Geoducks Are for Lovers Read Online Free

think we all cheer the coming of fall and getting our island back.” 
    Maggie beams at being called an islander. To be accepted here as a local isn’t an easy transition—she’ll take the compliment.
    “Lane three. Have a good day.” She waves Maggie through to the waiting area on the dock. 
    Bert loads the cars on to the ferry as she pulls forward. He’s an old friend of her mom’s and she can’t remember a time when she didn’t know Bert. He gives her the prime spot in the middle at the front of the ferry—first to be loaded off the boat. Maggie takes this as a good omen.
    “I see you’re taking Bessie to town,” Bert says as she gets out of the car to head up top. “What's the special occasion?”
    “College friends coming up for the weekend. We’re having a pre-reunion reunion before the actual one in September. Figured nostalgic times called for nostalgic transportation.”
    “Reunion? How long has it been?”
    “Twenty years.”
    “Sweet lord. Twenty years? That's hard to believe. If you’re that old, well, I must be ancient.”
    Maggie looks at Bert. His lined and weathered face makes her think of the expression ‘salty dog’, but she resists the urge to point out the facts.
    “I can tell you’re thinking about telling me I'm old. Just you wait. Time flies even more on the back side of the slope. Is that a gray hair?” He reaches out toward her strawberry blonde hair. Thanks to her colorist, she doesn’t have any gray hairs.
    “Don't remind me. Some days I feel like I'm still twenty-two.”
    “Me too,” he says, then smiles, showing gaps in his teeth. “You kids have fun. I'll be looking for you in the paper next week.”
    The weekly police report in the local paper is a favorite of island residents, summer people, and tourists. Most of the reports feature sheep in the road or a stolen crab trap. The typical crimes reported are petty theft or car accidents. Darker, more sinister crimes tend to stay out of the paper or make the front page if a scandal is involved.
    “The last time I was in the police report was a long time ago. And there’s still no proof I left Bessie on the baseball diamond at Maxwelton.”
    “Sure, but we all know the truth.” Bert taps his nose as he walks toward the back of the boat.
    Upstairs on the passenger deck, she sits at a table by the window and watches the water as the ferry makes its quick crossing back to the real world. Maggie wouldn't trade living on Whidbey. This island and all its quirks is truly her home. When she first moved here full time, it surprised her how Connie at the bank was informed so quickly about her life, hours or days after things happened. Maggie suspects Connie, Sally, and Sandy at the grocery store, are part of an old fashioned telephone tree. News travels fast around here. By the time she gets back with Quinn, she bets those women will know all about her guests for the weekend. Sandy might even happen to stop by with a loaf of zucchini bread, claiming to be overrun with squash again.

 
     
     
     
    Four
     

     
    The little MG holds its own amongst the traffic and intimidating trucks on the I-5 through the heart of downtown Seattle. 
    Arriving at SeaTac, Maggie spies Quinn in his aviators and ‘Legalize Gay Cupcakes’ T-shirt on the curb of Arrivals. It would be hard to miss his tall, lean form, and blond hair even if he wasn't wearing a pink and white shirt.
    He seems more excited to see Bessie than he does Maggie. She thinks he even kisses Bessie’s hood when she hops out to open the trunk. He’s always been obsessed with the MG.
    “Maggie!” He folds her up in a hug, which ends in a spin. “I've missed you, woman!”
    “I've missed you, Q. How was the flight?”
    Boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, jobs, and parents may all go, but her anchor remains Quinn. Living in the same city, they’d never let more than a week or two pass without seeing each other, but that’s changed since she left him behind in New