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“Get your shoes and your bag,” he said to his son. It took Tommy another half-hour to get everything he wanted to tow back to his mother’s. When he’d been packing up his game machine and taking it back and forth, Blake had nearly lost his mind. He’d finally bought Tommy one to have here, and he had a permanent bedroom with a desktop computer in the kitchen that only he used too.
At least Blake got a few more emails answered while he waited, and since it was the height of summer, the sun would be shining for a while yet.
“Dad,” Tommy said once they’d settled in the SUV and were making the drive off Hilton Head and around to the ferry port that would take them to Carter’s Cove.
“Yep.” He glanced over to his son, who wore a nervous expression. He wasn’t very good at hiding how he felt, and Blake actually liked that. “What’s wrong?”
“I got some weird texts today,” Tommy mumbled.
Blake leaned closer, trying to hear better. “Weird texts?”
“From a girl.” Tommy sighed and shoved his phone under his leg. “They made me feel weird.”
Blake didn’t like the sound of this. “Read them to me.”
“No.” Tommy shook his head. “They’re too embarrassing. I’m not reading them out loud.”
“I’m reading them when we get to the ferry,” Blake said.
Tommy said nothing, and the fact that he couldn’t read his son’s phone right now sent anxiety through him. He drove faster, but there was traffic, and the highway system couldn’t handle his impatience.
They finally made it, and Blake took his son’s phone the moment the car wasn’t moving anymore. He scanned the texts, and he could instantly see why Tommy was uncomfortable. “Who is this?” Blake asked.
The girl wasn’t labeled in Tommy’s phone, and she hadn’t identified herself.
“Sally-Ruth,” Tommy said. “She lives a couple of blocks over from Mama.”
“She wants to send you pictures.” Blake didn’t want to see those. “How old is she?”
“Fifteen,” Tommy said. He got out of the SUV and opened the back door. He collected his backpack and turned toward the ferry station. Blake scrambled after him.
“Where did she get your number?”
“She said Gwen gave it to her.”
Blake knew Gwen. She was Tommy’s best girl-friend, and they’d been friends since the first grade. She lived only a few doors down from Tommy and Jacinda, and she still came over all the time. At least according to Blake’s knowledge.
He had no idea what to tell his son. They joined the line for the ferry, as they had permanent passes they only renewed once a year. “You did the right thing by telling me,” he said. “And not deleting the texts.”
He took screenshots of the texts and sent them to himself. Then he’d be able to show Jacinda without needing his son’s phone, and he couldn’t believe it, but he kind of wanted to talk to Lauren about the messages too.
He’d never been a great single parent, because he needed to bounce his thoughts off someone else. He loved talking things out and over, just to make sure his mind wasn’t making too big of a deal out of something or making too little of it.
He didn’t like silence either, though this afternoon in the hammock with Lauren had been soothing.
They made it to Carter’s Cove, and then they waited in line for the shuttle that took people around to various places. In the summertime, they ran all the time, so they didn’t have to wait long. People also zipped around in golf carts, and Jacinda owned one of those, which she drove over to her shop every day.
She made candles, bath bombs, and other scented bath and body items out of her house. Then, she sold them to tourists and locals in the afternoons and evenings, when the streets and the beaches were filled with people.
They got off the shuttle only a half-block from the house, and Blake swore he could smell oranges in the air already.At least she uses something that smells good, he thought.
Blake walked in silence to the house, still lost in his thoughts about what to tell Tommy and what to say to Jacinda. “Tommy,” he said when they started crossing the lawn. “I don’t want you to respond to that girl.”
“Okay.” His son kept going, and Blake reached out and tugged on his arm to get him to stop.
“She’s too old for you, and she’s clearly doing and saying things you’re not interested in.”
“Yeah.” Tommy met his eyes, and Blake pulled his son into a hug.
