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Is thiscrazy?
She felt crazy.Just coming here had been crazy, and so far outside of normal for Bea.She sent the text, so tired of second-guessing herself and her thoughts, actions, and feelings.
Her muscles released, and she hadn’t even realized she’d been clenched so tightly.
It’s not crazy, Joy sent.It’s fast, Bea, and for you personally, that’s going to translate tocrazy.
Truer words had never been spoken, and Bea relaxed even further.
Fast also doesn’t mean wrong, Joy said.You know who you are.You know what’s important to you.Don’t ever question that.If you can do that, then whatever you do and however you feel—it’s probablyright.
A new lightness entered Bea, and she breathed in again.A full breath, not one that made her ribs hurt and her lungs pinch.She wasn’t eighteen, even if her hormones fired at her like she was.She could think rationally, and she understood her feelings.Fast didn’t equate to wrong.
Joy’s last text was something Bea had heard her say before, usually to her kids when something didn’t go their way, and a couple of times to Lauren as she wondered what the right career moves for her should be.
Run with it, not from it.
Tears filled Bea’s eyes, and she sent a simpleThank youto Joy.What a perfect response, from a perfect friend.
Run with it, not from it.
Bea had spent some time running from Grant this week, and she decided right then and there to change her stride and match his instead.To prove it to herself, she opened her texts to him and said,I’d love to meet Julie.Dinner on Mondaynight?
Fantastic, he answered immediately, followed by,You’re upearly.
Bea warmed under the text, though it was benign and casual.I’m always upearly.
Yeah, but I thought you might sleep in today, what with Lauren arriving so late last night.Grant said he’d get up and get some work done that morning so he could then meet them for brunch.After that, he’d called his friend at the Port Royal Plantation so they could go see the hydraulic cannon.
Did she get in okay?he asked.
Yep, Bea sent back to him.What are youdoing?
Trying not to be distracted by you, he sent back, and she giggled, the sound of it much happier and lingering for much longer this time.
All right, she said, hearing herself say it in a forced casual tone in her head.I’m just going to take a walk on the beach this morning.I’ll see you at brunch.Chestnut Tree Café?Ten-thirty?
I’ve got the reservation made.
Bea got out of bed, got dressed, and went into the kitchen.Lauren showed no signs of being awake, and Bea tucked her phone in the pocket of her leggings and left the beach cottage.The breeze swept across her bare neck and ears, making her shiver though the sun had warmed the air.
“Good morning to you too,” she said, her smile already etched on her face.Her step remained light even through the squishier sand, and once she made it to the more compact part of the beach, she picked up her pace.
She needed to get off the ranch where she lived more often.She adored walking on the beach—everything about it—and she couldn’t believe she hadn’t been spending her mornings doing this in Texas.She did live about an hour from a beach, but what else did she have to do?
She didn’t attend PTA meetings anymore.She didn’t have lunches to pack for children or a husband.She had no job that must be done at a certain time.
When she reached the sign that said the next stretch of beach was private, she turned around to go back.She’d never gone this far, and she wasn’t sure where she was on the island.She’d only taken about a dozen steps when she caught sight of a man jogging toward her.Plenty of people walked or ran on the beach in the morning.
This person wasn’t wearing the typical running clothes, and only two heartbeats later, she recognized Grant.
Her step slowed even as her pulse sped, and Grant reduced his pace to a fast walk, ran his hand through his hair, his smile vibrant and doubling the sunlight on the beach.
“Well,” she said, grinning back at him.“Strange running into you out here.”
He laughed as he jogged the last three steps to her, swept her into his arms, and spun her around.Bea wasn’t one of those twenty-something models who braced themselves against their equally-model-esque male partners and leaned down for a kiss as he twirled and twirled them.
But in that moment, she felt like one.
