Page 59 of Power Play

“Is that an eagle?” Tess cried and Kit whirled around in the passenger seat trying to look out the back window.

“I think it is!” She cried. “Good job, Tess. We should get a book about birds and animals in Maine from the bookstore.”

Tess made a happy squealing sound and I laughed.

“What?” Kit asked, sitting in the passenger seat of my truck.

“You guys are real nerds,” I said.

Kit gasped like she was offended.

“Mom says being a nerd is a good thing,” Tess said in the tone of voice of a little girl who’d been called a nerd once or twice.

Kit and I made eye contact and I could see the same sympathy in her eyes. “I meant it as a good thing,” I said.

“I was a nerd,” Kit said. “I loved books so much. The summer after my mom died I went to the library every day, all day. I read all the Harry Potter books. Might have been the best summer of my life.”

I had the good sense not to say what I was thinking.

That’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard.

I looked over at her and watched the blush climb her cheeks. She’d revealed more than she’d wanted. It was interesting stacking that little girl at the library all summer against the beautiful, sophisticated woman in Nashville. The seductress in the red dress.

We got to the first turnoff for Calico Cove but my GPS told me to take the third one.

“There are seven different coves in this town,” I said. “And I have no idea what a cove actually is.”

“A cove’s a cove,” Kit said, looking out the window at the waves crashing up on the rocky beaches along the highway.

“Oh thanks, that clears it up,” I laughed.

“It’s the nerd in me,” she said.

“Do they have names?” Tess asked. “The coves?”

I shrugged. “Probably. We’ll find out.”

Finally, I took the exit into the main part of town. We curved past some houses and ended up driving down a road with a beautiful, wide, sandy beach on our right and a charming town square with a gazebo to our left.

“Oh,” Kit cried. “How cute.”

There were tons of little boutique shops. An ice cream place. A bookstore – Tess made the squeeing noise again when she saw it. A surf shop.

“Hey, surfing!” I said, excited about the prospect.

“Have you done it?” Kit asked.

“Never. You?”

“I’m actually very good.”

“Bullshit.”

She shrugged and looked coyly out the window.

“Can we stop?” Tess asked.

“Absolutely,” I agreed, given, this felt like a real vacation and I hadn’t had one of those in a long time. I was not in the mood to deny anyone anything.

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