Page 111 of A Soldier's Return

“Since Conan was gone when I woke up, I figured he was with you. Looks like you’ve been out early this morning.”

“He doesn’t give me a whole lot of choice some days. It’s hard to roll over and go back to sleep with him barking outside my apartment. I’m not sure which is worse, his insistent call outside the door or his big wet nose nudging me out of bed.”

Anna grimaced. “I’m sorry. I’ve been letting you carry most of the burden for taking care of him and it’s not fair to you. I’ll take my turn tomorrow on the morning run.”

“I complain about it but I don’t really mind,” she said quickly, and realized it was true. Somehow over the last month she had come to enjoy their solitary mornings.

“Well, I’ll take a turn sometime, I promise. And don’t worry about him this afternoon, either. I’ve got meetings this morning for my new store in Lincoln City and I should be home early.”

She stared. “You never told me you were opening a store in Lincoln City. I had no idea.”

Beneath her trim exterior, Anna brimmed with suppressed excitement. “The grand opening is in two weeks. We were trying to have it ready before the summer tourists started showing up, but we didn’t quite make it.”

“If it’s opening by mid-June, you’ll hit most of the high season, anyway.”

“That’s the plan.”

Anna was quiet for a moment then she sighed. “I’m scared to death,” she admitted.

Sage had a feeling that kind of raw truth was something the brisk, in-control Anna didn’t share with many people and it warmed her to know Anna trusted her with it.

“Are you crazy? By-The-Wind rocks here in Cannon Beach. You’re always busy. The new store will be great.”

“I know, but we’re entering a whole new demographic in Lincoln City. I’ve done the market studies and it looks like it will be feasible, but you never know what’s going to click with people. Entering a new market is always a risk.”

“If anyone can handle it, you can.”

Anna look surprised, then pleased. “Thanks. That means a lot.” She paused. “Everything has been so overwhelming the past month, with Abigail’s death and the house and everything. If I could postpone the opening of the new store for a few weeks until I find my feet again, I would, but this has been planned for months. I don’t have any choice.”

No wonder Anna seemed so stressed and stiff all the time. Sage regretted again her rudeness, the deliberate distance she had imposed between them.

Eben and Chloe weren’t the only ones she was letting deeper into her life, she realized. She was coming to consider Anna a friend as well.

Somehow she suspected that was exactly what Abigail had intended.

Chapter Ten

“Did everybody have fun at Ecola?” Sage asked the thirteen tired, sweaty children gathered around her at the end of the day.

“Yeeeessss!” came the resounding cheer from the campers.

“I did, too. Remember, if the weather cooperates, tomorrow is our beach day. We’re going to spend the whole day on Cannon Beach, so make sure you have your hats and your sunscreen and a warm jacket. We’ll be tide-pooling near Haystack Rock, flying kites and having a sand-castle competition.”

She smiled as the campers cheered with excitement. “Now your parents will be here in a few moments. It’s time to gather up your backpacks and the projects we did today so you’re all ready to hit the road.”

The campers jumped up and dispersed to the classroom where they stowed their gear. As she helped find missing jackets and refereed arguments over whose watercolor of aggregating anemone was better, she was aware of the anticipation curling through her.

Your parents will be here in a few moments, she had told the children, but it was the thought of only one parent’s arrival that churned her pulse and sent wild-edged nerves zinging through her.

Ridiculous, she reminded herself.

Eben Spencer was just another parent and that’s exactly the way she had to treat him. She certainly should not have spent what seemed like the entire day remembering their morning together—his powerful muscles as he ran beside her toward Hug Point, his slow smile as he enjoyed the sunshine, his low words when he said he wished he could kiss her again.

Even though they had argued, she couldn’t seem to stop thinking about him.

She needed a good dousing in the Pacific.

Perhaps if she had seen him when he dropped off Chloe in the morning she wouldn’t feel this glittery anticipation, but she had been busy on the phone arranging a field trip for the next session of camp. By the time she emerged from her office, Chloe had been working with Lindsey and several of the other children in a gathering activity to identify different sea creatures and their typical habitat and Eben had been nowhere in sight.

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