Page 6 of Seal of Approval

“Rose had her heart set on a kitten,” a woman said. “So, they got Timmy. That kitten hardly leaves their side.”

Rose placed the kitten on the board next, under the watchful eye of her brother. They were a lot calmer now than when I’d first seen them.

“I’m Lily,” the woman said, drawing my attention to her. Her curly greying hair and ready smile helped me relax. “And this is my husband, Jack. I bet he forgot to introduce himself.”

“Ethan. Nice to meet you both.”

Jack faced his wife. “Ethan came in to see what we stock.”

“I’ll give you the shortest tour in the name of short tours,” she said.

Lily walked me through the shop, telling me about the different products. It wasn’t large—two short aisles with shelves.

“We don’t hold much stock. There are only ten permanent residents in town. We do our shopping in Somewhere Bay.”

That made sense.

“We stock what we find the tourists are most in need of. Grey nomads like to support small local businesses, so we make sure we cater to them. We have a small book section where Jack sells his second-hand books.”

I cocked my head. “Grey nomads?”

“Retirees, travelling around Australia. We call them grey nomads because they’re older and often have grey hair.”

I nodded and glanced at the shelves as we walked past. There was long-life milk, pasta, toiletries, snacks. The freezer had bread, fries and vegetables.

“Sara lives next door. She’s a part-time teacher in Somewhere Bay and operates the fish and chip shop here. It’s very popular. We all have a bonfire once a week with fish and chips and people travel all the way from Somewhere Bay to join us. Plus, there’s always the tourists and campers.”

It sounded like a nice sense of community. And an inclusive one too, if tourists were welcomed.

“Ross and Jay are in the next shop over. Ross is a doctor in Somewhere Bay. Jay runs the shop and doggy day care. They’ve been married for five years. No children yet, but they’re working on it. Adoption is hard in Australia, so they’re looking into surrogacy.”

It was weird that everyone knew everything about each other. In San Francisco, you could live a completely anonymous life. How much would the town inhabitants know about me by the end of the day? What would Jasmine tell them?

“It will be strange for Jasmine and the children to have someone living with them,” Lily said as we returned to the front counter, confirming that Jasmine was a single mom. It would be strange for me too. I wasn’t going to tell Lily that, though.

How much would Jasmine expect me to integrate with their lives? Not much, I hoped. All I wanted to do was complete the next step in earning my doctorate.

CHAPTER FIVE

Jasmine

I served dinner and took my place at the table. Bailey had hardly spoken a word since he’d gotten home. He glanced at Ethan furtively and then back at his plate. Ethan was the perfect reflection of Bailey. Was he always this quiet?

“Meat pie, my favourite,” Rose said, grinning. She poked at the golden flaky pastry, nodding with satisfaction. Then she screwed her nose up at the vegetables. “They’re not my favourite.”

“Eat them first then,” I suggested, like I always did.

“But what if I run out of room and miss out on my pie? That would be a tragedy.”

I laughed. Tragedy was her new favourite word. It was amazing how many things could be a tragedy in a nine-year-old’s life.

“Do you like meat pies, Ethan?” she asked.

“Yes. We call them pot pies in America.”

Bailey’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”

I smiled to myself. Curiosity would always drive Bailey to open up. Even if it was just a simple question like this. He was what I called a whale learner. A whale opens its mouth to take in all the water in its path. Bailey was the same with learning. He opened his mind to everything and took it all in. He may have been nervous about Ethan’s presence, but that didn’t stop his question.

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