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“Did you talk to them yet?”
“I called the CEO, Michael Bennet, at home. You are to report to work Tuesday morning at nine.”
“Randy, thank you so much. And I will come to visit. Tell Pam thanks. I’ll pack up and leave in an hour.”
“I’ll send a car,” he said. “Bring warm clothes.”
Pam and Randy lived right on the beach, and I figured if it was cold here in the city, it was going to be freezing. Staying for a few days seemed like the perfect panacea to what ailed me; I had discovered something about myself. I wanted a family. At the very least, I wanted a baby.
The car arrived in an hour, and by dinnertime, I was in Babylon in Pam’s beautiful house. It was toasty inside, with fires in every fireplace. The sound of the surf crashing on the beach echoed through the house.
“Randy’s on a call,” Pam said, hugging me. “He’ll be out when we eat. I’m so sorry they returned the baby to her mother when the father is still in the picture.”
“Yes!” I cried. “You’re the only one who agrees with me. I’m so worried about her.”
Pam’s assistant, Hocus, took my bags and disappeared to the guest room.
“You’re in a room at the back of the house, so you’ll hear the surf. It’s roaring,” Pam said. “I need to take the dogs for a walk before we eat, and if you need to get a breath, you can join us. It might help.”
“I’d love to walk on the beach,” I said. “I’m sure I need it.”
I pulled mittens out of my coat pocket.
“It’s freezing,” she reminded me. “The dogs are going to wear their coats.”
Giggling, she waved me over to the sliding glass doors to the veranda that wouldn’t be used on a day like this, in spite of the fire pit. Her two mutts wore stylish winter coats and matching boots. I laughed for the first time in hours, seeing them looking uncomfortable and almost embarrassed.
“They’ll probably lose the boots in the sand, but at least I’m trying to keep them warm. Are you ready, dear?”
“I’m ready.”
We went out, and thankfully, the noise was worse than the wind. I’d been on the beach with Pam before when we’d had to hold on to each other to prevent being swept away.
“Let’s go south.”
Pam’s daughter Lisa lived further south on the beach, and I hoped there wasn’t going to be a reunion with her. I hadn’t had time to really get to know her, but she was a little taciturn and for some reason, I felt like she resented my presence. We headed toward the marina. The wind was at our left side, but we weren’t being pelted by sand.
“I know it had to be so difficult to give the baby up,” Pam said, creating an opening for me to talk.
“Now that I’m here, I feel better about it. I just hope they arrest the father.”
“That does seem like the answer to everything, doesn’t it? Keep him away from the mother and baby.”
We walked a while, the lights from the marina in the distance. Before we reached Lisa’s cottage, to the right, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a FOR SALE sign on an old cottage and slowed down to look.
“Wow, a beach shack for sale!”
We stopped at the forlorn little cottage, its slate roof in danger of blowing off in the wind, shutters hanging askew, the dark windows yawning into the void.
“They rarely come up. Lisa bought the last one for sale. Now this showed up last week.”
I shivered, my shoulders up to my ears. “I would love to live on the beach. It probably costs a small fortune.”
“They do, unfortunately. I hope whoever buys that place restores it, like Lisa did hers. I hope they don’t tear it down and put up one of those awful McMansions that are popping up all over the place.”
The place was out of my reach financially. I didn’t even know how much money I’d make at the hospital. Buying a piece of property on the beach was not in my future.
“Oh! Who’s this coming up?” Pam asked.
