Page 51 of The House on Firefly Beach
He grabbed her with one arm, his ice cream coming precariously close to a rack of T-shirts. “I love you,” he said, looking into her eyes. A grumpy shopkeeper glanced over them from his spot at the register.
“Wonder what happened tothatguy today? We should buy something so we can try to make him smile,” he said, looking around.
“I’m not sure that’s possible,” she said quietly. “He looks like he’s having the worst day ever.”
Nate grabbed a sticker from a pile on one of the shelves and took it up to pay for it. “Hang on,” he said to the guy and ran back to where he and Sydney had been standing to grab the orange sunglasses. “These too,” he said, putting then on the counter. “The lady secretly loves them,” he whispered, but the guy just rang up the items and handed him the bag.
When they got outside, Nate handed her the bag. “Wait right here,” he told her. Then he strode off toward the ice cream shop and after a few minutes returned with a giant Sundae.
Sydney eyed the dripping vanilla scoops with chocolate sauce and sprinkles. “Still hungry?” she kidded him.
He offered a mischievous grin and nodded toward the door of the shop for her to go back inside. Nate walked in and set the sundae on the counter. “Whatever kind of morning you’ve had is gone. All you have ahead of you now is sunshine and a sundae.”
A tiny smirk broke through at one corner of the man’s mouth. “I can’t find my cat,” the man admitted. “She’s lost.”
“What’s her name?” Nate asked, sobering.
“I named her after the day I got her because I think she saved me.” He looked down at the ice cream. “Her name is Sunday,” he said, meeting Nate’s eyes.
They both shared a moment, realizing that Nate had told the man that the only thing ahead of him was sunshine and asundae.
Nate got a description of the cat and promised he’d look for it. And then when they got outside, he put the shop sticker on his truck. “I want to remember this,” he said, “because when we first went in, I thought that guy was just having a bad day, but he was suffering.” He smoothed out the sticker and looked at it for a while. “I want to remind myself not to take people’s reactions at face value. Everyone needs someone to hear them.”
Coming back to the present, Sydney could almost taste the ice cream on her lips, and she realized she’d been standing at Nate’s truck for quite a while. She went inside and followed laughter, walking straight to the kitchen where she found Nate and Robby sitting at the table together, hovered over a piece of paper.
Sydney dropped her keys on the table and peered down at them. “Is that math homework?” she asked.
Nate looked up. “Hey, Syd,” he said as if it were totally regular for him to be sitting at the table with her son. “Yes,” he answered finally. “Robby texted me so I came over to help.”
“You texted?” she asked her son.
“He told me to text any time,” Robby said.
“He told you to text any time,” she repeated for clarity she knew she wouldn’t get. “And you texted him on your emergency cell phone that I got you?”
“Itwasan emergency. I had five word problems tonight. They’re really hard and Uncle Hank didn’t know how to do them either.” Robby had had a tutor for the summer, after falling behind in school a little bit last school year. She came over once a week to review with him and then she usually left him a few assignments to complete. With Sydney having so much on her plate with moving back to Firefly Beach and taking care of Uncle Hank and the cottage, and her mother being a lost cause at math, Uncle Hank had been stepping in as much as he could. But sometimes, given his health, he just wasn’t up for it.
Sydney shifted her attention to Nate. “You gave Robby your number?”
“I gave it to the whole team,” he said, pointing to the football team roster that she, herself, had pinned to the fridge with a magnet after the informational night.
“Look,” Robby said, turning the homework paper around. “Nate knew how to do them all.”
“But doyouknow how to do them all?” she asked.
“Yeah, Nate is a really good teacher! He even made me two new problems to solve on my own and I did it!” He grinned fondly at Nate. “Are we done now?”
“If you feel like you’ve got it,” Nate said, reaching down to rub Beau’s head as the dog sat up in response to Robby climbing off his chair.
“Okay,” Robby replied. “I’m gonna go out on the porch with Uncle Hank and everybody.”
“Wait, don’t you want some dinner?” she asked.
“I already ate,” he said. “Nate made us all burgers on the grill.” Robby ran over to the door and let himself out, taking Beau with him.
“Youhungry?” Nate asked once they were alone.
“I’ll just make a sandwich,” she said.
