Page 126 of Beach Vibes

Except ever since her brother had told her to find someone she already liked and trusted, she’d been thinking about Dex. She knew her brother would never set her up to be humiliated, which maybe meant that he knew something about how Dex felt about her. But Dex had never once hinted he had feelings, so maybe she was wrong about the whole thing. Only Dex was kind of the one guy in her life who wasn’t Teddy.

When the graduation ceremony wrapped up, she was no closer to an answer than she had been before. She made her way through the crowd to where her family and Dex waited. They all raced toward her and hugged her.

“You did great,” her brother told her while Linnie danced in place.

“I saw you, Mommy. Did you hear me?”

“I did. You were very loud. It was great!” Jana turned to Dex. “I heard you yelling, too.”

He winked. “I’ll always yell for you.”

An easy, casual statement that shouldn’t have meant anything, nor did it. Not exactly.

They drove back to the house. The late-afternoon graduation was to be followed by a barbecue. Jana was surprised to find a pile of presents waiting on the kitchen table.

“What’s all this?” she asked. “You didn’t have to do this.”

“We wanted to,” Magnolia told her. “Milestones need to be celebrated.”

They all gathered around the table and watched as she opened her gifts. There was a beautiful gold heart necklace with her name and Linnie’s engraved on it. Her daughter climbed in her lap as she put it on.

“That’s you and me,” Linnie told her.

Jana’s heart squeezed tight from all the love. “It is us, isn’t it?” She looked at her brother. “Thank you.”

“Wasn’t me,” he said with a grin. “Your daughter picked it out.”

Teddy and his kids gave her a folding laptop table for her bed, a bedside shelf that tucked between the mattress and box spring, and a fluffy robe.

“For all the homework,” Atlas said. “Dad told us you’d have even more than you have now. So you can study in bed, then take a nap and study some more.”

“Very thoughtful. Thank you.”

She hugged all three children, then turned to what was obviously a couple of bottles of wine. The label had been customized to read, “Pairs well with graduation.” There was a bottle of red and a bottle of white.

“Those will be fun,” she told her brother. “Thank you.”

“I expect you to share.”

“I’m happy to.”

The last gift was from Dex. Jana fumbled a little as she tore the wrapping paper on the six-by-nine-inch box. When she opened it, she found a card.

“Good for one spa weekend away, including treatments, meals and drinks. Take a girlfriend. Babysitting included.” Underneath was a slender brochure for a very exclusive spa up in Santa Barbara.

She’d never been to the spa but knew the name, of course. It was the kind of place the rich and famous went to, with fancy skin treatments and gourmet food.

“You can’t give me this,” she told Dex. “It’s too much.”

“I want you to have it.”

“But…”

He shook his head. “Be gracious and say thank you.”

“Thank you,” she breathed, not sure what the generous gift meant. Was he celebrating the moment or sending her a message?She supposed the only way to find out was to ask, although she should probably wait for a more private moment.

Magnolia took charge, telling the younger kids to clean up while she started setting the outside table. Teddy collected the food, including the burgers he would barbecue. Dex opened a bottle of champagne and another of sparkling apple cider. Very fancy plastic champagne flutes were put on the table.

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