by Jenny Hale
For the second time, Faith felt the sting of tears, and she blinked to keep them at bay. Isabella would swing on that swing as she grew up, just like Faith had done. What an amazingly sweet gesture for Jake to have made that for the cottage. She remembered mentioning it to him over dinner, but she never would have expected that he’d have taken the time to build one for them. She wanted to put her arms around him and hug him.
Jake promised to hang it before he left, and, as everyone went back inside to escape the heat, Casey gently grabbed Faith’s arm to hold her back. It was clear that she had something to say, and when Nan noticed, being the last in, she shut the door behind her, leaving the two girls outside.
“I can’t believe this is ours,” Casey said, looking out at the beach. Faith stood beside her, the wonder of it settling in her throat. She was so happy to be able to call this beautiful place hers. But she knew there was something else Casey wanted to say; she could read her sister enough to tell, so she waited. “I’m so sorry,” Casey said, turning to her, her skin flushed with remorse. “I’m sorry I hurt you all those years ago. It has always weighed heavily on me, and so I didn’t push when you wanted to stay away because until now, I didn’t have the guts to say what I’m saying.”
While Faith was very happy to hear this from Casey, she realized something at that moment: Casey, who had always seemed so confident to Faith, was actually a lot like her. Casey used her confidence to hide her insecurities. What Faith now understood from Casey’s apology was that Faith wasn’t necessarily the weaker one; they were both weak in ways. Faith looked up to Casey for her outward strength while Casey needed her sister in times of crisis. Together, they were strong.
Faith shook her head. “It was really silly to have avoided you for so long over that. It makes absolutely no sense to me now.”
“I’ve missed you so much.”
“I’ve missed you too.”
“Thank you for helping me with Scott. I couldn’t have done it without you.” Casey peeked in to the cottage and smiled at her husband through the window. He was laughing at something Nan was saying.
“You’re welcome.” Faith had never felt more confident. In all the years she and Casey had spent together at this beach, it had taken until now before Faith truly understood her sister. “This is a wonderful beginning, getting this cottage,” she said. “It’ll be a place where we can always be together.” She put her arm around her sister.
They’d spent all evening with Nan, chatting and taking photos, and finally, Isabella, unable to keep her eyes open any longer, asked if she could go to bed. Scott took her to her room and, when he didn’t return, Casey went and checked on him. He’d fallen asleep next to his daughter. Casey decided that she, too, was ready for bed, and she joined her little family for the night. Nan was dozing in the chair, and Mom, having just finished cleaning everything up—she never let anyone help her—called out to Faith and Jake on the porch to tell them she was heading to bed as well, leaving them alone.
Jake had come outside to test out the swing he’d hung earlier for Nan. He didn’t need to test it, though, because Faith had been swinging on it for a while already and it was perfectly secure. He sat down next to her, and they were so close that, to be comfortable, he put his arm around her, along the back of the swing. She let her feet dangle, as he pushed them gently back and forth. Even though he hadn’t done anything to prompt it, she put her head on his shoulder.
Faith wished they could spend many nights just like this. But then the truth of the situation set in: She was leaving tomorrow. She may never see him again, even though she hoped he’d keep in touch and, at the very least stop by when she visited the cottage. But would he? Would their two weeks together fade away in his memory eventually? A sense of urgency washed over her. But what could she do? He hadn’t said a thing. Did he have any thoughts on the subject of her leaving at all?
“I go home tomorrow,” she said finally.
“I know.” He was very quiet, not his usual self.
What else could she say? Say something! she wanted to yell out. The more she sat there, the more she wondered if he wasn’t saying anything because he didn’t have anything to say. Jake had given her signs that her feelings weren’t one-sided—those looks he gave her, the way he smiled at her, the softness of his voice compared to the way he spoke to other people, the times he’d kissed her. It all meant something, right?
“Do you care?” she asked, mustering all her inner strength and sitting up to face him. She spread her hands out on her thighs to keep them from trembling.
He turned to her, his face distorted in confusion. He looked almost offended.
“Do you care that I’m leaving?” She was taking a big chance here, because if he truly didn’t care then what would he say? She was putting him on the spot and she knew it, but if she didn’t, she’d never know. For once, she knew where she wanted her life to go, even if she didn't know how things would turn out. She didn’t know if Jake was someone she could be with long-term, but how would she ever get to that point if she didn’t take a risk and find out.
“I’ve thought about it, yes,” he said softly, not making eye contact.
She tried to hide the hurt. It wasn’t a grand gesture like she’d hoped.
She thought about Nan and what she’d said about those major moments not being as big when she looked back on them. No matter what happened tonight, she’d move on, her life would carry on, and years later, this moment would be but a memory. So, she decided it was time she got on with living her life. She wasn’t going home until she had answers.
