Page 45 of The Lighthouse at the Cove
Kaiah turned and jogged up the stairs. He waited until the apartment lights illuminated before he walked inside the house.
Chapter 11
Kaiah rubbed her eyes and yawned as she pushed herself out of bed. It was after nine, but she’d only been asleep since five. She’d been up working on her article, researching Coral Cove, and thinking about Reid. Not necessarily in that order.
Even after she’d sent the article to Libby and crawled into bed, Kaiah stayed awake, replaying the events of the previous evening—how Reid had handled the raucous crowd, how he had encouraged her to talk to them, how he had rested his hand on the small of her back, how they’d held hands like it was the most natural thing in the world. He was kind, thoughtful, caring. And clearly he was becoming important to her. Which had never been part of her travel plans.
Great. Just great.
She groaned and covered her face with her hands.
After taking a hot shower, she dressed and ate a quick breakfast of cold cereal. Just as she sat down in front of her computer, a knock sounded at her door. When she opened it, she found Reid holding two cups of coffee.
“Good morning.” Reid held out one of the to-go cups for her. “I picked up coffee for us.”
Kaiah took the cup. “Thanks.”
“It’s a vanilla latte. They even spelled your name right.”
She turned the cup to the side and found “Cayenne” written in black magic marker, and she snorted. Then she clasped her hand to her mouth to shield her yawn.
His face clouded with a concerned frown. “Uh-oh. You still tired?”
“I was up most of the night writing my article, but I got it done. I sent it to my editor around five.”
“Oh, wow.” Disappointment and concern covered his face. “You need rest. I’ll let you go back to bed.”
She grabbed his arm and tugged him toward her. “No, no, no. Come on in. We have a lot of work to do.”
Reid didn’t look convinced. “Uh, you have dark circles under your eyes. I don’t think ‘a lot of work’ should be on your agenda right now.”
“Fine. How about this,” Kaiah began. “If I start to fall asleep, I’ll take a quick nap, and then we can get together later.”
Reid considered her words. “Okay.” Then he lifted his eyebrows. “Any chance I can read your article?”
She hesitated before slowly nodding her head. “Sure.”
He gestured to the sofa, where her laptop was sitting on the coffee table. She opened the article file and set the computer on his lap, holding her breath while his dark eyes scrolled across the screen. When he finished, she froze, waiting for his reaction.
“It’s perfect,” he said. “I love how you describe our town.”
Relief coursed through her body as she closed the computer and set it on the coffee table. “Thanks.” She leaned back against the arm of the sofa.
“Seriously, it’s awesome. Thank you, Ky.”
“It was my pleasure, truly.” She let out a small breath she wasn’t even aware she’d been holding. “So what’s the plan for today?”
“Well, I had an idea while I was getting dressed this morning. There are so many organizations that host marathons. What if we have a walk or a run that tied to the festival?”
“I love it!” Kaiah pulled out her notebook. “We could have the start and finish line at the lighthouse.”
He rubbed the dark scruff on his neck. “Exactly. We’ll map out a route that goes in a big circle and comes back to the lighthouse. The participants could get sponsors to pledge donations based on their performance.”
“I think it’s a great idea. I’ll add it to the list,” Kaiah said while writing in her notebook. “So we need to start planning a race. What’s our first action item for that?”
“How about we talk to the PE teacher at Piper’s school?” Reid offered. “He has experience with this sort of thing and can tell us what to do next.”
She pushed her notebook into her backpack. “Good point. Let’s go.”
