Driftwood Point by Mariah Stewart

persisted.
    â€œGirl from Cannonball Island. Eb’s sweetheart. They were going to be married that year at Christmas.”
    â€œMaybe she ran away,” Alec had suggested. “Maybe she didn’t want to marry Eb and have her name on the back of his boat.”
    Cliff had nodded. “More than one said the same thing back then, but according to everyone who knew her—including her sisters and her best friends—she was crazy about Eb and wanted to marry him.”
    â€œSo she just was gone?” The eight-year-old Alec had a problem grasping the concept. “Like, one minute she was standing there and the next minute she wasn’t? Like magic?”
    â€œMore like one night she was sleeping in her bed, the next morning she was nowhere to be seen. The police investigated and thought that someone had gotten into the house overnight and took her.” Cliff had taken a long drag on his cigarette, blew out a mile-long stream of smoke. “It’s a mystery, all right.”
    â€œA stranger came in and just carried her away,” Alec had said softly.
    â€œLooked that way. I heard it said they found a cut screen in the back door in the morning, so it seemslogical.” Alec’s uncle Cliff was always looking for the logic in any situation. “Course, back then, just about no one locked their doors at night. Not here in town, not over there to the island. Folks trusted more back then.”
    â€œIf the door wasn’t locked, why’d someone cut a hole in the screen? Why didn’t they just open the door?”
    â€œWell, now, that’s a good question, Alec. My guess is that whoever took her away didn’t know the door would be unlocked. Or maybe that night, the locks were on, who knows? Only thing we know for certain is that the next day, Annie was missing and there was no trace of her left behind.”
    â€œI didn’t know that could happen.”
    The idea worried Alec that some unknown person could work his way into your house and steal you away and no one would ever find you and no one would ever know what happened to you because you would never be found.
    â€œWell, I don’t think you need worry about that happening around here.” Cliff reassured Alec. “We’ve got something the Gregorys didn’t have.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œSadie.” The German shepherd Cliff had gotten for Alec for his birthday the year before had turned out to be not only the boy’s best companion but a great watchdog.
    â€œSadie.” Alec had nodded. “Sadie wouldn’t let anyone come into our house.”
    â€œYou bet she wouldn’t.” Cliff had patted Alec on the head and gone back to work, and from that dayon, Alec slept soundly, secure in the knowledge that anyone who reached for him in the dark would find themselves in the vise of Sadie’s strong jaws.
    But he’d never forgotten the story, and the way his heart had skipped a beat the first time he’d heard it. As an adult, the boat made him think of romance and love that never died. Not that he’d ever known such a thing. He’d thought he’d been in love a time or two, but knew he’d never known the kind of passion that old Eben Carter had felt for his Annie, the kind that could last a lifetime.
    Funny, he thought as he washed up before locking the shop for the day, that the object of his very first crush should pop up when he’d finally gotten his hands on the boat he’d coveted for so long, not that Lis Parker had been aware of his infatuation. He’d secretly had a thing about her from the time Mrs. Warner, their fifth-grade teacher, had moved his desk so that his seat was right behind the mysterious dark-haired beauty from the island. Mysterious, because she rarely spoke with anyone except other islanders. He’d even become friends with geeky Jerry Willets because he heard that Jerry lived across the road from Lis. The friendship