JERROD SPOTTED CARRIE skipping across the parking lot, with Melody following behind. She had the hood of her jacket pulled up over her head and tied to keep it in place. The rain was only a warm, gentle drizzle, but if the forecast was correct, they were in for a third straight day of rain. That meant cancelling a tour and rescheduling two diving excursions. No business dependent on tourists welcomed rain on the weekend. His was no different.
Jerrod was on the way to meet Dawn at the chamber of commerce building a few blocks away. He hadn’t expected to run into his Carrie out that Saturday morning.
“Hi, Daddy,” she said. “Are you going somewhere?”
“Well, sweetie, I have a meeting with some people Dawn wants me to talk to.”
“Can I come?”
“Not this time, honey.” When Carrie’s mouth turned down it felt like an indictment. “It wouldn’t be any fun for you. Just grown-ups discussing stuff.”
“I still want to go.” She sounded whiny. Notable in itself. She almost never showed that kind of pique.
“Here’s the thing. This is something I need to do, and I can’t take you along. But I’ll be back in time for dinner.” He glanced at Melody, who was standing quietly a few steps back while he handled the situation. “I’ll make your favorite spaghetti and we’ll share it together, just you and me. We’ll give Melody a night off. How about that?”
“I want Melody to be there, too.”
Jerrod let out a quick laugh and looked at Melody, who nodded. “Okay, I’ll fix dinner for you and Melody.”
“Promise you’ll be back? Promise?”
“Absolutely.” Curling his fingers into a loose fist, he held out his hand for a quick fist bump to mark his promise. Carrie started that little ritual. She’d picked it up at school and it was her favorite thing. When he touched his big hand to hers, he sealed his own resolve to get home on time. “But if I’m going to be on time for dinner later, I better get moving.”
“Okay.” She ran a few steps toward the office door. “I want to see Wyatt and Rob. And Gordon.”
“I’m sorry, honey, but he’s not here today. He’s with his dad for the weekend.”
“But I wanted to see him.” The whiny voice was back.
“Sorry, sweetie, not today.” He missed Gordon when he wasn’t hanging around the office. Just like he missed Dawn when he didn’t see her.
With an unhappy expression, Carrie disappeared inside the office. He asked Melody why she’d brought Carrie to the dock. They usually didn’t stop by randomly.
“She wanted to come down to see you. I told her you were probably busy. I actually thought you might be gone already,” Melody responded, her voice slightly exasperated. “Then she would have had her visit with Rob and Wyatt and we’d have gone home. I called Heidi’s mom to see if she’d bring her over this afternoon, but they’re going to some kind of family thing.”
“Is it all this rain?” he asked. “Is that why she’s restless?”
“I suppose.” Melody folded her arms over her chest. She looked away for a second before answering him. “I’m not sure what’s going on with her today, but she’s seemed out of sorts for a few days. She’s been talking a lot about school. A bunch of the kids at her preschool are starting kindergarten at the Lincoln School a couple of blocks from the house.”
“I know the one you mean.”
“Carrie asked me a couple of times if she’ll be going there with Heidi,” Melody said, “but I’ve been noncommittal and have tried to change the subject.”
“You don’t know what to tell her,” Jerrod said. “How could you? I haven’t finalized the plan yet.” That was a hedge. He’d made up his mind to leave Two Moon Bay in the fall, so why couldn’t he just say so? But every time he started to let the others in on his decision, something held him back. He wasn’t being fair to Carrie, but this was no way to treat Melody, either. Or Wyatt and Rob. This freewheeling life of the last couple of years was probably reaching its expiration date.
“This is my fault.” He looked up to the sky for no particular reason other than the change in the rain. It was coming down harder now. “You need to get out of this rain, and I need to go. But tell me this. Are you okay either way? If we stay here or if we go back to Florida?”
She hesitated, but not for long. “I’m fine with both places. You know I love Carrie and I don’t have other plans right now. But I’d like to know if we’re packing up in a few weeks. It feels unsettled,” she said, her tone pointed. “If it’s like that for me, the uncertainty probably affects Carrie, too.”
“You’re right. I need to make a decision.”
“Okay, then, we’ll see you later.” She narrowed her eyes as if warning him. “Don’t forget about that spaghetti.”
“I won’t. You can count on that.” Fixing an easy dinner was all well and good, but it wasn’t hiding his apparent indecision as well as he thought. Normally, he’d have walked to the chamber meeting, but it was raining too hard. When he got to the building, he pulled the van into a parking place next to Dawn. She quickly left her car and climbed into his passenger seat.
