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“Oh, she’s here, she’s out back, hosing Princess down.”
I cocked my head. “Huh?”
Aaron laughed. “We took Princess down to the beach this morning, on the way to Carly’s, and threw the ball a little. Well, Rachel throws like a girl, and the tennis ball flew right into the ocean. Being the water-dog retriever that she is, Princess went after it, got soaking wet, and then rolled in the sand. Needless to say…she’s getting a little bath.”
As if on cue, Princess—sopping wet—came running into the room and Rachel jogged after her, holding a beach towel like a matador’s cape. “No! No! Princess!”
Aaron roared with laughter as Princess stopped in the middle of the room and shook her wet coat, showering everyone and everything with remnants from her bath.
Hunter was the only one who didn’t mind.
“I’m so sorry, Aaron! She just—” Rachel gestured like a cannonball firing.
Aaron smiled up at her and shook his head. “It’s all good. Don’t worry about it. Here’s your coffee,” he said, pulling a coffee cup from the drink holder he’d set on the coffee table that he’d pushed up against the wall when he’d made the sofa bed for us the night before.
“Thank you,” Rachel said, taking the cup from him. She ducked her chin and I grinned at the red tinge in her cheeks. I imagined that when Aaron had suggested going for an early morning beach walk, she’d envisioned it going much smoother.
I stretched forward and grabbed the box of pastries that were next to the coffee cups. Only then did Hunter jump up from the bed. “Lazy bones…” I sighed.
I selected a lemon scone, breathing in the mix of fresh bakery aroma before shutting the box again and sitting back against my pillow. Rachel chose a muffin and sat next to Aaron on the love seat. She pulled her tan legs up under her, and I caught Aaron run his eyes up her toned legs as she leaned back. “Mmmmm,” she moaned, her mouth full of her first bite. “I’m seriously moving here.”
I laughed and rolled my eyes.
“No, I’m serious! Do they have a dental office?”
Aaron laughed and took a drink of his own coffee.
“Thanks for getting all this, Aaron,” I interjected.
“No problem.”
As much as I was enjoying the lightness of the morning, the more time ticked by—the more the question in the pit of my stomach grew, quickly becoming unbearable. “Any more news?”
He shook his head. “Not so far.”
I studied the lemon glaze on my scone and nodded. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I decided to go with the saying, “No news is good news.” And forced me to relax and enjoy the morning.
After a little while, Aaron got up from his place on the love seat and announced that he had to get over to the museum to open for the day, but he promised to call as soon as he heard something and let us know we were welcome to stay at the house as long as we needed.
Rachel and I both thanked him as he left and I waited until the front door closed, before shooting Rachel a knowing glance. “All right, what’s going on?”
“What?” She asked, her eyes wide and innocent, but her mouth quirked in a not-so-innocent smile.
“With you two. He told me you went for a beach walk this morning.”
She shrugged but couldn’t get the smile off her face. “Nothing happened, we just went for a walk.”
“Uh-huh,” I replied, eying her. “And the moving talk?”
She laughed. “That was purely the food orgasm talking. Seriously, what does that woman put in these muffins?”
I had to laugh. Carly was a baking master, and I was sure that the four pounds I’d gained on my vacation had been a thanks to my daily visits to her cafe. I wanted to go see her and say hello, but I knew it would only bring up what was going on with Jack, and I really didn’t want to talk to her about it. It was hard enough talking about it with Rachel or Aaron.
“Do you think you’ll move here?” Rachel asked, her tone suddenly serious.
I looked over at her, startled by her question. “What do you mean?”
“Well, maybe not here, but wherever it is that Jack is from? North of here, right?”
I fumbled for a reply. It wasn’t something I’d thought about. Sure, before the crash, I’d thought about how Jack and I were going to survive long distance, but I’d promptly shut down any thoughts that dug too deep into the logistics, and I certainly hadn’t let myself think about uprooting my entire life to move to his base.
“I don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
“Well, for starters, right now I don’t even know if he’s coming home…” I paused, letting the harsh statement sink in. “I’m in an odd limbo since getting the news from Aaron’s friend last night. I mean—it’s clear Jack was alive—or at least, he hadn’t died in the plane crash. He was conscious when he bailed out. He had to have been. And then what? Did they find him?”
