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“Yeah.” Caitlin put her phone away. “I’m always so impressed with what she can come up with. She always wants to see what I’m doing and always loves to help. I hope she doesn’t grow out of that phase too quickly. She loves to help me tidy up and cook sometimes. I mean, she sometimes does more harm than good, but it’s the thought that counts, right?”
“Definitely. I can’t imagine what kinds of foods I’d put together if I helped my parents cook dinner as a child,” Michael said.
“Most of the time she follows my directions, but other times… oof.” Caitlin shook her head. “Once she saw some kind of crazy cake online and wanted to try it. It was some rainbow topsy turvy cake with fondant animals on top. I’m a much better cook than I am a baker, but the recipe wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle with Pearl’s help.”
“Or so you thought?”
“Or so I thought. It was one of those things that was simple, but not easy. We had to make the batter, separate it into different bowls to color everything, then we had to swirl it together to make a rainbow marble pattern. Pearl went nuts with the food coloring, which somehow threw off the texture. And the colors were muddy so it was more like a messy puddle than a rainbow.”
“But did it taste okay?”
“It was cake so it was only so bad. But the even better part was the decoration. Fondant isn’t my favorite already, so layering that on our wonky cake and making even more fondant animals made it even worse. And the animals looked deranged.”
“Do you have a photo?”
“I think so. Just a second.” Caitlin stopped and pulled out her phone again. After some digging, she found the photo and burst out laughing. “They’re even worse than I remember.”
They’d made a horse, a cat, and a dog, though they all looked more or less the same—blobs of sugar with lopsided faces and ears. Michael laughed too.
“The best part was that Pearl tried to comfort me after she saw how it turned out,” Caitlin said, walking again. “I guess it must have been after a day where nothing really went right so it got to me a little bit.”
“That’s sweet. She sounds like a great kid.”
“She is.”
Caitlin bit her lip, trying to imagine Michael interacting with kids. She knew he hired teenagers at Tidal Wave Coffee but that was different than dealing with younger kids. Or having some of his own. Her stomach fluttered, but not in the same way as it had when she watched him run his hand through his hair. This flutter almost stopped her from speaking, but she found her voice.
“Have you ever thought of having kids of your own?” she asked.
Michael looked at her. The silent look had layers to it, ones that made Caitlin feel even more off-balance than she did before she asked.
“I never really thought about it much, honestly. I was busy with my business and surfing. It was like balancing two separate careers, almost. I didn’t even have much of a social life either. I never thought of myself as the family man type like my own father.” He paused. “But now I’m not so sure. I think it’s something I would want after all.”
Caitlin’s heart bounced in her chest. “What changed your mind?”
Michael looked back at her, his eyes softer than before. Her heart bounced again, swooping in her chest.
“You did, actually,” he said. “Seeing you with Pearl and seeing the bond you have made me realize that I’ve been missing out. My business and my surfing are important to me, but they can’t top something like that. Something that fills your heart and makes it expand in ways you never knew were possible.”
Caitlin swallowed, looking down at her feet. Despite not having kids, he really understood how it felt.
“Even though James and I didn’t work out, I’ll never regret having Pearl,” she said. “It’s just like you said—she made my heart grow in ways I never thought were possible. It’s hard sometimes, but every hard day is more than worth it.”
Michael grinned in response, but didn’t say more for a while. They looped back through the path, facing the lighthouse again. Caitlin stole a few glances at him as they walked and chatted about other things happening around Blueberry Bay. Every time she did, she thought the fluttering in her chest would wane, but it didn’t. He truly had a kind heart, and she found herself falling for him more and more by the second.
* * *
“Make sure you plug the drain,” Caitlin said, bumping Alissa with her hip as she passed her in the kitchen. “Wouldn’t want you to drop your ring down it while you do the dishes.”
“Oh, good call.” Alissa gently pulled off her engagement ring and put it safely in the middle of her kitchen counter, far away from the sink.
She absolutely adored her ring, She would have loved anything he’d given her, but the ring was so perfect that it was as if he’d plucked it out of her dreams.
“It’s weird—it feels so new on my finger and I can’t help but stare at it all day when I type,” Alissa said, turning on the water. “That manicure we got doesn’t help either. It’s so glittery.”
Caitlin had taken her to the nail salon to get manicures after the engagement since Alissa was showing people her hand so much. Alissa usually wasn’t one for that kind of pampering, but she loved the results. The delicate seafood green of her polish, with one glittery accent nail, made typing feel fancy for some reason. Sometimes when she looked down, she wondered if her hands were even hers.
“It looks great.” Caitlin smiled, grabbing a dish towel to dry the dishes while Alissa washed. “Have you guys talked about the wedding at all?”
