Page 11 of A Beach House Beginning

“What about labor?”

“Nothing. There was really no labor involved.”

She wanted to argue but couldn’t figure out how in a gracious way. “Thank you, then,” she finally said. “I’m very grateful.”

She would have said more, but the bell rang in that moment and children began to swarm back into the classroom from the playground.

“Glad I could help,” he answered. “I’ll let you get back to your students.”

“I’ll settle up with you this evening, if that’s okay.”

Again she had the impression he wanted to tell her not to worry about it, but he finally nodded. “Sounds good. See you later.”

Two students approached her desk to ask a question about the field trip they were taking on Monday to the aquarium in Lincoln City. By the time she answered them, Wes had slipped away.

Chapter Three

“Ilove, love,lovepizza night!”

Wes smiled at Brielle, her face covered in flour and a little drip of tomato sauce on her nose. She wore an apron that matched the black one he wore on the rare occasions he cooked. Those occasions mostly consisted of Friday nights, when Brielle came over for her weekend visitation. Their tradition had become centered around pizza night, where they would spend an hour or so making their own pizzas and then would watch a show of her choosing.

The few days he had the chance to spend with Brielle were the highlight of his week. Even when they didn’t do anything more exciting than hanging out at his apartment and playing board games, Wes found himself happier than he believed possible three months earlier.

This moment—in his warm kitchen with rain pattering down outside and his daughter giggling at the kitchen table as she made a face on her pizza with pepperoni—seemed worlds away from his life the past three years.

Rich and sweet and filled with joy.

He had been given a second chance and didn’t want to waste a minute of it.

“Only one more week of school. Can you believe it?”

Brielle shook her head. “No. And I also can’t believe I’m going to be in fifth grade next year. I hope I get Mrs. Baker. She’s super funny.”

He had met the woman the day before when he had returned Jenna’s key to her classroom, he remembered.

While he was thinking about things that seemed far away from prison life, Jenna Haynes was the epitome.

She was lovely as a spring morning, her life worlds away from the darkness and ugliness he had been forced to wallow through in prison.

As lovely as he found her, he would be wise to remember they likely had nothing in common. He was darkness to her light, hard and jaded and cynical in contrast to her sweet innocence.

And she was terrified of him. He couldn’t forget that part.

“Looks like we made too much dough. What are we going to do with it?”

“We can make another pizza!” Brielle said with a grin.

“We can do that, but that means we’re going to have a lot of leftovers to eat the rest of the weekend.”

“We could invite someone over,” she suggested. “What about Mrs. Haynes and Addison? I can’t believe they lived downstairs all this time and I never knew until today.”

He hadn’t exactly been holding out on Brielle. He simply hadn’t thought to tell her before now about his neighbors.

He had only been in Brambleberry House for two weeks, after spending his first several weeks in the area paying a ridiculous amount for a tiny studio with a short-term lease, until he had found this place available. This was only his daughter’s second weekend staying here with him. She had been delighted when he mentioned the other building tenants.

“Mrs. Haynes is super nice. I don’t have her but my friend Reina does, and she really likes her,” Brie had said when he told her.

“What about her daughter? Do you know her?”

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