1
Jasmin
Jasmin sat fanning herself beside the water's edge as the midafternoon sun blazed down upon the sand. Miranda was off running errands with her youngest daughter Alyssa, while her oldest daughter Darby was visiting with her husband, Bradley.
All seemed to be going well for everyone else in her family, this summer except for Jasmin. Oh, she was happy for all of them, no doubt. Her niece Darby was expecting her first child; her other niece, Alyssa, prepared for college and a new career choice. Her beloved older sister Miranda was setting up her bakery and the cute little cottage she recently bought.
Jasmin watched the water dip and sway with the gentle breeze, sipping her umbrella drink. With everyone busy, this left her way too much time on her own to do nothing, not something she enjoyed.
Her dogs were all inside the house, enjoying the fan and probably chewing a new shoe of hers. She loved them dearly, they were her world. Never having found a man to marry or had children, she adopted them so she could be their mother. She absolutely loved it, but sadly the reality of her life still left a lot to be desired.
She had enough money to take care of quite a few people. This was thanks to many years of wise investing and a few real estate transactions over the years that provided her with lucrative monthly income.
When she wasn’t caring for her babies or dealing with family, she often traveled and visited friends. Life for her beat to a different drum, and that was just the way she liked it. Simple, easy, happy. Except right now she didn’t feel as comfortable as she should. She had spent her whole adult life wandering while feeling this dull ache in her chest that never seemed to go away.
Sitting looking at the water reminded her that sooner or later, she would need to address it unless she wanted it to eat her alive in her old age.
She ran things through her mind; she had plenty of friends, a family that loved her, enough money to share, a home to make her happy, her furry babies, and travel to entertain. The only thing that came to mind was she was missing a particular person in her life.
From experience, she knew this was an area of her life where she never seemed to succeed. It wasn’t that men didn't like her, quite the opposite actually. She usually ended up being better friends with the men in her life than she did the women.
What she lacked was substance, structure, stability. These words somehow had been omitted from her vocabulary at a young age, and too often, she found herself falling for the wrong men. Once in love, she gave herself entirely only to have either she or they lose interest within the blink of an eye.
Over the years, she had chopped it up to her wanderlust ways or the stardust in the men's eyes that left her far behind when a newer, more exciting model came along.
Analyzing herself, she knew she was getting older. She had been blessed with the youthfulness of heart and body that kept men interested long enough to discover that she was book smart, intelligent, and creative too.
Knowing all these things about herself hadn’t helped her this far to find a man of quality that could deal with her unique way of looking at life and all her quirks as she liked to call them.
While her sister was structured, ritualistic, and happily so, she found herself bored quickly. That was probably why years ago she had chosen the travel industry as her career. She had sailed on ships, flown on planes, served customers with a smile, and laughed every step of the way.
So what was the problem? She shook her head at her own nonsense. Why would she even want to analyze herself this late in her life? Would it reveal something that could be changed or not? Did she even care?
She didn’t know the answer to any of those questions, but she did know that she wasn't as happy as she could be right now. Popping up, she headed for the hot tub, one of her favorite past times, she would relax and toss these worries away for another day.
Winter would come, Grassy Keys, Florida would be a thing of the past until next summer, and she would keep right on moving with the beat of life like she always did.
Closing her eyes as she sunk into the water, it hit her. That was it, she would see if Wayne would sell her the house here. This way, she and her family could come anytime they needed a break from the craziness of life.
She smiled to herself; she could visit her sister anytime, and she could give her nieces a key so they could come to see mom and the bakery. Perhaps if all went well, she would find a business of project she could do here and rent her home in Colorado.
Thoughts of Wayne gave her that uneasy feeling inside. He had been the man of her dreams many moons ago. She had fallen head over heels for him, while he pursued her sister, Miranda, what a blow to the ego that had been.
They had all been friends since her family visited the house in Grassy Keys every summer, and Wayne's family owned it. The families became good friends, and Before Jasmin reached her twelfth year Wayne who was fifteen at the time, was spending a great deal of time with her family.
His family owned the house but lived a few blocks away, and when he took a liking to Miranda, he would stop by every day and hang around. He would help the father carry groceries inside the house. He would have dinner with them and sometimes go swimming.
By the time he was eighteen, he still had a crush on Miranda and barely glanced her way. When he went off to college, Jasmin had been devastated since he went to New York City.
2
Wayne
Wayne had knocked on the door three times already without any answer. The car wasn’t in the driveway, but he knew that someone was bound to be home with four women in the house. It didn't matter really, he had only stopped to check the air condition unit since his son said it wasn’t working.
His son, Rick, knew a lot about many things regarding home maintenance. But an expensive piece of equipment like a central air conditioner could be a hard fix, so he had decided to take a look at himself.
When Wayne had spoken with Jasmin a few months back about the whole family renting the place, he had been over the moon. He had practically grown up with her family and fell in love with her sister many years ago.
He could recall one summer night towards the end of the season when they were getting ready to go home, he had tried to kiss Miranda as they sat under a palm tree and talked. She had told him in no uncertain terms that she wasn’t interested in him in that way.
Mentally kicking himself that night and feeling like a fool, he decided to give up on girls and focus on his career and life. But he never stopped thinking about her. He had stayed in touch with the family through her younger sister Jasmin. In his eyes, she had always been an odd sort of duck.
While he was no angel, Jasmin always seemed so daring, bold, and wild. It was one of the reasons he had never taken such an interest in her. Her sister, Miranda, always had much more stability and common sense.
After college, he had met his wife Leah, and they married and had children, sadly after just a few years of marriage she decided she didn’t love him and had moved on. Heartbroken, he went back home to Grassy Keys and started over again.
Running the rental properties that his family-owned had been a saving grace more than once for him. Over the years, bad investments and all the money Leah required near ended his financial successes.
As he walked around the empty house, it made him smile, all the memories they had made her. Playing hide and seek, riding bikes, watching cartoons on the couch, eating way too much food. Board games and laughter well into the night, the summers had always been fun.