We both turn in the direction of the male voice and see a dark-headed man jogging over to us.
Raquel is suspiciously silent as she hands me a bottle of water from her bag. I twist the cap off and take a drink as my breathing returns to normal.
“Sorry,” he repeats as he approaches us. “My buddies don’t have great aim.” He smiles and reveals a set of straight, pearly white teeth. “Hi. I’m Jake.”
I eye him from behind my sunglasses. If the frisbee had not taken my breath away, he definitely would have. He’s tall, like Raquel, has jet-black hair and striking green eyes. They remind me of my mother’s and for a moment, it’s like I’m staring into hers again.
Raquel coughs, bringing me back into the moment and away from thinking about my mom. Jake turns to her and smiles again.
“Hi, Raquel.”
“Hi, Jake,” she says politely. “This is Thea. Thea, this is Jake Osborne.”
“Thea,” Jake repeats. I like how my name lingers on his tongue. “Pleasure to meet you. And again, sorry about the…” he trails off as he motions to his neck. He bends down and picks up the frisbee, never once breaking eye contact with me. He smiles and gives a little wave before tossing the frisbee to his group of friends and jogging back to them.
I stare after him and watch as he and his friends continue their fun.
“You good?” Raquel asks as she sits down on her towel and pulls out her own bottle of sunscreen.
“Uh, yeah,” I mutter, forcing my eyes away from Jake. I lay my towel out beside hers and sit down while she coats her limbs in sunscreen. Freckles splatter her entire body. We sit in silence for a few moments before she declares she is going to take a dip. I hang back, digging my toes deep down into the sand. I lay back on my towel and let myself relax, my fingers fiddling with my necklace. I time my breathing to the sound of the ocean waves and for the first time in a while, truly feel at peace. It’s in this moment that the voice in the back of my head verifies my decision to come to Driftbay. I never would have found this kind of peace in Seattle.
I lay there for a while, feeling the warmth of the sun wrap around me like a hug. I run my hands through the sand and come across a few lone seashells. I sit up and push my sunglasses into my hair to get a better look at them before I toss them into my beach bag.
I watch as Graham walks out of the water, surfboard in hand. My eyes drift back to Jake and his friends as Raquel frolics along the tide.
I shake my head to physically move my eyes off of him.You don’t have the capacity for a relationship right now,I remind myself. I came to Driftbay to focus on myself and that’s how it needs to stay.
But hey, it never hurts to look.
Chapter Three
“So, what’s going on with you and Charlie?”
I drop the plate I’d been washing. It clangs around the bottom of the sink, causing me to jump before the silence sets in. The longer I pause, the greater the implication of what I say next. Addressing Charlie to Thea means addressing to myself what we really are as well, and that’s not a conversation I’m ready for on either account.
Charlie and I have never been on the same wavelength. He was my first friend when I moved to Driftbay thirty-five years ago, but we were young then and he was married to his high-school sweetheart. Later, they divorced but I was in a committed relationship at the time. And now…we tiptoe around the line between us, fearing fate tossing another obstacle in our way. It’s just easier this way. No one gets hurt.
I’ve spent the majority of my adult life alone. I moved halfway across the country to go to college, away from my sister and our parents. I craved independence and moving far away seemed like the only way to get it. I majored in business and loved the area so much that I stayed after I finished school. I ended up opening the diner after graduation, much to my parents’ dismay. Maybe dismay isn’t the right word. I just know that they weren’t exactly as proud of it as they were of my sister. Don’t get me wrong; I know my parents loved me and were proud of me but there’s just…well, the scales aren’t weighted quite the same for a doctor and diner-owner.
I made a few other friends during my youthful years but once the diner really took off, I didn’t really have time to do much else. I became married to the job. Girlfriends stopped coming by, boyfriends became nonexistent. All except for Charlie. Charlie stood by me through it all — a study partner on late-night review sessions in college, assisting with menu revisions, offering advice on what to serve at the diner (his favorite activity to help with), and helping vet applications when I needed to hire more people. To this day, he still sits in on interviews with me. It’s just our thing. It’s part of who we are.
Thea stares at me with a bewildered expression, the smirk on her lips growing stronger by the second.
“Charlie,” I begin, unsure of how to divulge decades’ worth of will they or won’t they to her, “is my friend.”
Simple enough. I leave it at that.
“OH-Kay,” she replies in a mocking tone. It’s obvious she doesn’t believe me.
“Really,” I double down.
“Mm-hmm.” She gets up from the table and walks over to the sink, setting her dishes in the soapy water. “A friend doesn’t look at you the way Charlie did this morning.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I let my hands rest in the warm water.
“I’m just saying,” Thea begins. “He looked like he has it bad for you.” She turns to leave.
I don’t bother arguing with her. Instead, I start chewing on the inside of my cheek while I replay the morning’s events.
