Page 17 of Surprised By Her

“So far, so good. I’m adjusting to not having so much to do and living without food delivery.”

I laughed. “Yeah, that’s a big one. You can’t just call and order a pizza when you don’t want to cook.” Fortunately, I didn’t do a lot of cooking, since my parents took care of it. I was pretty spoiled that way.

“I should let you get home, I’m sure you had a long day at work,” she said, stepping back.

“Oh, yeah. I should get this ice cream home before it melts.”

There was no ice cream in my cart, but she didn’t need to know that.

“Good to see you again,” she said.

“Wait,” I said as she turned around. “You sure you don’t want to spill something on me to even us up?”

Ryan gave me one of those flashes of a smile again. “Next time.”

She headed toward the registers and I checked my list again and grabbed the last few items I needed. Ryan had already left, and I was wishing that we’d talked for longer. Time spent with her never felt like enough.

I’d had crushes in the past, and even a few relationships, but it had been a long time since I’d had these kinds of feelings about someone. When my anxiety had really gotten bad, it was like I’d shut off all these parts of me in service of survival. It’s hard to think about dating when you can’t even eat in a restaurant without having a panic attack.

With Ryan, those feelings were igniting again, and it was almost a relief. I’d thought that some of those parts of me might have died, or that I was unable to feel that way about someone again.

Of course, my crush had to be on the most completely unattainable woman in the history of women. Way to go, Everly.

That weekend I didn’t want to socialize, but I felt the need to get out of the house. Sometimes I liked to be around people, but not be with people. That was kind of hard to find in Arrowbridge, so since the weather was gorgeous, I headed down to the beach in Castleton. I loved that the ocean was so close to where I lived now, and it was a lot less intense than a beach in Massachusetts. My parents were going on an antiquing trip together, so I packed up my beach bag and chair in my car and headed out after breakfast for a day of sand and sun. No one gave you a weird look if you were by yourself at the beach, which was another good reason to go.

There was not a cloud in the perfectly blue sky as I parked my car and grabbed my stuff. I knew Layne and her group came here a lot, but I was hoping I wouldn’t bump into anyone I knew. The energy just wasn’t there for a whole lot of talking. I wanted to sit and read my book and take a quick dip and look for cool rocks to add to the collection on my windowsill. Ever since I was a kid, I always picked up interesting rocks and pebbles everywhere I’d gone. My parents loved to tell the story of me shoving rocks in my diaper and socks when I was little. More often than not I had one in my pocket and I would grab and hold onto it to help ground me when I was feeling anxious. Since I’d moved here, I’d found some excellent rocks in Castleton.

I huffed and puffed my way down the sand until I found an area that was further away from other people and set up my chair and towel. The sound of the waves was already so calming that I knew I’d made the right choice to come today.

I pulled out my bottle of ice water, my book, and set my phone on silent. Perfection.

I slipped into the book, a shorter novel about two former sports rivals who ended up in Cabo together with friends that Joy had recommended to me. The banter was great and it was really funny how competitive they were with each other. Halfway through I decided to stretch my legs and see just how cold the water was. Maine water was a whole lot colder than I was used to, that was for sure.

I pulled off the caftan I wore over my suit and folded it in my bag, which I clipped to and shoved under my chair.

“Shit, that’s cold,” I said as the waves rushed over my toes. I crept slowly in until I was up to my knees and wondered how there were people who just completely dove in and swam around like it was nothing. Not for me.

After I felt like I’d had enough of the water, I headed toward the edge of the beach, which was cluttered with shells and rocks and clumps of seaweed and other detritus.

I walked carefully over the stones, searching for anything that caught my eye. My favorites were always the ones that had a ring of color around them, known as wishing rocks. Mama had told me about them when I was little and ever since then, I tried to find as many as possible and make wishes on them.

The first rock I picked up wasn’t right and I tossed it away after cleaning it with my fingers. A second rock also wasn’t as pretty once I wiped away the sand.

Turned out third time was the charm as I found a dark gray rock with not one, but two unbroken white bands around it. Did that make it a double wishing rock?

“Find anything good?” a voice said, and I almost dropped the rock and slipped at the same time. Strong fingers helped me stay upright as I stared up into Ryan’s face.

“We just keep ending up in the same place, don’t we?” she said, and I nodded. As the shock of seeing her wore off, I noted her outfit. She wore a simple black swimsuit top under a thin tank and a pair of board shorts and leather sandals. Sparkly polish winked on her toenails, and it seemed out of step with the rest of her look.

“Nice toes,” I couldn’t stop myself from saying.

She wiggled them. “The twins got a hold of me.”

I looked up into her face. “They can be very convincing,” she added.

“It looks great,” I said.

“You don’t have to lie, Everly,” she said.

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