“Am I a total loser for tossing away my convictions so quickly and agreeing to date, aka commit to, Caden?” She had tried to get herself to believe that she might be making a mistake or setting herself up to get hurt, but being with Caden didn’t feel anything but right.
Jenna reached for Bella’s hand and cupped it between her own. “Bella, Bella, Bella. Haven’t you learned anything from me? Convictions are meant to be broken.” She reached into her bathing suit top and pulled out three small rocks.
“Jenna.” Bella laughed. Ever since they were little girls, Jenna had found creative ways to carry rocks home from the beach. She would put the tiniest of rocks between her gums and her cheek and then forget they were there. Her cleavage was another favorite hiding place, and Jenna’s cleavage could hide a boulder.
“I can’t help it. I love them.” She ran her index finger over a gray-white rock. “They’re not perfectly heart shaped, and they’re not perfectly gray or white, but look at them.” She petted the rocks in her palm. “Can’t you just see them on my coffee table beside the big one that looks like an ostrich egg?” Her eyes widened, and she flashed that killer smile of hers and blinked her eyes in rapid succession, the same way she had when she was fifteen and had scored a date with the hottest surfer at the beach.
“Yes. I can totally see it there.” Bella leaned her head on Jenna’s shoulder. “I needed this time with you. I wish Amy had stayed longer. I’ve missed spending our days at the beach this summer.”
“Me too. But this is all for a good reason, and next summer we’ll be back on track with the beach all day and hanging out at night.” Jenna gasped. “Oh no.”
“What?” Bella scanned the water, thinking that Jenna saw someone in trouble.
“You can’t date Caden.”
“What?” Bella turned to face her. Jenna’s thin brows were drawn together. Her eyes were full of concern. “Why not?”
“Leanna has Kurt, and we see her maybe half as much as we used to. If you and Caden stay together, then next summer we’ll only see you half as much.” She shook her head. “No, this isn’t good. We can’t lose you, too.”
“You’d never lose me, and we see Leanna a lot. She and Kurt stay at Seaside all the time. I mean, it’s different with him around, but you love Kurt. We all do.”
“I totally love him, and from what I know of Caden and Evan, I really like them, too, but it’s different.” Jenna tucked her rocks back into her bathing suit top.
“Yeah. But it’s kind of better, too. I’m happy for Leanna. She’s never been happier, and you know how much Kurt adores her. He moved from New York to be with her. That’s love.” Caden had moved from Boston to the Cape for Evan. That’s love, too.
“I know, but what if you end up with Caden? Amy’s cute as a button. She’ll get swooped up next. Jamie’ll show up here one summer with a computer geek girlfriend, and Tony…Heck, he’ll have a harem. Then it’s just going to be me, lusting after Pete.” She covered her face with her hands. “Oh, no, Bella. I can’t be a forty-year-old-woman lusting after Pete.”
Bella laughed. “Wow, a little dramatic, aren’t we?” She patted Jenna’s arm. “You aren’t going to be a forty-year-old woman lusting after Pete. He’ll be long married by then.” She leaned away and Jenna swatted her arm.
“Wow, I hate you.” Jenna feigned a scowl, but her teasing eyes gave her away. “You watch. That man will be mine before I’m thirty-five.”
“I should hope so. That gives you five and a half years. If you can’t snag your man in that long, then maybe it’s time to move on.” Jenna had been nursing a crush on Pete for years, but while she was a total extrovert around everyone else, she turned into a mousy introvert around him.
“Bite your tongue.”
“Can we get back to me for a minute?” She used her foot to bury Jenna’s foot beneath the sand.
“Always.” Jenna wiggled her toes free from the mound of sand, and Bella went to work covering her foot again.
“Here’s the thing. I’m not worried about dating Caden, and I wonder if that means I’m already not paying enough attention to red flags or something. We’re already serious. Super serious. I mean, Jenna, serious like I’ve-never-been-this-serious-in-my-life type of serious. And what if my house doesn’t sell? Then what will I do? What if the job doesn’t come through here? What if it does but my house doesn’t sell? Then what will I do?”
“The answer to the first question is that I’m not seeing any red flags. I think Tony was right. The guy’s been a single dad for fourteen years. He’s a committer for sure. As far as the rest goes, you’re asking a lot of questions to a woman who isn’t holding a margarita.”
“You’re right. Sorry. That was the big question that I was stressing over.” She folded her chair and gathered her belongings. “But if you think I’m seeing clearly, and you know I trust you to not let me fall into some dark man-abyss, then let’s go home and we’ll fill you up with the good stuff.”
“First of all, put that stuff down and look at me.” Jenna stood with her hands on her hips.
Bella dropped her beach tote and looked at her.
“Here.” Jenna pointed to her eyes.
Bella stared into her eyes, and Jenna leaned in so close Bella thought they might bump noses.
“Nope. Those eyes are wide open and wiser than mine will ever be.”
“You’re such a fool.” Bella picked up her tote.
Jenna swung her tote over her shoulder, and they carried their chairs up toward the parking lot. “I say trust your gut with Caden Too-Good-To-Be-True-Grant.” Jenna stopped at the bottom of the dune.
“Why’d you stop? Let’s go. I want to stop at the package store.”
Jenna pointed to the top of the hill, where Caden stood beside his police car.
Bella ran up the dune with Jenna laughing as she hurried behind. Bella was out of breath by the time she reached the parking lot. She dropped her tote and chair and ran into his open arms.
“I’m sorry to just show up.” He kissed her quickly and shifted his eyes to the people watching them.
“Sorry,” she whispered. She cleared her throat. “I forgot you’re at work, and I’m glad you just showed up.” She raked her eyes down his body. She hadn’t seen him in uniform since the night they’d met, and boy he looked hot. But Bella wasn’t looking at the same things the other women were ogling in the gray evening light. She saw past the six-pack abs and the sculpted body that she knew lay beneath his handsome uniform. She pushed aside the clean-shaven cheeks that she loved to touch and the sense of pure hunky male that he radiated. As she drank him in, she saw the person he was on the inside. The way he loved Evan and would do anything to keep him safe. The way his eyes dampened as he talked about losing his best friend and partner and the way those same expressive eyes never wavered from hers when she spoke. When she added those qualities to his intelligence and the way he touched her, as if bringing her pleasure was what he lived for, well, who on earth could be sexier than Caden Grant?
“Bella.” Jenna elbowed her.
Bella startled out of her thoughts. “Sorry. What are you doing here?”