Summer by the Sea

by Cathryn Parry

  Sarah swallowed. An important part of her told her to join them, because she so longed to be part of their little family. Both Sam and Lucy would welcome her. All she had to do was walk over. All she had to do was show up, and they would accept her...

  It was why she’d gone East to begin with. That was the truth that resonated inside her. Sarah had wanted Cassandra to accept her, her only family. But nothing had turned out the way Sarah expected. She’d found a new family, instead. A man and his daughter who’d made room for her in their hearts.

  Knowing in her bones who she was and what she wanted, Sarah strode over to them without hesitation. Her heels clicked on the linoleum floor, and Sam lifted his head. His eyes brightened and he instinctively touched her hip when she came alongside him. “Are you feeling better?”

  “Yes. I took a few moments just to breathe. It helped immensely.”

  “That’s great.” He pulled over a chair.

  “And how are you?” she asked Lucy, seating herself beside him so they formed a tight circle.

  “I’m just not sure. I’m really sorry.” A tear rolled down Lucy’s cheek. She hugged her bear harder.

  “I suggested she give it a chance, take a bit more of the tour, but Lucy is adamant. She doesn’t want to go to school here,” Sam said quietly. “I’m telling her that you and I can help her find her another school that will be a better fit for now, and that maybe in a year or two, she can visit this place again and see if she feels any differently about it.”

  “That sounds like a wise plan. What do you think, Lucy?”

  The girl nodded, her gaze cast downward.

  Sam appealed to Sarah. “You must know some other, smaller schools nearby that we can look at?”

  Her heart beat like a drum. “In California? You still want the three of us to stay in California?”

  Sam seemed surprised. “I told you, we stay together.” He took Sarah’s hands. “There’s no splitting up. We make something work for all of us, or it’s a no-go.”

  Sarah felt boneless with relief. “Really?” she squeaked.

  “Yes.” Sam eyed her. “Why are you so surprised?”

  The corners of Sarah’s eyes prickled with feeling. “Because I just... I never thought...”

  Sam chuckled. “You know what I think, Luce? I think I really need to take Sarah engagement-ring shopping because that’s the best way I can think of to get this through her head.”

  He leaned over and murmured in her ear. “In case I didn’t tell you, you’re the one person I most want to see, along with Lucy, when I walk into a room. You’re the person I most want to talk to at the end of the day. No one, no one, makes my day better than you do.”

  Sarah couldn’t speak. Beside her, Lucy had both hands over her mouth and was bouncing in her seat.

  “Are you happy about that?” Sarah had to ask her.

  “Oh, yes!”

  “We stay together,” Sam said. “If you’re here, Sarah, then I’m here. There’s nothing you can do to make me leave. And besides...” He grinned. “Maybe I can convince you to take your business remotely in the summers, and we can live together on Wallis Point beach.”

  The tears were rolling down Sarah’s cheeks. And the more she lost her composure, the more Lucy did, too.

  “Hey,” Sam said. “Are my suggestions really that bad that you both have to cry? I don’t think so.”

  He was the best guy ever. That was the problem. Sarah couldn’t resist him.

  “I know of a school for Lucy,” Sarah said, wiping her eyes, thinking back to the academy in New Hampshire she’d impulsively stopped by earlier in the week. “It’s small and pretty, and it overlooks the ocean. But what Lucy might like most is that it specializes in smaller, more inquisitive classes.”

  Both Sam and Lucy were gazing at her with interest.

  “There are computer coding classes, yes,” she continued, “but there are other courses available, too, so it’s not so intense and focused on tech. Lucy could read literature and follow her other interests. I know, because I saw this school.”

  “I’d like that.” Her cheeks suddenly red, Lucy tucked the teddy bear back into her knapsack.

  “Okay,” Sam said, nodding as well. “Why don’t we go ahead and schedule a tour of this place? How far away from your house is it?”

  “Three thousand miles.”

  He looked confused. “What are you talking about, Sarah?”

  “It’s on the coast road from Wallis Point to Maine. I passed it during those two days we weren’t speaking. Those two days when I was meditating.”

  “No.” Sam shook his head. “If we do that, then we’ll be separated. And we all know you can’t run your company remotely for the long-term. For the summer, yes. If you leave California all year, then you would, in effect, be giving it up.”

  “Yes,” she said calmly. “I understand the sacrifice.”

  “But that’s too important. Your company makes you happy.”

  It had. But Sam and Lucy made her happier. “I’ll give it up if that’s what it takes to give Lucy what she needs.”

  They both stared at her, astonished. Sam, in particular. He knew what she was sacrificing.

  “Your company,” he said in a low voice. It was Sarah’s baby. He knew this.

  Really, it would be okay. She had woken up from her meditation realizing that wherever she lived, she could handle it. Whether she stayed here with her company, or was in Wallis Point growing a new company in one of the tech incubators near Boston or on the coast nearby, then she had the strength inside her to bloom wherever she was planted.

