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“Are you sure you’re up for this?” Leo asked, carrying the equipment as I trudged along without a garbage bag on my leg this time. Crutches in the sand are not a great idea as I’d learned, but I was tired of living by the beach and not at least taking advantage of it. More than that, I felt sad my broken ankle tainted Leo’s American beach experience.
“I’m fine,” I lied, trying to will my body not to sweat through my sundress as I made my way to the sand. The sun was going down, but it was still a muggy day. The ocean breeze did alleviate some of the stickiness. We got to a good spot, and Leo set up a chair for me. I looked up at the sky.
“It’s perfect weather for it,” I said.
“If you say so,” Leo said, holding the bright blue diamond he’d bought in his hands. He looked excited, though. “It’s been so long since I’ve flown a kite.”
“Me, too,” I admitted, leaning on my crutches. I’d been slacking on my tour guide duties, so I’d decided to add to his American beach experience with a kite flying day. We’d stopped at the kite shop, one of my favorite places as a little girl, and I’d helped Leo pick one out.
Leo handed the spool to a boy he’d enlisted for help and he took the kite, running a way down the beach. Arms in the air, Leo’s smile was bigger than the kid’s as they maneuvered for takeoff. I wished my ankle was healed so I could fully participate. Still, I was thankful in that moment for Leo, for the experience. If it weren’t for him, I would’ve been sitting in my old bedroom moping for weeks on end, my mother hovering. Leo had helped me make the best out of a not-so-great situation—although in some respects, if it weren’t for him, perhaps my ankle wouldn’t be broken at all.
When the kite caught a breeze exactly right, the boy handed me the spool. I held tight to it as the kite took off, up and away. Leo came running back, gleeful, and handed the kid a twenty-dollar bill. Leo smiled up at the sky, and I realized I was seeing a glimpse of who he was as a boy. It made me glow, too.
I wouldn’t trade the broken ankle, I realized in that moment. It had been worth it if it brought me Leo. It wasn’t about his fame or who he was or what he did. It was him, at that moment, standing beside me watching a kite. It was how because of him, I felt like I wasn’t such a mess.
“It’s magical, isn’t it?” Leo said as I stared up at the kite while it became a small dot in the sky. I turned to look at him and realized he was looking at me.
“It is,” I said, nodding. “All of it.”
He crouched down then by my chair, a hair’s breadth away, still wrangling the kite. “It’s been the best summer so far, Tillie. The best. I mean, I could do without the whole ‘I broke your ankle bit,’ but it’s been amazing having this time with you. It’s been the best time of my life.”
I smiled at that. “You don’t miss your caviar and lobster?” I teased.
“I’d take one of the Pirate’s Paddy’s sandwiches any day over caviar.”
“I’m having the best summer, too. Even with a broken ankle. Maybe, in truth, because of it,” I said, staring right into those ocean blue eyes. It was a beautiful, romantic moment, right out of a movie.
And then, in true Tillie Ashby fashion, everything fell apart.
“Edmund, come back! Edmund, no!” a frantic voice yelled. I heard the plodding footsteps on the sand before I could attribute them. But when I turned, I saw a flash of black heading our way, a leash dangling from a collar, and paws flinging up sand. They were the biggest paws I’d ever seen.
Before I could assess whether I was about to end up with two broken ankles, Leo handed me the spool, which I clutched without thinking. He jumped up and fanned in front of my chair, a feeble attempt to protect me from the running Great Dane. It didn’t work, though. Because somehow, before I knew it, I was in a heaping pile of kite string, Leo, a sideways chair, and a black Great Dane slurping my face.
Chapter Thirty-One
“Are you okay?” Leo asked, panicked, as the owner, huffing and puffing, tried his best to extract his dog from the tangled mess. I stayed very still, sideways on the sand in my chair. The owner grabbed the Great Dane’s leash and pulled him back, and Leo single handedly lifted the chair with me in it, scooching down to assess the damage. I was still holding the kite spool. “Are you hurt?”
