AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Regardless, she forgot about the dog as they mounted their horses and rode along the beach. He didn’t follow, and he wasn’t there when they got back. Clara put him out of her mind.
Chapter 20
“Are you eating moreof those chocolate-covered espresso beans?” Sunday stood at the counter in the kitchen area of the bed-and-breakfast.
There weren’t too many guests milling about at this hour, and it was just Lana, with a handful of espresso beans, along with Sunday and Clara, and a wide-awake Becky.
Becky had been awake since well before the sun came up, but Clara had convinced her that there was no need to get up until at least dawn started to break.
The kitchen smelled like coffee, but her mom was crunching on the beans like she’d found her new addiction. She popped another one in her mouth.
“You would not believe how good these things are,” she said, and then she closed her eyes like she needed time and space to enjoy it.
Clara met Sunday’s eyes, and they laughed and shook their heads.
Their mom didn’t typically eat candy at all, and she wasn’t big into chocolate either. It was kind of odd that she was falling in such love with the beans.
“Where did you get them to begin with?” Clara asked. Her mom never even bought candy. That she knew of anyway. “When we were kids, you never had junk food sitting around the house.”
“Well, I had to keep you guys healthy. So I kept it for a treat, made it an indulgence once in a while.” Lana popped another one in her mouth and chewed before she answered Clara’s first question while she poured herself a cup of freshly brewed coffee. “You remember the man we saw when we took our last walk along the beach?”
“The one who lives in the lighthouse? The one that you said you worry about occasionally?”
“Yes. That one. I kinda think that his son doesn’t like to visit, so he just sends stuff instead,” her mom said with a little bit of a condescending tone in her voice. That surprised Clara. Typically, her mom didn’t talk badly about anyone. “So his son sent them, and he gave them to me.”
Her affection for the older man was obvious.
“And the man doesn’t like them?”
“He didn’t really say,” her mom said, popping another bean into her mouth. “He just said that he thought I might like them, and he gave them to me the last time I was walking out there.”
“Which was yesterday?”
“The day before. Yesterday was pretty busy, and I didn’t get out.”
“Well, I’m pretty sure you shouldn’t eat too many of those at one time. They do have a lot of caffeine in them,” Sunday said, with her brows drawn together, like she was actually worried about their mom.
