“Better! It’s a whole bottle. And there’s a note in it! We found a message in a bottle!”
That was an even more thrilling discovery than a mere bottle stopper. The bottle Sophie held out was clear, sealed, about the size of a small ketchup bottle. He could clearly see a rolled note inside.
“I can’t believe I found a message in a bottle. I’ve always wanted to! What do you think it says?”
“I think you’ll have to open it to find out,” Eleanor said. “Can you get it out?”
“I think so.”
Sophie twisted off the stopper of the bottle. Her fingers were too large to fit inside but she shook the bottle and the rolled message came out just enough for her to grasp with her thumb and forefinger.
Sophie’s eyes were wide, her color flushed. If he had known she would get this excited about a message in a bottle, he might have planted one on the beach ages ago for her to find.
Yeah, he knew that wouldn’t have been the same as this discovery but it might have been worth it.
“What does it say?”
“I don’t know. I can’t read it very well.”
“Is it old?” Jess asked. She also seemed to be caught up in the excitement.
“I don’t know.” Sophie frowned. “I don’t think so. It’s typed. It doesn’t look like the old-fashioned type from a typewriter so I don’t think it’s that old.”
She straightened it out. “It looks like Chinese or Japanese!”
“Oh dear.” Eleanor looked disappointed. “Well, maybe we can find someone to translate.”
“There’s English, too,” Sophie exclaimed. “It was sent in 2015! It says, ‘We are students at Taku School in Japan, studying the ocean currents. We are dropping one hundred bottles into the ocean in April 2015. We would like to know where they travel. Please respond to this email address with the date and the GPS location where you found this bottle so that we may add you to our study. In return, we will send you postcards and a small gift from Japan. Sincerely, Taku School students.’”
“How cool is that?” Jess said. “You can be part of a research study into ocean currents.”
Sophie beamed. “Supercool. I mean, I kind of wish it was somebody on a deserted island who needed help or maybe a guy who wrote a letter to his dead girlfriend or something. But this is supercool, too.”
“Are you going to answer?” Nate asked.
“Well, yeah.”
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful to receive some postcards from Japan? Maybe you can make a new pen pal.”
“I’m going to send the email right now.”
“Let’s take some pictures of you finding it, then you can send those along with the location and your information,” Nate suggested.
“Use my phone,” she demanded.
He picked up her sparkly pink device and snapped a bunch of pictures of her with his mom and Jess.
“You should be in the picture,” Jess said. “Let me take a few.”
He handed her the phone and tried to ignore the little pulse of heat exchanged between the two of them.
He posed with his mother and Sophie, then Jess took one of just him and Sophie. He really wanted that pic. He would have to ask Sophie to text it to him or take it off her phone when it was charging every night in the kitchen.
“Okay, that’s enough pictures. I want to send it now.”
She took her phone, then her face fell. “Darn it. I always forget we can’t get a good cell signal down here. Not enough bars to send photos, anyway.”
“You can always send it later tonight.”
“I don’t want to wait. I’m going back up to the house.”
“I’ll come with you,” Eleanor said. “This is so exciting. How many times have we hoped to find a message in a bottle? I gave up looking years ago!”
When he and Jess started to follow them, Eleanor waved them back. “Stay. Sunset will be in another twenty minutes or so and it looks like it will be spectacular from all the clouds we had earlier. Jess should have the chance to enjoy our gorgeous sunset displays here.”
“I can walk back on my own,” Jess protested.
“It’s always better to have someone with you, especially when you’re walking back after dusk. If I don’t see you again tonight, good night. Thank you for all your help today.”
“Come on, Gram,” Sophie urged.
Eleanor laughed then followed her up the path, leaving the two of them alone.
8
Jess
Jess watched Eleanor and Sophie climb the path up the hill toward Whitaker House, Sophie taking her grandmother’s arm as the two chattered in excitement to each other.
“I think we’ve been ditched.”
“Apparently.” Nate looked bemused at how quickly the situation had shifted.
“You really don’t have to stay with me,” Jess assured him. “I don’t mind walking up by myself. I spent two tours overseas and put about two hundred thousand miles on my truck for Transitions since I’ve been home. I think I can manage to walk a few hundred yards without any major catastrophes.”
He smiled, teeth gleaming in the dying sunlight, and she felt that ridiculous shiver again. “I never thought otherwise. I’ll go if you would prefer to be alone. Otherwise, I don’t mind staying so I can let the dogs run off more energy.”
She had forgotten all about the dogs. She shifted her gaze from Eleanor and Sophie, almost to the top of the hill, toward the dogs, who were tussling over a piece of driftwood they had found.
The air had cooled a few degrees, making her grateful for her hoodie.
“I would hate to deprive the dogs of their fun.”
By tacit agreement, they both headed for the bench his mother had just vacated. The dogs hurried over, Charlie the victor of the tug-of-war. The dog presented the stick to Nate, who picked it up and threw it in a long arc down the beach for both dogs to chase gleefully.
