Page 33 of Where Sea Meets Sky

I need mud,she thought, looking around for a good patch of dirt or a puddle.These boots should look dirty. Like I’ve taken them hiking a million times before.

She located a good puddle at the edge of a fake pond outside the dentist’s office. She walked up to it as nonchalantly as she could, and briefly splashed through it. Clearing her throat and feeling like a little kid, she hurried away, waiting until she got farther away to check her feet.

“Arg,” she groaned, when she saw that her puddle jumping had made almost no difference. There were tiny little splashes of dirty water on the toes of her boots, but they were barely noticeable. She would need real mud, but she wouldn’t be able to find any on her route from Seaside Sweets Bakery to the pub. Real mud would have to wait.

She ducked inside Seaside Sweets Bakery, feeling strangely out of place in her new shoes. She stepped up to the counter and ordered a rose latte for herself, along with a raspberry and almond scone.

She glanced at her watch as she left the bakery, noting that she still had about twenty minutes before she needed to get towork. She inspected her reflection as she walked past the large front window of a gift store and sighed in frustration.

She still didn’t look outdoorsy enough. Her boots looked good and nature-loving—or at least, they would once she could make them appear a little more used—but the rest of her looked the same as ever. Her long dark hair was pulled back into a sleek ponytail, and there were diamond earrings glittering on her ears. She was wearing a simple black sweater paired with dark jeans, nothing too chic or extravagant, but her outfit still screamed “this girl likes the comforts of civilization.”

My outfit needs something else,she thought, frowning as she continued to walk toward the pub.Something that will make me look more like someone who would get along really well with Cooper’s family.

She sighed again and munched her scone as she walked. It had a light, buttery taste that paired beautifully with the tangy sweetness of the raspberries. She found herself wondering if Cooper’s family were the type to eat raspberries or other berries off the bush in the wilderness, and how she would feel about eating something that wasn’t washed or even officially identified as not poisonous.

She was almost to the pub when her eyes lighted on a little tourist shop to her left, across the street. She’d been there a few times, since the owner’s husband worked with Cooper and they liked to stop in and say hello whenever they were walking past. She suddenly remembered an impressive display of baseball caps that she’d seen in the gift store.

Smiling to herself, she crossed the road and stepped inside the shop. A bell jangled cheerfully over her head, and Linda, the woman who owned the store, looked up with a smile.

“Good morning, Julia!” she said. “What brings you in today?”

Julia felt herself flushing. She felt almost embarrassed about buying the baseball cap, as

if it were some kind of scandal that she wanted to purchase something out of character for herself. She cleared her throat.

“Good morning, Linda. I’m actually here to buy a baseball cap.”

“Sure thing! I’ve got loads. Go ahead and take a look at the display over there. Maybe that pink one? It would look so cute on you.”

Julia smiled and thanked Linda. She felt relieved that the shop owner hadn’t given her an odd stare or any other kind of surprised reaction. It made her feel as though she could pass for the outdoorsy type after all.

She stepped up to the display. Many of the hats had hunting or fishing jokes printed on the front, and she wrinkled her nose in distaste. She saw the hat that Linda had pointed out to her, and she did find it cute, but she wanted to buy something less girly for herself. If she was going to commit to the bit, she really needed to look more like a tomboy.

She glanced at her watch again, noting that she needed to leave in the next couple of minutes or she would be late for the pub. She finally decided on a light gray baseball cap. It wasn’t very pretty, but at least it would go with all the colors in her wardrobe.

She paid for it, thanked Linda again, and stepped back out into the sunlight. She walked along the sidewalk for a few paces before deciding that she wanted to try on the hat right away. She set down her coffee cup on the windowsill of a law firm that bordered the sidewalk and tried on the hat.

She cocked her head to one side as she inspected her reflection in the law firm’s window. Something about the hat didn’t look quite right. Was it just badly made, so it scrunched up like that?

She shook her head and took the hat off. She put it on again, this time running her ponytail through the hole in the back.

“There,” she muttered. “That looks halfway decent.”

It was at that moment that she realized that the secretary of the law firm was sitting at a desk near the window, blinking at her.

Julia held back a squeak of embarrassment. She froze for a second and then smiled and waved.

She picked up her coffee cup and hurried away, looking down at her watch as she did. She would be right on time for her shift at the pub. Even though there would be no penalty for her being late, since it was her family’s business and she was one of the managers, she hated to be late. She even hated to be right on time—she preferred to be at least fifteen minutes early.

She stepped inside the pub, feeling nervous. She’d been encouraged by Linda’s nonchalant reaction to her wanting to buy a baseball cap, but her family was going to be the real test. She would feel as though she presented a successful picture of a nature girl if her family didn’t bat an eyelash over the new additions to her wardrobe.

As soon as she was inside the bustling dining room, she noticed Alexis just being seated at one of the smaller tables placed by the back windows. Alexis, right in the middle of sitting down, froze when she saw her sister.

Oh no,Julia thought with an internal groan.

Alexis was gaping at her, so hard that it took her a moment to remember to sit down. Finally, she did and then beckoned for Julia to come over to her.

“Good morning,” Alexis said, as soon as Julia reached her side.

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