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She links arms with me and starts leading me toward the cabin. “Just hanging out.”
I look down at her, suspicious, as she peeks up at me. “Just hanging out?”
“I wanted to feel the sun on my face.” She directs it up to the sky, closing her eyes.
Tank passes, carrying Maggie’s stroller, Rose following with the others. “If I’d known today was a family trip to the beach, I would have bought a bucket and spade, maybe some games.”
“Oh my God,” Beau blurts. “We should absolutely get some games. Volleyball, beach bowls.” A gasp. “Water polo!”
I stare at her, bemused. Yeah, that sounds like a perfect wind down after a torturing session and a car chase. “Where’s Daniel?”
“He’s at home with Barney on the Xbox. Lennox had some work to do.”
“Beau, what’s going on?”
“Nothing.” She beams at me—totally fake—and hurries up the steps to the cabin. I trudge after her, scanning the café when I enter. Rose and Danny are by the beer fridge, whispering angrily at each other. “What the hell are you doing here?” he growls at Rose, swigging a beer.
“Moral support.”
I reach between them and they both quit their fight briefly, giving me enough time to get my beer. “Don’t let me interrupt,” I muse, seeing Nolan out on the decking, his bad leg up on a chair, his good leg supporting the ass of Ella. I grab another two beers and wander out, and the moment he sees me he tries to move her. “Leave her,” I say, lowering to a chair, placing the beers down and unscrewing the caps. I pass one to Nolan. One to Ella. He looks shocked. I expect Ella is too behind her shades. I hit my bottle with theirs and rest back. “Have you called things off with your boyfriend?” I ask Ella.
She swallows, nodding, tentatively taking a sip of her beer.
“Yes, she told him.” Nolan reaches for her shades and tries to pull them off her face, but she fights him.
“Nolan, please.”
Nolan wins their little wrestle, and I recoil when he reveals a shiner of a black eye. Ella immediately covers it with her palm.
“He did that?” I ask.
“It’s nothing.”
I look at Nolan. I see the anger he’s struggling to hide. I can feel it myself. He gives Ella her glasses and she quickly slips them back on. How many times has she told people it’s nothing? “She’s got nowhere to stay,” Nolan says, awkward. I laugh, but it dries up when I see Pearl go through the shop area toward the ladies’ changing rooms and restrooms.
“You better speak to Danny,” I tell him, eyes on Pearl’s back as she disappears through the door. “I’ve got to go check . . . something.” I stand, leaving my bottle on the table, and Nolan looks back into the café.
“Why’s everyone here?” he asks.
“Family fun day at the beach,” I murmur, leaving the lovebirds to nurse each other, looking around before passing through the shop. I text Pearl.
Where are you?
Peeing.
I hover outside the ladies’ making sure the coast is clear, trying not to look like a sicko loiterer, before I back my way in, wandering down the line of stalls. I knock the only closed door.
“I’ll be just a minute,” she calls.
“Okay,” I reply.
“Brad?”
She flushes and opens the door, flinching when she sees me on the other side. “What are you doing?”
I push her back into the stall and slam the door behind me, picking her up and crushing her to my front. “I told you not to leave the house.”
“And Rose told me we were coming to the boatyard. Did you want me to tell her I couldn’t because Brad specifically told me not to leave the house when we were in bed this morning?”
