A memory of Miranda wandering the beach searching for hatchlings flashed in Cara’s mind. But Flo seemed just fine. Older, yes. But Alzheimer’s or dementia? No.
“That sounds like a good idea. Hope loves the outdoors.”
As predicted, Hope quieted the moment the breeze kissed her skin. She lifted her face and smiled widely. Cara slathered her with sunblock, put on her sun hat, and buckled her into her stroller.
“Have a nice time. Not far, though,” she added.
“Get some work done,” Flo shot back.
Cara laughed and crossed her arms as she stood at the end of the driveway and watched Flo and Hope meander away at a leisurely pace. Then, checking her watch, she hurried back to her office.
MORE THAN AN hour later, Cara’s last phone appointment was finished. She set the phone on the desk and cocked her head to listen. The house was strangely quiet. Only Moutarde’s occasional peep broke the silence.
Cara furrowed her brow. It didn’t take an hour to walk around the block. She got up and walked to Hope’s bedroom, thinking Hope might be napping. No one was there. Walking faster, she went out to look across the deck, then farther out onto the beach. She saw no one. Her heart began beating a little faster as she went out the front door, grabbing her phone en route. First she went to Flo’s house, but no one was there. Picking up speed, Cara power-walked around the block, craning her neck. It was a beautiful spring day on the island. The sky was a peerless blue and dotted with white clouds. Birds chattered in the trees, and an occasional wind ruffled her hair, the kind of soft breeze Hope loved.
Her thoughts raced faster than her steps. Where are they? Was I wrong to let Flo babysit? Could she be lost in her own neighborhood? She’s lived here for eighty years! She was almost running by the time she turned the final corner toward Flo’s house and caught sight of a woman and a stroller in the distance.
Relief flooded her as she hurried toward them, trying to catch her breath. Flo was leisurely smiling under her turtle team ball cap, and Hope was blissfully asleep in the shade of the canopy.
“Hey there,” Flo said as she drew closer. “Beautiful day, isn’t it?”
Cara’s mouth was dry. “Where were you?”
Flo straightened, and her face registered Cara’s sharp tone. “I was walking the baby, like you asked.”
“For so long? I said a short walk.”
“Well, we made a stop at the beach.”
“You took her to the beach?”
“Whyever not? She loves it! In fact, the only time she squawked was when I lifted her up to put her back in the stroller.” Flo smiled. “You should’ve seen her. At first, she wasn’t sure what this sand was, scrunching it up in her hand. Then she tried to eat it, of course. Thank heavens I was quick enough. She loved grabbing handfuls of sand and letting it slide through her fingers. Spent at least fifteen minutes doing just that.” She chuckled softly. “This child’s a lowcountry baby, that’s for sure and certain.”
Cara was taken aback. Hope loved the beach? She wished she had been there to share her first visit. Why hadn’t she taken her? What had been more important?
“I’ve been so focused on getting the house settled, I didn’t get to the beach yet.”
“Honey, take it from me. Life’s too short to only do work. From the moment of birth, babies are poised for leaving. Before you know it, this little tyke will be grown and packing up to go to college or move to some other state, and you’ll only have your memories to hold close.”
Cara was quieted by the advice. “I don’t really have a lot of choice in the matter. I have to earn a living.”
“Of course you do. You’ll find a way. Most mothers do. But really, Cara, what did you come here for if you don’t go to the beach?”
Cara couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re right, of course.”
“I know it,” Flo said with a smug smile. She gazed at the baby. “I gave her a bottle, and she fell asleep lickety-split. Look at her,” she said with warmth. “As content as a cat with a belly full of cream.”
Cara looked down at her daughter. Hope’s long lashes rested against her full cheeks, pinkened slightly by the sun. With her dark hair and rosy lips, she looked like a tiny, perfect Snow White.
“You know,” Flo said, looking up again at Cara, “it struck me several times how much Hope looks like you.”
Cara was surprised by this. Delighted. “Like me?” When she looked at the baby, all she saw was glimpses of Elena.
