Page 6 of Dreaming at Seaside
“That’s crazy high.” Jenna’s eyes widened.
“Yeah, tell me about it. I know it’s probably skewed somehow because it’s a resort town or something, but still. If I can secure a dozen businesses that will commit to hiring twenty-five kids for minimum wage during the school year, with on-the-job training, in positions that can lead to full-time employment after graduation, then the school board will give me a one-year contract. And I know that I can convert that one year into a permanent position once they see how motivated these kids become and how their self-esteem grows, not to mention how their post-graduation opportunities will expand.”
“If anyone can do it, you can,” Amy said. “But what if it doesn’t work?”
Leanna glared at Amy. “If I can make Sweet Treats a successful business, then Bella can create a work-study program. I’m the most disorganized person I know, and Bella is not only organized, but she’s smart and incredibly creative.” She rose to her feet. “I’m proud of you, Bella. No man is worth feeling uncomfortable every day when you go to work.”
“It’s really not because of him, although I did use that as my excuse to my boss because she would try to talk me out of the real reason I want to leave. She’d have wanted me to start a new project there, but you guys, I really want to behere. You know how much I love it here, and now that I’ve taken the plunge and put my plan into action, I don’t want to turn back. All I have to do now is focus on work, which should be easy if I’m not dating.”
“I was just being practical,” Amy explained. “I know Bella is capable of doing it, but you know, anything can happen. What if in two months she’s stuck without a job? I didn’t mean anything bad.”
“I know you didn’t, Ames,” Bella said. “So, now that you know my big news, I have two days of fun before I dive into full-on program development on Monday. Are we still having a bonfire on the beach later?”
“Tony left me a voice mail that he got the permit, so yeah.” Amy smiled as she sipped her coffee.
“One day that man will realize you’re the best thing since crunchy peanut butter, Ames.” Jenna patted her leg. “Bella, on a serious note, are you okay financially? Do you need money?”
Jenna’s offer warmed Bella’s heart. She wasn’t the type of woman to tear up, but if she had been, the compassion in Jenna’s voice and her offer to help surely would have made her. Jenna worked as an elementary school art teacher and lived on a shoestring budget. She could no sooner afford to help Bella financially than she could afford to visit Las Vegas.
“It means the world to me that you would offer, but I have a nest egg, so I should be fine for a while. Besides, once my house sells, I can live here, and if the work-study job doesn’t lead to a full-time position, I can stay here until I find a job, even if it means traveling all over for interviews.”
“You’re really doing it.” Jenna sighed. “I can’t believe it.”
“Yes, I’mreallydoing it.”
“Well, if it’s what you really want to do, then I think it’s awesome,” Leanna said. “I totally support whatever you want to do.”
“I do, too, of course,” Amy added. “It’s just…Leanna’s always been the gypsy in the group. She could pick up at any time and move without missing a beat, and even Jenna and I are more likely to switch apartments, or cars, or even cities, but Bella’s always been the one who sticks to things. Gee, Bell, I thought you’d live in Connecticut forever.”
Bella reached for her hand and squeezed. “I know, Ames, but this is a good thing. And who knows? Maybe I’ll live here forever. Forever’s a long time, and my gut tells me that my forever should start here.” Spending summers and school breaks at Seaside had always been Bella’s sanity saver. She wondered if she’d enjoy it as much if it were her full-time residence. “How did you like being here during the winter, Leanna? Do you regret your decision to live here full-time?”
Leanna glanced at Kurt setting up his laptop on the deck of her cottage. “I love living at the Cape, and, Bell, I think everything happens for a reason.”
“That’s because you have a hot, rich boyfriend who spends his days pumping out bestselling novels and his nights adoring every inch of your slinky little body.” Jenna raised her coffee in a toast. “To men adoring our bodies.”
The others lifted their coffee cups. “Hear! Hear!” Amy said.
“He does those things, but I believe in fate because it’s real. You’ll see.” Leanna came around the table and hugged Bella.
If Bella dared to believe in fate that would mean she had been fated to date Jay, and if that were true, then she was fated to leave a job and the community in Connecticut that she loved. Even though she was excited about the new job prospect, she had to wonder—if she’d been fated to date him, then what other crappy heartache did fate have in store for her?
CADEN STOOD IN the doorframe of Evan’s bedroom, watching him sleep. At almost fifteen years old, his toes already hung off the foot of the bed. He looked so much like Caden had at that age, with the same mop of chestnut hair and square jaw. He’d even inherited Caden’s cleft chin, which Caden had hated as a kid. He wondered, as he looked at his son, all elbows and knees lying on top of his sheets in his boxers, if he hated it, too. He tried to push away the guilt that pressed in on him for moving Evan away from his friends in Boston, but when his partner of nine years was killed during a robbery, it drove the dangers of his job home.
George Rowe had not only been an excellent cop, but he’d also been Caden’s closest friend. Losing George had been ten times more difficult than the day almost fifteen years earlier, when Caden’s then girlfriend, Caty Lowenstein, had come to his dorm and placed one-week-old Evan in his twenty-year-old arms. She’d said she was leaving town and that she’d signed custody over to him. He’d been in his second year of college and he’d thought he was in love with her. They’d been dating for five months when she found out she was pregnant. After two weeks of arguing—she wanted to abort the baby and Caden begged her not to—she’d disappeared. He didn’t see her again until that fateful day when she set Evan in his arms and took off.
He looked down at his son now, remembering the weight of Evan in his arms and the way he’d turned those serious, trusting, dark eyes up at him. In the blink of an eye, Caden had known he’d never loved Caty, because what he felt for Evan was bigger than anything he’d ever felt in his life. It enveloped him and filled him to his core, leaving no room for anything or anyone else. He’d packed his things and gone home to his parents’ house that night. Evan had been his life ever since.
Until last night, when he’d looked into Bella’s eyes and felt a fissure form in the armor he’d worn for all those years. Since the day he became Evan’s father, he’d never been affected by a woman that way, which is why now, as he watched the boy who had turned his life upside down and taught him what love was, he allowed himself to think about seeing her again.
“Dad?”
Evan’s voice pulled his mind back to the present.
“Hey, buddy. Sorry. Did I wake you?”
“Not really, but it’s kinda creepy that you’re watching me sleep.” He shifted up on his elbow. “Are we still going fishing after your shift?”
Caden had always tried to spend as much time with Evan as he could. Or at least as often as Evan would agree to spend time with him. Teenage angst was clawing its way into their lives, and Caden was doing all he could to keep it from becoming a constant companion.
