“I’ve been inside all day, and if I don’t at least get some real air into my lungs before I go to bed, I might not wake up in the morning.”
“Oh my gosh, Cash. Why didn’t you say anything earlier? We could’ve gone somewhere or done something.”
I waved her off, not wanting her to blame herself or think she was the reason I hadn’t gone anywhere. “Aria took her nap, and then you started on dinner. Plus, I didn’t begin to feel trapped until a few minutes ago. I’m used to being outside, but these bum ribs are fucking with my lifestyle.”
“Oh, okay.” Her gaze dropped to the sandals on my feet, then to the back door. “I guess I’ll just take my shower while you’re gone. That way, when you come back, if you’re up for company, we can watch a movie. Or just hang out or talk. Whatever you’re up for.”
I couldn’t keep the smile from taking over my face. “I figured it’d be nice to walk across the street to the beach before the sun completely sets. There’s still a sliver of light in the sky, so it won’t be as hot…plus, there’s a breeze.”
She swung her gaze from the back of the house to the front window, the one that faced the wide-open stretch of sand and surf, barely visible at this time of day. “That does sound nice. Very peaceful.” With a quick nod, she added, “Then I’ll make my shower quick.”
“Well, I was kind of hoping you’d join me.”
“I’m not sure…Aria just went to sleep. If she—”
“She can’t get that door open—we both know that—but if it’d make you feel better, we can use our phones to listen out for her. Just call me from your phone, put it in her room, and then we’ll mute the call on my end. I’ll even get earbuds so you can hear if she gets up.”
The way her head tilted just so to the side and one corner of her mouth twitched with the fight against a soft, easy grin, I could tell the thought of joining me appealed to her. But then she gently curled her lower lip between her teeth and glanced away—that was enough to prove her hesitation. I couldn’t begin to imagine the kind of sacrifices she’d had to make over the last two years, but this didn’t need to be one of them.
“We’ll lock the house up, and you’ll be able to listen to her without her hearing you. We don’t even have to walk down the beach, just straight out front to the surf.”
“Yeah…but what if she wakes up, realizes I’m not here, and gets scared? It’ll take me too long to get back to her.”
I crossed the room and took her phone off the kitchen table. Flipping it open, I handed it to Jade, and then tugged mine out of my pocket.
“I’m not a parent, and this is your child, so I won’t push you on your decision. But if it helps, she won’t have a clue that you’re not here if she wakes up. By the time we get back, she’ll very likely think you were in the other room, or possibly the shower. Again, this is your call, but I would really like it if you’d join me on the beach. Just for ten, fifteen minutes.”
Without a verbal response, she pressed a few keys on her outdated phone, answering me with a call and a twinkle in her eyes. It didn’t take long to get the phones situated—hers in Aria’s room, and mine in her pocket with one bud tucked into her ear—before we were out the door.
“It really is peaceful out here,” she said once we made it to the sand.
“Have you come here at all this week?”
She glanced up and down the nearly deserted beach, the breeze blowing through her dark, curly hair. “No, there’s been too much going on with getting Aria settled and whatnot. It took me an hour to find the grocery store the other day. That was fun.”
“Why in the world did it take you that long? I don’t think it’d take me an hour to run from one side of the island to the other…on foot. Where all did you go?” I wasn’t making fun of her, and by the soft purr of laughter, I could tell she knew it.
“Well, I don’t have GPS in my car—I don’t think navigation systems were around when it was made—and it seems I’ve officially discovered a solid reason why a smartphone would come in handy. I stopped and asked someone for directions…twice. Then I figured I’d find it on my own. After making about twenty right turns, only to wind up in the same spot, I caved and called Stevie.”
“She’s familiar with Geneva Key?”
“No,” she said with a breathy giggle and a light shove to my good side. “But I told her where I was, so she was able to pull up a map on her phone and walk me through the directions. Thank God I’d had the wits to give her your address before I moved; otherwise, you would’ve come home to an empty house because I wouldn’t have been able to find my way back.”
I turned around and squinted at my house, taking in the dark-purple sky behind it. Unfortunately, it also made Jade whip around, probably out of fear that I’d seen or heard something, and her first thought was Aria. So to ease her worry without calling attention to it, I pointed off to the side and said, “There’s a mom-and-pop market two streets over that way. It’s easily missed since it looks like a house. I grab my dry goods from them when I don’t need to load up on anything else.”
She followed my finger’s trek from the left of my house to the right.
“And over there, probably less than two miles, just after where my street ends at the main road, there’s a meat market. The prices are a little higher, but it’s all fresh. Mostly seafood, but they do get in a daily supply of chicken and red meats. You just have to get there early, because they don’t keep much on hand. But the fish is locally caught and cleaned. You can’t miss it—smells like a boat.”
“Well, considering you had almost nothing in your house, I needed to stock up. And for that, I had to get off the island to find a real grocer. You know…the kind with a produce department, freezer section, dairy coolers?”
“I’m sorry I didn’t give you all this information before you moved in. There’s a Publix on the island.” I pointed in the opposite direction, down the beach to the left. “If you take this road all the way around the curve at the end, you’ll hit a traffic light. Turn north, like you’re leaving the island, and you’ll see a side road, easily missed because it’s not well marked. It’s back there, butts almost right up to the north end of the beach.”
The dying sunlight hinted at the scowl on her face.
“What’s wrong?”