Page 23 of SEAL'S Baby Surprise
I sigh dramatically. “I have a picture . . . she was cast as Peasblossom inAMidsummer Night’s Dream. A summer theater production, you know.”
“I know the kind of show.” The host takes the picture. “Can we borrow this for a few minutes?”
“Of course,” I say. “But be sure to bring it back. It’s the only picture I have of her. The wedding shots were scheduled for tomorrow.”
“We’ll be very careful of it,” The host says.
In a few minutes a publicity shot of a sweet-faced, cute girl appears on the monitor screen. “We’ll run this on the hour, every hour until she is found,” the talk show host says. “Now it’s time for a commercial break.”
11
LEE
Morning arrives.I can hear both Austin and Julia stirring. Ark gets off me, hops into the narrow space between my bed and the driver’s seat of the van, stretches, shakes, and ambles off down the hall.
It is such a relief to have the big dog climb off me, I just lie there for a minute. It is so still, I can hear Ark scuffling and snuffling around the van.
The twins arrive to have breakfast with Julia and walk with her to Mother Hubbard’s. Idly, I wonder what their parents are doing, since they always eat breakfast, and sometimes eat lunch and dinner with Julia and Austin.
While Austin is feeding the children, I get up, use the bathroom and grab a shower. I look at the sweats I’ve been wearing with distaste.
I’m going to have to find some way to get more clothes. I’ve worn these for two days, and they are beginning to be more than a little ripe.
I pull them on, because the alternative is that horrid wedding dress. I’d designed it. Whatever was I thinking, anyway? It is an expensive, single-use garment. Maybe I had thought like some of the tribal women of old, that I should wear the family wealth.
I wander out to the kitchen area. Austin is seated in his large beach chair, a cup of coffee on the small table beside him.
“You okay with continental breakfast?” he asks, nodding toward the basket of fruit and plate of pastries sitting on the condiment table.
“Sure,” I reply. I pour myself a cup of coffee, get a paper plate and load it up with fruit and pastries, then sit in the guest chair on the other side of the small table where Austin has parked his coffee.
I munch quietly for a little while, looking out across the beach down toward the ocean. It is peaceful, and reasonably cool, but the day is starting to warm right up. The waves sparkle in the sunlight. Ark dashes down and chases them.
Austin is doing something with a graph on his tablet, so I don’t bother him. I figure I’ve interrupted his work often enough.
By the time I finish my pastry and fruit, I’m tired of looking at the view even though Ark is pretty entertaining. I go in and get my book, come back, and settle down to read for a while.
I’m just beginning to read Chapter Nine, in which Meg goes visiting, when Austin says, “I need to take Ark for a run. He’s been really good these last two days, but he’s a big dog, and he gets restless if we don’t get out on the water at least once a day. Will you be all right staying here for an hour or two? I’ll be home in time for lunch.”
“I should be fine,” I say. “I think I’d like to watch some television or maybe take a nap.”
Austin looks a little disappointed. Was he hoping I would go with? But I really don’t want to run around in smelly sweats, and I don’t have a swimsuit. As nearly as I can tell, Freedom Beach isn’t a nudie beach. Or at least I haven’t seen anyone running around in the buff.
“I’ll get the remote for you,” he says. “Just be sure you brush your feet off before you climb up on my bed. I hate sleeping with sand.”
I giggle at that. “Doesn’t everyone?”
“You’d think,” he says, “but you never know.”
I go inside, and just to make sure I don’t have sand on my feet, I rinse them off in the sink. When I come out, Austin frowns at me. “We’re going to have to do something about clothes for you,” he says. “Those sweats are okay as emergency gear, but you probably don’t want to live in them.”
“Clothes,” I say. “Yes, please. I’ll pay you back.”
“Not to worry,” Austin says. “We can go shopping after lunch. Julia needs some things, too. I’ll lock the door when I leave — just to keep the riffraff out, all right?”
“All right,” I reply.
After Austin and Ark leave, I settle down on his bed to watch television. I sort of wish he was here. He makes me feel safe, even more than Ark does.