Given their contentious meeting the day before, Jess wouldn’t have expected to find so much enjoyment in his company. Their conversation since they headed down the path to the cove had been funny, interesting, insightful.
She rather liked the man, which surprised her. It shouldn’t, she supposed. She already adored his mother and was growing quite fond of his daughter.
All of the Whitakers were very hard to resist.
This time when the dogs came back, Cinder had the stick. The Lab disarmed her by bringing it straight to Jess and laying it in her lap.
“Thank you,” she said.
“She doesn’t always know when to stop,” Nate said with a smile. “Now you’re her hostage.”
“I don’t mind.” She scratched the dog’s head and chin, again wishing she could figure a way to have a dog of her own.
Her rambling life wasn’t very conducive to caring for a pet who needed a yard and space to run. Maybe she could pick up a senior rescue who wouldn’t need as much activity and might be more content spending long stretches of time in the trailer while she worked.
“How did things really go with my mother today?”
She sent him a sidelong look, wondering why he was asking. She shrugged. “Progress is progress, right? We still have a long way to go but it’s a good start.”
He took the stick from Charlie and tossed it again, just shy of the surf.
“How is my mom handling everything?”
“Emotionally or physically?”
“Both. Either.”
“She seems to get teary every so often over something we find that brings back memories. She has told me a few stories about your father as we work and it’s clear they were deeply in love.”
“Yes. These past six months have been hard on her.” He paused. “You seem inordinately concerned about her health. Have you noticed anything unusual?”
She was reluctant to te
ll him, though she wasn’t exactly sure why. She couldn’t fault the man for being concerned over his mother’s welfare.
“She had to stop to rest a few times. She said she was tired. But when she returned to help me, she seemed fine. Is there something I should know about her health?”
“I’m wondering the same thing. She doesn’t tell me much. I think she doesn’t want to worry me, probably because Dad’s cancer was tough on all of us. She doesn’t realize that I end up worrying more because my imagination goes in all directions.”
“I can understand that.”
“You’ll tell me if you see anything you think I should worry about, right?”
“I...sure.”
The dogs seemed to have lost track of the piece of driftwood they had been using to play catch. They started sniffing at something in the sand on the far side of the cove and Cinder let out a concerned bark.
“I’d better go see what they’ve found. It’s probably a crab.” Nate rose and headed toward the dogs.
The sun slipped down another notch and the colors seemed to intensify, oranges and ochre and purple.
Her phone suddenly buzzed with a text. Apparently her cell carrier had slightly better service here at the cove than Sophie’s.
She thought about ignoring it then suddenly remembered she had meant to reach out to her sister that day and had completely forgotten. Guilt pinched at her like the crab the dogs were bothering.
So much for her intentions to spend more time with her sister and her nieces and nephew.
The message was indeed from Rachel.
Sorry. The day got away from me. I meant to text earlier. Want to catch dinner tomorrow? Cody can watch the tribe.
Did she? Her relationship with her sister was so layered with complication that the idea of a few hours of conversation, just the two of them, left her suddenly tense. At least when the kids were along, they provided a buffer of sorts.
No. She was a big girl. She could handle a few hours alone with her sister.
I can make that work. What time? I can pick you up.
I’ll pick you up, Rachel replied. How about 7?
Sounds good, she answered. See you then.
She sent her answer and, wishing things could be different between them, she gave a heavy sigh as she shoved the phone back into the pocket of her hoodie.
Nate, returning to the bench, caught the tail end of it.
“That sounds serious. Everything okay?”
“My sister wants to meet for dinner tomorrow. We were working out details.”
He raised an eyebrow, probably because her sigh had sounded anything but pleased at the prospect.
“My mother told me your sister is Rachel McBride. I’ll admit, I was surprised. You’re very different, aren’t you?”
That echo of old pain resurged, regret that their lives had diverged so widely. “We have led quite different lives since our parents died.”
“You took the military route while she seems pretty happy being a mom and social media influencer.”
“Yes.”
They had always been different, Rachel quieter, happy to have a good book and somewhere comfortable to read it while Jess always wanted to go on a hike, go swimming, ride her bike around the neighborhood. Something active and away from home.
Despite that, they had been best friends, only two years apart. Rachel had known the deepest thoughts inside her.
Shared trauma should have brought them even closer together. Instead, it had ended up driving a wedge they couldn’t seem to bridge.
“I don’t know how to ask this delicately so maybe I should just shut up.”
“Ask what?”
She knew. His next question wasn’t at all unexpected.
“I’ve known Rachel peripherally for years. I’m fairly certain she lived with Kurt and Jan Miller in high school. Their older daughter Shannon is a friend.”
“That’s right.”
“Why weren’t you together?”
