Page 2 of The Beach House With You 2

A genuine smile spread across the man’s handsome face as he heard this, and he held his hand out to Carmen first, then Franny.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you both,” he told them warmly. “Your mom is obviously very proud of the both of you.”

“Well, what’s not to be proud of?” Jeanette asked with a laugh.

“Oh, I can’t believe I get you for a whole extra week! This is so wonderful!” Jeanette gushed again before crushing Carmen and Franny once more with a bear hug.

“We’re happy to be here too, Mom,” Carmen replied, giggling.

“I should let the three of you catch up,” Jason said, reading the moment correctly. “Maybe I could take the three of you to dinner sometime this week?”

“We’d love that,” Carmen replied warmly, letting go of her mother to shake Jason’s hand goodbye. “Thank you for looking out for our mom, we really appreciate it.”

“My pleasure,” Jason said with a grin. He nodded his head toward Jeanette, who smiled and nodded back and then walked away. The moment the three of them were alone, Carmen looked back at her mom and crossed her arms.

“Okay, Mom, not that I haven’t loved our pleasantries, but, what’s going on?”

“Did something bad happen?” Franny asked, laying a hand on Carmen’s shoulder.

Jeanette gave them both a look of apprehension before smiling and grabbing the handles of their luggage.

“Come on,” she urged, walking toward The Sea Glass Cottage, “I’ll explain everything. And you can meet your cousins.”

* * *

“Oh, honey, look how much you’ve grown!” Amanda exclaimed, wrapping her arms around Carmen. “I haven’t seen you since you were five! Now you’re a woman!”

Although Carmen had forgotten her first introduction to her cousins Amanda and Whitney up until now, flashes of their reunion began to spark in her mind as they got reacquainted. She suddenly remembered their wide, genuine smiles, their warm hugs, and their somehow magical supply of treats that seemed to always appear out of nowhere. Being in front of them again, she felt an intense surge of familial love go through her, and fought the urge to cry.

“Thank you so much for taking Mom in,” Carmen said emphatically as she squeezed her cousins tight. “You have no idea how good this is for her.”

“I’m right here!” Jeanette laughed.

“Oh, honey, of course we did!” Whitney laughed, pulling away from their group hug. “The doors of The Sea Glass Cottage are always open to any O’Shea that wanders back to us.”

Amanda nudged Franny affectionately.

“That means you too, honey,” she told her. “You’re officially an O’Shea by association.”

“You girls must be starving,” Whitney said, already moving toward the fridge. “Sit, please, and we’ll have a little snack.”

“While I’m absolutely loving this reunion,” Carmen said as she and Franny took seats at the retro Formica and metal table with red chairs, “I’m still a little worried about what we just saw. Is something wrong, Mom?”

Jeanette shook her head, patting Carmen’s shoulder comfortingly as she started to help Whitney put food on the table.

“I don’t think we have to worry about anything just yet,” she explained, setting a covered Pyrex dish on the table.

“Well, then why were the police here?” Franny asked, looking unconvinced.

“Jason was nice enough to give us some of his security cameras,” Amanda explained as she uncorked some white wine. “And he happened to notice that a certain unknown gentleman likes to stand in one particular spot and look at The Sea Glass Cottage. He never stays long, though.”

“It’s true,” Jeanette added. “Jason got the alert on his phone while we were at dinner and it took us less than five minutes to get back. By the time we got here, he was already gone. The police were just here as a precaution. Jason gave them a screenshot of the guy and they took our statement, but even they aren’t worried.”

“Is that why you were so dressed up?” Carmen asked, wagging her eyebrows as she accepted the fork her mother gave her. “Were you on a date, Mom?”

Jeanette and her cousins laughed as Whitney pulled the lid off one of the Pyrex dishes and began scooping pasta salad on plates for everyone.

“It was not a date.” Jeanette laughed. As her mother blushed and her cousins looked at each other with a grin, Carmen wondered if that was true.

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