Page 13 of The Magic of Sea Glass
“I’m sorry to hear that,” she said.
“It’s fine. They parted ways amicably,” he said with a reassuring smile. “I think the documents my mother is finally drawing up with her lawyer say ‘irreconcilable differences,’ but my mother’s explanation was that he was too much like his own father.”
“Ouch,” she said, making a face. “What was your grandfather like, then?”
“Pretentious, according to her.”
Lou returned with two menus under his arm, a basket, and a hurricane glass filled to the brim with a white, frosty concoction complete with a spear of pineapple in the top. “One Shipwreck,” he said, setting it in front of Lauren. “And the hushpuppies.” He handed a menu to each of them. “I’ll send a server your way in a second.”
Lauren pinched a hushpuppy from the basket and bit through the crispy exterior. The buttery flavor of the crawfish complemented the flaky bread center perfectly.
“Hey, Brody,” a flirty female voice called from behind her, cutting through the moment.
Brody looked past Lauren. “Hey,” he said, raising a hand in greeting.
Lauren turned around to find a blonde with tanned skin and a perfect figure clad in cut-off shorts and tank top. The woman batted her eyelashes, and Brody smiled back. She wriggled her fingers at him as if to say toodle-oo and then headed off toward the bar. The whole exchange made Lauren question what she was even doing there having dinner with someone like Brody. She should be at the inn, where she’d planned to be. She turned back around and took an enormous drink from her straw, the coconut and rum filling her mouth and giving her brain freeze before she forced it down. When she recovered, Brody’s eyes were back on her.
“I’m not allowed to ask you anything about yourself, but everything you do screams that something is eating at you and you’re dying to tell someone.”
She flinched at his word choice. “Well, you don’t know me as well as you think, then.” She took another drink, the alcohol sailing to her head on her near-empty stomach. She grabbed another hushpuppy to combat it.
“Then set me straight.” He leaned back, putting his elbow on the back of the chair. She wondered what it was like to be that carefree.
“I came here to get away from my life,” she admitted. “So the very last thing I want to do is to spend my free time reliving it.”
He pouted, clearly thinking this over. “I can see why you’d want to escape your life.”
“You can?” she asked, surprised.
“Yeah.” The corners of his mouth turned upward in what seemed like empathy. “A life of busy schedules, city streets, traffic…” He shook his head. “I’d trade that every day for this.” He waved a hand out at the ocean.
“Hey, Brody,” a waitress said, coming up to their table to take their order.
“Hey, Molly,” he returned.
She addressed Lauren. “Y’all know what you want to eat?”
Lauren scrambled to read the menu; she hadn’t looked at it for even a second since they’d sat down. “I’ll have the scallops,” she said, choosing the first thing that caught her eye, her chest immediately tightening.
If we lived on the coast, I’d eat my weight in scallops…Mason’s voice filtered through her mind as the memory of a meal they’d shared returned to her. Lauren forced herself to look up at the waitress, fiddling nervously with her new bracelet.
“And I already know whatyouwant,” Molly said to Brody.
Both of them said “shrimp and grits” at the same time, the two of them laughing at some sort of inside joke.
“All right, I’ll get that in for ya.” The waitress took their menus, leaving them alone once more.
There was a definite ease to life here, something Lauren hadn’t experienced in New York or even in the small Tennessee town where she was from. People took time for one another and enjoyed each other. And even if skirting around Brody’s questions and assumptions about her was part of the experience, she was glad that she’d decided to come.
* * *
Summer, 1957
Fairhope, Alabama
“Promise me you’ll meet me here first thing in the morning?” Penelope asked, her face troubled.
Phillip reached over and caressed her cheek, but it didn’t seem to help. Tomorrow was her last day in Fairhope, and Phillip had yet to discuss the subject with his parents. He didn’t want to spend the overnight hours away from her. He wanted to stay there with Penelope, holding her in his arms until the sun made its return the next day. He reached over and wiped a runaway drop of saltwater from her face, already envisioning his life with her.
