that summer |percabeth au| ✔︎

3.

chapter | 03
❝ Girl, I think I need a minute to figure out what is, what isn't. ❞

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"IT'S NO SECRET." Mayor Stoll said. His long dark fingers were going to stab someone in the eye if he didn't stop waving his hands around. "Without Parrish and Dey's expansion plan, Cove's a sinking ship."

"We're fine, Lucius," Candy said. With her shoulder-length auburn waves and a dress dotted with red and yellow suns, my aunt looked like living fire. Trailed by the mayor, she blazed through the gallery to check on the food. She was a strict vegan, but she'd gone all out for the guests; the long table at the center was a riot of sea death, dark red lobster tails and crab legs and bright write shrimp swimming in cocktail sauce.

I thought the shrimp tasted like erasers.

"It's a good plan, Candy," the man said. "More tourists mean more exposure for the gallery." His hand flopped onto her shoulder like a beached fish as he followed her around the room. He was a big man, well over six feet, with a barrel chest and broad shoulders that made me nervous as he marched past Candy's delicate glass creations.

"Lucius." Candy picked up a tray of sun cookies that matched her dress and shoved it into his hands. "Be a dear and see if anyone wants one of Kat and Ava's goodies."

It was hard to like him. I'd been in the house less than an hour, and twice he'd asked me if I was the caterer, handing me his empty glass even though it was obvious I was the family friend that Candy had been telling everyone about. Amatheia Cove was a small town, and as far as I could tell, Katie and I were the only different-looking people around. Who else could  I be?

"Oh, it's not a race thing," Katie assured me when I brought it up. We were standing in the white-and-turquoise kitchen, a breezy space that flowed into the gallery beyond, divided by an island lined with barstools. She hefted the blender from its base, poured a strawberry-banana daiquiris into three glasses. "When it comes to Lucius Stoll, it's a-"

"Vagina thing," Kinzie said. "Oh, don't give me that look, Katie. You know he's just like that. Women belong in the kitchen, rubbing on his feet, breeding his minions."

Katie sighed. "It's not what you say. It's how you say it."

"Minions?" Kinzie laughed out loud. "Or vagina?"

She'd arrived at the party alone soon after my exit from the marina, and if she'd been upset about finding a castaway on Percy's boat, she'd kept it secret. If not for the covert wink she'd given me when Katie introduced us, I would've thought she hadn't recognized me.

The birthday boy had yet to arrive; likely he was waiting at home, trying to put some distance between Kinzie's entrance and his, lest anyone figure out about their high-seas adventure on the boat.

The boat.

My stomach rolled every time I thought about it. Percy and Kinzie, catching me in the V-berth. Writing on the walls. Hiding.

A vandal and a stowaway. Perfect.

"I just feel bad for him," Katie said. She shook a can of whipped cream, topped each of our drinks. "He's only mayor because no one else ran, and now he's desperate to prove himself. On top of that, his wife bailed last year—Travis told me his dad gave Heidi an ultimatum to quit her job or quit the marriage. Guess what she picked? Right after that she moved to Newport. And Heidi's in Mom's coven, and he doesn't even know she comes to town every month for the gatherings."