Page 71 of Dreaming at Seaside
“What kinds of things do you do with your friends here?”
He shrugged again and pushed sand around with his feet. “Video games and stuff. The beach sometimes. I don’t know.” He was quiet again, and a few minutes later he said, “It’s different than it was in Boston.”
“Night and day, I’d imagine.” Feeling the serious turn of the conversation, Bella sat up straighter. “I’d imagine it’s a different type of change for you than your dad sees in his life.”
“Dad’s life sucked before you came along.” A hint of a smile lifted his lips.
Wow.That was interesting. “I doubt it sucked. I mean, he obviously misses your grandparents and his friends, but he seems to be happy here.”
“Yeah, I guess. But he didn’t have a life. He had work and me, and then we moved, and now I’m the one without a life.”
Ouch.So the move was far more of an issue than either Caden or Evan were letting on—or maybe than Caden even realized.
“So you don’t like the kids you’ve met here?”
He shrugged again. “They’re okay. They’re just different from my old friends.” He threaded his fingers together and cracked his knuckles.
“I’m sorry you had to move.”
Evan was quiet for a long time. He moved sand around with his feet, watching a group of children running from the surf and a group of teenage girls gathering their towels and umbrella and walking down the beach.
“I guess I’m glad we moved, after what happened to George.” He shook his head. “I always knew my dad’s job was dangerous. I’m not stupid, or anything, but when you grow up seeing someone all the time and then they’re gone forever, it’s kind of unreal.” He swallowed hard and turned his face away from Bella.
If she weren’t afraid of embarrassing him, she’d pull him into her arms and hold him. She’d brush his hair from his face and tell him it was okay to feel sad and angry about George, and moving, and his friends. She’d let him yell and cry and kick sand if it made him feel better; then she’d hold him again until he got all that bottled-up frustration out of his system.
“I’m sorry.” She wasn’t sure what else to say. Talking too much would make him more emotional, which would probably lead to him clamming up out of embarrassment. Talking too little would say she didn’t care, and she did care. Desperately.
He rose to his feet and pulled his shirt over his head. “Wanna eat? I’m getting hungry.”
Deflection.She knew it well from her students. “Yeah, sure.” There were so many things she wanted to ask, like if he’d talked to his father about how he felt. She thought he must have, but teenagers were experts at camouflaging their emotions—even from themselves—with anger and attitude.
Bella pulled on her cover-up and grabbed her wallet from her tote.
“Crap.” Evan turned his back to the dunes.
“What’s wrong?” She shaded her eyes and looked up toward the path that led down the dunes from the parking lot. She didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
“Can we go?” Evan grabbed his towel and boogie board.
“Yeah. I was just getting my money.”
“No. I mean, like, leave.” He grabbed the second boogie board and picked up her tote. A deep V formed between his brows, and his narrow chest rose and fell with each heavy, agitated breath.
“Sure. Why are you in such a hurry?” She scanned the beach again. There were people lying out on the beach, kids filling buckets with sand, and lifeguards sitting high up in their chair. She wondered what had caused his reaction.
“Just hot.”
Bella grabbed the beach chair and blanket, and they crossed the hot sand. Evan walked at a quick pace with his eyes glued to the path that led up the steep dune. When he shifted the boogie boards in his arm to block his face from the right, Bella was sure something was up, and she quickly surveyed that part of the beach.
She was pretty sure that the two boys Evan had met at the flea market were walking along the base of the dunes, fully dressed in shorts and tank tops. For Evan to leave the beach in order to avoid them could only mean there was some sort of trouble brewing. Bella was so tempted to ask why he didn’t want them to see him that she had to bite the insides of her cheeks to keep the words from slipping out.
They packed their stuff in the car and drove away in silence. Evan clenched his jaw repeatedly as he stared out the window.
“Mac’s okay for lunch?” she asked, hoping to ease the tension.
“Sure. Whatever.”
Bella drove through the center of Wellfleet, along the main road that was home to art galleries and cozy restaurants.
