Page 79 of Love At The Shore
“You need to get ready for camp.” Jenna stared absently at the bubbles rising to the surface in the batter.
“But we already are.” Ally chuckled.
Jenna turned around, and sure enough, both of her kids were dressed and ready to go. Nick’s t-shirt matched his shorts, and Ally had even remembered to brush her hair. It was the first morning of the entire summer that Jenna hadn’t needed to micromanage their morning routines.
This is new.
And she had to admit, it was also kind of wonderful.
“I’m proud of you both for getting yourselves ready.” She forced her lips into the widest smile she could. “But no. Not today.”
If she let them play outside and Lucas was out there, she’d probably be forced to find them and drag them to the table when breakfast was ready. And she just couldn’t face him.
Or maybe she couldn’t face saying goodbye. After all, he was leaving today. Either way, she was keeping her kids and her heart on the proper side of the fence.
“Your pancakes are almost ready,” she said.
Then she turned back to the stove so she wouldn’t have to see Nick and Ally’s defeated expressions.
Lucas ran his sander over the surfboard he’d been refurbishing all summer, pausing once or twice to glance over the fence toward Jenna’s patio.
Okay, so maybe it was more than once and twice. Maybe it was closer to ten or twenty times.
He wasn’t in any hurry to finish his board. In fact, he didn’t need to be working on it at all since he was about to go on a road trip for several weeks. There were definitely other matters that needed his attention.
But he’d been hoping to get a chance to see Ally and Nick one last time before he left. Maybe if he was really, really lucky, he’d get to see their mom too.
He didn’t get it. The kids were usually out and about this time of day, playing on the deck or searching for new turtle nests on the dunes. The time had come and gone for Ally to take Tank for his early morning walk.
Lucas powered down the sander and glanced at his scruffy sidekick, lying on the porch swing with his chin resting on his paws. The beautiful disaster of a shell collar Ally had made for him was holding up surprisingly well. Not a single scalloped seashell had fallen off.
But Lucas wasn’t focusing much on the collar. He couldn’t see much past the melancholy softness in Tank’s brown eyes. “It’s a little quiet, buddy. You want to talk to me?”
Tank lifted his head a fraction of an inch, grunted and then resumed his pouting position.
“What are you thinking?” Lucas said.
He stole another glance over the fence. He knew exactly what the poor dog was thinking. Tank was wondering if the beach house had always been this quiet before Jenna and the kids moved in. After weeks of Ally’s constant chatter and swimming questions from Nick, the silence was unsettling.
Lucas didn’t like it, and judging by his dog’s drooping ears and sad little puppy-dog eyes, neither did Tank.
Lucas unplugged the sander and gave up on getting any work done on the board. He couldn’t concentrate. He’d botched things up really thoroughly, hadn’t he? He’d managed to break his dog’s heart as well as his own. Possibly Jenna’s.
Maybe it was a good thing he didn’t have any houseplants. He probably would have broken their little leafy hearts, too.
“It’s going to be all right,” he promised, willing himself to believe it. Tank’s nose twitched, then he opened his mouth to let out a squeaky dog yawn. The pup always yawned when he was sad.
Lucas offered his best friend a reassuring smile. “A change of scenery will do us both good.”
The beach was windy—breezier than Jenna had seen it in the entire time they’d been at Tybee. It seemed appropriate though, since change was blowing in from all sides.
That was the thing about the shore though, wasn’t it? The tide was its only constant. It washed in and out, over and over again, stirring up sand, moving things around. Shells, driftwood, tiny silver fish…even the shore itself. Next year, everything would look the same but different.
Kind of like the way Jenna felt while she stood alongside Maureen and watched Kayla address the kids on their final morning at camp.
This summer had changed Jenna. She might look the same on the outside, but on the inside, she felt like she’d been tossed overboard during a stormy sea. It was beginning to wear on her in a major way.
She crossed her arms and focused on Kayla, standing in the middle of the crowd of children, wearing a red long-sleeved t-shirt, jean shorts and her ubiquitous whistle around her neck.