That was a long and difficult answer that she wasn’t prepared to share with Nate Whitaker right now, no matter how much she liked him. “We were both in the foster care system from the time we were teenagers, when our parents died. She ended up with the Millers and I...didn’t.”
Her life would have been so different if she had made other choices.
Due to those choices, Jess had ended up spending two years in a miserable, cheerless group home in Sacramento while Rachel had found a home here in Cape Sanctuary with the warm and loving Miller family.
“How did your parents die?” Nate asked.
She tensed. This was the question she always hated and the one she was certainly not prepared to tell Nate.
“Violently.” The word came out hard, blunt, ugly.
“Sorry. That was rude and intrusive,” he said after an awkward pause.
“Not rude. You’re only curious. I just don’t like to talk about it.”
“Understood. I’m sorry I asked.”
She wanted to tell him, an impulse that shocked her. She didn’t, of course. She barely knew the man. Instead, they sat in companionable silence as the sun slid farther and farther down until it was swallowed by the vast sea.
She appreciated his silence. Too few people were comfortable with it, feeling compelled to fill every empty space with chatter. Nate didn’t seem to mind it, which she found both surprising and refreshing.
The sunset was one of the most spectacular of her life, the sky a wild, colorful display reflected on the undulating waves. As gorgeous as it was, she was surprised at how quickly it was over.
“Wow,” she said as the sun slipped below the horizon line in one last brilliant show. “That was unforgettable. I’m so glad we didn’t go up with Sophie and Eleanor.”
He smiled down at her, skin crinkling at the corners of his eyes. He was tanned, fit, gorgeous. And off-limits, she reminded herself. He was the son of her client and she was very careful not to mix business with personal. It never ended well.
Since she was working all the time and rarely had the chance to meet anyone outside of those circles, that meant her social life was basically nonexistent, unfortunately.
She wasn’t going to change that with Nate Whitaker. What would be the point when she was moving on in a few weeks?
When he was the first to look away, whistling for the dogs, she told herself she was glad.
Cinder and Charlie bounded over with enthusiasm, the little furry Cavapoo in the lead.
“Thank you for staying with me.”
“My pleasure. I don’t take nearly enough opportunities to simply sit and think and enjoy the beautiful surroundings where I live. But it will be full dark in a few minutes and that path to the house can be treacherous if you can’t see where you’re going. I stupidly didn’t bring a flashlight so we should probably go back.”
She didn’t want to leave this idyll but could only imagine how the rocks might trip a person up in the night.
They headed across the sand toward the path with the dogs in the lead, then Jess and Nate in the rear.
“Your shoelace is untied,” he said after a moment. “You probably want to take care of that so you don’t trip on the way up.”
“Thanks.”
His words were prophecy of what came next. Before she could stop to tie her lace, she stumbled on the root of a tree that grew across the path unevenly.
The epitome of grace and panache, as usual, she staggered slightly and would have face-planted onto the trail if Nate hadn’t reached out both hands to catch her and pull her against him.
She could feel the heat of him scorching her from her neck to the curve of her back.
“Oh,” she exclaimed. She looked over her shoulder and their gazes met, his suddenly hot, intense.
Her breath caught, the moment suspended
between them. She thought she could feel each beat of her heart.
His gaze flickered to her mouth then quickly away.
Did he want to kiss her? Did he feel this heat that seemed to have exploded between them?
He set her on her feet and stepped away and she wondered if she had imagined the entire quicksilver episode.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes. Only clumsy. My dad used to say I could trip on painted lines on the road.”
She bent down to tie her shoe snugly, grateful to steal a moment to collect her thoughts. She was glad he didn’t kiss her. That was relief twisting through her, certainly not regret.
When they reached the top of the path, Nate walked her to the door of her Airstream, though she insisted he didn’t need to.
“Thank you for a lovely evening,” he said when they reached it.
“Thanks for staying with me to watch the sunset. I would have hated to miss it.”
“You’re welcome. And thank you for not holding a grudge over my rudeness yesterday.”
She shrugged. “You were protective of your mother. How could I fault that?”
“And you’ll let me know if you notice anything else unusual with her health?” he asked again. “Any more episodes where she seems to lose her energy?”
She didn’t want to refuse but had to make it clear where her loyalties lay. “I don’t want to be in the middle of you and your mother. Eleanor is my client, Nate. She’s the one paying my bill. If you’re concerned about her health, you should talk to her. I’m only the hired help.”
“Fair enough,” he said, his voice stiff.
Any softness she might have seen in his expression was gone now. That was a good thing, she told herself. It gave her the chance to rebuild her own barriers. What was the point in pretending, even for an instant, that kissing the man might be a good idea?
“Good night,” he said abruptly.
He waited until she opened the door and stepped inside before he turned away to go back to his house.
Jess sank onto the sofa, her heart still pounding. What was wrong with her? All he had been doing was trying to keep her from tumbling down the path. She had been about half a second away from turning in his arms and kissing him.
The Path to Sunshine Cove Page 8