  “Do you remember that vision I had, Sam?” she suddenly remembered, feeling even stronger now. Feeling more certain that what she was doing was right. “I think it’s meant to be. It’s time for me to start a new business—this one on the East Coast. Something completely different.”

  His lips parted. He obviously remembered the vision he’d guided her through that day in the sand. He knew that what she was giving up, and what she would replace it with, came from her heart.

  “I love you, Sam,” she said. “And I’m a woman of substance, so you can believe me when I tell you that I know exactly what I want.”

  EPILOGUE

  One year later

  Wallis Point Beach

  SHE’D PLANNED THE perfect wedding.

  Sarah stood on Sam’s deck at dusk. The breeze drifted in from the ocean and lifted the edges of her white lace wedding dress. The scent of white roses and daisies from her bridal bouquet made her feel especially beautiful. Beside her, Lucy, her attendant, watched over the gathering crowd on the beach, most of them settling into white folding chairs on either side of a central aisle also decorated with white roses and daisies.

  “It’s almost time, Sarah,” Lucy said.

  “In a moment,” she murmured. She enjoyed watching Sam, even from afar. He wore a smile that hadn’t left his handsome face for weeks and weeks. Tall and athletic, dressed in a black tux, he stood above the crowd as he waited for her with the reverend. Duke stood beside him, serving as best man.

  “We’re all getting a happy ending,” Lucy said dreamily.

  Sarah smiled at the girl beside her. “Yes, we really are.” Lucy was happy in her new school. She’d just finished her first year—and launched her first app. Richard Lee, surprisingly, had been mentoring Lucy even from afar. Sarah’s own startup was giving her personal satisfaction, even if sometimes she still spent too many hours absorbed in the intricacies of getting it off the ground. The thrill of starting over was something she was particularly enjoying, and Sam got a kick out of helping her in the business wherever he could.

  Sam...her almost husband.

  She smiled dreamily to herself as Lucy checked Sarah’s sprayed-into-place hairstyle one more time.

  “We’re all set. And I think
everybody is here now,” Lucy remarked.

  Sarah gazed out over the seating. Sam’s brother, Michael, and his family sat beside Sam’s parents, who Sam was making more of an effort to patch things up with these days. His colleagues and friends were interspersed in the rows behind them.

  As for Sarah’s people...there weren’t as many of them. Sarah frowned, the one pang of sadness that still pierced her, even on her wedding day. She and Cassandra were still working through old wounds.

  Colleen, too, wasn’t present—she’d signed on for another season of Alaskan cruise ship gigs, and was quite happy with both Ringo and her job. She visited Lucy between sailings. And last winter, over Christmas, Colleen and Sam had hammered out a shared custody agreement. Lucy was pleased. She was especially happy that her parents’ relationship was much improved.

  “I have Sam,” Sarah murmured to herself. “And Lucy. I’m quite lucky, and I know it.”

  “What’s that?” Lucy asked, fussing with the train on Sarah’s dress again.

  “Nothing.” She smiled at the girl. “I’m ready. Although I’m still one minute early.”

  “Wait!” Lucy straightened. “Look! It’s Natalie’s family. And Cassandra is with them!”

  The group of five had evidently just parked and were now hurrying down the sandy lane between the two homes. Natalie looked pretty in a pale-blue dress, and her handsome navy-recruiter husband hustled along with their toddler, James, on his shoulders.

  Lucy waved to their daughter, Hannah, who was seven. Lucy had done a bit of babysitting for the family, and they’d all grown quite close.

  Natalie stepped over to the edge of the porch and waved in greeting. “Sarah, you look beautiful!”

  “Thank you. And thank you for coming.” She waved to Cassandra, who waved gamely back. She and Cassandra might never have a very close relationship, but they were finding their way to at least being friendlier to each other.

  Sarah’s longing for a family had been fulfilled. Her new personal confidence was enhanced by how secure she felt in the family she was creating with Sam and Lucy.

  As Cassandra came closer, she reached over to clasp Sarah’s hand. “You look beautiful, Sarah.” Then she smiled and patted Lucy’s hand. “But we should all get going!”

  With a lump in her throat, Sarah lingered for one last moment, gazing out over her new family and friends.

  “Now?” asked Lucy, glancing at her phone. Then she turned the ringer off and tucked it carefully inside her rose-colored bridesmaid’s purse.

  “Now,” Sarah said, happiness filling her heart, as she focused down the beach on Sam, who had lifted up his hand and was waving to her.

  “He’s calling us,” she said to Lucy, who took Sarah’s hand. “I think it’s time we go get married.”

  “So do I.”

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from FIRST CAME BABY by Kris Fletcher.

