Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 74467 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74467 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
“For sure. I gotta get back to work. I’ll see ya around, Eloise. I’m glad you’re back.”
“Me, too.”
They hung up, and Eloise sat there picking at her muffin. Her mind drifted back to her high school days, the Carter brothers, and her friends. She should probably find a way to reach out to all of them but didn’t know how. When she moved away, she was angry at her parents, the world, everything around her, and wanted a fresh start. Sitting there now, she saw the error of her ways. She smiled, knowing if she asked Tidal, he’d throw a big welcome home party for her. But did she want that? Part of her did. The other part wanted to focus on her art and the fresh start she was working for again.
The idea of hanging out with her friends, sitting by a bonfire, excited her though. It also brought inspiration and she pictured a painting with fire on the water against the setting sun. The imagery was so vivid, she couldn’t wait to paint.
Eloise sighed as the faces of her friends popped into her mind again. She couldn’t change the past. She would, however, make the best of her time in Seaport and if that meant reconnecting with all her friends, she’d do it. She would ask Tidal to hang out and make sure any of their friends from high school who still lived in town or were visiting for the summer were there. Margaux reminded her enough that it was summer, and summer meant relaxation. Eloise would take full advantage of being back in Seaport. Maybe then, she’d be able to decide if this was the place for her of if she should go to school.
Until then, she was going to enjoy her grilled muffin because it was heaven on earth for her and she had missed them the most.
four
“Let’s go,” Skyla yelled, despite Kiel and Ciara standing next to her. Kiel rolled his eyes at his sister and bent to pick up the beach bag their mother packed earlier. “We are wasting valuable tanning time.”
“No one said you had to wait,” Kiel pointed out. “Go get us a spot.” This was their first time going to the beach as a family since they arrived. An unexpected couple of days of rain threw their vacation plans for a twist.
“Fine,” she huffed dramatically. “You coming?” she asked as she looked at Ciara, who shook her head.
“I’ll wait.”
“Well, I’m not going by myself.”
“We’re ready.” Their parents said in unison as they came down the stairs, hand-in-hand. Kiel studied them. They were always happy, or at least they seemed to be when in the presence of their children. His father doted on his mother, and Kiel couldn’t remember a time in his life that he didn’t see his dad smile when looking at or speaking about his wife.
Kiel wanted the kind of relationship his parents had. The kind where an outsider could see the love between them. He thought he had it or was close to having it with his now ex-girlfriend, Hannah. He had met the lovely and exotic Hannah Rios during their freshman year of college in a study group, and they hit it off instantly and began hanging out. Weeks into their friendship, Kiel kissed her and never looked back. He fell hard, and he thought she had as well. In December after four years of dating, she changed her mind. College was about over and so was their relationship. Within weeks, she was with someone else. Seeing Hannah with her new boyfriend broke Kiel’s heart every single time.
But there was something different about his parents and he couldn’t put his finger on it. His dad seemed to pay a bit more attention to his mom and vice versa. The normal lovey dovey couple were over the top affectionate and more handsy. Kiel frowned and turned away, not wanting to dim his parent’s happiness with his own melancholy about his failed relationship. He was happy for his parents and reminded himself to follow his father’s example of how to dote on your partner.
The family of five walked out of their rental and down the path that led to the beach. The tall seagrass tickled Kiel’s legs as he walked behind his father, who chatted about any and everything from the weather, a sight-seeing tour they booked for later in the week, and asked if Kiel wanted to go sailing while they were there.
“Absolutely,” he said as they trudged through the deep sand, which was already warm. This also meant it’d be burning hot later. Doing things with his dad would be fun. Growing up, deployments or school had limited their father son time.
As soon as he saw the crowd, he expected Skyla to have a minor freakout about the amount of people taking up all the prime spots. She didn’t, much to his surprise, and squealed in delight when she found the perfect spot—not too far from the water, but far enough the tide wouldn’t affect them—along the miles long beach. Kiel and his father worked together to put the beach canopy up while the others set out a couple of blankets and unfolded their chairs. Skyla set her chair outside of the canopy, claiming she needed as much vitamin D as she could get.