ChapterFive
IN SEARCH OF BETTER BEACHES
Naomi
“You were right!”
Anne startles me yet again, and I can tell by the smile on her face when I turn around that she knows it.
“You need to invest in some louder shoes before you give someone a heart attack. What was I right about?”
She flings an unopened envelope onto my desk. It’s been three days since we got the first one. “You said he was going to send another letter. You were right.”
“I didn’t expect it to be this soon.”
I pick up the envelope, disappointed to see that he still hasn’t included a return address. I rip it open.
Dear Naomi,
I can just imagine how annoyed you are that you can’t write back to me. You always had to get the last word, didn’t you? Maybe if you had accepted my invitation, you wouldn’t be stuck wondering how to write back to me now. Oh well. Your loss.
Love,
Luca
Anne reads the letter over my shoulder. She raises an eyebrow when she gets to the end. “Love?”
“That’s how he closed every letter. Well, almost every letter. I’m pretty sure he did it to be ironic.”
“He didn’t close the last letter like that,” she says. “Maybe he’s not trying to be ironic anymore. I mean, you were writing to him for how many years?”
“He’s married.” I realize that I’ve never said it out loud before. I hear the words come out of my mouth, but it sounds like someone else is saying them. The two words echo inside my head even as Anne continues the conversation.
“That didn’t stop him from writing to you.”
“Actually, I think that’s exactly why he stopped writing to me.”
“Maybe he got divorced.”
I don’t know why the idea of Luca being single makes my heart rate pick up. It must be because that means he can write to me again. I put on a smile so that Anne can’t see my inner turmoil. “Oh, yay! Lucky me.”
Anne rolls her eyes, still smiling. “What does he mean by accepting his invitation?”
“I’m not sure. He had dared me to meet him a couple times over the years, but it was always part of some dumb joke. He also asked if we could be friends on Facebook, and I said no. Maybe that’s what he’s talking about.”
“He’s taunting you. I think he wants you to figure out his address and write back.”
“How am I supposed to do that? He must have known that I would try to look him up after I got his last letter. He probably deactivated his Facebook before he sent it.”
“Try his childhood home. You still have that address, right?”
I shake my head. “That’s not going to work. I looked it up on PeopleFinder. Some other family lives there now.”
“Maybe one of his old neighbors still lives nearby. If someone on his street was close with his family, they might know how to track him down.”
“What am I supposed to do? Send a letter to every house on the street and wait to see if someone writes back?”
“That’s one option.”
