Love At The Shore

by Teri Wilson

  Nick shrugged one shoulder. “But I don’t surf.”

  Maybe he should stop with the surfing analogies. “That’s not the point. Do you want to break 1:18 or not?”

  Nick let out a defeated sigh.

  Trust me, kid. “Go!”

  Lucas watched as Nick dove off the starting block and began kicking his legs furiously as he made his way across the pool. He reached the halfway point in just four or five strokes.

  Lucas checked the digital display on his stopwatch and smiled to himself. They were making progress already.

  He looked up when he felt someone give his arm a playful jab.

  Kayla smiled at him. “Wow. Are you getting soft in your old age? This helping-kids thing is new for you.”

  “He’s just one kid.” Lucas held up a pointer finger. “Just one time.”

  He told her about Jenna and the fence at the beach house because he didn’t need her getting any crazy ideas. Lucas wasn’t the official camp swim coach all of a sudden, nor was he getting soft. And he definitely wasn’t going to be spouting off any more dad jokes. Nick’s mom barely tolerated his existence. Helping the kid was truly no big deal.

  “That’s what you think, easy-breezy, right?” She arched an eyebrow.

  Exactly, Lucas thought. Easy-breezy. He’d help the kid get his time fast enough to make the swim team, and then he’d go back to worrying about no one but himself. Nick would be long gone in a month, anyway.

  So would Jenna.

  Kayla shook her head. “Let me tell ya, once they go in for the hug it’s all over. Next thing you know, you’re wearing mouse ears at Disneyland because you couldn’t bear to say no.”

  He let out a laugh. She couldn’t be more off base. He was coaching Nick, not hugging him. There’d be no Disneyland, and definitely no mouse ears.

  “Are you done?” he asked.

  “Maybe.” She shrugged, but the sparkle of amusement in her eyes told him she wasn’t finished teasing him about his sudden interest in his temporary neighbors. Not by a long shot.

  Someone needed to remember who was the boss around here. He ruffled her hair like he would an annoying little sister.

  “Stop it!” She retaliated with a punch to his stomach. “Stop!”

  He held up his hands in surrender and she darted around him to catch up with the campers who were headed toward the picnic area for snack time.

  He’d figured Kayla would have something to say when she found out he was helping Nick. Considering how reluctant Lucas had always been to get involved with the campers, he’d gotten off pretty easy. But he had a feeling he hadn’t heard the last of it.

  Super.

  He couldn’t worry about Kayla or her ridiculous mouse ear references now. He needed to check Nick’s freestyle stroke before Jenna showed up, but when he turned back toward the water, there she was.

  She was standing on the other side of the pool with her sunglasses in her hand, frozen in place with the strangest look on her face. The second he met her gaze, she looked away.

  Relief coursed through Lucas. If she’d realized he was there for Nick, she might be angry about it. Besides, she’d gone too wide-eyed to be mad. If Lucas hadn’t known better, he would have thought she was…jealous.

  No. He frowned. Impossible.

  Jenna’s gaze flicked toward Kayla and then back at him. The flush in her cheeks deepened a shade and she shoved her sunglasses back in place.

  Maybe not so impossible, after all.

  Living at the beach full-time for the past five years had taught Lucas a thing or two about island life. Contrary to whatever Jenna Turner liked to believe, not all of those things involved lying around in a hammock or annoying his neighbors. Case in point: he’d become an expert at constructing beach bonfires.

  He was kind of famous for it, actually. All the year-round Tybee residents looked forward to his casual campfire nights, which he held once a month or so during the summer. He’d build a big fire, then toss a few blankets, beach chairs and extra logs around, and whoever showed up was welcome. Lucas usually strummed his guitar for a bit. Sometimes, old Sam from the fish joint down at the pier would tell stories about ghost ships and the pirates who roamed the high seas of the Georgia coast. According to Tybee lore, Blackbeard’s treasure was buried somewhere on the island.

  Lucas had his doubts. Tank had done enough digging at the beach that he probably would have come across it at one point or another. Of course now that Lucas actually needed a three-foot wide hole on the shore, Tank was too busy gnawing on a driftwood stick to contribute.

