Page 30 of Return to Rosewood Beach

“That does make me feel better.” He grinned and popped a spoonful of ice cream into his mouth. “Thank you.”

She laughed, feeling butterflies in her stomach again. He was so charming, she couldn’t help feeling delighted by him.

“Daddy!” Macey called from the front of the stroller, sounding upset.

“What’s wrong, honey?” He stopped pushing the stroller and hurried around it, crouching down in front of his daughter.

Julia stepped forward and saw that Macey had ice cream dripping down all over her hands.

“Don’t worry, Macey,” she said. “You have fun licking that off, and then I have something to make your hands less sticky.”

Macey hesitated, looking unsure and stressed, but Cooper said, “Come on, honey, lick it off. See?” He pretended to lick her hand, and she giggled. “Mm, wow. That’s delicious.”

Macey licked the ice cream off her hand, and then Cooper coached her through licking off the melted ice cream on her cone. Julia and Cooper sat down on a bench next to the stroller to finish their ice cream while Macey happily chomped on her ice cream cone.

“Done,” she said at last, and held up her sticky fingers in concern.

“You’re going to grow up to be quite the lady, Miss Macey,” Julia said, smiling at her as she rummaged in her purse for a wet wipe towelette. “Most kids don’t even think about their fingers being sticky.”

She crouched down and wiped off Macey’s hands with the towelette. Macey held up her fingers again, smiling because they felt clean.

“Here,” Cooper said after Julia had thrown away the towelette in a nearby trash can. He squirted a dollop of hand sanitizer into her palm. “I don’t want you catching whatever is making her sniffle.”

“Why thank you.” She grinned at him, spreading the hand sanitizer across her hands. “We make a good team.”

He nodded at her, grinning, and then for a moment he got a look in his eyes that made her heart start to beat a little faster.

“You’re really good with kids.” He smiled at her as they continued to walk. He’d finished his sundae while they were sitting on the bench, but she was still eating her orange sherbet and vanilla ice cream, and she found herself carefully combining the flavors in every spoonful, just like she had when she was a kid.

“Oh, gosh, I wouldn’t say that.” She blinked in surprise over his compliment. “I’m not used to kids at all. I have one niece, but I wasn’t really around when she was little like this. Honestly, I expected to feel really awkward around Macey when you said she was going to be on this date with us.”

“Well, you’re not at all. And I know she seems shy, but she definitely likes you. I can tell.” He grinned at her, and she smiled back.

For a few more minutes, they walked along in silence. The wind off the ocean gently ruffled their hair, and the air was filled with the smell of the saltwater and of French fries being sold at a nearby food truck. The sun was shining like a golden orb in a clear blue sky, and Julia took a deep breath, feeling delighted by how beautiful it all was.

“New York can’t beat this.” She half-closed her eyes for a moment, feeling the wind on her face. “Spring in Rosewood Beach is incredible. And summer is even better.”

“I’m looking forward to it.” He smiled at her a little shyly. “Will you be here in the summer?”

“Oh—I—well, I don’t know. I’m not thinking that far ahead yet. There are some things—well, I just want to be here with my family for now.”

He nodded, although he looked a little disappointed. “I understand. How is your family doing after the funeral?”

“Oh, okay I guess. We’re all supporting each other, so that’s been a huge comfort. But unfortunately, Dad’s death isn’t the only thing we need to deal with right now.”

She hesitated. She didn’t want to tell Cooper about her father’s gambling debts, not without her mother’s permission, but she decided that it would be okay to tell him about Judd McCormick’s visit.

“This man came to the pub the other day,” she continued. “Judd McCormick. Apparently, he’s been offering to buy the land from my dad for years, and now he’s pushing the same offer on my mom. She… well, she feels overwhelmed by everything and how complicated it is, and I’m worried she might cave and sell it to him. That would break her heart. The pub means so much to our family. It’s always been something that brought us together.”

Cooper nodded, listening intently to her as she spoke. “I know the guy you’re talking about. He rubbed me the wrong way, but I couldn’t really place my finger on why. Now I know it’s because he was lying to me.”

“Judd McCormick? Why?”

“Yeah, he had me do a whole landscaping estimate on the pub’s land—your family’s land. He was sure that your mom was going to sell the place to him and his sons. He kept telling me itwas a sure thing, even when I saw that there were no ‘for sale’ signs and questioned him about it.”

“Ugh, the nerve of that guy. That’s—” She felt her blood boil with indignation over the fact that Judd had gone as far as to get a landscaping estimate before the property had been sold to him. “I can’t believe that.”

“I mean, I can. He seems unusually sure of himself, doesn’t he? I almost felt like he knew something that nobody else did.”

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