Page 52 of A Line in the Sand

Page List

Font Size:

Chapter 13

“So you’re sure you’re not mad?” Molly winced at Caroline as she sipped her frozen Milky Way latte at Turtle Books the following morning.

Molly was situated on the customer side of the counter, back where she belonged, with Ursula curled into a ball in her lap. The aquarium didn’t open until noon on Sundays and her parents had already headed back to Philadelphia bright and early this morning, so Molly had a few hours to kill. She thought it best to break the news of her newly reinstated mermaid status to Caroline in person, especially since she was giving her friend zero days’ notice that she’d no longer be working as her barista.

“I’m not mad in the slightest. I’m thrilled for you.” Caroline pulled a face. “No offense, but you’re a much better mermaid than you are a barista.”

“No offense taken,” Molly said, scowling a little at the espresso machine. She’d miss seeing Caroline for hours a day, but that stainless steel monster…not so much.

Ursula plopped her chin on the counter, and Caroline reached across the counter to give her a pat. “Also, during your last shift I went to go shelve some books and when I came back up here, I found you pretending not to work here. So again, not a huge loss.”

Right. Molly had forgotten about that. A lot had happened over the past few days. “Ugh, I’m sorry. That was bad.”

“It’s fine. I get it. You always get a little nutty around your parents.”

“I do, don’t I?” During the past twenty-four hours, she’d pretended she’d never lost her job and she’d let them believe she and Max were in a relationship. She’d tried to correct that last one, though. It wasn’t her fault that they hadn’t believed her. “I’ve just always wanted to make them proud, but also stay true to myself.”

Caroline’s eyebrows crept up to her hairline. “Staying true to yourself by pretending everything is okay when it isn’t?”

“Believe me, I see the irony.” Molly finished off her drink and set her cup down on the counter with a determined thud. “But today’s a new day. I’ve already scheduled a meeting with the Turtle Team this afternoon so we can get to work on fundraising. I finally have my life back and I want to make sure I keep it.”

“And what about Max?” Caroline said.

Molly focused intently on the back of Ursula’s furry little head. “What about him?”

“How does he fit into your reclaimed life?”

“He doesn’t.” Molly did her best to feign indifference, but it was a tall order. She’d been so surprised when Max had told her he wanted her to come back to the aquarium. So deliriously happy. Then when she’d realized it hadn’t been Max’s idea, she’d felt exactly like she had when he’d fired her to begin with—like a joke. Unnecessary. How had Max put it, exactly?

Scientifically insignificant.

Molly’s chest tightened. She buried her hands in Ursula’s soft fur.

This was exactly why she’d sworn off dating. After her messy breakup with Steve, more commonly referred to as The Tourist, she’d designed her life so as never to have the rug swept out from under her ever again. She’d had enough of being humiliated, and now she’d gone and let it happen again. And she and Max weren’t even romantically involved…

Theyweren’t, regardless of whatever her mom and dad might think.

“Max is my boss,” she said definitively. Never mind that she’d almost kissed the man…twice. “That’s it.”

“Exactly. You’re going to be working together every single day. It just seems like that might be—” Caroline paused, appearing to weigh her next word carefully. “—complicated.”

“Nope. Not complicated at all.” Molly slid off of her barstool and clipped Ursula’s leash onto her collar. “I’ll simply be completely businesslike and professional.”

“While wearing a clamshell bra.”

“It’s a bustier,” Molly corrected.

Caroline held up her hands. “My bad. Abustier…while you’re working with Max the shirtless god of the sea.”

“I’m pretty certain he’ll be wearing a shirt to work,” Molly said, even though she desperately wished the memory of that provocative sand sculpture wasn’t burned into her mind with such startling detail.

“Okay, well, good luck with all of that.” Caroline flipped a switch on the espresso machine and grabbed a coffee cup from one of the pegs on the wall. It was made from hand-crafted yellow pottery with a clay turtle insignia in its center.

Molly had a whole set of those turtle mugs in the kitchen at the beach house. Practically everyone on the island owned at least one of them. She wondered if Max drank his morning coffee from the same type of mug that she did. She could picture him leaning against the railing of his uncle’s deck, sipping black coffee while gazing broodingly at the sea. Of course the coffee would be black. Cream and sugar was frivolous. Unnecessary. Maybe even scientifically insignificant. Max would probably give up his dress pants and crisp oxford shirts before he’d drink his coffee sweet and blonde.

Which begged the question—why was Max shirtlessin this imaginary scenario? Every time she pictured him now, his customary button-down was conspicuously absent.

Molly blinked hard, banishing the picture from her mind.