Page 40 of A Beach House Beginning

It hadn’t been the woman’s first offense and not even her first shoplifting incident at By-the-Wind, so Rosa had no choice but to call the police, who had arrested the woman, angry and protesting all the way.

The event had put a pall over her whole day. After her shift and before she had to go pick up the girls from their fourth day at science camp, Jenna had gone to the grocery store to purchase a few things she had forgotten in Saturday’s epic shopping trip and had ended up dropping and breaking an entire bottle of pasta sauce.

She had insisted on helping the store employee clean up the mess. As a result, she had been late picking up the girls and had rushed up to the community center to find them waiting on the curb for her.

She hadn’t even had the chance to talk to Wes that afternoon when he came to pick up his daughter, as Brielle had rushed away with a hurried thank-you as soon as she saw her father’s motorcycle pull into the driveway, eager to tell him about all the things she had learned that day.

Jenna told herself it was for the best. She was thinking about the man entirely too much anyway. It didn’t help that for the past four days she had seen him in the morning when he dropped off Brielle and then again in the afternoon when he picked her up.

Each time she saw him, Jenna’s awareness of the man only seemed to intensify.

What was she going to do about it?

She sighed. Exactly nothing. She planned to remain friendly with him and keep a safe distance.

“Are you ready to head back?” she asked Theo after a few more moments.

The dog turned its head, tail wagging. At odd moments, she almost felt as if he understood exactly what she was saying. As far as dogs went, Theo seemed unusually intuitive.

Sure. And maybe during those odd moments when he seemed to be staring at nothing in the corner, he was really communing with the Brambleberry House ghost.

She shook her head at herself. He was a great dog but he wasn’t some kind of canine medium to the other side.

“Come on, Theo. Good boy.”

The dog trotted beside her, already well-behaved on the leash. So far, he was fitting into their little family as if he had been there forever.

She keyed in the password to the locked beach gate and made her way through the garden, pausing occasionally to sniff the lavender and the climbing roses over one of the trellises.

She again felt so fortunate to be living amidst such beauty. Not only were the gardens of the house spectacular, but the view was beyond compare. On stormy nights, she loved watching the clouds roll over the water and seeing the waves churn.

Tonight was calm, though, only a light breeze, lush with the smell of flowers and pine and sea, to send the leaves shivering.

She was nearly to the house when the dark shape of a man stepped down from the porch.

She let out an instinctive shriek and reached for her pepper spray.

“Easy, Jenna,” a low voice said. “Easy. It’s me. Wes. I didn’t mean to alarm you. I had no idea you were out here or I would have given you some kind of warning.”

Her chest felt tight and shaky and it took her a moment to catch her breath again. With her heart pounding, she slipped the pepper spray back into her pocket.

“Hello. You startled me.”

“I can tell. I’m sorry. Are you okay?”

Heat soaked her face and her skin felt tight and itchy with embarrassment. “Yes. Fine. I was surprised, that’s all.”

“Are you sure that’s all?” He stepped down from the porch and moved closer to her. Jenna fought the urge to back away.

“What do you mean?”

“When I first moved in, I thought something about me was causing you to be so jittery.”

She sighed, embarrassed all over again. “It’s not you,” she whispered. Or at least notcompletelyhim.

He peered down at her in the moonlight. “I think I’m beginning to figure that out.”

He reached out and laid a hand on her arm. She didn’t feel threat from him. She felt...comfort.

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