Page 72 of Changing Tides

“Oh, she told you!” Parker wails.

Avie smiles and mouths the words,Thank you.

I wink at her as I wave down the server and add a large plate of French fries to go with my wings.

Avie and Amiya excuse themselves to go pack up their things under the pier while we pay. Leia stays behind with us so she can finish her coconut milkshake.

As the four of us walk down the steps that lead to the beach, Leia notices a ghost crab scurrying across the sand.

“Look,” she calls as she jumps in the air, and Parker and I take her hands and pick her up.

“Whoa, that was close. It almost got you,” Parker says.

“Do it again,” Leia requests.

Anson clicks the flashlight on his phone and illuminates the path in front of us, and dozens of the tiny crustaceans scatter. We pick her up again, this time thrusting her higher in the air as she squeals.

“Again,” she cries.

We continue to swing her above the sand as we make our way back to the pier.

We come across a beached jellyfish, and Leia wants to inspect it.

“Not too close. It can still sting you,” I warn as she leans over the sticky glob.

“It’s pretty,” she says as she examines it closely.

A little boy walks over, holding his father’s hand. When they near the jellyfish, he pulls the boy into his arms and carries him to the surf.

“Daddy, I want to look at it,” he whines.

Leia watches them as they make it to the water, and the man dips the boy in and out of the crashing waves.

“My daddy doesn’t love me anymore,” she says out of nowhere.

“What? Why would you say that?” I ask as I crouch down beside her.

She shrugs. “He went away,” she says sadly.

“That doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you.”

“Mommy said he doesn’t.”

I look up at Parker in confusion.

“She told you that?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “I heard her tell Aunt Miya in the car. She thought I was sleeping, but I woke up.”

“I bet you misunderstood them,” I tell her.

She looks up at me. “What does miss stood mean?”

Parker picks her up from her spot in front of the blob, bends and sets her on his knee.

“Sometimes, when little ones”—he taps the tip of Leia’s nose—“hear adults talking, they don’t understand what is being said because grown-ups talk differently than little ones do,” he explains.

“But they said Daddy didn’t want me anymore. If he loved me, he would. ’Cause Mommy loves me and she wants me.”

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