Page 14

The door jingled, and I felt bad about the chill that followed me into the warm space.

“Welcome to Breakwater Toys and Gifts.” Anita beamed, like I was the most important customer she’d ever had.

The man hovering over the chair turned to greet me as well, a rainbow-peppered picture book in his hands. Was that a unicorn?

“Turner,” he whispered under his breath, and I’m not sure I would have recognized him if he hadn’t said my name, and not just because I’d never seen him in anything but shorts.

“Dalton.” I smiled back, looking over the woman's shoulder to take him in. He'd grown a good couple of inches since I'd seen him last, not surprising since he'd only been maybe fifteen when I first visited Breakwater. Of course, he’d sprung up over the course of two years. It was hard to tell at a distance and with him standing on the riser, but I thought he might even be taller than me. His hair was shorn, a darker brown than I remembered from my last visit, and his voice had matured. He sounded surprised as he whispered my name. As well he should be.

I shouldn’t have come.

Anita turned and looked behind her, then swung back, studying my face, her frizzy hair whipping around, trying to keep up with her.

We’d met for one brief week, two Christmases ago, and had spent a few short mornings together, talking business over coffee. I didn’t expect her to remember me despite the fact that memories of her and her vibrant store had filled my dreams for the past two years.

Anita looked behind her again, and my gaze followed. Dalton was staring at me, his cheeks as pink as the cover of the children’s book he clung to.

Though she wasn't facing me directly, from my vantage point I could tell that Anita’s eyes went wide as if questioning Dalton.

The air felt heavy between the three of us as she continued to stare at Dalton. I thought my anxiety had reached an apex as I’d walked to the store, trying to figure out what exactly my plan was since I’d arrived at Breakwater Beach. My pulse was now ten times as fast as it had been while I’d fought the cold and the winds coming off of the beach, trying to decide not only where I was going to sleep for the night, but where I planned to spend the next chapter of my life.

My eyes were locked on Dalton’s. Eventually, he cleared his throat, slowly placing the book on top of the box that sat nestled in the chair and coming to stand between us.

“Anita, you remember Brett’s friend from college, Turner. I didn’t know you were coming, Turner. It’s … really nice to see you again.”

I could see the blush traveling from Dalton’s cheeks to the collar of his heavy navy sweater. The contrast of the deep pink and the dark blue made the flush all the more obvious. He’d really grown up in the two years since I’d been there. Not just in height, his closer proximity proving we were about equals there, but I could tell even through the sweater that he had filled out, and his face had matured. Two years ago, I’d spent time with a kid. The Dalton before me was clearly on the cusp of becoming a man.

We smiled at each other awkwardly, then I turned toward Anita, but Dalton kept on talking.

“Brett didn’t tell me you were coming,” he said. “He’ll be thrilled you’re here. Mallory will be here in a few days as well. It’s their first holiday together, and I think Brett is losing his mind a little bit about that. She’s staying until Christmas morning, then they’re heading to her family’s. But you must know all that already …” Dalton trailed off as if he was embarrassed by his babbling. I found it endearing and smiled at him. His demeanor may have been charming, but his words were heavy to me. I was there hoping to be invited for the holiday, and it sounded like my best friend wasn’t even going to be there for part of it.

I had been concentrating on Dalton, so I had to snap back to Anita when she turned fully toward me, stuck out her hand, and interrupted his rambling. The woman looked like she was mapping every emotion that I was apparently no good at keeping off my face. Her eyes softened, and her smile turned from a customer-service grin to something more real.

I removed my cap and shoved it in the pocket of my coat along with the sunglasses.

“Turner, of course. Welcome back to Breakwater. Brett speaks of you often. The friend from … Illinois?”

“Wisconsin,” I corrected.

“Wisconsin,” she confirmed. “The business major. Are you here to shop? Or just saying hello to Brett’s little brother?” Said little brother caught my attention again by making an awkward, jerking half turn, to return to the riser and bend down over the box on the chair. The move wasn’t so quick that I couldn’t see the blush that had not abated. The smirk on Anita’s face led me to believe she hadn’t missed it either.

“I, um …” My glance shot once more to the figure who was no longer leaning over the chair but rather taking copies of the same pink-and-rainbow unicorn book over to one of the shelves that lined the reading nook.

“Shopping. I’m shopping, of course! I need …” Dalton looked up at my stammering and smiled before turning and placing the books on a low shelf that looked as if it had space cleared for them.

“Dalt?” Anita got his attention as he stood and moved back to the box.

“Yeah?” For some reason, Dalton was looking at me and not his boss.

“That’s enough, don’t you think? I hope they’ll fly off the shelves, and if they do, we can always pull more from the back.”

“Yeah, yes, okay,” Dalton agreed.

“You can take off if you want, once you’ve got those shelved in the back. The weather’s so brutal that I don’t think we’re going to have many customers today. I’m sure I can handle them.”

“Oh. Okay. Thanks, Miss Anita. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“See you then, son.”