Page 12 of The Beach House With You 2

“Are we, though?” she asked, amusement bright in her eyes. Jacob grinned back at her flirtatiously, then sat her gently on her feet as they held eye contact.

“We won!” Franny yelled in victory, high-fiving Tony with one hand and waving her foam paddle around with the other. She turned toward the crowd and bowed dramatically, eliciting a round of applause.

“Are you not entertained?” she yelled with both hands raised high. Laughter erupted from the crowd, and Jacob turned to Carmen again with a raised brow and a smile.

“I take it she was a theater major?” he asked.

“How did you know?” she replied, pretending to be surprised by his guess. Jacob chuckled as he shook his head.

“That was a lot of fun. We should do something like this again before you leave.”

“Definitely,” Carmen agreed as Tony and Franny walked toward them.

“Hey, that was really fun,” Tony said, high-fiving Carmen first then Jacob.

“I obviously still got it,” Franny added, high-fiving Carmen next. “Remember when we played that pick-up soccer game freshman year at MUC?”

“You mean when I tripped over the ball and messed up my knee while you basically ballet-danced over the field and got several goals?” Carmen asked with a sarcastic grin. “Yep, pretty sure I’ll never forget that.”

“Hey, guys!” Jeanette shouted from the small crowd, drawing their attention. “Come get something to eat!”

Not needing to be told twice, the four of them started heading up the beach where there were a few collapsible tables set up with food. While it hadn’t been planned, the local community had quickly come together to throw a beach party. What had started with a small cooler of sandwiches, water, and wine, ended up as tables of pasta salads, casseroles, finger foods, hamburgers, hotdogs, and all kinds of potatoes. Plastic buckets had been filled with ice, and now sprinkled in them were cans of soda, beer, bottles of wine, and someone had brought a big drink cooler of sweet tea.

“Does this happen a lot?” Carmen asked Jacob as she loaded up her plate. Jacob nodded.

“Pretty much, yeah,” Jacob agreed. “I mean, not so much in the summer because it’s tourist season, but other than that, yeah.”

Carmen frowned slightly as she followed Jacob over to their towels.

“That kind of sucks, doesn’t it? I mean, isn’t the summer the best time to be on the beach?”

Jacob shrugged as he opened a bottle of water.

“Depends on how you think about it,” he said before downing the water in a single pull.

“What do you mean?” Carmen asked, nibbling on a French fry.

Jacob finished his water, wiped his mouth, and then smiled at her.

“Well, it’s really all about give and take, right? We give up our beaches in the summer to the tourists, but in return, their vacations and the money they spend while they’re here fuels us through the winter. No one wants to go to the beach when it’s cold so our town basically empties. Maybe three or four restaurants stay open for the locals, and the hardware store and Morrison’s Groceries. But that’s pretty much it.”

“How do you not go stir crazy?” Carmen asked. Jacob smirked.

“I never said we didn’t,” he replied with a small laugh. “For the most part, though, I’m good at keeping myself busy. My mom takes business trips to learn more about the spa industry, and I stay behind to watch over her salon. A lot of other businesses too, actually. Especially the older mom-and-pop shops. The owners go down to Florida for the winter so they can stay in the sun.

“Do you ever run into trouble and have to call the police?” Carmen asked, curious. “Like break-ins?”

“No,” Jacob replied quickly, shaking his head. “I mean I’ll catch a kid spraying graffiti now and then, but once I bring up the police, they’re pretty quick to choose my option of cleaning it up. The only other trouble I’ve run into is…” Jacob glanced at her, looking suddenly concerned.

“What?” she asked quickly, studying his expression.

“I don’t want to scare you,” he replied.

“I don’t scare easily,” Carmen said dryly. Jacob chuckled.

“Something tells me that’s true,” he replied.

“It is,” Carmen assured him. “Now, tell me what the other trouble was.”

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