“Good morning,” Dawn said in her usual cheerful way.
He grunted. “I guess.”
“What? You don’t like this weather?”
“Now you’re just baiting me,” he said with a cynical laugh.
“Oops. I’m sorry. You really are in a bad mood. I was just joking around.”
The rain hit the windshield and the roof, rapidly turning into a heavy downpour.
“Don’t apologize,” he said. “I’m in the midst of mishandling my life once again. Well, really, it’s Carrie’s life I’m talking about.”
“What brought that on?”
“It seems like I only drove my van into town with Carrie a couple of weeks ago. I’ve barely settled into the house. The business is just getting off the ground.” He was going somewhere with the conversation. Or maybe he was only rambling and wouldn’t come to any conclusion. “Now Carrie’s friends at preschool are all excited about starting kindergarten.”
“And you don’t know if you should enroll her? Is that it?”
“In part. Sure.” He stared out the window at the rain-blurred cedars that formed a fence between the chamber building and the Victorian B and B next door. It was so hard to picture himself packing up and heading to Key West for an entire winter season.
“Carrie has friends in her preschool, so she probably expects to go off to kindergarten with them,” Dawn said.
“That’s what’s weighing on me.” He thought back to the darkest days after he’d left Bali to come back to Key West with Carrie and the crew. Would he ever stop regretting his inability to come out of the shadows and take care of Carrie himself? An old friend had sent Melody to him. She’d opened her arms—and her heart—to his child.
Lately, he’d begun questioning some of the assumptions that had dominated his thoughts and influenced his actions. Why did he continue to cling to the idea he was too wounded to be a father again? Too flawed to deserve a real life? Even thinking in those terms was beginning to sound hollow, even to him.
“Without fully realizing it, Melody pushed me to begin acting like a real father again. Now she’d like some answers about her future. Imagine that?”
Dawn kept her eyes on the windshield, but smiled when she said, “Gordon gets a big kick out of Carrie when he sees her around the office and the dock.”
“She was very disappointed when I told her he wasn’t in the office today.”
Dawn sighed. “That makes two kids. Gordon wasn’t particularly happy when his dad picked him up last night.”
“No? Why?”
“He’s only been helping you in the office for a few days, but he likes being around you and Wyatt and Rob. I think he feels grown-up when he’s working with Wyatt to update the website or the blog. This weekend arrived like an interruption.”
“I’m glad he doesn’t feel exploited,” Jerrod said, pleased. “If you can keep a secret, Gordon is a little…uh, awestruck by Wyatt. He seems sort of tongue-tied around her.”
“He talks about her a lot. She’s very cool.” Dawn laughed. “Especially her name. He thinks she’s pretty, too, but is shy about saying so. Instead, he goes on about how brilliant she is. That’s his new word, brilliant.”
“Wyatt is fond of him. She treats him like one of our company family now.” That was a stupid thing to say, but he couldn’t suck the words back in his mouth. Gordon wasn’t part of their vagabond crew. He’d be left behind when Jerrod packed up and took off.
His thoughts turned to the meeting a few minutes ahead. An active chamber of commerce, Dawn said they were laser-beam focused on the future. How ironic. It was struggling with thoughts about the future that left him jumpy and tense.
“Do you have questions about the meeting?” Dawn asked. “I believe they’re expecting about a dozen people.”
“Not really. But I do wonder if it makes much sense for me to be in a meeting like this.” He heard frustration in his tone. What did he have to offer the Two Moon Bay Chamber of Commerce, anyway? He wasn’t even feeling very sociable. “Maybe it would have been better to wait until next spring. Here it is August and there’s not much left of the season.” Now he was acting as if leaving was a sure thing. He confused himself.
Dawn fell silent and turned away, but not for long. Her jaw rigid, she tightened her grip on her handbag. Tension built in what now seemed like an awfully small space.
“Look, Jerrod, let’s clarify something. When I set this up, I told you the chamber was looking for local business owners interested in future development in town and the county.” She peered intently into his face. “It’s a task force meant to generate ideas to help the chamber plan for the next ten or twenty years.”
“I am interested,” he protested, immediately regretting his attempt to defend himself, but resenting her implication that he didn’t understand what this group was about.
“But the series of weekly meetings starts in the fall,” she said. “When I first talked to you about this, you assured me you were staying through October and would be back next spring—May first. The seasonal businesses like yours are included in this project because they’re essential to Two Moon Bay.”
