Page 28 of Where Sea Meets Sky

Faith looked around in surprise. She didn’t consciously remember the house at all, but she did feel unusually comfortable in it, which implied that part of her mind considered it to be a familiar place. “I don’t really, but… the smell! It smells like cloves and citrus in here. I’ve always loved this smell. Has it always smelled like this?”

“It has,” Julia said from behind them. “Mom’s got this essential oil blend she uses for cleaning. I know what you mean about the smell. One time in New York I found a candle that smelled similar to how it smells here, and I just about burst into tears, I missed home so much.”

Alexis shook her head. “I’m so glad we both moved back home. Rosewood Beach is the absolute best place on earth to live.”

She said it encouragingly, as if it had already been decided that Faith was going to stay there forever. Faith felt her heart skip a beat. She wondered if she would end up staying there permanently. The town had certainly charmed her, and so far, her family was acting incredibly friendly and welcoming.

“Just wait until you taste this food, Faith,” Noelle said as they stepped into the dining room. “I can guarantee you that you haven’t had spaghetti and meatballs like this ever in your life. It’s going to blow your mind.”

“You’re not a vegetarian, right?” Julia asked.

Faith blinked. “Uh, no. Did someone say that I was?”

“No, we just wanted to make sure. Mom realized she didn’t know if you had any dietary restrictions or not.”

“Oh.” Faith wished that she’d thought to tell them that she didn’t have any. “No, I don’t. I’m not allergic to anything or anything like that.”

“That’s what we figured,” Julia assured her, smiling.

They sat down at the table together, but Faith felt worried that Vivian had been stressed about not knowing if she had any special dietary needs or not. She spent a few moments wishing that she’d thought to say something to Alexis. Then she took a deep breath and reminded herself that if they’d really been worried, they could have asked her, since Alexis had her number.

She told herself determinedly to not overthink the evening and felt her spirits lift. She was beginning to feel more and more optimistic by the second, since all of the Owens and their significant others seemed genuinely happy to have her there.

“Here we go!” Vivian said cheerfully as she and Hazel and Grayson brought in the food. There were dinner rolls, spaghetti,a dish of meatballs that were letting off a mouthwatering aroma, and a Caesar salad already on the table. “The meatballs are on the side, since I wasn’t sure if Faith is a vegetarian or not.”

Faith felt herself blush, and her regrets came back in a rush. “I’m sorry, I should have told you. I’m not.”

“Don’t apologize!” Hazel assured her, and Vivian echoed the sentiment.

“I just wish I’d thought to ask you before tonight,” Vivian said with a smile. “Besides, I set out three different kinds of shredded cheese in case you were. So it worked out for everyone. I think extra cheese makes this situation a win-win.”

“Especially me,” Dean said with a huge grin. “I love cheese.”

Everyone laughed, and Faith felt her tension begin to evaporate. She felt grateful for how kind and uplifting her relatives were.

“So,” Vivian said once everyone had generous helpings of food piled onto their plates. “How was everyone’s week?”

Faith thought to herself that Vivian looked a little bit like a queen, looking over her table of advisors. The head of the Owens household carried herself with grace and dignity, and Faith found herself admiring her a great deal.

The Owens family began to share how their weeks had been going one by one. Samantha talked about how she’d gotten an A plus in a science project at school, and Hazel told a funny story about someone trying to bring a pet pig into the hospital to see a doctor about a toothache. Dean talked about the mechanic shop that he ran, and Julia updated everyone on how her wedding planning was going. Faith couldn’t help noticing that she seemed a little worried while she was talking about it. Grayson said that he had nothing interesting to report besides trying to keep Alexis’s manic nesting impulses at bay, and Alexis laughed and eagerly told them all about her plans for redecorating her home.

“What about you, Faith?” Hazel asked, turning to her cousin with a smile. “How has your week been?”

“Well, I haven’t done much,” Faith blurted, and then laughed. “I can’t believe I’m saying that. I couldn’t even tell you what I did this week, really. Lots of reading and journaling and sitting in coffee shops or going on walks.”

“Sounds incredible.” Alexis nodded in approval. “You’re here to rest, right?”

“Yes, for now. I—well, the doctors told me that I needed to change my lifestyle.”

Everyone around the table blinked.

“Doctors?” Samantha asked. “Are you okay?”

Faith found herself chuckling. “Yes, I am now. Before I left Boston, I had a terrible panic attack. My chest hurt and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I’d thought at the time that it might be a heart attack, so I went to the hospital to make sure. It wasn’t, but the doctors told me that I needed to stop keeping myself in a constant state of stress.”

“You were working too much?” Grayson guessed. From a comment Alexis had made during their conversation at The Salty Spoon, Faith had the sense that he’d been a bit of a workaholic himself until he’d quit his old job and followed his wife to Rosewood Beach to repair their marriage.

She nodded. “Almost all the time. And taking on a lot of high-profile cases with high stakes. I’d always told myself I wanted to be a lawyer, but the reality is that I’m too… I don’t know, emotionally sensitive for that kind of work? Some of the cases I was dealing with really weighed down on my sense of morality and my compassion.”

---