Page 136 of Beach Vibes

“Do you ever think about reaching out to your parents?” she asked. “And we don’t have to talk about them if you don’t want to.”

“I think about it,” he admitted. “But I’m not sure what to say. They’re the ones who threw me out. Shouldn’t they reachout first?” He paused, then sighed. “Every couple of months I get a Zelle deposit from my mom.”

“She’s sending you money?”

“Uh-huh.” He looked at her. “It’s not a lot, but maybe that’s not the point.”

“It isn’t. That’s her connecting with you. Kai, it means something. You should at least say thank you.”

“I do, but she never answers my texts.”

Hearing that made Beth’s heart ache. What was his mother thinking? Kai was an amazing young man. Where was the win in not speaking to him? He was her son, and Beth knew eventually the other woman was going to see what had been lost.

“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “One day she’s going to regret that. We can undo a lot of damage, but we can never get back time.”

“What about the time you’re wasting?” he asked in an obvious attempt to change the subject. “You haven’t tried to contact Teddy.”

“Nor am I going to,” she said, ignoring the automatic ache that occurred whenever she thought of him. “He made his feelings clear. I hurt him and I regret that. The least I can do to make things right is leave the man alone.” Jana had forgiven her. She was grateful for that.

“But you’re in love with him.”

“I am. Even knowing how it ends, I would still want to be with him for the time we had. It was magical.”

Even more important, she now knew what love really felt like. Should she ever get involved again—something that seemed very unlikely, because she would be measuring every man she met against the standard that was Teddy—she knew how she was supposed to feel when she was with him. Anything less wasn’t going to be worth the effort.

She drove back to the store and pulled up next to Kai’s car.

“See you tomorrow,” she said as he got out.

“I’ll be on time.”

“You always are.”

She waved and drove home. As she pulled into the driveway, she saw a familiar Suburban parked at the curb. Her breath caught as her heart pounded in her chest. She only knew one person who drove a Suburban.

Even as she wondered what he was doing here, she told herself the person waiting inside wasn’t Teddy. Jana could have borrowed his car and dropped by. Only Jana knew that tonight was her writing class, and she would have texted first.

She grabbed her backpack and hurried to the front door, only to hesitate before opening it. She’d been up since six that morning, had worked all day and had gone to class from the store. She was still wearing her stupid Surf Sandwiches T-shirt over jeans. Not exactly the glamorous look she’d been hoping for should she ever run into Teddy again. Of course, she wasn’t exactly the glamorous type, so there was that.

The front door opened, and Agatha grabbed her arm to pull her inside.

“What’s taking you so long?” she asked in a low voice. “Teddy’s here. He showed up about fifteen minutes ago. He knew you were at your writing class and asked if he could wait to talk to you. I’ve been doing my best to entertain him, but it’s difficult when half of me wants to hit him upside the head with a blunt object and the other half wants to ask his intentions.”

Her stomach flipped over a few times, while her chest got a weird floaty hopeful feeling. Teddy wouldn’t show up to yell at her. Their relationship was over. As far as her and Jana being friends—he shouldn’t have any complaints there.

She dropped her backpack on the floor, smoothed the front of her bright yellow T-shirt and turned toward the family room. When she hesitated, Agatha gave her a not-so-gentle push.

“I’ll be in my room,” her aunt whispered. “With the door closed and the TV on. I won’t hear a thing.”

Beth braced herself for impact, then moved into the familyroom. Teddy stood by the sliding glass door, staring out into the darkness.

Even from the back, he looked good. Tall and broad-shouldered. His hair was a little long, and she thought he might have lost weight, but otherwise, he was exactly as she remembered.

In the second before she spoke, she thought how much it hurt to look at him and how great it was to be in the same room with him. She’d been so busy trying to heal from learning the truth about her brother that she’d kind of forgotten to fall out of love with Teddy.

“Hi,” she managed.

He turned to face her. “Beth!”

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