Before she could say anything, he said, “Faith, you scare me to death. You are the person that I enjoy being around. I can’t stand being away from you. I tried. For the last two days, I wanted to see if I could stand being without you and it was the worst two days I’ve ever had. But when I married Rebecca, I envisioned this perfect life where I grew old with someone and had a family. I worked hard to build something with her and I thought I was doing everything right. But then, when we started seeing things differently regarding my work, she wasn’t happy anymore. She wasn’t the person I thought she was, and I should’ve seen it. I tried to build a life, and I hadn’t done it right.”
“What do you mean, ‘done it right’?”
“I know how to build things. That’s what I do. I can make magnificent structures, beginning with nothing but dirt. And I’m good at it. But when it comes to building a life with someone, being a husband, I’m clearly not good at it. I was just myself, and that wasn’t enough. When I got divorced, my life crumbled down around me, and I had to rebuild it. I’ve done that. I’ve done it in a way that makes me happy. But when I started talking to you, I could feel that foundation wobble. The very last thing I want is someone trying to change my mind about the life I’ve created.” He took a breath and shook his head.
“Do you know what you’re not good at?” she asked, taking another risk. She put her hands around his waist and turned him toward her until they were facing each other.
“What?” he asked, looking at her intently, yet his eyes so gentle that it almost took her breath away.
“You’re not good at trusting yourself. Yes. You’re good at building. But you’re great at being you. How do you know it was you? You just believed your ex-wife as if her word was definitive. What if it was her?”
He shook his head, clearly unsure.
“I have another question.”
He looked up at her.
“Do you like the Tides Wine Bar? Do you enjoy eating there? Honestly?”
He stared at her as if she were reading his mind. A wave of excitement sheeted over her when she realized she had. She could read him too. With a smile, she said, “You don’t like it, do you?”
“Rebecca was so excited about that restaurant. She couldn’t wait for it to be built. She said we needed something like that in the Outer Banks. So, when I wanted to impress you, I took you there, thinking that’s what kind of place a wom
an might want. She liked high-end places, flowers…”
She’d finally gotten to the truth, that it wasn’t about him loving those places, it was about him trying to prove himself after his ex-wife had left. “What if there’s someone out there who doesn’t even care if she gets a superficial bouquet of flowers because she just wants to be with you, whether you’re reading, sailing, or just having something to eat? What if your actions aren’t as important as you being there beside her?”
Never before had she been this honest, this open about her feelings. And she knew she was right. It felt so good to get it out. Jake was a wonderful person. Neither of them knew if it would work out or not, but what was the point if they never tried, if they never took a chance?
An undecipherable thought washed over him. A realization. “Like Key West,” he said, and she didn’t understand what he meant right away. He searched her face as if he were trying to find answers to some perplexing problem. What was he thinking? Then, he leaned in toward her. He put his hands on her face and only broke eye contact when he pressed his lips to hers. His hands progressed from her face to her shoulders and down her back, his lips moving on hers, making her legs feel weak. His hands finally came to rest on her back as he kissed her. She held on to him, her own hands unstill, her chest against his, their breathing matched with one another’s. She’d kissed people in her life, but she’d never had a kiss like this one.
“I wanted to take you to Key West,” he said, his lips still on hers, “just because I thought you’d like it. I wasn’t trying to wow you or anything.”
“I know,” she smiled and kissed him again. “And I loved it.”
He pulled back to look at her. “I want to be with you,” he said, surprising her. “All I think about is you, lately. When I get up in the morning, when I go to bed at night, you are in my thoughts. I wonder what you’re doing when you’re away, and I want you there with me.” He searched her face for answers, but only for a second. As usual, he’d read her mind, her response plastered across her face. She couldn’t stop smiling. He reached down, held her face and pressed his lips to hers. This kiss was different than all the others. It was gentle and urgent at the same time, their lips moving together perfectly. It was the kind of kiss she’d waited for her entire life and never knew existed.
She could feel it. This was a start of something great, and she couldn’t wait to see where it went.
EPILOGUE
Faith pulled her Land Rover into the drive of the cottage and turned off the engine. The SUV had been far fancier than anything Faith had wanted to drive, but Jake had insisted. The two restaurants that he’d bought were making him so much money that he’d wanted to spend some of it on her. In the end, Jake had decided to buy those restaurants, but instead of knocking them down, he’d repaired them, gave the cooking staff upgraded kitchens, and kept them going. Those two restaurants were keeping him quite busy; so busy, he said, that he’d changed his mind about building in Corolla, but Faith knew better. And, her thoughts were confirmed when in the dark one night, while lying next to Faith, he’d whispered in her ear that she’d been right. He’d told her she was right about it all, and he apologized for taking so long to figure it out. He’d fallen in love with the Outer Banks again—her Outer Banks.
