Page 10 of Whispers at Seaside
THREADS OF ORANGE and yellow crept over the horizon like mist rising from the bay. Colorful reflections danced off the endless water. From their perch on the cool sand, it looked like the bay spilled off the far reaches of the earth. Matt wished this night with Mira could be endless. She was nestled against his side fast asleep. She’d barely made it ten minutes out of the club, and he didn’t have the heart to wake her.
Sawyer tapped his shoulder and nodded at Sky, in a similar position as Mira, also sleeping.
“Guess their men aren’t very interesting after all,” Sawyer joked.
Matt wanted to be Mira’s man, although he knew that would be tricky considering his life was in New Jersey and hers was here. But people’s lives changed. Who knew what would happen a week from now, much less a few months. Sawyer had been a professional boxer when he and Sky had fallen in love, and a head injury had led him to retire. Now he coached and wrote poetry with his father, and he seemed happy with his new and different lifestyle, and gloriously happy with Sky. Each of Matt’s siblings had fallen in love over the past few years, opening Matt’s eyes to what he was missing out on. He wanted what his siblings had, what his parents had enjoyed. Although he’d been growing tired of teaching, he wasn’t sure he could handle leaving it behind. The sabbatical was a test.
“I should’ve taken her home hours ago. I know she’s not used to being out this late.” Matt touched Mira’s cheek, feeling selfish for wanting to spend every possible second with her.
“So, when did this happen?” Sawyer asked. “Sky was ready to grill you two, but when she said you just got to town, I convinced her to give you a day or two.”
“Thanks. I’m sure she’ll grill me tomorrow.” Matt smiled at the thought of his sister wanting all the juicy details. Heck, he wanted tomakejuicy details.
“The showerhead at the cottage broke and I went down to my father’s shop to get a new one.” He touched the cut on his cheek. “Mira was there working, trying to keep herself distracted from worrying about Hagen.”
Matt paused, thinking about how his entire outlook had changed when he’d found Mira at the hardware store. A frustrating night that had begun with breaking up a fight had ended with the woman he thought he’d never have enough time to give what she needed and deserved asleep on his shoulder. Life worked in mysterious ways.
“Do you think it’s possible to carry a torch for someone for months and not realize how hot it burned?”
“If you mean you and Mira,” Sawyer said, “we all thought you’d hook up last summer.”
“I had too much on my plate to put her in that situation. I’ve had too much on my plate for far too long.” He shifted his eyes to the beautiful woman breathing softly beside him. “I had a hard time pushing thoughts of her away when I went back to Princeton, but I thought I’d done a pretty good job of it.” He shook his head. “Boy was I ever wrong. The minute I saw her, all my feelings rushed forward like I’d opened the dam gates. I swear, her voice does funky things to my stomach, and that smile? Man, Sawyer, her smile…It’s not logical, but when we were out tonight, I wanted toclaimher.” As his feelings poured out, he knew the night had affected him much more strongly than he’d even imagined. This was a very touchy-feely conversation for Matt to be having with another man.
“Nothing about relationships is logical.” Sawyer glanced at Sky. “Look at me and Sky. We met on a fluke when I came in for a tattoo. I swear we fell in love in the first three hours we spent together, and it’s only gotten stronger since. That’s what love is. It changes everything you thought you knew about yourself. One look at Hunter should tell you everything you need to know.”
Hunter, Matt’s older brother, had been the biggest player of them all. Before falling in love with Jana, Hunter had been with a different woman every night of the week—until he wasn’t. And then there was only Jana. In a few weeks Hunter and Jana, Grayson and Parker, and Sawyer and Sky would be married, and soon, starting families, chasing their futures with the people they loved, while Matt chased clarity and tried to figure out if going back to teaching meant chasing the wrong future.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Matt said. “But I was never that way with women. My mistress was academics.”
“Mine was boxing. Now I’ve got only one mistress.” Sawyer glanced at Sky and said, “I’m the luckiest guy on earth, Matt. In eight short weeks, she’ll be my wife.”
Matt didn’t know much about Hagen’s father, but as Sawyer talked about becoming Sky’s husband and eventually starting a family, and went on to describe how his relationship with his father, who had Parkinson’s, had changed since they began writing together, Matt wondered what had happened. Had Mira ever been married? All it would take was one conversation with Sky to get all the facts, but Sky wasn’t the one he wanted to talk to. He wanted to hear Mira’s story from Mira. He wanted to look into her eyes and feel what she felt. He wanted to know what she’d been through to become the strong woman and mother she was. On the heels of that thought came thoughts of his father. He bound them together with Mira’s earlier comment about the store having trouble competing with larger businesses and tucked them away to revisit soon. Tonight—this morning—was his and Mira’s.
An hour later, Matt and Mira pulled into Bayside Resort, the resort community her brothers owned. It was larger than Seaside, which had only a handful of cottages that had been owned by the same families for generations, a small recreation center, and a pool. Bayside Resort had at least three times as many cottages of varying sizes, a restaurant, pool, tennis courts, a recreation center, and gorgeous views of Cape Cod Bay.
“This is great. I’d heard your brothers were fixing it up.” Matt’s oldest brother, Pete, owned a cottage at Seaside and a house on the bay just down the beach from Bayside Resort.
“Drake and Rick bought it with their friend Dean Masters. They’re all working hard to make it beautiful again.”
As Matt drove through the community, he took in the renovations being done to the recreation center, the pool, tennis courts, and lush gardens throughout.
“They’re making headway. The gardens are gorgeous.”
“That’s all Dean. He’s got a gift for foliage. Follow the gravel road around the rec center.” Mira pointed and yawned. “I’m sorry. I’m so embarrassed about falling asleep.”
He reached for her hand across the console. “Don’t be. It gave me a chance to strip you down and take dirty pictures, which Sawyer and I posted on one of those racy websites.”
She laughed and swatted his arm. “That’s not very appropriate coming from a professor.”
“I told you I’m not—”
“A professor for the next three months. I know. But that doesn’t give you free rein to turn into a teenager.”
He couldn’t resist waggling his brows and teasing her again. “You know what they say about teenage boys. They can go all night.”
She laughed. “When you went on sabbatical, did you leave your adult brain behind?”
He was beginning to wonder that himself. Mira had that effect on him, making him feel freer, younger, more playful than he had in a very long time.