  “You can pitch in any time now,” Lucas said as he heaved another shovelful of fine white sand over his shoulder.

  Tank’s tail wagged at the sound of Lucas’s voice, but he didn’t bother looking up from the wedge of driftwood.

  “It’s okay, bud. I forgive you.” After all, Tank was his best friend. And besides, Lucas wasn’t the type of man to come between a dog and his stick.

  He speared his shovel into the sand again. The secret to a great beach bonfire was digging the perfect pit. It had to be far enough away from the water line to survive high tide, and it had to be deep enough to protect the flames from the wind. Lucas also liked to dig down far enough so that the bottom of his pit was always lined with damp, heavy sand, which prevented the fire from spreading. Safety first.

  He was still moving dry sand as fine as powder, so he knew he still had a ways to go, when all of a sudden Jenna’s kids appeared. They hovered near the outer ring of the pit, peering into it. Each of them held a colorful beach pail—Ally’s was a bright, sunny yellow and Nick’s was blue.

  Lucas had a feeling he knew what was coming next.

  “Wow, that’s a big hole.” Ally’s eyes went wide. She plucked a plastic shovel out of the bucket in her hand. “Do you want some help?”

  Bingo.

  “Sure. The more, the merrier.” Granted, the tiny shovels they had looked about as effective as digging with teaspoons, but every little bit helped.

  Ally dropped to her knees and got to work, peppering Tank with a constant stream of chatter as she hauled sand out of the hole, two or three grains at a time. The dog’s attention stayed focused on his stick, but his tail swept back and forth, moving more sand around than either of the kids’ plastic tools managed to accomplish.

  Nick sighed and cast a longing glance at Lucas’s aluminum scoop shovel. “Can I borrow yours?”

  “No, you may not,” someone said.

  The voice came from somewhere behind Lucas, and he was so certain who it belonged to that he would have wagered Tank’s stick on it.

  “Mom.” Nick swallowed. “Hi.”

  Lucas turned around to find her standing in her pretty emerald-hued swimsuit—the one that reminded him so much of a mermaid, even without the sandy tail—with her arms full of more beach toys.

  “I’m so sorry. They told me they wanted to come out here and build a sandcastle. Clearly that was just a ruse to help you with…” Her brow furrowed as she inspected the fire pit. “…whatever this is.”

  “It’s a fire pit,” he said.

  “A fire pit?” she echoed.

  “Cool!” Nick beamed while Ally ignored all of them and kept talking to Tank. She’d abandoned her shovel in favor of picking the sand out of his fur while he gnawed away at his driftwood.

  “Yes.” Lucas shrugged. “I’m having a bonfire tonight.”

  He could’ve left it at that. But somewhere in the back of his head he was still thinking about the look on her face when she’d seen him messing around with Kayla at the pool earlier.

  Who was he kidding? It wasn’t in the back of his head at all. It had been right at the forefront of his mind, the starring attraction of his thoughts the entire time he’d been digging the hole.

  “You should come,” he heard himself say.

/>   She blinked. “I, um…”

  Her gaze flitted to Nick, then Ally.

  “All of you,” Lucas clarified.

  “Yessss.” Nick let loose with a fist pump.

  “I don’t know.” Jenna gnawed at her bottom lip. “We wouldn’t want to impose.”

  “It’s no imposition. It’s just a bonfire.” It was a spur of the moment invitation, so it shouldn’t matter whether or not she said yes. But Lucas hoped she did. He hoped more than he wanted to admit.

  At long last, Tank looked up from his stick. His scruffy head swiveled back and forth from Lucas to Jenna as if he was as invested in her answer as Lucas had somehow become.

  She was going to say no. He could feel it.

  “Mom, please,” Nick begged.

  “Yeah, Mom. It’ll be fun.” Ally pointed at the pit. “We already helped dig the hole.”

  That was debatable.

  Lucas scrubbed his hand over his mouth to disguise his smirk and also to prevent himself from issuing another ill-conceived invitation. Like maybe even a date.

