The Cursed Series, Parts 3 & 4 (Cursed #3-4) - Rebecca Donovan Page 0,145

a girl exclaims when we reach the curb where a small line of taxis are queued.

I see her instantly. “Maggie!” I call out. My instinctive reaction is to run to her, but I can’t leave Parker. So I wait for her to come to us, wrapping an arm around her as she squeezes me fiercely. “I thought you’d be at Riddles.”

“I’m on break,” she tells me, stepping back. “This one”—she nods toward Kaden—“has been driving me crazy, waiting for you to arrive. You’d think he was in prison all week, being on this island without you. I think I’m pretty great company, but I guess I don’t compare to you.”

“I wasn’t wallowing,” Kaden insists as we follow Mr. and Mrs. Harrison toward the parking lot where their on-island Range Rover is parked. “Besides, Julien was here as well. We kept plenty busy until he left this morning.”

“Whatever you say,” Maggie says with a roll of her eyes. “I have to get back before my mother starts screaming my name … so embarrassing. I’ll come by tomorrow after I get off work around noon.”

“Great! We have so much to catch up on,” I say with a knowing smile, wanting to hear all about the mysterious guy Maggie met at the beginning of the summer.

When I was here for the Fourth, she wasn’t sure if she’d see him again. She was a bit devastated when he canceled last minute that weekend, claiming he had to stay in New York. But according to her recent letters, he’s planning to be on the island this weekend. I’m so curious, because she’s been reluctant with specifics about him, and that’s not like her. Although I do hear way too many intimate details, my face always flushes bright with each overshare. I’m not willing to do the same when she pries, asking what Kaden and I have done. I consider it sacred, only meant to be shared between us.

“Bye, Maggie!” Parker yells after her before she can cross the street, not about to be ignored.

“Bye, Parker! Don’t think I didn’t notice that you didn’t give me a kiss. You better have one for me when I see you tomorrow!”

Parker giggles. She waves and continues down the cobblestone where her family owns a small store, Riddle Me This, which sells books among other novelty items off the main street. The Andersens have owned the store since her great-grandparents decided to take up permanent residence on the island. Which was actually around the time the Harrison family bought oceanfront property for their family to vacation on Nantucket, about a decade before the invasion of the millionaires who have claimed a water view of their own over the last fifty years.

I love this island. I spent the entire summer here last year, nannying for the Harrisons. That’s how I met Maggie and Kaden—the two most important people in my life now. With Mrs. Harrison pregnant this summer, we’ve only been able to come to the island for a few weekends scattered throughout the summer. We usually fly, which is so much faster, but since she’s due in about two months, we were forced to take the ferry this time.

I am so lucky that they hired me to babysit Parker for them at the beginning of my sophomore year. They found me through a babysitting course I took at the community center. I had to interview with them and everything. At first, I would come over after school while Mrs. Harrison was still at home, allowing her to study for her graduate degree while I played with Parker. Her mother would come over when she had to drive into Boston for classes while I was at school. Eventually, they asked me to babysit the nights they went out for dinner or to some fancy party for Mr. Harrison’s law firm. So when they asked if I’d nanny for them last summer on Nantucket, I almost died.

Maggie was the first person I met, almost as soon as I arrived. I love reading, so I was automatically drawn to the quaint store with the fun name, hidden down a side street. It was my very first night on Nantucket. We were walking around, exploring the shops. She came right up to me and took the romance novel out of my hand, replacing it with a thriller I never would have considered.

“I’m saving you,” she told me.

And she did, but not with the book. I never got around to reading it. But her