Summer by the Sea (37 page)

After lunch, they walked along the pier that led out over the water. There was so much sea in front of her that it made her feel small. “Thank you,” she said, turning toward him. She looked up into his eyes, hoping for that look he’d given her earlier.

He offered a crooked grin. “You’re welcome,” he said. He grabbed her hand and held it in his. With a smile, he studied their fingers as they moved against each other’s, and she felt how perfectly they fit. The jitters were gone. She moved her hand in his, feeling the roughness of his palm under her fingertips and his fingers moved in response. Then he closed his hand around hers.

“Feel like walking around? We could go to Mallory Square and see the street performers or go shopping.”

“Whatever you think,” she said.

Jake took charge, grabbing a taxi to Mallory Square. It was located along a street with a wide sidewalk that stretched along the coast, palm trees and buildings on one side and ocean on the other. Several cruise ships had come in to dock, and she’d never seen ships as huge as these. The walkway was busy. Jake reached out and grabbed her hand again so they could stay together. It was different this time. His grasp was protective yet light, a perfect physical representation of the way he was in general. She held on to him, glad for all the people so that she’d have reason not to let go. They finally came to a stop at Mallory Square where a tightrope walker was balancing while juggling fire. She watched as the flames flickered against the water behind him.

“Worst case, he can jump in,” Jake teased, his mouth near her ear so she could hear him over the crowd. It sent a tickle down her arm. She laughed at his comment and looked up at him, but his eyes were on the juggler. She followed his gaze, still watching him in her peripheral vision. He seemed so relaxed—he hadn’t checked his phone once. He was completely in the moment with her, and he seemed to be enjoying himself.

After the performance, they caught another taxi, and when they pulled up to a house, she wondered where he’d brought her. In front of her was a gorgeous white southern building with a wrought-iron porch going around the second story. The only color against the white and black was the gold of the shutters on either side of the rounded windows and the green of the nearby palm trees. Neatly cut hedges worked their way around the house, and the grass was like a carpet of green.

He looked down at her, affection oozing from his face. “Know where we are?”

“Where?”

“Hemingway’s house.”

“This is where he lived?” She took in the house again with new eyes.

“Yep.” He took her hand again—it was becoming quite a regular thing. She could get used to it. “Wanna go inside?”

“Yes.” In that moment, she was so glad that she hadn’t been to Key West before because she’d been right: She enjoyed seeing it with Jake.

The rustic interior was very masculine with tiled floors and soft, monotone colors on walls that had the heads of mounted wild game and other relics that looked as though they could have been from Hemingway’s travels. They walked from room to room and she marveled at the simplicity of the book-filled shelves and modest wooden furniture. But when they arrived in one, particular room, it was as if she could almost feel Hemingway’s presence. Sitting in the middle of the room was a small, round table with one chair and an antique typewriter. It looked so solitary to her, but it made her think about the man who’d written those words. That man didn’t know when he’d written them that there would be a boy in North Carolina who would read them over and over. She was willing to bet that the boy who caught lightning bugs and read Hemingway was still there in the man standing beside her now.

Back outside, he asked, “Can you guess where we’re going next?”

“The Robert Frost cottage?”

“How did you know?” He looked down at her. “I couldn’t come to the home of my favorite author without visiting the home of yours.”

As they walked down the sidewalk, bicycles lining the walls of buildings along the edge of it, the humidity settled on her skin, making the breeze feel cooler. The sun was so bright, and she wondered if it was shining back in North Carolina at that moment. Was Isabella building sandcastles for her daddy with Casey watching on? Was Nan sitting on the porch while her mom packed a picnic? There was Faith, miles and miles away, walking around Key West. It was surreal. As she looked over at Jake, in this town of unfamiliar shops and restaurants and hotels, he looked so familiar to her now. It seemed so right to have him there by her side.

“I’m so glad we could spend today together,” she said.

“Me too.”

When they arrived at the Heritage House Museum, they toured the grounds, making their way to the garden where Robert Frost’s cottage stood. It was a modest structure, painted a pastel blue—almost turquoise like the sea, with a low roofline and small entryway. Palms and other exotic plants flanked the front door. It looked so small when compared to how she’d imagined it as a kid. The owners didn’t allow anyone inside the cottage, so she and Jake stood in the shade of the trees that surrounded it.

“It’s amazing to me that those larger-than-life words that I read as a kid could have been written in this tiny place.”

“It’s a simple, little cottage, isn’t it?”

She nodded. “I suppose he didn’t need a whole lot to be happy.”

They spent the rest of the afternoon visiting landmarks where their favorite authors had visited, window shopping, and enjoying the sights. They’d even made it to the southernmost point in the United States. There was a marker to designate the spot. It was an enormous, striped monument, and its shape reminded Faith of one of Nan’s sewing thimbles.

“Ninety miles to Cuba,” Jake read the letters scrolled across the top.

He smiled a big, cheesy smile, and she took his picture with her phone. As they stood there together, she thought about how they were making memories, living life just like Nan had said. She wrapped her arms around his waist and thanked him again for bringing her there. He kissed the top of her head.

