“Hello-o?” Olivia smacked her leg playfully from her perch on the floor.
“Sorry.” Callie folded the paper and set it on the floor, dropping down into the chair next to Olivia. She only noticed then that Olivia had picked up a few magazines from the stack of mail they’d been gathering on the side table and set them in her lap. They stayed closed as Callie started to tell her the story. The more detail she gave, however, the more unreal it all sounded, and, after seeing the article, she wondered about Luke’s motivations. “He wants to take me out again tomorrow at seven.” She looked back over at the paper, staring at the woman in the bikini until the picture blurred in front of her.
Wyatt came in and sat down beside them, having heard some of the story. “Are you nervous?” he asked.
Callie smiled.
“I’m nervous about starting third grade here. I don’t know anybody,” he admitted, picking at the edge of his flip-flop. “I’d be glad if I met someone.”
His candor warmed Callie’s heart. She wanted to tell him that Luke wasn’t someone she thought could be her new friend. She let her eyes fall onto the photo of him in the paper again, suddenly wondering why she was even wasting her time having dinner with someone when she should be spending that hour or two on The Beachcomber. But she’d committed.
“I know you haven’t had a chance to meet any kids yet, but there’s a whole class of them waiting. You only have a few weeks left!” She raised her eyebrows and stretched her face into an excited smile for his benefit. Truthfully, she and Olivia both wished he’d had other kids around during the summer, but he’d been a great sport through all this, and she assured Olivia that, in time, he’d find his place.
Olivia had tried very hard to entertain him. She’d had kitchen dance parties, she’d made an entire ice cream bar with twenty different toppings, and she’d even had a tie-dye day, where they dyed shirts. When she’d come downstairs the day after that, she’d dyed her hair blue to match her shirt. It washed out, but the whole time, Wyatt had thought she’d used the clothing dye. She didn’t tell him until the very end. He came in with blue stripes in his hair later that morning.
“Have you had a chance to try out your new fishing gear today?” Callie asked. Wyatt had been trying to catch fish since they’d gotten there, but sea fishing was quite different to the freshwater fishing he did back home, and he hadn’t caught anything yet.
“No, but I want to! Maybe I’ll get lucky and catch something! The guy at the shop says fishing and waiting are basically the same thing, but you never know!” he said with pride. Olivia had spent more money than she’d admitted to Callie on fishing gear for Wyatt. She’d gotten him a surf rod with a saltwater spinning reel, circle hooks, a sand spike, and a lesson in surf fishing at the local bait and tackle shop.
“Maybe you could set it up and show me and your mom what you learned in your lesson.” She looked over at Olivia and, in that unspoken language they’d used since they were kids, she told her that the house could wait just a little while. Olivia smiled and took in a heavy breath.
Over the years, Callie had witnessed how hard it had been for Olivia as a single mom, and she knew the internal struggle Olivia was having over being a great mom and still taking risks that could give him a different life.
“Okay!” Wyatt said excitedly, jumping up and down. “Let me set it up. I know how! Then I’ll come get you when I’m done.” He ran down to get his supplies.
While Wyatt was off gathering what he needed, Olivia had opened one of the magazines. “Did you see this article?” She flipped the magazine around, the pages rolled back so that the piece about the Sullivans was in view.
Callie took it from her. The Sullivans, with their many companies, had wealth so abundant that they rarely mixed with the residents and tourists there in Waves. The article claimed they’d lost touch with the locals. Luke was having lavish parties, sailing around with countless different women in luxury boats while the town was known for its eclectic, bohemian beach vibe. The other Sullivans hardly spent any time in North Carolina anymore—Edward spent most of his time in New York; Lillian Sullivan, Luke’s mother, who had raised Luke and his sister alone after her divorce from Edward, had left for Florida as soon as her children were out of college. Luke’s sister Juliette had chased a fashion design career in New York. So the local press had converged on Luke, and his rise in popularity in the press had caused increased interest in the small village. She read on.
Callie wanted to believe that Luke was as kind as he’d been at lunch but she couldn’t clear her mind of the headlines she’d read about his womanizing ways. He’d dated some big movie actress recently, the village in a frenzy as they were spotted out on the waters on his boat. The long-time residents were tiring of the paparazzi that followed her to their town.
“It was really nice of him to take you out,” Olivia said as Wyatt called them outside through the open porch window. He was heading to the beach with his two fishing rods in their holders.
Callie slipped her hands into the pockets of her shorts. Although stained with paint from painting the mailbox the other day, they were at least clean, since the only two appliances they had managed to order so far were the new washer and dryer. So while she couldn’t keep her drinks cold and was still eating restaurant food, at least she could feel fresh every morning by doing the wash, even if it always looked like she was wearing dirty clothes.
“He forgot his wallet and I had to pay for lunch,” she said. “So he invited me to dinner tomorrow night. I don’t entirely trust his motives yet. He wouldn’t take no for an answer, though. I wonder if he likes the chase.”
Olivia squinted her eyes in thought as they exited the back door after Wyatt. “Hard to tell.” She stepped over a pile of seashell mulching bags. “But he definitely makes for an easy view.” Olivia winked at Callie.
“That, he does.” She laughed. “I wasn’t prepared for going out. What am I going to wear?” The sand whipped around with the wind, blowing across the old gray boards of the walkway.
“Don’t worry. You can borrow that white sundress I bought. I’ve never worn it, and it cost me a ton. It would be nice for someone to get some use out of it.”