Page 50 of A Summer Mismatch
Horace shook Smitty’s hand firmly. “I’m in. Now go away and let me play a peaceful round of golf.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Logan
LoganstaredatAdia’sblood sample under his microscope. They had a lab they could send her sample to for more comprehensive results, but when she wasn’t feeling well, he didn’t want to have to wait.
Her white blood cell count was still rising. Not enough to be in a danger zone, but it still gave him a nervous twist in his stomach.
He walked out of his lab and to the elephant barn where Adia was lying in a corner, looking depressed.
“Hi, Adia,” he called out. “No needles this time. I promise.”
Allison, Logan’s favorite keeper, sat in a folding chair beside the metal grate of her stall, writing down her observations in a notebook.
“She’s been really still for the last fifteen minutes,” Allison said. She checked her watch. “I’m supposed to get her vitals again. Want to help?”
“Yeah.” Logan rolled up his sleeves, and the two of them checked Adia’s heart rate, lungs, eyes, and oxygen. Normally when he listened to her heart, Adia nudged him playfully with her trunk, but today, it hung down as straight as her ears that usually flapped in excitement.
In Africa, the elephants that had come to their research center had been wild and more unpredictable. Though Adia couldn’t be considered domesticated by any stretch of the imagination, she’d been raised in captivity, and she was very affectionate toward humans—especially the humans she knew and loved.
Logan petted under her chin while Allison dropped some special pellets formulated just for Adia into her stall. Her oxygen levels weren’t as high as he’d like to see, while her heart rate was just a little too high. Altogether, it wasn’t enough for him to panic.
And yet, he felt like panicking.
“You need to get better, Adia.” He turned to Allison. “I can’t stay late tonight. I’ve got to pick up my niece and nephew from my grandpa’s house. But please take vitals every two hours and call me if anything gets worse. I’ll keep my phone on.” Adia pressed her head against the metal grating, and Logan reached in to touch her ear as a wave of emotion rose in him. “You know what, I’ll call my grandpa and see if he’s okay watching the kids a little longer.”
Allison tugged his sleeve when he went to pull his phone out of his pocket. “Hey. Go home and see your family. We’ve got Adia.”
His stood in that limbo, one hand holding his phone, the other resting on Adia, before he reluctantly nodded. His grandma had called him at lunch to give him an update on Willow, and she’d told him that Grandpa was having a blast with the kids, though they were exhausting him. Willow was suffering, but Nonna had assured him very confidently that Willow would get through this.
Eventually.
He felt guilty for the grief he was experiencing over the dissolution of his sister’s marriage. He didn’t want to make her divorce about him. And even though he and Jordan were always friends, Logan had lost a lot of respect for his brother-in-law over the last year. But he was still family, and he always thought Willow and Jordan would work things out once they navigated this stressful season of life.
He drove the thirty minutes to Diamond Cove, the cares of life weighing him down more and more until it felt impossible to smile, much less act happy enough to take care of Amelia and Leo.
Instead of parking at his grandpa’s house when he got to The Palms, he parked at the entrance to the beach and walked to the end of an empty pier he sometimes saw fishermen at. He sat on the rough wood and dangled his feet over the edge. Waves gently butted up against the posts of the pier, its constant motion soothing.
The problem with grieving was that the hard events compounded on one another until it felt like you were dragging a huge, heavy bag of grief instead of just one single item. One item was easy to carry. Multiple became too much.
He inhaled deeply and tried to center his thoughts the way Kai had taught him after his mother’s death. It had worked then, and he needed it to work now. He focused on taking long, deep breaths and letting his senses experience the natural world around him. The bird calls, the white noise of crashing waves, the humidity on his skin, the briny scent of sea life, the faintest taste of salt on his tongue.
The wood creaked behind him, and he swiveled around to see Julia standing at the base of the pier. She wore a sunny yellow dress with white strappy sandals. Her hair was pulled back into a bun, but a few tendrils kissed her temples and cheeks.
“I saw your truck in the parking lot when I drove by to pick up Cameron,” she explained. “Then I saw you sitting out here.” She hesitated, and then took another step closer until she sat beside him, her leg pressed against his as their feet dangled over the ocean together. “Is everything okay?”
He shook his head.
“Would you rather be alone?”
He reached out and snagged her hand, desperate to keep her there. He hadn’t realized how much he’d needed to be with someone until right then. No, not just any someone. Julia. Her silky fingers slid through his, gentle and warm and grounding.
“What happened?” she asked quietly. Her arm pressed against the length of his, and awareness flared with her every movement beside him.
He stared out at the darkening horizon, where he could glimpse the moon peeking through the disappearing clouds. Would it be unfair to dump his problems on Julia? She had a way of making him want to open up and share everything. “It’s a lot,” he warned her.
“I can take it,” she said, nudging his shoulder with her own.