  “Maybe.” Jenna attempted a nonchalant shrug. Her constant state of anxiety was beginning to fascinate him for some strange reason. He wondered what it would take to make her throw her head back and laugh out loud.

  He couldn’t picture it, but he knew without a doubt it would be a breathtaking sight.

  Nick and Ally sighed audibly. “Maybe?”

  “Good. I’ll see you later, then.” Lucas turned his attention back to digging. He knew better than to press his luck. “Maybe.”

  Jenna’s maybe had been mom code for no, absolutely not. Unfortunately, Ally and Nick hadn’t caught on.

  They were relentless. The bonfire was all they talked about over dinner, and the more they pressed, the more Jenna began to realize that she didn’t have a legitimate reason for turning down Lucas’s invitation.

  Not a reason she felt comfortable sharing with Nick and Ally, anyway.

  She was still reeling from the strange pang she’d felt earlier at the pool as she’d watched Lucas laughing and joking around with the camp counselor. The sight had caught her completely off guard—so off guard that she hadn’t bothered to wonder why Lucas was at the pool in the first place. She’d been far too busy trying to figure out why the idea that he and Kayla might be a couple bothered her.

  Because it did. It bothered her a lot. If she didn’t know better, she might even believe she was jealous.

  Nope. She rummaged through one of the kitchen cabinets while Ally and Nick cleared the table. Definitely not jealous.

  The very idea was absurd. Why should she care if Lucas and Kayla were a couple?

  Were they a couple?

  It didn’t matter. She wasn’t interested in Lucas, and just to prove it to herself, she was going to relent and take Ally and Nick to his bonfire.

  Aha! She finally located the bag of jumbo marshmallows she’d brought to the beach in anticipation of s’mores. It was tucked behind the pancake mix and Ally’s big container of chocolate chips.

  Jenna plucked the bag from the cabinet and held it up in the air. “Okay, who’s ready for a bonfire?”

  “You mean we’re really going?” In his excitement, Nick nearly dropped the stack of plates he was carrying to the sink.

  “Sure,” Jenna said, trying her best to sound nonchalant. “Why not?”

  Ally and Nick exchanged a meaningful glance.

  Great. They definitely thought she didn’t like him, even after she’d done her best to convince Ally otherwise when she’d made her “criminal” comment on the beach the other day. Going to the bonfire was definitely the right call.

  “Why don’t you two grab your sweatshirts while I finish cleaning up and then we’ll head down?” Jenna rinsed the plates and stacked them in the dishwasher while the kids raced upstairs to get ready.

  A cool breeze had blown in with the tide and the moon glittered high in the sky, reigning over the shore, making the night seem as dark and smooth as velvet. The kids were snug in their sweatshirts. Jenna threw on a cardigan, but a shiver still coursed through her as they made their way over the dune. The beach seemed like such a different place at night. Quiet. Intimate.

  Lucas’s bonfire was a shimmer of orange on the horizon, and as they drew closer, Jenna heard the soft strum of music. It wasn’t until she and the kids had reached the circle of beach chairs around the fire pit that she realized Lucas was the source of the soothing melody.

  He smiled at her from across the flames as he strummed an acoustic guitar. Tank sat at Lucas’s feet with his head cocked at a jaunty angle, one ear up and one ear down. They couldn’t have looked more darling together if they’d tried.

  Jenna glanced around. A teenager with red hair parted into two braids sat immediately to his left, and on Lucas’s other side, a guy wearing a tank top sipped a bottle of beer. There were easily two dozen people around the fire, some on blankets, others standing and swaying to the music.

  Standing there in her jeans and her mom-cardigan, Jenna suddenly felt a hundred years old. What was she doing there?

  Proving you don’t care who Lucas McKinnon dates, remember?

  “I don’t think we have enough marshmallows for everyone,” Ally said, glancing down at the plastic bag in her hands.

  “I actually don’t think there’s enough room for us, sweetie,” Jenna said, wanting nothing more than to bolt back to the beach house.

  “Sure there is,” Nick countered, waving at Lucas.

