Page 29 of Not Another Beach Read
"Excuse me, miss," came a gruff voice from behind me.
I turned around and came face to face with one of the men I had followed.
"Can I help you?" I asked, trying everything in my power to keep my voice steady.
"You walked by and you looked so familiar. I thought maybe I had seen you before."
My mind raced for a plausible explanation.
"I run the bookstore in downtown Dunedin. Perhaps it was there?"
Why why why did I tell him that?
"I have been in Dunedin, but I can't say I've ever visited a bookstore. Not voluntarily, anyway."
That tracks.
Well, I'm not sure then," I said.
"It'll come to me. Sorry to bother you."
I turned on the balls of my feet and grabbed Holly's arm to pull her along next to me.
"Who was that guy, Aunt 'Lyse?" she asked. "You look like you saw a ghost."
"I'm not sure," I said, but I knew the lie was as obvious as the sand in between our toes.
"Hmm," said Holly, enough life experience to know when a subject was closed.
We were quiet on the way home. She scrolled through her phone and I scrolled through all the ways that interaction could have gone terribly wrong, especially with Holly right there. By the time we got home, I had all but convinced myself that it was a one-time occurrence. I was always careful, and people were bound to recognize me, but they would never know how.
At least, that's what I hoped. A simple trip to the beach had proven otherwise, and it shook me to my core.
I was going to have to be more careful.
ELYSE
That Sunday, Drew and I had our normal Sunday morning tee time at the club. When we pulled up to the first tee, the starter let us know that the other twosome had not shown up yet, and we were able to go out on our own. This was a rare occurrence, and something that I very much treasured, because it allows us four and a half hours of uninterrupted time with one another. Our weekends on the golf course were so important to us. He traveled so much during the week, and a lot of what happened during our day-to-day lives was missed during our nightly calls. So these weekend dates on the golf course were crucial in helping us catch up.
"How are things going with the new kids area at the store?" He asked after catching me up with the meetings he'd had during the week.
"Oh, it's going great. Adam came in this week and measured out the space for the stage that he's going to build."
"Boy, he sure is a handy fella, isn't he?"
"He is. He has proven himself to be quite useful to our group, and he's a kind person on top of that. Seems like he and Jenna are getting a little cozy as well."
Drew pulled up to the eighth tee box and looked over at me with a stern expression. "You need to stay in your lane, Elyse. Don't go meddling in their friendship. Let things happen naturally."
"I'm not meddling in anything," I said, suddenly feeling defensive. "I'm just saying that it would be nice to see her experience a healthy relationship. They've been friends for so long, it'd be easy for them to fall in love."
"Just let it happen naturally if it's going to happen is all I'm saying."
I turned in the cart to stare at him. It was like he didn't know me at all; meddling was what I did best.
"Things seem to be going well at the bakery," he said, changing the subject as he got out of the cart and pulled his driver out of his bag.
"Oh, yeah, people are coming into the bookstore all the time with her purple bags," I said as I followed him to the tee box. "Some people have multiple bags, and I let them store everything behind the counter. I'm going to need to set up a shelf for people to check in their Flour Shoppe bags while they browse."