“With her dark hair and eyes. For sure. And she sure loves you. Even when she was having the best time, she’d look for you and ask, ‘Mama?’ ”
“You can’t know how much it means to me to hear that.”
Flo’s eyes glittered. “Did you get your work done?”
It was just like her to deflect emotion. “I did. Thanks to you. Really, you’re a lifesaver.”
“Happy to do it. Hope’s a real charmer.”
Cara took a deep breath and asked, “So, are you free again tomorrow?”
“Aw, honey, this was more exercise than I’ve had in months!”
“You wouldn’t have to walk her every day.”
Flo slowly shook her head. “I’m not strong enough—or fast enough anymore. Sure, I could help you out in an emergency, but for every day you need someone who has the energy to play with her. Someone young who likes children.”
Cara sighed. “Do you know anyone like that?”
“Not anymore. I used to when I did social work. That’s how I found Toy for your mother. But I’ve been out of the system for too long. Don’t worry. You’ll find someone.” Flo began pushing the stroller up the driveway. “For now, though, she’s asleep, and I’m still here. Run and get some more work done. Oh . . .” She turned back. “Don’t forget the party tomorrow night.”
“Of course. What should I bring?”
“The guest of honor, of course. Hope!”
Chapter Five
Under the cloak of night, the loggerhead drags her three-hundred-pound carapace in a tank-like crawl across the beach to the dunes. It is a long, perilous journey for her. She leaves deep, unmistakable tracks in the sand as she plows forward to fulfill her destiny.
WHEN CARA SAW the pink balloons fluttering in the air, tied to the iron gate of Emmi’s house, she felt her heart swell. She really and truly was being welcomed home with her daughter.
Although Emmi’s house was just beyond her driveway, Cara packed like she was going across state lines. Diapers, bottles, wipes, a change of clothes, a blanket, myriad toys. She piled baby and accoutrements in the stroller and headed for the door—then stopped short. She’d forgotten the wine. Cara didn’t have food to share—she hated to cook—but she could always be counted on for a good bottle of red.
The night air held that perfect blend of warmth without humidity that she called island balmy. Though it was six o’clock, the sun was still high in the June sky. Hope had been napping, so she was running late for the party. She plowed the stroller through the crushed-shell driveway she’d just had put down. When she crossed into Emmi’s front garden, she heard the laughter of children coming from the street. Turning, she spotted Toy, sporty in a pink summer top and denim short shorts that showed off her tanned legs, walking up the driveway with her two children. Her left shoulder sagged with the weight of the bag she was toting. Her blond hair was long now and pulled back in a ponytail that made her look even younger than her thirty years.
Then there was Little Lovie. Cara’s heart flipped, and her lips automatically turned up at the sight of the child she’d watched grow from infancy. Her goddaughter had sprouted from a chubby-faced girl into a coltish, beguiling thirteen-year-old with the same smattering of freckles across her nose and wispy blond hair as her mother. Behind her was a mischievous boy of about five who was poking at her bottom with a bird feather. Cara shook her head, smiling. She’d peg him as a Legare any day, with his lanky build and curly brown hair just like his daddy—and his being a dickens. He stoppe
d poking his sister, distracted by Flo’s garden gnome.
Toy spotted her and squealed, “There you are!” She hurried forward, tottering on her espadrilles under the weight of the bag. “Let me see that baby!” She rushed a kiss to Cara’s cheek, gingerly set down the plastic bag that held a covered dish, and, eyes gleaming, bent to look at Hope. “Oh, she’s precious!” she crooned. “She has your coloring. I’ve been dying to hold her since the moment I saw her picture.” She turned her face toward Cara. “May I?”
“Of course. If she’ll let you. She’s a bit clingy with the move and all.”
With the hands of a practiced mother, Toy had Hope unbuckled and in her arms in no time. She rocked her gently from left to right on her curvy hip. Little Lovie and Danny clustered around her, big eyes studying the baby.
“Can I hold her?” asked Little Lovie.
“Not here, honey,” Toy told her. “Maybe when we get inside where you can sit. She’s pretty heavy.”
“I can lift her,” Little Lovie assured her mother, embarrassed by the implication that she was too young.
