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The little boy—who would turn one in another month—practically dove for her. She caught him at the last moment, but she had to bend deeply to do it. She went down on her knees to keep him from splatting against the sand, and everyone’s voices rose in a cry.
In a split second, Theo was there, kneeling at her side and helping her support Asher. Her breath whooshed out of her body as she took in the child. “Is he okay?”
“He’s fine,” Theo said. He looked only at her, and Kristen finally stopped examining Asher, who giggled in her arms, and met his gaze.
“I’m okay.” The moment solidified between them, and Kristen wasn’t sure what ran through her head. Maybe nothing. Maybe a future with the handsome older gentleman she’d been spending more and more of her time with.
“You can’t do that, Asher,” AJ said, and the moment broke. She took Asher from Kristen, and the boy fussed.
Matt dropped to his knees too, and he put both hands on Kristen’s elbows. He wore only concern in his eyes. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” she said.
“I didn’t know he was going to do that. He just…jumped.” He steadied her while she got to her feet, and Kristen’s embarrassment streamed through her.
“You were like a ninja,” Lisa said with a smile. “You caught him so fast.” She was a lovely woman, on her way to medical school in another couple of months. She was living with Matt and AvaJane in the meantime, and she adored her half-brother.
Kristen smiled at her and said, “I love what you did with your hair, dear.” She reached up and touched hers almost subconsciously. “I should cut mine short like that.”
“You should.” Lisa’s face grew more animated. “I went to this woman named Sherri. She’s fantastic with short hair.” She threw a look at Matt. “She could color it too, if you want the gray taken out.”
Kristen brushed at her strands again. Theo’s hair was completely white now, and she adored it. “I rather like the gray,” she said. “I think I’ve earned every one of them, and I don’t want to cover them up.”
She grinned at Lisa, who giggled. “I bet you have.” She looked past Kristen to the funnel cakes. “Are we eating dessert first?”
“Is there a better time?” Theo asked. Kristen smiled at him and slipped her hand back into his. They moved forward in line again, and with their shoulders pressing together, almost hiding their hands from the trio behind them, he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it.
It was so sweet and so simple, and Kristen missed the days where love and romance could bloom through letters. Telephone calls once a week had been expensive and oh-so-special. Old, yellow-and-brown photographs that had been exchanged. All of the simplicity of earlier times, without so much digital content and immediate access to everything.
She gave him a soft smile, and then it was their turn to order. “I want one with strawberries, please,” he told the girl who stood a few steps above them. “Kristen?”
“I just want one with honey, please,” she said.
“Matt?”
“We can get our own,” he said.
“And whatever they want,” Theo said. He stepped to the side slightly as he dug out his wallet. Kristen looked at Matt, Lisa, and AJ. She nodded toward the girl, and AJ looked like she’d been yanked forward by a rope.
“I’ll have a strawberry one too.”
“AvaJane,” Matt said.
“Let him pay,” Kristen said. “Lord knows he has a lot of money.”
“Well, then.” Lisa put in her order for a powdered sugar funnel cake, and Matt added on a third strawberry one.
“Are you headed over to the mayor’s stage?” AJ asked.
“Yes,” Kristen said. “We haven’t missed it, have we?”
“It’s not until one,” AJ said. She wore big, movie-star sunglasses, and she’d put Asher back in the pack on Matt’s back while they waited for their treats.
Kristen thought about Eloise at Aaron Sherman’s side. Their wedding last year had been the single most beautiful event Kristen had attended in the past decade, but Eloise did not like the spotlight. Being married to the Chief of Police, whose father was the mayor, had effectively thrust her into such a light.
By some miracle, they found a table in the produced shade of an umbrella, and Kristen could sit there for a good, long while and watch the waves come ashore. “Remember when you girls came to the lighthouse on Halloween?”
AJ looked up from her cake and strawberries. Her face slowly settled into a smile. “Vaguely.” She looked over to Lisa and Matt. “She forgets that I went to therapy for a lot of years to forget my childhood.”
