Page 43 of Changing Tides

“What’s concede?” Leia asks.

“It means he’s a quitter, LeLe,” Amiya bellows.

“He’s giving up,” Anson confirms.

Her eyes come to me. “So, I win? We get ice cream?”

“It’s getting late,” I start.

“A bet’s a bet. And a man never reneges on payment,” Sebastian says.

She looks at him in confusion.

“I’m buying you ice cream.”

She smiles wide, her dimples make an appearance, and I swear the three men sitting across from her swoon.

I shake my head.

“Not tonight though. You have a tummy full of crab, and it’s getting late. I don’t want to be up nursing a tummy ache all night.”

Leia’s bottom lip comes out, and I glance across to see Sebastian pouting at me as well.

“Stop it, both of you,” I demand.

“Tell you what. I’ll take you guys fishing this weekend, and we’ll get ice cream then. How does that sound?” he asks Leia.

“Can Minnow come too?” she asks.

“Minnow can come too,” he agrees.

“Deal!”

Sebastian

“And to what do I owe this pleasure?” Nana asks as I hop out of my Bronco.

She has a pair of gardening gloves on and a spade in her hand, tilling at the ground around her mailbox.

“Can’t a man just want to come by and see his favorite grandmother for no reason?” I ask as I kiss her cheek.

“He can. He usually does not,” she notes.

“Gramps asked if I’d swing by and help him open the pool this evening. He’ll be finished with his last charter in about half an hour,” I explain.

“Oh, wonderful. I was hoping to have it open so Leia and I can swim next week,” she says.

At the mention of the little girl, my gaze drifts across the street.

“Avie’s having lunch with her director today,” she informs me.

I shrug. “I didn’t ask,” I say.

She gives me a knowing smile. The same one she would give me and my brother and cousins, growing up. The all-wise-grandmother expression.

“Bastian!”

I turn back to the cottage at the sound of Leia’s voice and can just make out her mess of brown curls over the fence.

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