Barefoot by the Sea

kneeling in the soil behind her tractor, threading the three-point hitch. The vines would be cut come hell or high water. Plus, a good long ride could clear the confusion of—

“Hey, Aunt Tessa! Whatchya doin’?”

Or not. With a nearly silent grunt of frustration, she turned, smiling at Ashley as the girl loped over a row of English peas, her long stride surprisingly easy and fast considering that her jeans had been sprayed on.

Tessa wouldn’t demand to know what was going on, but any opportunity to talk could only help Ashley. She hoped.

Standing straight, Tessa took a moment to watch the younger woman approach, a deep-seated love swelling inside her. Ashley hadn’t been the easiest child to raise—and still wasn’t—but Lacey, a single mother for every minute of the first fifteen years of her daughter’s life, had done a remarkable job.

“I’m harvesting sweet potatoes,” Tessa called back. “Want to help?”

Ashley made a face, then brightened. “I’ll drive the tractor!”

“Not a chance.” The soil was soft and, despite the fact that she used a fairly small gardening tractor, it was top-heavy and required a deft touch and experienced driver.

Ashley’s expression fell again. “Can we talk before you start?” she asked as she got closer.

“Of course,” Tessa answered without a second’s hesitation. She stood, yanking off her oversized gardening gloves. “I always have time for you.”

Ashley gave a dry smile. “Good thing, since Mom is MIA.”

“Ash, come on. She’s running a business.”

“She’s at the pediatrician.”

Tessa drew back. “Is Elijah sick?”

“No, he needs some shot thing. I don’t know. Clay’s with her and they left me a note on the kitchen counter. Not a soul in sight.” She sounded defeated, and Tessa immediately wanted to defend her friend, in spite of the age-old resentment that rose.

“Well, you’re seventeen, Ash. It’s not like you’re coming home from kindergarten to an empty house.” Though Tessa knew that feeling, too.

Ashley leaned against the tractor, looking over Tessa’s shoulder. “You know, I’m a little sick of it. It’s annoying to always come in second. Or third.”

“Did you come all the way out here to complain about your mom?” Tessa asked gently. “’Cause if you did, I will make you dig in the dirt.”

“No, I just want to talk to somebody.” Kicking the soil with a bright-green Converse sneaker, she kept her eyes cast down. “Did you decide what to do about, you know, telling my mom about Marc?”

“I’m still thinking about it,” she said, remembering John’s sage advice to keep the lines of communication open.

“What are you thinking about?” Ashley asked.

Nothing but myself and my own crush. “Well, are you still seeing him?”

“Uh, yeah.” She choked softly on the word. “Was with him all last night.”

“All last night?”

“No, but until one in the morning. We were out on the beach.”

So she hadn’t been the only one kissing under the stars last night. Except—had Ashley stopped things the same way Tessa had? How could she find out without prying too far into Ashley’s privacy?

“You were out until one on a school night?”

Ashley let out a sharp laugh. “Aunt Tessa, I’m almost in college.”

“You’re a junior in high school,” Tessa said quickly. “What did your mom say when you got home that late?”

She shrugged. “She was crashed. I guess Elijah had a feeding at midnight and Mom grabs every minute of sleep she can.”

“Clay didn’t hear you come in?”

Another shrug, then a guilty look. “I told him I was at my friend Kaylee’s house.”

Tessa closed her eyes. “Ashley, you can’t lie and sneak around. I won’t help you do that and you know it.”

“I know. I…” She let out a little moan and shivered. “Oh, God.”

Oh, God, what? “What does that mean?”

She hugged herself and gave up a rapturous look. “I really, really, really like him and it has me all crazy inside, you know?”

“Oh, yeah,” Tessa said with a dry laugh. “I know.”

“See?” Ashley nudged her. “Hard to say no to a little of the good thing.”

“The good thing?”

“That’s what Marcus calls it.”

Which said a lot about his feelings regarding sex. Tessa leaned on the hitch, trying to decide what to say. “Look, you’re not a child, and I know kids at seventeen have sex.”

“A lot of them do,” Ashley said. “Like, half my friends lost their virginity last year.”

Tessa cringed. “But is that the right thing to do? I mean, it feels like fun in the moment, but what about when he never calls again and you’ve given him that part of yourself? What about disease and pregnancy and self-respect?”

She expected an argument, but Ashley just looked at her. “I know, Aunt Tess. I’m careful.”

“I’m carefuling,” Tessa said with a smile.

“What?”

The memory teased. “When you were little, we were at the beach with you and your mom kept saying ‘Be careful, Ash’ when you went in too deep, and you turned around and said, ‘I’m carefuling.’ You know, you’re still that baby to me and your mom, Ash.”

“But I’m not,” she replied. “I’m grown up.”

“Enough to have sex?”

“Enough to make my own decisions.”

“Ashley, don’t…” Tessa rooted around for the right words. “Please be smart about this boy. This man,” she amended quickly. “You can get in way too deep, way too fast.”

“I promise I won’t do anything stupid, Aunt Tess. God knows I don’t want to mess up my life like my mom did.”

And Tessa’s mom. “Ashley, your mother doesn’t feel like she messed up her life by getting pregnant with you,” she said. “I know that, because I was there. I was with her the day she took the pregnancy test. I’ve known you since before you were born.”

“Which is why I’m asking you not to turn me in.”

Tessa rolled her eyes. “Just using the words ‘turn me in’ makes me feel like you know you’re doing something wrong, Ashley.”

She shook her head. “Is it wrong if you’re in love?”

“You’re too young to know what love is.”

She got a shaky smile in response. A smile that said Ashley thought she knew exactly what love was.

“You hardly know him, Ashley.”

“I know him as well as you know John Brown. Aren’t you doing it with him?”

“No.” But it was only a matter of time, right? “And even if I were, I’m in my thirties. Listen to me.”

She reached out for Ashley’s hands, wanting so desperately to talk sense into someone who was way past sensible.“You have to promise me you won’t lie or sneak around anymore.”

“I can’t tell my mom I’m dating Marcus, Aunt Tess. She’d fire him, I know she would. He needs this job so bad.”

“Will you promise me you’ll think long and hard before you do anything you might regret later?”

“I’ll try, Aunt Tess.”

Should she tell Lacey? The question pressed hard, making her shake her head. “Your mom needs to know this, Ashley.”

“No!” She squeezed Tessa’s hands. “Please, I promise, promise, promise we