Page 19 of SEAL'S Baby Surprise
But whatever he had been about to ask was interrupted by a loud squall from the toddler, who has just thrown a scoop of sand into his own face. Kandis is quick to grab him up, dowse his face with water from a bottle, then flush his eyes with more of the clean water.
The immediate crisis averted, the little one clings to his mother and sobs. It all happens so quickly that neither of us have a chance to intervene.
“I’m afraid we’ve had enough beach for today,” Kandis says firmly. “Why don’t you come to dinner one evening, Austin? Do you have family?”
“A daughter,” I find myself replying. “Six years old.”
“Bring her, too, of course. Charlie is usually in a sociable mood in the evening after his nap. We’d be delighted to see you both.” With that, she starts to pack up the beach toys, one-handed.
Richard quickly bends to help her. “Do come by. It’s been a long time. I lost touch with you after you joined the Navy. It would be good to catch up.”
“Sure thing,” I reply, not really meaning it. We’d been best friends back in college, and for a while after, but had gone different ways.
“We’ll send an invitation and a car,” Kandis says, patting the toddler’s back. “Old friends are too valuable a thing to lose touch.”
We walk up the path, chatting amiably about this and that until we reach the row of travel homes. “This is my stop,” I say. “I need to go make lunch for my kid.”
“That’s just amazing,” Richard says, “You, with a kid.”
“Hey, look who’s talking,” I say. “Never figured you for the marrying kind.”
“Every now and then, I do something unexpected,” he replies. “Here’s our phone and address. Let us know when a visit would be convenient. I’ll be back to check on you, if I don’t hear.”
I laugh. “I’d give you my phone number, but I don’t take my phone with me when I’m paddleboarding. I’ll leave a message for you. Text, ok?”
“Text is fine,” Richard says. “I’ll be looking forward to it.”
And just like that, they go on their way, and I go on mine. I remember that Richard and I had exchanged letters for a while. Then, he’d had some sort of football injury, and I’d gone into the SEALS. Our correspondence had dropped off after that.
It has been years since I’d even thought about Richard. We used to tease him about being “Richie Rich” especially after we saw the movie. And here he is managing his in-laws vineyard. Lo, how the mighty have fallen!
Maybe I should go visit him. He had been kind of a playboy when I knew him, but he seems to have lucked into a competent, practical wife.
And it wouldn’t be too bad if I could score a bottle of Quinn Vineyard wine. The one time I’d managed to buy a bottle, it had been exquisite stuff. Maybe Lee will want to go with us.
9
LEE
I waketo the sound of voices. I sit up and peek between blinds. There is Austin walking up the path with Richard and Kandis! How did they get here? Kandis looks a little sunburned, so maybe they have just come to the beach. But what if they had started talking with Austin about me?
I freeze.
I can’t go back. I won’t go back. I don’t want to be married to That Hateful Man. I’d rather walk into the ocean and die first.
That, after all, was the original plan. Until Austin rescued me and made me believe in things that I shouldn’t have thought were possible.
Julia will be home soon. I don’t think she should see me in her father’s bed.
And, I shouldn’t let Richard and Kandis find me here either.
I slip out of it. Then, keeping low, I make it up nice and smooth. I even make hospital corners the way we had been required to in that one hideous boarding school.
I remember that Austin said I could read his books. I look at the selection and have to smile.Little Women, Pride and Prejudice, Tom Sawyer, To Kill a Mockingbird, andFrugal Housewife— the original British publication, and an extremely worn copy ofThe Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
I open the flyleaf onPride and Prejudice. Scrawled on the fly leaf are the words, “To Mom, Love Austin.”
The collection makes sense then. These had been his mother’s books. Except maybe the one about motorcycles. I wrinkle my nose at that.