Her spirit was what Cara loved most about Little Lovie. Her fearlessness and belief in herself. She was a born naturalist who loved bugs, sea turtles, dogs, chickens—any critter, really—more than dolls or jewelry. Brett had taken a special liking to her and treated her as the child he’d never had. Maybe because he was the one who’d found Toy during the worst of Hurricane Brendan and got her to the hospital for Little Lovie’s birth. Her knight in shining armor; there’d been a special bond between them.
Ethan came walking up the drive, the muscles in his forearms straining under the weight of a big blue cooler. Cara felt the chill of a ghost run down her spine. With his brown hair salt-stiffed and sun-kissed and his chambray shirttail hanging out over his frayed khaki shorts, he looked so much like Brett at that age. She flashed back to a Fourth of July party well over a decade earlier. It was the summer she’d fallen in love with Brett. He’d walked up this same driveway, larger than life, his eyes the color of the sky, carrying a cooler full of crabs, just like Ethan now.
She felt the quick stab of sadness she always did when something brought Brett to mind. But those pangs were less frequent now and the pain less sharp. She didn’t have time to wallow. Ethan spied them standing there and, grinning, set the cooler down with a thunk.
“They’re real beauties,” he said proudly, lifting the lid. The cooler was filled to the top with ice and shrimp in the shell. He reached in and grabbed a handful of long white bodies, which hung from his fist by their long whiskers. His grin widened. “Take a look!”
“They’re huge!” Cara exclaimed.
“Yep. Right off the boat. I’ll pop the heads and cook ’em up. I hope y’all are hungry.”
The children were dancing on the balls of their feet, and Danny reached out to touch the shrimp.
“Not yet, Danny,” Ethan said, putting the shrimp back in the cooler.
“But I want to help,” he whined with a defeated slump.
“Well, come on then,” Ethan said, flipping the lid shut. He bent and lifted the heavy load with a grunt. He leaned forward for a perfunctory kiss from Toy, then walked off, preceded by his children, who clamored to open the door for him.
Cara heard laughter emanating from inside. “We might be the last to arrive,” she said. Turning, she saw Toy’s gaze following her family.
“You’re happy,” Cara said as a matter of observation. She was smiling. It felt good to see her friends happy and doing so well.
“Very.” Toy kissed the top of Hope’s head and began gently rocking her once again. “And it’s nice to see you happy again too.”
“I’m getting there.”
Toy studied her face, then said, “I can tell. You look good. I don’t mind saying we were all worried about you. You got too thin. By the way, I love your haircut.”
Cara’s hand automatically went to her hair. “Do you?”
“I do. Really. It’s very cool. Young.”
Cara smiled. “I need some cool in my life now.”
Toy looked away, and Cara sensed a shift in her mood. When Toy met her gaze again, Cara caught the worry shining in her blue eyes. “What?”
“I’m pregnant.”
“Congratulations! How wonderful!”
Toy took a breath. “It’s a surprise, I’ll tell you.”
“But a happy one, right?” When Toy didn’t respond, Cara said, “Or is it?”
“Not a problem,” Toy said hesitatingly. “It’s just . . .” She rocked the baby a bit more vigorously. “I’ve just been offered a big promotion at the aquarium.”
“Well, congratulations again!”
Toy took the praise in stride. “It’ll mean I’m no longer director of the sea turtle hospital,” she explained.
“Oh.” Toy was passionate about sea turtles, loggerheads in particular. “Are you comfortable with that change?”
“I have to be. I’ll still be involved with turtles, of course, but I’ll branch out to other areas. Education, sustainable seafood, plastics in the ocean, climate change. All important areas I can dig my teeth into.”
Cara thought the job sounded challenging. Something she wouldn’t mind doing herself. “What’s the job title?”
“Conservation director. It’s a newly created position. They said they had me in mind when they designed it,” she added with a faint blush of pride. “Because education is a major component, I’ll go out to the community to speak a lot. Which means a lot of travel and late hours. That’s going to be hard to do with a family.”
“It’s a lot to juggle.”
