Read Online Everlasting by Elizabeth Chandler - Free Book Online Page B

worked hard to keep her face neutral.
    “If you need my help, you know where I—”
    “Well, hello,” Kelsey interrupted. “Feeling all energized, Ivy?”
    Ivy took a step back from both Kelsey and Bryan. “Actually, I’m dragging,” she replied. “I was just heading back to my beach towel.”
    Ivy walked away quickly—too quickly, she realized, for someone who was supposed to be tired. Reaching her towel, she glanced up the beach and saw Kelsey pushing Bryan toward the water and Bryan pushing back. He was laughing—she was not.
    When Ivy sat down, Dhanya gazed at her with obvious curiosity. The conversation must have looked like a flirtation to more than just Kelsey.
    “I wish Bryan wouldn’t tease Kelsey that way,” Ivy said.
    “Yeah,” Dhanya replied a bit faintly as if unconvinced that it was just Bryan’s game.
    Ivy glanced toward Will. He met her eyes with the coolness she’d seen for the last several weeks. Whatever trust she had earned from Will earlier in the afternoon had just been lost. One step forward, one step back.

Ten
    “BRYAN!” TRISTAN EXCLAIMED. “NICE OF HIM TO SAY something now that I’ve finally figured out who I’m supposed to be.”
    “That was my first reaction,” Ivy replied. “But then I reminded myself that at least he kept your secret. It was Will, not Bryan, who told the police where you were.”
    Tristan wanted to pace. He wanted to snap branches in half and kick stones. He was starting to feel like a caged animal, but it was ten thirty at night and campers were still awake. On a night lit only by a slender peel of the moon,most people weren’t taking hikes, so they were relatively safe. But this morning, a child, bored by fishing, had wandered away from his family and found Tristan asleep. Later in the afternoon, in search of attention, the child had returned. It wouldn’t be long before the kid was boasting about his new friend.
    “The first time Bryan would have actually seen you was the night of the carnival,” Ivy went on, “the night before the police came for you. Until then, he’d only heard of you as someone named Guy.”
    “Can we trust him?”
    “I’ve been thinking about that,” Ivy said. “He’s torn between his friendship and what he thinks is the right thing to do.” Ivy recounted everything that Bryan had told her. “I think we should wait a little longer before I tell him you’re here.”
    “Still, he knows the things I need to know,” Tristan pointed out.
    “Things that I can find out without revealing anything,” Ivy replied. “He knows I fell in love with you—with Luke. My curiosity will seem natural to him.”
    Tristan studied Ivy. Her amazing dark-gold hair was completely hidden by a tightly wrapped bandana. And she had come from a different direction tonight, her shoes muddy from walking the edge of the pond rather than following the bike trail. She was as worried as he was that the police—and Luke’s enemies—would find out where he was.
    “What? What is it?” Ivy asked.
    Tristan flexed his hands. “I don’t know. . . . Just the feeling of being watched.”
    Ivy bit her lip.
    “You feel it too,” he guessed.
    “Last night I did, yes.” She took a deep breath. “Tristan, I think you need to leave the park. I think you need to leave the Cape.”
    “No!”
    “You need to get far away, Tristan.”
    He held her by the shoulders. “I’m not leaving as long as Gregory is here.”
    “Just for a while,” she said. “When I’ve learned a little more about Luke and who his enemies are—”
    “No.”
    “Tonight I can drive you somewhere off the Cape, to the other side of the canal,” Ivy rushed on. “Tomorrow night, I’ll leave earlier and drive you farther.” Her eyes glistened with tears. “Next week, Mom, Philip, and Andrew are going to California, but no one at the inn knows that. I’ll ask if I can go home for a few days. We’ll stop there, get provisions, then I’ll drive you miles away.”
    Tristan