“We have to do something to celebrate! The kids and I would love to have dinner and make a cake for you. Can you put us on your calendar?”
The invitation touched her. How long had it been since she had spent her birthday with family? Probably fourteen years, since that last horrible summer.
“Considering you’re among a very small group of people I know in town, it shouldn’t be that hard to rearrange my busy social calendar. I’ll plan on it.” She paused. “I would enjoy that. Thank you.”
“Great. I’ll be in touch with details about that and about whether Cody thinks he can come with me. Thanks for offering. It’s really sweet of you.”
Rachel smiled and this time Jess was relieved to see it appeared genuine.
“I had better get you back to your cute trailer.”
Rachel drove with the windows down in her minivan, the May night sweet with the scent of flowers and the sea.
“So what do you think about Nathaniel Whitaker?”
The question, coming out of nowhere, made her flush. Jess was grateful it was dark inside the vehicle and her sister couldn’t see.
Had she given off some sort of signal that made Rachel somehow suspect her unwanted attraction?
“I haven’t thought about him much at all,” she lied. “He’s Eleanor’s son. He seems nice enough, I suppose, though I really haven’t had much to do with him.”
“Sad about his wife dying so young. Michelle is considered a hero in town, even though she and Nate never lived here together.”
She didn’t want to know this but didn’t know how to tell her sister to stop talking without giving Rachel reason to wonder about her reaction.
“Is she?”
“Yes. I guess because he’s a hometown boy and she was his wife, she gets the hero status by association. She was killed while she was deployed overseas when a soldier they were training went rogue and started firing on US soldiers. Michelle rushed him to try to stop him and was killed. Sophie was only a baby, I guess. I don’t know if she even remembers her mom, poor thing.”
Oh, how tragic for both of them. Jess fought the urge to press a hand to the sudden ache in her chest. Killed in action. She had lost friends of her own while she was deployed but it wasn’t like losing a spouse.
“Maybe living through that kind of tragedy is what has made Nate such a great guy. You won’t find anybody better. He’s considered quite the catch around town, though he’s really good at slipping through the net. If he dates anybody seriously, he doesn’t do it here in town. At least not that I’ve heard.”
“I’m not sure why you think I need to know this,” Jess said stiffly.
Rachel shrugged as she pulled up next to Jess’s Airstream. “I just figured you’re working with his mom and he lives close to Eleanor. It never hurts to have some backstory.”
Her sister was dead wrong. Jess didn’t want backstory. What was the point, when she was leaving in a few weeks anyway? It was far easier to keep her guard up against him when she didn’t know that kind of thing.
“Thanks again for dinner,” Rachel said when Jess opened the door. “I’ll be in touch about next week.”
“I’m planning on staying with the girls,” she said firmly. “I’ll talk to Eleanor about it tomorrow. Cody really does need to go to the appointment with you and Silas.”
“I’ll see what his plans are. Regardless, it means a lot to me that you even offered. Bye, Jess.”
Rachel looked as if she wanted to climb out and hug her. To Jess’s vast relief, she didn’t. She just smiled and waved then backed out of the driveway and headed away.
11
Nate
Some mornings just called for catching a few waves, even when he didn’t really have time for this.
The sun wasn’t quite up when Nate carried his board toward the trail down to the cove. Cinder came with him, barely visible in the gray predawn light.
As he passed the little Airstream, he saw a light glowing inside through the curtains but he couldn’t glimpse any sign of movement inside.
He hadn’t seen Jess Clayton in several days. He hadn’t been looking, exactly, or at least that’s what he told himself. Still, he was sorry their paths hadn’t crossed.
The past several days had been crazy. His company had won the bid to build a new municipal library in Cape Sanctuary and bringing the project in under deadline was taking every available spare second.
Twice, Sophie had stayed overnight with Eleanor because Nate knew it would be past midnight when he returned and he didn’t like the idea of her staying at home by herself.
She didn’t particularly agree. She thought thirteen years old was plenty mature enough to spend much of the night alone and that he was treating her like a child by making her stay with her grandmother.
Too bad. He was the parent and still got to make the rules.
Between the stress of the construction job and the angst of dealing with a moody teenage daughter, Nate needed an outlet. Surfing had always soothed the restlessness. The ocean calmed him.
He would be working late again that day. This might be his only purely self-indulgent interlude all month. He might as well enjoy the hell out of it.
A few hardy birds twittered in the coastal pine and manzanita as he started down the path.
Th sun came up above the mountains to the east just as he reached the shore.
Conditions were perfect, the waves easy and comfortable. He knew the break here as well as he knew his own face when he shaved.
He spent more time sitting on his board than chasing any huge curl, letting the waves rock him gently as he enjoyed the breaking day.
He loved the mornings when Sophie came with him. She was a good surfer, agile and unafraid. He had undoubtedly failed in many ways as a single father but Nate was proud that he had given her a love for the sea.
He had knocked on her bedroom door to ask if she wanted to join him that morning but she had only grunted a negative response.
Ah well. He had Cinder, at least. She swam beside him in her life jacket, gleeful to play in the waves like a sea otter.
Just as he was about to get out, he saw someone walking down the path. Maybe Sophie had decided to catch a few waves before school.
No. It was definitely a female but not Sophie. This person didn’t have a board, for one thing. For another, she had short honey-streaked hair that gleamed in the morning sunlight.
Jess.
His heart pounded in a ridiculous way that annoyed him.
Cinder spotted her at the same moment and gave a bark of greeting before dog-paddling toward shore.