grounds and all its buildings.”
I tell her about Tillie taking Miah’s bracelet, and then I mention the Secret Drawer Society, about how Mom said they would write notes and leave them there.
Addy groans. She and my mom exchange this look, and suddenly I can see them at my age, even younger. Addy says, “Every summer I would fall in love with someone, and every