The long days and late nights still hadn’t ended and things had grown strained. After more than eight years of supporting Kyle while he’d earned his law degree and then had started at a prestigious law firm in D.C., I finally broke. I saw Silas much more than I saw Kyle. I think Kyle resented coming home at midnight and finding Silas and I curled up on the couch together with ice cream watching The Notebook. Kyle would walk in and heave a sigh and then loosen his tie and head for the bedroom. Some nights I followed him in after Silas left, other nights Silas and I would stay together huddled on the couch and finish our movie before I would crawl into bed with Kyle, long after he was asleep. I knew we weren’t in a good place, but he was my entire heart and I still had faith that just one more promotion, just another year at the firm, and his schedule would ease up. We could buy a house and start a family. Maybe live outside the city. I still had the dream for our future that we’d conjured together when we were fifteen and I refused to let go of it.
A part of me felt guilty for making this monumental decision in my life without Kyle, but I’d been suffocating in D.C., so I couldn’t allow myself to have regrets. By the time I’d packed clothes and some essentials for the summer, Kyle was no longer mad. We were past that. It wasn’t our style to shout and scream, but there had been tension. He’d kissed me and said he would visit as soon as he could. I’d nodded with a smile. I even thought these few months might be good for us. Maybe we would come back reconnected. These last few years I’d been the effect to Kyle’s cause, but now I would be doing something that would be mine.
I got to his name on my contacts list and paused. The man I loved, the man who had always been there for me through thick and thin, the man I was leaving for the summer. It would be the first time we would be apart for such a long amount of time but the excitement of following my dreams eclipsed any sadness I had.
I exited my contact list and tossed my phone on the seat beside me then got back in the car and continued south.
***
“TOOK YOU LONG enough. How many potty breaks did you take?” My charming best friend leaned against his car door with a grin on his face. He looked like a natural on the beach with flip-flops, cargos, and a bright green polo shirt. His bronzed skin and perfectly styled, sandy blond hair a clear indication that he took care to look good.
I took a few steps toward him and stopped, gazing up at the sprawling beach house. My eyes locked on the white shutters, the multiple decks, the wooden staircases, and weathered shingles―it took my breath away. I closed my eyes and inhaled the salty sea breeze, caressing my face and whirling my dark hair. The call of gulls swooped overhead, a far cry from the sounds of the city that I’d just left.
“Earth to Georgia.” Silas grinned, throwing an empty styrofoam coffee cup at my head.
“I stopped for coffee a while ago and called Drew.”
“How’s that hussy doing?” Silas mumbled as he pulled a duffel bag out of the back seat of his car.
“You can ask her tomorrow.” I grinned.
“What? Fuck,” Silas swore as he knocked his head on the doorframe of his car. I hadn’t told him that I was going to invite Drew.
“She’s bringing her new man candy.”
“Of course she is.” He rolled his eyes. I laughed and faked a punch on his arm before heading back to my car and getting my own duffel bag. “Ready sport?”
“Enough with the macho names,” he grumbled, in a sour mood no doubt because Drew would be in his life for the rest of the summer.
“Fine, cupcake. Let’s go in.” I grinned and he followed me up the first set of steps to the front door.
The beach house was built on wood pilings that elevated the first floor nearly twenty feet above the sand. The ground level on the beach was semi-enclosed and served as storage space. The house was less than a hundred yards off the water and surrounded by rolling dunes and swaying grass. When the realtor walked us through the house she assured us that the water rarely made it up this far on the beach, but the house would be protected if it did. Hurricanes were another issue entirely and she’d suggested I have a hurricane safety inspection done to make sure the house could withstand hurricane-force winds. He could also instruct me on what to do in the event of an impending storm.
I unlocked the front door and we stepped into an open space that featured a spacious living room with French doors that looked out over another grand deck and the ocean. Water and waves dominated my vision. To the left was a large kitchen and to the right were the guest bath and a hallway leading to two bedrooms. Beyond the kitchen, another hallway led to three bedrooms and the stairway to the second floor. Each first-floor bedroom had an en suite bathroom, which made arrangements for this summer much more comfortable. Drew and I could log time in the bathroom, but Silas was on a whole other level―he could spend hours in front of a mirror spiking his hair with half a dozen different products.
A large island divided the kitchen and living room and the house was completely white walls and worn wood floors. The realtor had suggested I refinish the floors, but I adored their charm. Whoever had designed the house was inspired by the natural beauty of the surroundings, beautiful in its quaint simplicity. I had fallen in love at first sight.
I walked across the room and opened the French doors. I wanted these doors open the entire summer to let the ocean breeze waft in and keep the dust bunnies and stale air at bay. I wanted to wake up each and every morning to a new fresh start, and keeping these doors open would do that.
“I’m going to go throw this stuff in my room.” Silas headed down a hallway.
“The corner room is mine, Silas,” I called after him. He shot me a dirty look because it was the largest room on this floor with the best views. “Advantage of being the owner.” I grinned. The house had two floors, but the three bedrooms on the second floor were in rough shape and I’d need to call a carpenter in to replace some of the flooring and update the plumbing. Every room in the house had access to the sprawling decks that wrapped around the first and second stories. There was also a small set of stairs off the second story deck that led to the widow’s walk on the roof.
While the bedrooms on the main floor were livable, they could use a fresh coat of paint and some modern updates, just one of the summer jobs I’d roped Drew into helping me with. While Silas said he would help, I knew his version of help was more like overseeing while sipping a drink with a little umbrella in his hand. He was good for opinions though, he had plenty of those.