Page 31 of Sunsets at Seaside
“I’ll show you.” He took her hand and led her up a set of stairs between two buildings, to the entrance of an office. Above the door was a sign painted to look like a baseball and the wordsMY MOM THREW OUT MY BASEBALL CARDSwritten in black.
“Oh.” Her breath left her in a rush of hot air. “Jamie, how did you find this?” She ran her hand along the flat metal door.
“Bread crumbs.” He pulled his phone from the pocket of his shorts and checked his text messages. “Leanna said the owner, Steve, isn’t at the flea market, but she got his phone number from the flea market admin staff.” He smiled at her and handed her his phone. “You can call him.”
“Jamie, you did this. I can’t believe you did all of this for me.”
They sat on the top step. “I like puzzles.”
The way his eyes darkened and his voice softened told her that wasn’t the only reason he’d done it.
“Thanks for helping me try to solve mine.”In so many more ways than one.
“Are you going to call?”
“Yeah, in a second.” She reached for his hand. “I don’t have a lot of friends outside of work, and I want you to know that I really appreciate what you’ve done. It means a lot to me. I’m a little nervous about calling, though. When I came to the Cape it was with the intention of figuring out how to be normal, and finding my dad’s ball was supposed to be something for me to focus on so I didn’t think about playing the cello day and night.”
“What are you worried about? That if you find the baseball you’ll suddenly begin practicing for hours on end?” He gathered her hair in his hands and laid it over her shoulder, then kissed her cheek. “What’s so bad about that?”
“What’s so bad? I’d lose this. You. The ability to be normal.” Her stomach twisted.
“Babe, there are twenty-four hours in a day. Two, three, four, or even five hours of practice? That’s nothing.” He touched his forehead to hers. “Besides, I’ve just found you. There’s no chance I’m going to let you get away that easy.”
“You don’t get it. Practicing is just a piece of my life. I work crazy hours. Maintaining friendships outside of other musicians is nearly impossible, and musicians can be cliquey, like any other industry, I guess, but they can be whiny and complainy.Ugh.It’s a whole different world.”
“That doesn’t sound very different from any other industry. Maybe you just think your life is really different because it’s the only one you know. I work at night all the time, and every office has cliques and complainers. You just rise above it, work around it, ignore it as best you can and move on.” He pressed his leg against hers. “What else?”
“Maybe you’re right. I don’t know. As you said, playing with an orchestra is really all I know. All I’ve ever known. I could go on and on, but it’s not that I hate what I do. Iloveit. There are times when I crave it like addicts crave a fix. But there are aspects that make it difficult. There’s a lot of travel, some international. It can be exhausting, and…lonely.” She hadn’t realized that until just now, but after spending time with Jamie, she knew what she was missing out on. “Listen to me. I have a job millions would give their eyeteeth to have, and I’m complaining like a child. I just want a little break from it, and the baseball was supposed to distract me from playing, because I really am drawn to it like it’s my drug of choice.”
“Okay, so what I’m hearing is that you love playing, you get lonely, and you want this vacation to be about something other than playing. So if you find your dad’s baseball, you need another distraction until you figure out what you really want to do with your career, right?” He had a serious look in his eyes.
She rolled her eyes. “Ridiculous, right?”
He folded her into his arms and touched his lips to hers. “Not at all. I’d say it’s my lucky summer, because I’m really good at being distracting and even better at keeping you company.” He took her in a deep, passionate kiss that made her tingle all over.
“You are incredibly good at that,” she said against his lips.
“Here, let me distract you again.”
She melted against his lips, her whole body warm and wanting. He was so much more than a distraction. He was becoming the air she needed to breathe.
She made the phone call, hardly able to believe she was getting that much closer to finding her father’s baseball. Her father didn’t even know she was looking for it. She’d struck it lucky when she found what she was sure was his baseball on eBay, and she’d only found eBay because a fellow musician said she was selling her violin on eBay and they got to talking about the website. She’d shown her how to find the site on her phone and how to bid. Luck had been on her side—even if she hadn’t won the baseball, she’d met Jamie, and that made it all worthwhile.
Steve didn’t answer. She left a message with her name and phone number and gave Jamie back his phone.
“Now we wait, I guess.” She told herself not to be too hopeful, but she couldn’t help it. Hope swelled within her.
“Hardly. Now we go enjoy life a little.” He drew her up to her feet and took her in another delectable kiss. “You’ll be sick of me by the end of the day.”
“Not a chance in the world.”
“This is our second date, you know.” He dragged his eyes down her body lasciviously as they descended the stairs.
She felt naked under his heated gaze, and she could hardly believe how much she wished she was.
They ate lunch on the lawn of the Orleans Windmill, overlooking the water, and soaked in the sun before heading across the street to the Bird Watcher’s General Store. By the time they got back to the car at the Salt Pond Visitor Center, it was nearly six o’clock.
“Do you mind if I call Vera and make sure she’s okay?”