Toy took a breath. “Right. I don’t know if—” She stopped when the front door opened.
Flo stuck her head out. “What y’all doing out there? Stop yakking and come in. Folks are waitin’ to see the guest of honor! And by that, I mean that baby!”
“Be right there,” Cara called back. Flo waved in acknowledgment. When the door closed again, she turned back to Toy. “You were saying?”
Toy kicked a pebble. “We can talk later.”
“Let’s talk now. It’s important. You don’t know if . . .” she led.
“I don’t know if I can do all that with a new baby.” She shook her head with a shrug. “Who am I kidding? I know I won’t be able to do it.”
“But you’ve been trying to have another baby for years.”
“We stopped trying last year. Then, bingo.” She laughed. “Wouldn’t you know it?”
Cara felt a pang at the irony. “When Brett and I stopped trying, I used to pray I’d miraculously get pregnant like that. You hear those stories.” She laughed shortly. “And the miracle happened to you.” She reached out to touch her arm. “And it is a miracle.”
Toy bumped her shoulder gently against Cara’s. “You got your miracle too.”
Cara smoothed Hope’s hair. “I did.”
Cara had been Toy’s mentor, an older sister, even a surrogate mother after Lovie died. She’d been the one to dispense advice. But now they seemed more like equals. The twenty-year age difference melted away. In fact, Cara felt she was the one who needed advice from Toy.
“I understand, I really do,” Cara said. “I’m trying to figure out how to work at home and make a living with a baby too. At least you have Ethan.”
“And he’s been great,” Toy was quick to say.
“He’s happy about the pregnancy?”
“Over the moon.”
Cara smiled. Of course he was happy. Ethan came from a large, boisterous family and made it no secret he wanted more children. He’d adopted Little Lovie without a second thought and loved her like his own.
“Well, then,” Cara said with undisguised relief. “I’d say you had your answer. You’ll have to do what women have done for centuries. Make it work.”
Toy snorted and handed Hope back to Cara. “Thanks. Spoken like a woman who’s been a mother for, what, six months?”
Cara laughed. “Five, but who�
�s counting?” The front door opened, and Emmi appeared in a pink apron. Her red hair was piled atop her head in a bun and she waved her pink-tipped fingers in the air.
“What’s taking you two so long?”
“Lucy, I’m home!” Cara called out, and Toy barked out a laugh.
“Ha-ha,” said Emmi. “Now get your butts in here. The party’s waiting for you!”
Cara walked into a home that had been transformed by fairy lights and pink crepe paper. A side table draped in a white tablecloth with pink polka dots held a large tiered cake decked with pink and lavender flowers, surrounded by champagne flutes. The next table was covered with gifts.
“Oh my. They went all out,” Toy said with wonder.
“I didn’t expect all this!” Cara exclaimed and suddenly felt sheepish for being late.
Toy went directly to the dining room table to add her covered dish to the groaning weight of platters and bowls. Drawing near, Cara saw the requisite pimento cheese sandwiches and deviled eggs, red rice and beans, pickled okra, a selection of salads, and fried chicken. A large wooden serving platter in the center of the table waited, she knew, for the steamed shrimp.
On cue, the kitchen door swung open and Ethan emerged with the steaming pot of shrimp, guests filing in behind him. Exclamations of welcome echoed throughout the room. Cara smelled the sweet scent of shellfish and Old Bay seasoning, heard the laughter, and felt herself light up with happiness. Immediately she was surrounded by such love—her brother Palmer and sister-in-law Julia, along with Linnea and Cooper. Heather and Bo Stanton were back in town with their new towheaded son, whom she’d yet to meet; he looked to be close in age to Hope. Finally, there were Flo and Emmi. Her nearest and dearest, her family. They’d been there for her through the good times and the bad. She’d loved them all before, but now, alone with a baby, she treasured them. Through a veil of tears, Cara felt humbled with gratitude.
With the huge influx of attention, Hope began to cry. Emmi rushed forward to scoop her up, cooing softly, and someone handed Cara a glass of the champagne.
The party was under way.
Beach House Reunion Page 6