Page 17 of Where Sea Meets Sky

“Are you done with your shopping?” she asked him, glancing down into the cart. He suddenly found himself slightly embarrassed by the abundance of frozen pizzas.

“Almost,” he said. “I still have to get… um…” He pulled out his phone and checked the list he’d written down. He was thankful he had written it down, otherwise he felt sure that every item on it would have been gone from his brain in that moment. “Coffee, bananas, milk, eggs, cheese, and apples.”

“Okay, so milk—eggs—cheese—coffee—bananas and apples,” she said, turning in a semi-circle and pointing in the directions they needed to go to get every item.

“That was amazing,” he said, floored by how quickly she’d pinpointed where everything in the store was. “I thought you said you just moved here.”

She shrugged, blushing a little. “I never used to go grocery shopping. I find it really exciting to be in here, and I really paid attention to where everything was, I guess. I’m also just used to being observant and memorizing things. You have to be good at that, as a lawyer.”

“I guess so. Well, I’m officially impressed. Move on, fearless leader. You’re in charge of this expedition now, I’m just the driver.” He gestured to the cart as if it were some kind of vehicle.

She laughed. “Okay. We’ll stop and grab the flowers after getting the coffee, since they’re right by the beverage aisle.”

Still shaking his head in amazement, he began to follow her through the store. He thought to himself that she really was anamazing person, and he wished he had more opportunities to get to know her better.

CHAPTER NINE

Julia leaned down eagerly to sniff the plate of food that Allison, the head chef at The Lighthouse Grill, had just prepared for her.

“Ugh, Allison, this honey bacon smells absolutely heavenly,” she said. “Thanks a million.”

“Hey, I know we couldn’t keep this place running without you.” Allison winked at her. “Besides, anyone who asks for plain old avocado toast for breakfast deserves a little something extra. You were trying to make my life too easy there.”

Julia laughed. “I already ate breakfast at home, earlier, remember?”

“Yeah, at like five in the morning? That was hours ago. I need to feed you again.”

Julia laughed. “Well, thanks, Allison. Your culinary skills are very appreciated. Speaking of, don’t lie to me about plain old avocado toast. I can see that you’ve doctored this up with butter, pepper, and garlic salt.”

Allison shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. You’ll just have to eat it to find out.”

Julia grinned at her and left the kitchen. She’d been working at The Lighthouse Grill in the office for a few hours before herstomach had started to growl hungrily and she’d decided to take a break and ask Allison for a second breakfast.

She went into the dining room, looking around for Alexis. She knew that her sister had planned on coming into the pub that day even though she wasn’t waitressing at the moment because of her pregnancy. Alexis still spent a lot of her time making jewelry for her online business, but she’d confessed that she was starting to get bored with sitting at home so often. In an effort to keep her from rearranging her entire house out of boredom, Vivian and Julia had suggested that she come into The Lighthouse Grill to work on her jewelry.

Julia saw Alexis a moment later, sitting in a corner booth with a colorful array of jewelry spread out in front of her. Alexis was frowning in concentration, but she was also swaying slightly to the folk music playing over the pub’s loudspeakers, showing that she was having a good time.

“Hey, sis.” Julia sat down across from her sister, placing her plate in the center of the only free space left on the tabletop. “How’s your work coming?”

Alexis looked up and smiled. “Great. Coming here to do it was a great idea. I feel a lot more energetic surrounded by people.”

“Is that why you were doing so much rearranging? You needed to be surrounded by people, so you pretended the objects in your cupboards were dolls and moved them around?”

Alexis wrinkled her nose. “Stop, you. Go bring me some tea, would you?” She smiled sweetly, and Julia laughed.

“Okay, I guess I owe you after that dig. And I want to get myself some coffee. Be right back. Don’t eat any of my bacon.”

Alexis made a frowny face and Julia relented and gave her a piece of the honey bacon. Laughing, she went to get herself a cup of coffee and Alexis a cup of tea. When she got back, Alexis appeared to be even more deeply in concentration than before asshe threaded beads onto a hooped earring. Julia set down the tea in front of her sister, having to wiggle some bags of beads out of the way first.

“So have you decided to transfer your rabid nesting energy to your jewelry business rather than wreak havoc on your and Grayson’s home?” Julia teased, bringing her coffee cup to her lips.

“On the contrary,” Alexis said grandly, raising her chin. “I’m only doing this while I mull over what color to paint the living room.” She gestured to all of the colorful beads spread out on the table in front of her. “Every time I pick up a new color, I picture it in the living room. Right now, I’m leaning toward blues and greens, because they feel so serene, but I might change my mind and pick a more cheerful color like yellow or maybe even pink.”

“Sounds like you have absolutely no idea what color you’re going to paint the walls,” Julia said, laughing.

“Hey, just because I haven’t made a decision yet doesn’t mean I’m not going to. I want to be absolutely sure before I start.”

“Fair enough. Are you going to test out a few colors first? You know, paint spots on the wall using sample jars of different colors?”

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