Beach House Reunion (Beach House #5)(72)
Linnea scooted closer and continued reading, hearing his sonorous voice behind her. She looked up a couple minutes later when she felt him standing beside her chair. His expression was grim. “What?”
“It’s bad,” he said. “Word on the street is they’re shutting the project down. They should be making a formal announcement soon. I’m sorry, Lin.”
“Oh no.” She put her head in her palm. “Poor Daddy.” Suddenly all the worry and grief she’d held inside all afternoon bubbled up. Tears began to well. Embarrassed, she covered her face.
“Linnea,” John said. Placing his hands on her shoulders, he gently guided her to a stand and enfolded her in his arms once more. He moved a lock of hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear. “This is a tough lesson to learn, but you should know,” he said in a low voice by her ear. “We can’t raise our parents.”
She laughed.
“I’m serious,” he said. “The older we get, the crazier they seem. I remember when my parents got a divorce. I was still in high school, and man, I was pissed, especially at my dad. He was the one who was fooling around. My mom took it really hard. I worried about her. Stayed by her side when she cried, which, by the way, was all the time. I listened to her rants. One night she got so angry she started throwing all his stuff into the yard. That’s when they saw the lawyers. But eventually they figured things out. She moved here. My dad bought her family’s beach house for an exorbitant price. He remarried. We hardly see him anymore. Everyone’s moved on. It’s hard, I know, but you just have to let them figure things out on their own.” He lifted her chin with his finger so he could look into her eyes. “They’re stronger than they seem.”
She laughed again, then sniffed and wiped her eyes.
“Come on,” he said, taking her hand. “Since the computer is up and running, let me show you a company I found that’s looking for someone with an environmental science degree to do public education programs for their products.”
Linnea’s eyes widened with hope. “That sounds too good to be true.”
“It is. The job is in California.”
Chapter Seventeen
The hatchlings stay below the sand’s surface until it cools, usually indicating night. They emerge in a rush, tumbling over one another in a sprint past predators such as raccoons, crabs, and birds. Those that make it to the sea now begin a treacherous journey to the Gulf Stream where floating Sargassum provides protection and food. It’s survival of the fittest.
TONIGHT WAS HER first real date in three years. Cara had soaked in the hot, scented tub till her skin was pink. It was luxuriously decadent and calmed her nerves. She couldn’t believe she was as nervous as a teenager.
That in itself was rather a shock. She didn’t think she’d ever felt like this, the way the songs lyrics described: dreaming of him, counting the hours till she saw him again. Perhaps it was because she hadn’t fallen in love at an early age. She was forty when she fell in love for the first time with Brett. It wasn’t a gush of feeling, but rather a sense of knowing.
She lifted the loofah and let a stream of hot water trail across her breasts, lost in thought. Was this the different kind of love David had talked about? Brett had raised the bar very high, but with David, it was a different bar. She did feel a gush of romantic feeling with him, and it both delighted and disturbed her. She knew this feeling of awkwardness at dating again, feeling love again, would persist for a long time. How could it not? She had to cope with loving two men at the same time. But one was no longer a part of her life. The other was asking to be.
And both her mind and her body were telling her she was ready to try.
Cara took extra time applying her makeup, aware of the glimmer of excitement in her eyes. She’d been extravagant and purchased new undergarments, very good, elegantly sexy as only the French could design. Luxurious underwear gave her a private confidence, even if no one ever saw it but herself. She pulled the sleek white silk sheath dress out of the closet and over her head. The dress slid down her body like water. Her skin was so tan from her walks on the beach that the contrast was stunning. Finally, she selected a strand of sizable pearls for her neck and more for her ears. She looked in the mirror. A woman knew when she was looking her best. Cara smiled with satisfaction, then reached for her scent. It was new. Chosen for a new man.
When the doorbell rang, she felt a shiver of anticipation. She stepped into her heels and hurried to the door.
“You look stunning!” Linnea said with a gasp.
Cara turned to see her standing near the foyer, Hope in her arms, waiting. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she wore baby-doll pajamas and fuzzy slippers, a look straight from the sixties.
“Thank you. As do you.”
Linnea laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m going to duck. Have a good time.”
“Mama!” Hope called, reaching for her.
“Night-night, baby,” Cara said, hurrying to kiss her once more.
Predictably, Hope began to cry as the doorbell rang a second time.
“Go on, we’ll be fine,” Linnea said, then hurried down the hall with the fussing baby.
Cara took a final breath, then opened the door to see David standing under the light in a crisp, beautifully cut tan suit and a pale-blue shirt with a gorgeous tie. She felt a sweep of happiness seeing him at her door again and realized she was feeling what they wrote about in songs after all. She’d missed him. In one hand he carried a bouquet of local summer flowers, her favorite. Cara opened the door wider, aware that though she’d opened this door for him many times this summer, tonight’s welcome felt decidedly different from the playdates.