She relaxed her jaw and exhaled. “If you’re not going to be here then, please tell me. I convinced the organizers to include you because everyone wants the outdoor businesses represented.”
“That’s smart, too,” Jerrod said. “I get it.”
“You’re a big picture kind of person with a concern for what makes the area special in the first place.” Impatience still colored her tone. “I sold you to them because you have a grasp of the past. Let’s just say I was a pretty strong advocate for including you.”
“I know.”
Glancing at the clock on the dash, he also knew he was cutting it close on time. It was unfair to Dawn all around. She took commitments seriously.
“What do you want to do?” she asked with a scoff. “Short-term, I mean.”
He almost winced against the unmistakable edge in her voice. But she’d put her reputation on the line over this chamber task force.
“I’ll stay at least until early November.” He’d enroll Carrie in school, which would make her happy. If he ended up moving everybody to Key West, she’d adjust to a new school. But maybe he’d end up staying after all. He had an idea or two about what he wanted to do in the off season, but he wasn’t ready to talk about it. “And yes, I intend to be back in the spring.”
She put her hand on the door handle. “Okay, then, no ambivalence?”
“I didn’t say that,” he said dryly. “Ambivalence lives in every cell in my body, but I’m making a decision. I need to talk to Melody and the rental agency for the two houses. I’ll work out arrangements for Wyatt and Rob to go back to Key West a few weeks ahead of me.”
Dawn smiled but shook her head, almost in disbelief. “I have to say I’m relieved. I didn’t relish the idea of showing up only to pull you out of the group.”
“I’m sorry. I’ve been going back and forth in my head, stay, leave, stay, leave. Put Carrie in school. No, wait until we’re in Florida. Give notice on the houses. No, wait.”
“You could have fooled me,” Dawn said. “You seem to be going along fine day by day. You—and your crew—seem happy here. You fit in.”
If he said what was on the tip of his tongue, he’d be sending the wrong message—again. But on some days he chalked up all the good things that had happened to him because of Dawn. If he was managing, it was because of her.
* * *
WHEN THE TWO-HOUR meeting ended, Dawn had begun to wish she was a member of the task force. She’d been born in the area, so she had as much at stake as anyone sitting around the long conference table. And that included Jerrod. Despite her reassuring words about appearing happy, she was right to call out his indecision about his plans, immediate and future. But once in the meeting, she understood why his audiences took to him.
“You endeared yourself to your colleagues in that meeting,” she said, standing in the shade of the building. The rain had stopped for the moment, but the air was muggy.
“I’m glad you were there.”
“Not that you needed me. But it was understood I’d sit in on the meeting,” she said. “They might need me this winter to help explain the task force to the public.”
“So much for the sidewalk sale being the end of your volunteer work for the year.”
She laughed. “I was only kidding myself. This happens all the time. I’m sure you understand why this task force is important to me.”
“I do. I feel a lot better having made a decision for the next few months.”
Reminding herself it was none of her business, she kept quiet. She’d been putting effort into pushing Jerrod out of her mind except when the issue was relevant to his business.
“Let’s get some lunch,” Jerrod said. “If you have time?”
“Sure. Let me think of a place you haven’t been yet.” There were so many good places to choose from.
“I’ve been meaning to go to the Half Moon Café.”
“You still haven’t tried out one of our best all-around lunch and dinner spots?” she asked, surprised he hadn’t been there with Rob and Wyatt. But maybe he didn’t socialize with them after working together all day. “Then that’s where we’ll go.” She couldn’t resist adding, “You still have a lot to see in the next couple of months.”
“I know you’re teasing,” he said. “but I don’t have to see everything this year. I’ll be back in the spring.”
Maybe, maybe not. When it came to Jerrod, she’d become a skeptic.
They left their cars and walked down Bay Street, chatting about the meeting and the naturalist, Morton Price. Along with his wife, Morton ran a not-for-profit center that offered programs to local schools.
“Morton has turned so many of our kids into conservationists,” Dawn said. In his eighties now, Morton had singled Jerrod out as the kind of leader the task force needed to preserve the character of Two Moon Bay. Unlike some folks, he didn’t care that Jerrod wasn’t born there.
Dawn knew the head of the tourist information center, and a resort owner, and the principal of the high school, who had a role, too. “So many stakeholders in a project like this.”
“I’m glad they see this task force as the beginning, not the end,” Jerrod said.
