Beach House Reunion (Beach House #5)(19)
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 stopped 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.”