When Jake mentioned that they needed to get back to the airport, Faith felt a little sad. She’d enjoyed having his company all to herself. She liked being with him. And hanging over her head was the fact that once this trip was over, the realities of life would settle in, and they’d have to figure out what, if anything, to do about each other. She wanted to see him again after this trip. She didn’t know how she’d do it, since she lived a state away, and she’d be starting school again in late August. She wanted to see him play with Isabella again, she wanted to hand him a mug of coffee in the mornings, she wanted to sit with him on the porch, she wanted to see
his
pictures in Nan’s photo albums.

“We have a few movies to choose from for the way back, if you’d like,” he said. “I’m always asked to choose two movies for the flight even though I never watch them. So, let’s do it,” he grinned at her, the laugh lines at the corners of his eyes creasing upwards toward his temples in an adorable way. “We have
Good Will Hunting
or
Office Space
.”

“Definitely
Good Will Hunting
,” she said, taking a seat on a small sofa at the back of the plane. The television was mounted to the ceiling and could pivot on a hinge. Jake turned it toward her and got the movie ready. When he sat down beside her, their proximity was nice, and she was glad for the movie to give them a chance to just sit together—she was tired after the long day and she just wanted to be beside him. As they got settled, and he clicked on the movie, she leaned on his shoulder, her mind elsewhere. She wanted to stay in that moment forever and never have to face the real world, but all good things must come to an end.

“Faith,” she heard a whisper through the fog of sleep. She couldn’t remember being as comfortable and peaceful as she was right then. “Faith?” As she swam out of her sleep, she was aware of the warmth beneath her, the arm around her, and the breath at her forehead. Slowly, she opened her eyes and realized she’d fallen asleep during the movie. When she tipped her head to see where the voice was coming from, she was startled by the look on Jake’s face. It was an adoring look. She sat up, blinking to clear her vision.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t see the movie.”

He smiled at her. “I know. You fell asleep in the first ten minutes.”

“Why didn’t you wake me?”

“You looked too peaceful. I didn’t want to disturb you.” Their faces were so close. She wanted to feel his arms around her, to feel his heart beat against her. He straightened up, pulling his arm from behind her, and said, “We’ll be landing in a minute or so.”

His words were the ones she’d been dreading hearing all day, marking the end of their date. She wanted this to be it. She didn’t care that she’d only just met him. She didn’t care that she was leaving the Outer Banks in mere days. She wanted to know what it was like to wake up to
him
in the morning, hold
him
, and kiss
his
lips in the morning. No amount of rationalization could make her feel any differently. Jake was the one she wanted to spend her future learning about, and she didn’t care if she was in Florida or North Carolina or the South Pole. She didn’t care a thing about how he spent his money or where he lived. She just wanted to be with him. He was that guy in English class with the sweater, like Nan had said. He was the mystery that she wanted to solve.

TWENTY-TWO

Faith had spent the last two days with her family. They’d gone out to the beach until they couldn’t stand the heat anymore and then they’d lazed around the cottage. It had been great because they’d been so busy since they’d arrived that they hadn’t really had a chance to relax. Even better, it gave them all time to be together as a family. They turned in early last night after a round of board games, which made Nan happy.

She was glad to be able to spend more time with her grandmother. The cottage was new, but it was starting to feel familiar, the twinge of anxiety filling her every time she thought about leaving it. On the eve of the second full day at the cottage, she decided to spend it on the porch where she could enjoy the view she’d had for so many years. As she looked out at the sea, she could almost feel her old cottage at her back. Trying not to think too much about missing this place, she focused her attention on tomorrow.

Tomorrow was Nan’s birthday party. Her mom had found a bakery in town, and she’d ordered a grand cake. Faith smiled to herself as she remembered worrying about impressing Jake at Nan’s party. Now that she knew him better, she realized that she didn’t need to impress him. He’d never judge them based on the way they’d chosen to celebrate her grandmother’s birthday. Her worries seemed silly now. But her distress over Nan’s party had been replaced by a new uneasiness. She hadn’t seen Jake since their trip to Key West.

She’d fully expected him to drop by, but he hadn’t. She hadn’t seen him since he’d left her on the porch after their date. He’d brought her home that evening, walked her up to the door, and they’d had a little chitchat until it was obvious she needed to let him go. She’d put her arms around him and hugged him as she thanked him. His absence had made things feel even more unclear for her. She worried, thinking again how maybe he had just been doing her a favor taking her to a beach she’d never seen. Rich guy to the rescue.

She pulled her feet up into the rocking chair and hugged her knees. The sun was going down behind the cottage, and the blue sky looked as though someone had put it on a dimmer switch. It kept getting darker, her surroundings fading into black. The sound of the tide going in and out and the stars in the sky were all she had left of the evening. The warm breeze blew around her, the air still recovering from the day’s heat.

As she sat outside alone, she tried to get her mind off of depressing thoughts like losing her childhood cottage, how the area was going to have changed the next time she would be able to visit, and leaving Jake. She had a lot of great things to be thankful for from this trip. She’d made amends with Casey, and she felt like she understood her so much better. And she’d gotten to know Isabella so much better. She realized that she and Scott could still be friends, and she was so excited to see him back with Casey. She would never have imagined that she’d have that reaction, but it was this trip that had changed it all. She had Nan to thank for that. Nan had planned it and dragged them all there. She always knew just what everyone needed. Her mom was the same way, and Faith expected that when Nan finally went to find John, it would be her mom who would keep them all together. They were so much stronger as a family now.