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  First Came Baby

  by Kris Fletcher

  CHAPTER ONE

  KATE HEBERT HAD always prided herself on being able to multitask. But even she was amazed when she realized she was painting a wall with her right hand while cradling her five-month-old in her left arm—and that she was doing both while breastfeeding.

  “Check it out,” she said to her sister, Allie. She raised the paint roller and wiggled little Jamie. “Call me vain, but I’m feeling seriously badass at this moment.”

  Allie started laughing. “Wonder Woman has nothing on you.”

  “We should write our own comic book. Super Mom. Instead of bracelets that can deflect bullets, she would have a nursing bra that bounces insults back at rude people.”

  Allie snickered. “Didn’t Wonder Woman have a fancy lasso for making bad guys tell the truth? Maybe instead of that, Super Mom could shoot guilt trips with her eyes.” She pitched her voice slightly lower in an imitation of their mother. “You want to tell me exactly what you’re doing? And don’t bother saying it’s nothing, because I can see by the look in your eyes that it’s definitely something.”

  Kate laughed hard enough that she had to put the paint roller into the tray or risk ending up with a polka-dot floor. Probably the wisest course, since the purpose of this work was to make the place marketable, not marked up.

  “Good idea.” Allie nodded toward the dormant roller. “In fact, you should sit down for a few minutes.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “I know you are. Now. But in about two or three minutes you’re going to realize that you haven’t had anything to drink in a couple of hours, and you’re going to get suddenly and horribly overcome with thirst and exhaustion. Then I’m going to remember that I promised Mom I wouldn’t let you overdo it, and I’m going to feel guilty and run off to get you some water. And when I come back you’re going to be half-asleep in the chair. So then I’ll have to burp Jamie, which means I have to get him off your boob, which kind of grosses me out. And then, he’ll probably spit up on the clothes I have to wear until this room is done. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather bypass the drama. So. Sit.” She pointed at the ancient wingback Kate had dragged into the room. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

  Kate had a fleeting notion to argue, then decided it would be easier to go along. Because though she hated to admit it, she did feel a little thirsty. “Okay.” She lowered herself into the chair slowly, so as not to interrupt mealtime—though these days Jamie was more likely to be distracted by new sights and sounds than by movement—and settled in.

  Oh. That felt good.

  “Bring me a cheese stick, too, will you?” she called in the direction of the footsteps echoing down the stairs. Allie’s answer came not in words but in a snort of laughter that Kate easily recognized as code for told you so.

  As alone as it was possible to be with someone doing the vacuum cleaner thing at her breast, Kate closed her eyes and breathed out tension. Not that she had been working too hard. Far from it. She was still new-mama tired, but she hadn’t made it to the ripe old age of thirty without learning how to pace herself. Nor did the tightness in her shoulders have anything to do with painting. She’d been doing plenty of that over the past months as she brought Nana’s house back to life. Well, as much as she could do on her own.

  No, it wasn’t exhaustion or painting that had her wound so tight. It was the reason behind them.

  Jamie was slowing down a little, the space between his swallows growing longer. Time for a burp. She broke the suction, raised him to her
shoulder and patted his back while rocking in the chair and talking over his wails.

  “I know, I know. You don’t like to stop. But we do this every time, buddy. You might want to learn that pattern.”

  His little head smashed against her shoulder. Hard.

  “Ow! Don’t get violent, okay? You’ll get more in a minute. But then you have to give me time to really paint, because the room has to be done this afternoon. We need to get it ready for—” she lowered her voice “—for your daddy.”

  So much for relaxation.

  She patted some more, focusing on the April-fresh air coming through the window she’d cracked open, trying to soothe the anxiety that gripped her every time she thought of Boone coming home. Not that he had ever lived here, in either this house or Comeback Cove. Not that he even thought of Canada as home anymore.

  But in two days, he would be here, whether she was ready or not. And painting was the least of her worries.

  Allie bounded up the stairs, her footsteps eliciting the usual symphony of creaks and protests from the aging stairs. Jamie’s loud burp was just one more note in the song. By the time Allie sailed in, Kate had Jamie settled on the other side, leaving her free to cross her legs, sit back and gratefully accept her sister’s offerings.

  “Ooh. That’s not a cheese stick.” Kate drank deeply before tucking the bottle of water at her side and diving into the plate of cheddar, crackers and apple slices with gusto.

  “Yeah, well, I figure I’m allowed to pamper you once in a while. Though seriously, when are you going to learn to set an alarm on your phone to remind you to drink?” Allie mock scowled before grinning and gesturing toward the wall in front of her, where hints of faded wallpaper still peeked out from the first coat of robin’s-egg-blue paint. “I still don’t know if it was a good idea to paint right over this.”

  “In a perfect world, I would have scraped off all seven layers and made a fresh start. But there’s a limit. Besides, this place is so old that the wallpaper might be the only thing holding it up.”