If nothing else, Jerrod had her thinking more deeply about the place she called home. Even Gordon was becoming more attuned to the world he lived in, no longer taking the lake for granted. Diving with Jerrod—and working for him—had made becoming a marine biologist seem even more exciting, and way cool. Pretty much everything her son liked fell under the umbrella of either cool—or now, brilliant—including Jerrod and his crew.
With a laugh in her voice, she said, “Have you noticed my son’s limited vocabulary? How everything is way cool?”
“It’s his favorite phrase,” Jerrod responded. “It’s my dad’s favorite phrase, too.”
“My mom’s, too. That’s why I thought it would have been retired…replaced. But no end in sight.”
“I suppose Carrie will pick it up soon.” He laughed, but said, “I don’t know why I find this so funny.”
“Me, neither, but I do.”
They were still bantering back and forth about it when they went inside the café.
“I’m glad to be indoors,” Jerrod said. “I’d just as soon not run into Carrie and Melody. I promised I’d make her and Melody my favorite spaghetti for dinner, but I’m happy to have an adult lunch.”
“Me, too.”
From the looks of things, the lunch crowd was thinning. At her request, the hostess seated them at a booth in the back. A nice quiet spot, Dawn thought. The little jump in her stomach was like a warning flag. She shouldn’t be happy about sitting in nice, quiet spots with Jerrod.
Jerrod scanned the room, his expression amused.
Dawn thought the Half Moon Café used the theme of the town’s name in a tasteful, fun way. In addition to wooden beams and trim, wainscoting covered the lower sections of the walls, so the flocked wallpaper with its silver moons and stars didn’t overwhelm the space. The theme carried through the menu and the great food kept bringing the crowds back.
“I can read your mind,” she said. “It’s filled with quips about the moon and stars.”
“I plead guilty.”
Keeping her voice light, she warned, “Make fun if you will, but you’ll sing a different tune when you taste the food.”
“Okay, I trust you. No jokes, at least not yet.”
“They have great dinner fare, too,” she said, picking up the menu, “but when I come here for lunch I usually get a salad or a burger. And today, I can’t wait to bite into a juicy burger. I’m really hungry.”
“I’ll have the same thing,” he said. “I suppose you’re in a hurry, anyway.”
Puzzled, she said, “Uh, no, not particularly. Are you?”
“No, no. If I’m home to fix dinner for Carrie, I’ll have kept my promise. But I’ve noticed how busy you are, how you seem to make the rounds on days you’re not working from your office.”
“It’s that obvious?”
“Pretty much.”
“Well, not today. I don’t have anything else scheduled.” She cocked her head, feeling happier than she had in days. Maybe it was her resolve to work on her own life, find some balance. Although Jerrod had made himself off-limits, he’d been part of her drive to break out of the rut she’d created for herself.
“This was a big day for me, actually. It was sort of like finding my way to do my civic duty—for lack of a better term.”
“It fits,” he said thoughtfully, as if he’d tried out the idea in his head. “Until I was in the meeting I thought of it more as a chamber promo plan for the town. But it’s much bigger than that. I’m glad you were there,” he added, “so I don’t have to explain what went on.”
When the waiter came to the table, they each ordered a burger and he quickly returned with a pitcher of raspberry iced tea and two glasses and hurried off. Dawn didn’t know quite how to phrase what she wanted to say next. It could sound personal, but she meant it to be business related. She pulled together her thoughts while Jerrod filled their glasses.
“Since we have this unplanned chance to talk,” she said, “I’m wondering how the summer is shaking out. Really.” She paused. “Since I’m not good at beating around the bush, I’ll just ask if you believe this move was worth it. Would you go through all this trouble again?” Confident her reputation wasn’t affected one way or another, she didn’t lose anything by asking. Her curiosity was more personal than professional.
Avoiding her gaze, Jerrod used up more than a few seconds opening a packet of sugar.
Oops, she might not want to hear the answer. “I didn’t realize that might be a difficult question.”
“I didn’t say it was,” he said. “It’s just that it isn’t so clear-cut. When Nelson said that the immediate area could use a tour boat, I listened. But I sure didn’t think that part of the business would take off as fast as it has. I thought we’d have way more interest in diving. But that hasn’t materialized.” Frowning, he absently stirred sugar into the iced tea. “I expected the diving to be our major focus. I planned around that.”
“But you have full tours. I’ve seen that for myself from the large numbers of people gathered on the dock.” She would have thought the day tours would have been considered easy income.
