Page 57 of Love At The Shore
She smiled from the inside out. Then she eyed the troublesome crab and shook her head. “Okay, you know what? I think I’m done with this guy, but it was delicious.”
“Best in town.” Lucas popped a shrimp into his mouth.
“Yeah.” Jenna sipped her wine. The sun was beginning to set, casting pink and gold shimmering light over the ocean. At the end of Sam’s long pier, they had a perfect front row seat.
She glanced sideways at Lucas. “You ready for your big meeting?”
He nodded as he watched the flow of the tide. “I think as long as I get a good surf in, I’ll be fine.”
Jenna still had a hard time picturing him sitting behind a desk at an investment banking firm. She couldn’t imagine him anywhere but here, with his feet in the sand and salt on his eyelashes.
“Do you have a tie?” she said.
His expression sobered. “Do I need a tie?”
“You said they’re pretty corporate.”
He seemed to think about it for a second and then shrugged. “I’m not worried.”
Jenna marveled at him. “Are you always this relaxed?”
“I figure as long as I’ve done the best I can on my end, I can let the rest go.” He glanced at the ocean, and the sun dipping below the horizon, splashing the waves with light.
She followed his gaze and sighed. “I wish I could do that.”
He angled his head toward her. “Let things go?”
“Stop trying to control things from all sides.” Because that’s what she did, wasn’t it? She’d reacted to her divorce by trying to keep everything in her life so neat and orderly that she always knew what to expect.
Which left no room for nice surprises, such as the man sitting next to her.
“Well, you’ve got a few more sides to deal with than I do.” His voice went low and uncharacteristically serious. “And you’re killing it, by the way.”
“‘Killing it?’ You think so?” Could he not see that beneath the rules, the noise curfew and her neatly alphabetized bookshelf, she was kind of a neurotic mess? “Because I don’t even have an ending for my book.”
“Isn’t that normal for writers?” he said.
“I don’t know. This is only my second novel. I mean, what if I only had one good one in me?” It was one of her worst fears, and she wasn’t sure she’d ever said it out loud before. She always put on a brave face because she didn’t want Ally and Nick to worry. About anything.
“Hey,” he mock-scolded her. “Don’t sell yourself short. Look at everything you’re doing. Working from home, raising two kids.”
He made her sound like Wonder Woman…in a cardigan. “Their dad is actually really helpful when he’s not traveling.”
His eyes narrowed. “You’re still friends?”
“Friendship was never really our problem.” Jenna and her ex had always gotten along. They still did. He’d simply woken up one day and decided he didn’t want to be married anymore. “He wasn’t home much. He was very into his career, but at the same time didn’t understand why I wanted to be an author. I don’t think he considered it a real job. We just had very different views on life. I wish I had figured that out sooner.”
Lucas’s smile turned tender. “But then you wouldn’t be here.”
And here wasn’t such a bad place to be. It was pretty amazing, actually. “That…is very true.”
“Don’t worry, I have a feeling that your sequel is going to be even better than your first.”
Were they still talking about her book? Because is felt more like they were talking about her life.
A shiver coursed through her. She couldn’t tell if it was due to the gentle ocean breeze or the company.
“Here.” Lucas gathered his jacket off the back of the bench where they were sitting and offered it to her.