She opened the back door of the car as Isabella came around the corner. She was twelve now, lean and lanky like her mother had been, her long hair like strands of gold down her back. She had freckles on her nose, her skin already golden from a few days at the cottage. Her fingernails and toes were painted a matching shade of shell pink, and she was wearing lip gloss. And so it begins, Faith thought to herself with a smile. It seemed like only yesterday, Casey had been that age, and Faith had looked up to her, wishing she could be like her sister. The difference was that Isabella was quiet, reserved, and a whole lot like Faith. She’d spent quite a bit of time with her aunt, and Faith was so glad to have had the last few years with her. Thinking about how she’d missed so much of the first part of Isabella’s life made her upset, but she’d learned from Nan to pick herself up and keep going.
Nan would’ve loved to have seen what they’d done with the place. Even though they could’ve had a cottage ten times the size of this one, they’d kept it because Nan had bought it for them, and Jake had worked very hard to make it perfect. The porch swing was still hung right where Nan had asked him to hang it, and Jake had done all the upkeep of the cottage, himself. The bookshelves inside that Jake had put in at Nan’s suggestion were now filled with Nan’s photo albums—they’d all brought them back to keep them in one spot—and they’d added a few new ones as well, but Faith’s favorite part of the cottage was just above the rows of albums on the shelf at eye-level where they had Nan’s silver frame with the last photo they’d all taken together at her birthday party. Beside it was the photo of Nan on the beach that Faith had taken, the water glistening behind her. Between the frames, they’d placed some of Nan’s angels. She was among them now, since she’d finally found John. Faith hoped they were watching from above, and every time the family came to the cottage, at least one morning, each week, the sky turned the most gorgeous shades of pink and purple. And in those moments, Faith felt her grandmother just like Nan had felt John.
“Where’s your mama?” Faith asked Isabella as Jake got out of the other side of the Land Rover.
“Inside with Dad and Addison.” Isabella walked over to the open car door and helped Sophie out of the car. Sophie, only six, looked up to her cousin, following her everywhere she went. Sophie had been named after Nan, born a year after Nan had passed. Sophie hopped out of the car after Isabella, her brown curls, the color of Jake’s hair, bouncing around her shoulders.
“I’m going in with Isabella, Daddy,” she said to Jake as she held her cousin’s hand and followed her to the long staircase leading to the front door of the cottage.
“Okay,” he said as he helped Faith get the suitcases out of the back of the car. “Be careful on the way up.”
Every year they met here. Sophie was three years younger than Addison, Scott and Casey’s second child, and, just like Faith and Casey, those two girls couldn’t be more different. Isabella balanced their differences, being older, wiser, and a good mix of the two. The three girls spent two weeks together every summer, and they had built so many memories already.
Nan would’ve been proud. She’d been right about everything. Just like how she’d fell in love with John, Faith could remember falling in love with Jake. It had started on that first day at the cottage, a mutual feeling she felt for him the moment she met him. After she’d left the cottage that summer, he’d driven down to see her more times than she could count until he finally asked her to move in with him. Then one night, while they were curled up under an afghan on the sofa in front of the fire, the snow coming down outside around them, the beach baron and frozen, he’d told her that he loved her. All those moments built, one after another, until one day, she couldn’t imagine life without him, and that was when she knew—when she had a million tiny things that made her love him and miss him whenever he was gone. Just as Nan had said.
Jake had told her once about the moment he suspected she was the one. It had happened the day he’d taken them to the island where Nan thought John had proposed. The story that Nan had told about the man she’d loved had affected Jake. He’d said that he’d never loved anyone like that before, and he wondered if he could love Faith like that. He’d found her attractive and he’d enjoyed her company, but that thought at that moment had taken him by surprise. That wonder had sewn a seed in his mind, and when he realized that he loved her, he always went back to that moment as when he’d pinpoint that he’d fallen for her.
Jake had proposed to Faith on that island. He’d taken her there on the boat he’d helped make for her, her eyes closed at his insistence. He led her down the ladder onto the beach, and when she opened her eyes, every single inch of the dry sand and surrounding woods was covered in tiny, flickering tea light candl
es, making the beach mirror the stars in the sky. With their flames, the bright white moon, and the stars the only light around them, he’d asked her to marry him. He’d carved their names in a tree, and he promised he’d always show her where it was so she’d never have to speculate like Nan had. She’d worried that a storm would push the island underwater. It wouldn’t take much to do it, given the hurricanes that hit that area. So, they’d taken a photo of the tree, and they’d placed it in one of the photo albums. It would be their reminder of the moment when they’d decided that they were better together.
The last to arrive at the cottage, they climbed the steps and went inside to join their family. The only sound outside was the rush of the tide and the wind. The cottage stood strong against it, the wood still new-looking, the shingles not yet weathered, and inside, was a family—whole and happy, together.
LETTER FROM JENNY
Thank you so much for reading Summer by the Sea. I really hope that you enjoyed the story and it gave you a relaxing summer escape - whatever time of year it is.
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Until next time!
Jenny
PS. If you enjoyed this story, I think you’d also like my other summer novel – Love Me for Me.
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