Page 65 of The House on Firefly Beach
“I wrote four songs for them,” he said. “But then I told them I had to get back. I had important business to attend to.”
Like convincing my family to give up Starlight?she wanted to say, but it wasn’t the time.
Logan set the cooler down on the blanket and beckoned Robby over. “Here are the cookies I promised,” he said with added excitement for Robby’s benefit.
Robby set the ball down in the grass and took the cookie from him, kneeling down beside him, nibbling.
“Good, right?”
“Mm hmm,” Robby said.
Nate stepped into Sydney’s view. “Can we talk?” he asked, that hurt she’d seen on his face now clear in his words. He gave Logan a discreet look of appraisal.
“I can’t,” she replied, forcing herself to be strong. “I have company.”
He nodded, his gaze fluttering over to Logan, his jaw clenching again as a cloud pushed its way in front of the sun. “I’m sorry to interrupt. Maybe you can come over later?”
“Logan and I are going out for drinks.”
“Tomorrow, then.”
“Hallie and Ben come home tomorrow, so I’m sure I’ll want to see them and hear all about their honeymoon.”
He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Sydney knew she couldn’t put off talking to him forever, and she did want to give him a piece of her mind, as well as find out why in the world he would do this to Starlight Cottage. But she also needed time to figure out how to approach the situation. The last thing she wanted to do was to break down and cry the way she felt like doing every time she thought about it.
“Syd…” he said in a quiet plea, playing on her emotions, but this time, she wouldn’t allow him to get the better of her. “I need to tell you something,” he said into her ear.
“It’s clear that you do,” she replied. “But whatever it is, I don’t want to hear it.” She took a step back. “We’re being rude to Logan. He’s here to spend time with me and Robby, and I’m being a terrible hostess.” She didn’t give him time to reply, turning away from him and sitting down on the blanket. But she did allow herself one quick glance over her shoulder to see him slowly walking away.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Glad to see you,” Wes said over his shoulder as he led Sydney and Logan through the throngs of tourists.
The beach-goers surrounding them were the same every summer: they had settled in for a good seafood meal before their sleepy-eyed jaunts along the main street, dipping in and out of candy and souvenir shops before finally turning in for the night, sunburned and exhausted. All of them were seemingly oblivious to the clouds that were rolling in. The wind picked up, signaling the calm before a quick summer storm. The harsh weather warnings promised for this evening that they’d been reporting on the news hadn’t materialized yet but Sydney had lived along the coast long enough to know that the strip of gray on the horizon moving quickly toward them would not remain silent before it blew over. “How’s Uncle Hank?” Wes asked.
“He’s doing well, apart from the public beach access that is going in down the road from us.”
“I’d heard,” Wes said, offering a chair to Logan. Their table sat at the edge of the outside deck of Wes and Maggie’s restaurant, close enough to feel the coastal breeze as it gently danced across the gulf between gusts that blew in sporadically. The red flags had been raised on the beach, alerting swimmers to potentially rough waters. “Rumor has it that someone’s bought all the lots around the public beach access and the plan is to build commercial retail shops. It’s supposed to bring in high-end merchants.”
“The purchase didn’t go through the board? I assumed the county acquired them.”
Wes frowned. “I’m not sure.” He leaned in to keep the conversation between just them. “It’s all being kept hush-hush because people are going to be upset when they find out that our little village is going to be overrun by tourists. I like the business—don’t get me wrong—but we can hardly keep upnow.”
Sydney knew only one person whose description included the words “high-end” and “hush-hush.” And pounding at her temples was the realization that the one in question was also now on the board of supervisors…
“I definitely need your passion punch,” Sydney told Wes as she took a seat across from Logan. She clarified for him: “It’s got rum, strawberry daiquiri mix, and a splash of pineapple and coconut. It’s divine.”
“Great memory!” Wes said, waiting expectantly for Logan’s order.
“Make it two,” Logan told him. When Wes left to fill their drink requests, Logan leaned forward, putting his forearms on the table between them. “Judging by your drink order and the way you closed right up after seeing Nathan Carr today, I’d venture to say something is bothering you. Want to tell me what it is?”
“Not really,” she said, shaking her head.
Wes brought them their drinks: large hurricane glasses with painted umbrellas sporting starfish and brightly colored flip-flops stabbed through maraschino cherries.
She leaned back in her chair and smiled kindly, honing in on the shushing of the waves as they lapped up on the beach behind them to give her calm. Even at their harshest, gulf waves were like little angry children stomping their feet in a storm. But the gray clouds on the horizon that were creeping closer were another matter.
“I certainly don’t want to pull you in to Nathan Carr’s drama,” Sydney said. “He doesn’t deserve our time. You and I had an amazing photo shoot, and we need to celebrate that.” When he didn’t seem convinced, she let her smile fall. “I’m sorry if I wasn’t myself after Nate showed up at the house. He’s really upset me,” she told Logan honestly. “But I don’t want it to impact tonight.”
