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Parker got the paper off the box, but it was plain brown without any markings. He looked up at Kelli, who gave him a smile of encouragement to keep going. He slipped his fingers under the edge of the box and lifted the lid. He sucked in a breath while Kelli was still trying to figure out what she was looking at.
“It’s a pen.” He jumped to his feet. “For my tablet. She got me that pen so I can draw on the plane.” He grinned like he’d won a multi-million dollar lottery, and he ran from the room. “I’ll show you!”
Kelli laughed quietly while she picked up the wrapping paper he’d left behind. She could always tell where Parker had been. Lights got left on, shoes and clothes and backpacks discarded, dishes left out, and apparently, wrapping paper floating to the floor. She also plucked a small card from the box, and when Parker returned to the room, she held it out to him.
“You should write her a thank you card too, bud.”
“Okay,” he said, and he wouldn’t unless Kelli reminded him ten times and then sat down with him to do it. He held up the tablet. “Look. It pairs with it with just a press of a button. Then, I can write with it or draw with it.” He showed her how the pen worked with his tablet, and Kelli wasn’t a genius, but she knew that electronic pen wouldn’t have been cheap.
She’d need to write Jean a thank you card too.
Her stomach bubbled, and Kelli said, “Read the card, baby. I have to go to the bathroom, and then we better get going.” She hurried into the bathroom, but she barely had to go. She told herself over and over that it was just her nerves making her nauseous, and once Parker touched down in Newark and she got a text from him and Julian, she’d be fine.
The trip to Diamond Island was easy. Shad met them at the pier and he had a car waiting to take them to The Glass Dolphin. The restaurant was a little more upscale than where they usually ate as a family. It was more of a place where Shad would take Kelli for their anniversary.
The interior of the building held cozy booths that barely fit two people, as well as some bigger accommodations for groups. The lunch crowd was lively, and waiters and waitresses moved back and forth through the open, airy space. The building overlooked the water, so one entire side of it was built of only windows, and just like most restaurants in nautical locations, The Glass Dolphin had a gigantic fish tank with tropical fish motoring around inside it.
Kelli wouldn’t want to be the one in charge of feeding those fish or cleaning the tank. She’d once thought having a pet fish was easy, but she knew better now.
“How did the packing go?” Shad slipped his arm around her, and she leaned into his strength and comfort. She hadn’t expected to find another chance at love here in Five Island Cove, but she had. She and Shad had been married since late last summer, when she’d tied the knot with him in a near-impromptu wedding where Alice had married Arthur on the same day.
“It’s done,” she said while Parker ran off to look at the fish. She turned fully into her husband and wrapped her arms around him. “We’re going to have a great summer, aren’t we, Shad?”
He smiled down at her softly. “I don’t see why not. Just me and you, the sun, the sky, the sand.” He leaned down and kissed her. “I’ll take a ton of time off work, and we can go do something. Travel. Go to Belize. I don’t care.”
She smiled at him too. “Belize. I’ve never been there.” Kelli had never been outside of the US, in fact. Going to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls didn’t count, at least in her book.
“We can kiss in every room in the house,” he whispered. “I’ll make love to you in the kitchen if I want.” He grinned at her, and Kelli’s blood heated at the very thought. “I’ll help you finish up the back room at Whole Soul, and yeah, Kel. It’s going to be a great summer.”
“Mm.” She ran her hands up the back of his neck, her fingertips lightly scratching the short hair there. “Will you make love to me on the beach?” she whispered.
“Anywhere you want,” he murmured, kissing her again.
“We’re ready for you,” someone said, and embarrassment shot through Kelli. She’d never really been the type to kiss in public, and she disentangled herself from her husband and faced the hostess.
“Parker,” she called, and her son turned back to her. She waved at him to come as Shad started to follow the woman with their menus. She put her arm around her boy and they went after them. “Be sure to text me when you get to Newark,” she said.
“I will, Mom.” He squirmed out from under her arm and jogged to catch up to Shad. He looked at the boy with a smile, and Kelli felt a bit removed from the two of them. Several paces behind, able to see them from a distance. Shad loved Parker, and Parker loved Shad. That had never been in question for her. Her heart sang at the sight of them, and Shad turned toward her once they reached the table.
He pulled out her seat for her, waiting for her to get adjusted before he sat down. “Thank you,” he said to the hostess. They buried themselves in the menu, as they’d not been here before. The Glass Dolphin had only been open for two months, but the online reviews were great, and Kelli had heard from a lot of her clients at the yoga studio about how much they liked the salads here.
“Mango raspberry salad,” she read, her mouth already rejoicing. She scanned the other ingredients—spring greens, lemon-cured green beans, a citrus vinaigrette, and dried apricots. “That sounds good.”
“Can I get a grilled cheese?” Parker asked.
Kelli almost told him no. They could get one of those from a food truck outside the airport for far cheaper than here. She already felt out of patience though, so she simply nodded. “Get what you want,” she said.
“I’m thinking short ribs,” Shad said. “Did you see those?”
Kelli hadn’t, because she hadn’t made it out of the impressive salad section yet. Her phone buzzed on the table, and her eyes moved over to it automatically. Robin had texted, and Kelli abandoned the menu in favor of her phone.
There’d been some really juicy gossip about Kristen starting to date a man in her fifty-five-plus community. Kristen had denied the allegations wholeheartedly, but Kelli had been messaging with Jean, AJ, and the others off the main thread.
However, this message had come to the main group feed, and Robin had said,Who can come to my house for lunch tomorrow? I have a proposition for all of you…
More messages had started to come in already, as Alice had said,Proposition? This sounds scandalous. Need more details.
No more details, Robin said.I’ll feed you for free, tell you about it, and you can decide.
