Page 88 of No Words

My hands flew instinctively to my throat. “You canseeit?” I cried in horror.

Will began to look less embarrassed and more fascinated by our conversation. “What’s beard burn?”

“Do you have any moisturizer?” I asked Bernadette.

“I can look in my bag, but what you really need is—”

The doors to the auditorium burst open, releasing a buzz of sound—the room was clearly packed with eager audience members—as well as Frannie, who came hurrying out, dressed all in black and looking impatient, as usual.

“Any sign of them, Bernadette?” she asked. Then her gaze fell on Will and me. Her eyes widened. “Oh!Thereyou are.”

I felt as mortified as if Frannie had been my own mother. “I’m so sorry, Frannie,” I said. “We just lost track of—”

“What did you do to her neck?”she demanded, glaring at Will while she threw a protective arm around me.

“Nothing!” Will looked defensive. “We just kissed! And, er—”

“It’s fine.” I didn’t think Will needed to get into any more detail. “Bernadette has some lotion.”

“Oh, here. That’s not going to work.” Frannie strode forward, undoing the purple scarf she was wearing around her throat. “You can cover it with this. And at least this way it won’t looksomuch like you’re wearing the exact same outfit as last night.” She tied the scarf, scented with her usual perfume—Chanel No. 5—around my neck, giving Will the stink eye the whole time. “Did you have to be quite so inconsiderate?”

“I still don’t understand what I did that was so wrong.” Will looked bewildered.

Frannie shook her head, disgusted. “The least you could have done was shaved. Or grown a proper beard.”

“What’s going on in there?” I asked as Frannie gave the scarf a final flourishing touch.

“Well, there’s no moderator, since Molly’s at home with her baby, and Will was so late.” Frannie gave Will one final dirty look. “So Saul took over. Bernadette read from her latest,Crown of Stars and Mist, to the delight of everyone—”

“Aw.” I smiled at Bernadette. “I’m so sorry I missed it.”

Bernadette shrugged. “I know. I was awesome.”

“And Saul just read from his latest book,Hell Hound,” Frannie went on, “to the delight of only his most devoted fans, since he chose to read from the chapter where the hellhound gnaws off his owner’s leg and eats it.”

“Can’t say I’m sorry to have missed that,” Will quipped.

“It’s too soon for you to joke, young man.” Frannie shot him a narrow-eyed stare. “You’re still in my bad graces. Let’s see, what else? Oh, yes. Jerome read one of his latest poems, which was highly moving and probably the best thing any of us is going to hear all day, and now Kellyjean is about to read from the newest installment of her Salem Prairie series, which I’m sure will be edifying for all of us, especially the children in the audience, since it will probably feature graphic sex.” Frannie looked at Will and then me and then back again. “Wolf sex. Not the kind you two have clearly been having all night.”

“All right, Fran,” Bernadette said with a laugh, as she took Frannie by the shoulder and began to steer her back toward the auditorium doors. “You’ve had your fun with them for now. Why don’t we leave them alone?”

“Because,” Frannie said, “they so deserve it.”

The minute their backs were turned, Will reached out to take my hand. “Hey,” he said, giving my fingers a squeeze. “I’m sorry about whatever it is I did to you.”

I smiled and returned the squeeze. “It’s okay. I liked it.”

Just as Bernadette was about to open the doors to the auditorium, Will called to her, “Hey. What about Garrett?”

She glanced back at us, looking bemused. “Garrett? Didn’t you hear?”

“No.” Will’s grip on my hand tightened. “What about him?”

“Garrett’s not here. He’s been banned from the island.”

Will dropped my hand.“What?”

Frannie turned around, her face alight with joy. No one loved author gossip more than Frannie Coleman. “The sheriff came to the inn at breakfast and charged Garrett with culpable negligence, then permanently banned him from Little Bridge Island! Right now Garrett is on a flight back to New York.”