“For so long I’ve had the notion that everybody who tried diving would be like me—and Gordon, for that matter. Wyatt and Rob also love being underwater.” He leaned against the back of the booth. “When I dive, nothing else matters other than the demands of that world.”
His hands were in motion as he spoke about breathing, moving through the water, staying alert. “It’s as if I’ve adjusted to the surroundings so well, they become my home for those minutes every bit as much as having my feet on dry land.”
Dawn believed him, but in the abstract way she might believe there’s a thrill in walking a tightrope. Still, she had no idea how to explain why she couldn’t see herself ever feeling that way. She was spared from any kind of response when the waiter brought their burgers.
The burger sat untouched on Jerrod’s plate, but Dawn was too hungry to wait. She was chewing the first bite when Jerrod began finishing his thought.
“That was a roundabout way to answer your question, or to maybe avoid answering it,” he said. “Given how I feel about diving, it’s a little disappointing that we don’t have more people in the certification groups. Or have more qualified people going out to the wrecks. But then there’s another side to being here.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s complicated because it has very little to do with the business.”
That aroused her curiosity. “Tell me more.”
“I like being part of a community, a neighborhood,” he explained as his expression brightened. “Earlier at the chamber meeting I felt at home, even though I’ve been here for such a short time.”
“Two Moon Bay is like that. You’ve met a lot of people. Folks at your library talks, for instance, and the next thing you know, you’re running into them at the Bean Grinder or the ice cream shop,” Dawn said. “I see you as pretty well connected.”
“That’s because of you.”
“And you. But thank you.” Ignoring her lunch, she rested her chin in her palm and threw out another thought. “You haven’t answered the question, not exactly. Are you really saying it’s a mixed bag? That you’re happy with your decision, but because of the diving numbers, you’re not?”
He shook his head. “No. I’m happy with my decision. I like the quality of life here. I haven’t been in a traffic jam yet. No horn blasting, no rude people, either.”
“Hey, that’s good to hear,” Dawn said.
“With the tours carrying us, the business is in fine shape. The Key West office is doing okay even in the off-season.” A faint smile appeared on his face. “That’s why I agreed to stay and why I said I’d be back.”
“Gordon will be thrilled with that news.”
For the next few minutes they both finished their food while they rehashed the issues raised at the task force meeting. When she glanced up and scanned the restaurant, it was mostly empty and the staff was setting up for dinner. “We had a long lunch. It was nice, though, and as your consultant, I needed to find out how you felt about the season so far—your first season.”
Dawn insisted on paying the bill, calling it a client lunch, and then they walked to the sidewalk through the drizzle that had begun while they were inside. They hurried back to the lot where they left their cars.
“Will you follow me to the office?” Jerrod asked. “There’s something there I want to show you.”
Since he sounded almost somber, she put thoughts of laundry and cleaning aside and agreed. The rain picked up along the way and the two ran from his parking lot into the office. It was as if the rain had settled over all of Northeast Wisconsin and was planning to stay.
She laughed at the spectacle of trying to stay dry with her raincoat over her head. He was laughing, too.
“Have a seat,” he said. “I won’t keep you long.”
She fluffed up her hair and ran her hands up and down her arms. “So, what is it?”
Jerrod took a key out of the top drawer of his desk and opened the bottom drawer. He pulled out a pile of yellow legal pads and put them down on the desk with a thud. “I’ve been working on a project. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”
She pointed to the pile. “Looks like you’ve been writing.”
“You’re the first person I’m confiding in about this. No one else, not even Wyatt or Rob, knows what I’ve been up to.”
“It’s a book, isn’t it?” She splayed her fingers across her chest. “I’m honored.” Touched was more like it. Her heart beat faster. She sensed how important this book was to him. “When did you find time to start working on it?”
“Some nights I walk down here after Carrie’s asleep, but mostly, I’m letting Wyatt and Rob run a few of the tours, and sometimes even the dives. That frees up time.”
“Your reward for having such a great crew, huh?” She laughed. “I don’t know exactly what the book is about—it doesn’t matter. I’m still excited.”
“It’s my take on Great Lakes shipping. Shipwrecks tell tales and most people will never see these relics firsthand, but I’m trying to tell the stories of an era. I want to bring the past alive through the wrecks. But I also want to talk about the value of the Great Lakes today.”
“And the threats to them, I suppose,” Dawn added.
“That, too. That’s why I hope the book will speak to young people. Gordon understands the fragility of the Lakes more than I did at his age.”
