Page 25 of Kissed By Her

The cottage was just as quaint and cute as it had looked in the pictures online, and I was itching to check out the private beach located down a little path that was too dark to navigate now.

We got our shit inside and found a welcome basket of goodies and sweet note from our host.

“Shall we?” I asked, pulling out some of the groceries we’d gotten for our stay.

“Definitely,” Joy said as Sydney dragged yet another bag into the cottage.

I started mixing dark and stormies for us and since the night was still pretty warm, we took them out to the porch to look at the stars.

There were a few mosquitoes and black flies out, so I lit the citronella candles.

“Here’s to vacation,” I said, raising my glass.

“Amen,” Joy said.

“Cheers to that,” Sydney said, and we all tapped our glasses together.

* * *

The cottage was small,but it did have three bedrooms, so we each got our own room. We’d done Rock, Paper, Scissors and I’d gotten the biggest room that also had the private bathroom. Joy and Syd had to share a bathroom between both of their rooms.

After we’d had drinks, I’d crashed in my room on the first floor, completely passing out until I heard the noises of someone in the kitchen the next morning. I’d remembered to crack the window open last night, and a cool breeze tinged with the salt of the ocean caressed my face.

Perfect.

I hit the bathroom and then went out into the main living area with an open plan living room, little dining area, and kitchen and found Joy and Sydney working on breakfast.

“Good morning my dears,” I said, stretching my arms over my head.

“Coffee?” Joy asked.

“Please,” I said. She made me a cup as Sydney stood at the stove and flipped a pan of fluffy scrambled eggs.

“Did you sleep in so you wouldn’t have to do the cooking?” Joy asked as I sipped my coffee.

“No, but it seems to have worked out for me, though,” I said. I enjoyed cooking, and intended on doing plenty of it this week, but right now it was nice to sit back and let someone else be in charge of it.

“Okay, we are ready,” Sydney said, and we filled our plates with warm croissants, eggs, bacon, and fried potatoes.

“I found a blender in the cabinet, one of those really fancy ones. We can make juice later if we want,” Joy said as I shoved eggs in my mouth.

“We could go into town and grab some stuff,” Syd said.

The three of us finished breakfast and put our suits on to go check out the beach.

It was tiny, but the sand was soft and smooth, and we splashed in the waves until it was time for lunch.

We took showers in shifts and then dressed up for an afternoon of exploring the little downtown, which was within walking distance of the cottage. Our host had even provided tote bags to carry our treasures home in.

The three of us strolled up and down the street, taking our time and looking at everything. There was a term for this town, and it was “tourist trap” and we were happy to be tourists and pretend we didn’t live just a few hours away and had access to many of the items that filled the various little stores we ducked into.

“Do I need this? I think I need this,” I said, holding up a bag made from old sails that had a blue octopus on one side and an outline of the state of Maine on the other.

“You absolutely need that, and I need this one,” Joy said, holding up another bag with a red anchor on it. Syd chose the bag with black nautical stripes.

“This is much less permanent than getting tattoos to commemorate this trip,” Joy said.

“We could still get tattoos,” Syd said.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com