Chapter 41
But if Delaney noticed, she didn’t say anything. Instead she shrugged. “Well, you know the piers all close at midnight, right?”
Some of the anticipation Tara had been feeling dissipated. “Really?” So soon?she wanted to add, but she bit that back. It waslate. “Damn.”
“We can still go on up, look around.” Delaney put the Jeep into gear and spun out of the parking lot, gravel shooting out from under her wheels like a rain of bullets. With an amused glance in Tara’s direction, she added, “You might want to buckle up. I drive a little fast.”
Tara was already fumbling for the seat belt, her heart kicked into second gear as Delaney shifted from first to third. “So I noticed.”
* * * *
With the streets empty and half the lights on blinkers, Delaney blew through the grid like a racecar driver. How she wasn’tstopped by police, Tara didn’t know. The boardwalk started in North Wildwood at East 16thAvenue, which wasn’t far from the bar, but Delaney apparently didn’t want to rush things and decided to take the long way around. She zoomed down New Jersey Avenue from Anglesea to Wildwood Crest, traveling the length of the island in record time, talking over the sound of the rushing wind while Tara clung to the underside of the passenger seat and prayed for a red light.
“Wild, isn’t it?” Delaney asked with a laugh.
Tara gave her a wan smile. Yeah, it was wild alright. Was she up for this?
Traded one crazy night for another,she thought. But she had to admit this was more fun that watching Amanda’s friends drink themselves into a stupor. Just go with it. You might surprise yourself.
As she drove, Delaney told Tara a bit about herself. She was around Tara’s age—turned thirty-eight in June, and still remembered Hunt’s Pier and the Flyer, same as Tara did. She’d grown up in New York and used to come to Wildwood to visit her grandmother, who had had a condo back in the day before they were even popular. For the longest time, Delaney had harbored a dream of owning the place when her Baba passed away.
“Baba?” Tara asked, raising her voice to be heard over the wind howling around them.
“She was Polish,” Delaney explained. “That’s what she wanted us to call her. Well, no, the Polish word was babcia, but I couldn’t say that when I was little, so we went with Baba instead. When she passed away, though, I was only a teenager and my mother sold the condo, so I didn’t get it.”
Tara frowned at her. “I’m sorry.”
“Me, too. It’s prime real estate now!” Delaney laughed, but Tara could hear pain beneath the sound. “Seriously though, I miss her. Part of the reason I came back here was to recapture all those summers I spent with her.”
Reaching across the space between the bucket seats, Tara placed a comforting hand on Delaney’s leg. “I know what you mean. I came back for pretty much the same reason.”
“And how’s that going so far?” Delaney wanted to know.
Tara pressed her lips together and shook her head. “It’s my second day and I’m already ready to go home. So what’s that tell you?”
Delaney removed one of her hands from the steering wheel to cover Tara’s. With a squeeze, Delaney slipped her fingers under Tara’s and kept them there. “It tells me I’ve got my work cut out for me. Boardwalk, here we come!”
* * * *
They took Ocean Avenue back up into North Wildwood, the boardwalk dark where it peeked through the buildings at each intersecting street. Even the big Ferris wheel that overlooked the island had winked out. Delaney pulled into a sandy parking lot where the boardwalk ended in a ramp that led into a playground on the beach. As soon as she turned off the Jeep, the roar of silence seemed deafening after the wind, and it took a few moments before Tara could hear the pounding surf beyond the boardwalk.
Delaney’s hand was still in hers.
In the faint glow of a distant streetlamp, Delaney’s eyes flashed with mirth. “Race you up to the first bench we see.”
Before Tara could reply, Delaney had her seat belt unbuckled and was sprinting across the sand, heading for the ramp. Tara hurried to follow, struggling with her belt as Delaney’s laughter called back to her. Finally she managed to free herself and took off, hitting the ground running. The sound of her shoes on the wooden ramp echoed loudly in the still night air as she chased after Delaney. “Hey, wait for me!” she called out.