  Lucas waved back. “Hey, you guys want to squeeze in?”

  Ally and Nick answered simultaneously. “Yeah!”

  Before she could stop them, they sprinted toward the group of people around the fire.

  Jenna stayed rooted in place. Her cheeks grew warm, which she blamed on the heat of the fire. It definitely wasn’t because Lucas was looking at her.

  She swallowed. “It looks like you’re having a party. We can just come back.”

  “Trust me, you’d know if we were having a party.” Lucas nodded at the guy beside him, motioning for him to make room on the log that served as a bench. “Scoot over.”

  He moved to one of the blankets on the sand, and the young woman with the red braids did the same. Nick and Ally plopped down on either side of Lucas as if they belonged there…as if Lucas wanted them close by. Warmth filled Jenna’s chest.

  “Who wants marshmallows?” Ally raised the bag in the air, and all around the bonfire hands went up.

  “See.” Lucas caught Jenna’s gaze and cast a meaningful glance at the log beside Ally. “Plenty of room.”

  Jenna took a deep breath. “Yeah.”

  It no longer mattered whether she felt out of place or not. She couldn’t very well flee and leave her kids behind.

  She sat down. While the fire warmed her face, Lucas put down his guitar and helped Ally spear marshmallows onto long metal skewers. Nick jumped up, volunteering to pass them around. By the time Jenna bit into a soft, warm marshmallow, she’d actually begun to enjoy herself.

  A cozy hush fell over the group, and soon the only sounds that could be heard were the crackling fire and the lullaby of waves crashing onto the shore.

  This is nice. Jenna couldn’t remember the last time she’d experienced a campfire. Maybe when she’d been Ally’s age? Had it really been that long?

  Even Tank seemed charmed by the tranquil atmosphere. He gave up on begging for marshmallows to stretch out on a red buffalo-checked blanket near the warm glow of the flames. Within seconds, his little doggy chest rose and fell with the gentle rhythm of sleep.

  Ally peered at him as she roasted a marshmallow over the fire. “Can I wake him up?”

  Lucas aimed a meaningful glance at Tank. “Do you see how his eyelids are fluttering? That means he’s about reached his REM cycle.”

  Ally’s face went
blank. “His what?”

  Jenna figured she should probably save Lucas from having to explain the stages of the sleep cycle. “Ally, honey. Why don’t we leave Mr. Tank alone?”

  “But Daddy said I could get a dog,” she protested.

  “I’m sure he did, honey. But a dog share might be a little tough right now. We’ve talked about this.” Jenna loved being a mom, but it wasn’t the easiest thing in the world, especially since the divorce.

  She’d never seen it coming. She’d always assumed that her marriage was solid…happy. Granted, her dreams of being a novelist had sort of taken a backseat during the relationship. When she’d finally decided to pursue writing fiction, Robert hadn’t hesitated to tell her she was wasting her time. But she’d assumed those instances had just been growing pains. Besides, she loved being an author just as much as she loved being a mom.

  A wife.

  In retrospect she realized she and Robert were better off as friends, but at the time, she’d been stunned to learn he wanted out. And now, deep down, she knew that part of the reason she liked to keep her household so organized was because it made her feel like she was in complete control, like she’d never be blindsided by anything ever again.

  Life wasn’t so simple, though. Still, she wasn’t sure she was up to the challenge of adding a dog to the mix.

  Ally sighed. “Can’t you just change your mind?”

  “She doesn’t do that,” Nick said.

  Jenna was appalled. Did her kids really think she was that inflexible?

  She liked to keep her word. Isn’t that what she was supposed to do as a parent? She wanted to create a stable and safe home for her kids, but Nick and Ally were making her sound rigid and overly strict in front of half the population of Tybee. In front of Lucas.

  His face was a complete blank as he stared into the fire, no doubt ruminating again on how much she needed to relax.

  She wished a wave would crash onto the shore and sweep her away.

  “How about this?” Lucas turned toward Ally. Jenna dreaded whatever was about to come out of his mouth. “How about you take Tank for a walk tomorrow morning. Would you like that?”