“I hope you’ll let me help promote it when the time comes,” Dawn said, her business wheels already turning.
“Let you? I’m counting on it. This is the first of three books I have in mind.”
“Do you write everything in longhand?” she asked. “Talk about old school.”
He nodded. “I’m getting ready to put it all on the computer, though. This is only my first try.”
“I’m happy you confided in me,” she said, getting to her feet. She reached out to pat the stack of legal pads. “Your secret is safe with me.”
Jerrod stood, but didn’t come out from behind the desk. “Speaking of secrets, will you tell me yours?”
That was a shock. “What? What secret?”
“It’s obvious you don’t want to dive with us. I’ve invited you more than once and you always change the subject or run off.”
Her stomach dropped with a thud. This was the big question? Did her face show her disappointment? She was annoyed enough to put it all on the line. “I’m not sure why you’re asking now, but if you want an answer, here it is.”
He pulled his head back, a look of surprise crossing his face. “Whoa. I wasn’t attacking you. I’m curious what’s holding you back. If it’s lack of interest, you can just say so. No pressure.”
“I already told you how terrible it was for me,” she said, still standing on the opposite side of the desk. “Panic. Terror. Awful nightmares.” She told him everything, all the details that she’d shared with Lark.
“I’m so sorry you had that experience, Dawn.” His expression matched the sadness in his voice.
For a few seconds they stood quietly. She heard only the rain hitting the window, but it was curiously comforting.
Feeling antsy and uncomfortable, Dawn went to the window and crossed her arms over her chest as if protecting herself. The rain had stopped at last and the sun was breaking through the light cloud cover. She felt exposed now. And in a bad way. In her head she understood how ridiculous that was, but her emotions hadn’t caught up.
“I wish you’d trusted me enough to talk this through.”
Not able to suppress a mocking laugh, she lowered her voice and said, “Well, I did have a sprained wrist.”
“But the truth is out now.”
She lowered her head, her face heating up. Like the truth had come out about what was between the two of them. “I better be on my way. You have fun with Carrie.”
“You’re welcome to join us. She likes you so much.” Then he hedged, “Well, it’s true she might be even happier if Gordon was joining us.”
“Thanks, no. I’ve got plans for this evening.” A lie. She grabbed her rain jacket and stuck it over her head. Then, as if remembering her manners, she said, “Maybe another time. See you next week.”
He stood, but stayed behind the desk as she left.
On the drive home she thought about her lie. Plans? She didn’t have anything scheduled for this Saturday night. What? Maybe slice some fruit and have it with cheese and crackers for dinner. Then she could visit her favorite online movie site to find something entertaining to watch. How about a romantic comedy? Ha! She’d live on the edge, maybe even consume a big bowl of ice cream and a couple of cookies. So exciting.
So, why hadn’t she accepted the invitation? She could have gone, had some fun.
What a joke.
She didn’t trust herself to sit at the kitchen table and watch Carrie color a picture or tell stories about her stuffed bear. She couldn’t afford to indulge in the pleasure of helping Jerrod fix the meal, offer to make the salad or heat the rolls. She liked that kind of cozy cooking too much. A long time ago, she and Bill had liked chopping and shredding and mixing side by side. They’d entertained their little boy with hip bumps and teasing.
Dawn closed her eyes and saw herself offering to read Carrie her bedtime story. Little pieces of the life she wanted would only leave her disconnected, hurt, because they weren’t part of a whole life. With Jerrod. She seemed powerless to keep herself from falling more deeply in love with him.
* * *
HOURS LATER, WHEN it was dark and the movie was over, she poured herself a glass of chardonnay and went out to the deck off the kitchen, where she could see the moon rising. She couldn’t view the lake from her house, but she knew what it looked like hanging out over the water, even on a cloudy night.
When her phone on the kitchen counter signaled an incoming text, she went back inside to see who it was from. Hmm… Jerrod. Forgot to talk about the plan for end of season dinner at the yacht club.
As if on autopilot, she began to compose an answer, an acknowledgment that he’d brought up this idea a while back. But she stopped herself in time. Supposedly, she had plans. She was busy. If she texted back, she’d expose her fib. She’d never played these kinds of games before, and she wouldn’t do it again. It was long past time to actually have plans. For herself. If she wanted more children in her life, she could make that happen. Jerrod or no Jerrod.
Groaning, she turned off her phone. Tomorrow morning was soon enough to answer a message that wasn’t the least bit urgent.