Charm was on half-term holidays, almost wild with excitement about a camping trip she was going on with a group from school the next day. Miss Pearl was going, too, as a chaperone.
“You’re going to camp, Miss Pearl?” Mina asked, obviously surprised.
“No, child,” was the stout reply. “The youngsters will sleep in tents, and a couple of the mothers will, too, but there’s a nice little cottage, with a bed for me to sleep on. I think they only invite me because of my cooking.”
“That’s not true, Granny.” Charm sounded genuinely outraged at the suggestion. “You’re a lot of fun, too.”
Both Kiah and Mina were off for the day, and when Mina suggested they take Charm to the beach, he jumped at the chance. He knew how much Mina loved the ocean, and she’d resisted going since she’d been on St. Eustace.
It gave him further hope that she truly was on the mend, notwithstanding whatever was troubling her.
“Will your arm be okay in the sea, Auntie?” Charm asked with a little frown.
“In the hospital we use salt water to clean wounds,” Mina replied. “And although that’s sterile, not seawater, my arm will be fine. Mind you, I wasn’t planning on swimming anyway.”
With preteen logic and no hint of discretion, Charm asked, “So what’s the use of going to the beach, then?”
“To get some sun?”
That earned her one of Charm’s dry-as-dust looks, and Kiah stayed out of it, squelching both the urge to laugh and to suggest they do something else instead.
Mina had to make up her own mind, at her own pace.
When she came back out, dressed for their excursion, she was once more wearing a long-sleeved shirt, but it was light and gauzy, clearly showing the bikini top beneath.
Miss Pearl was fussing that she hadn’t known they were going to the beach that day.
“I would have fried up some chicken for you to take.”
“Don’t worry, Granny,” Kiah told her, stopping to give her a kiss as he went by. “We’ll grab something on the way.”
“Some foolishness, like fast food. It’s not good for you, you know.”
Probably trying to distract her, Mina asked, “Aren’t you coming with us, Miss Pearl?”
That earned her another dry look for the morning.
“Child, my last swimsuit rotted away to nothing about twenty years ago, and I have no intention of replacing it. Kiah, make sure you take an umbrella, and Charm, did you put on sunscreen?”
“Yes, Granny.”
Miss Pearl gave Mina the same searching look. “Have you?”
“Yes, ma’am,” was the meek reply, and Kiah had to turn away so neither of them saw his grin.
The beach at Rickard’s Cove was packed with both locals and tourists, but they found a spot not too far from the water to put down their beach mats and hoist their umbrella. As Mina settled in under the shade, Charm was already shucking her sundress in preparation for running down to the water.
Kiah sat next to Mina, watching as Charm was diverted from her dip by some school friends calling her name. In an instant, she went from eager child to jaded preteen, joining the little gaggle of girls on the sand. The little cadre chatted and giggled, eyeing some boys who were also huddled together a little way away.
Not too long ago, she’d have been nagging him to come into the water with her, or to play with her in the sand.
He sighed. “She’s growing up so fast.”
“Mmm-hmm,” Mina agreed. “I still have a hard time believing she’s almost a teenager. Time has flown.”
“She’s so smart. I keep hoping she’ll give up on the idea of going into show business and become a doctor.”
Mina laughed softly. “Medicine is a calling, and you know it. Remember some of the people we went to school with, who were studying to be doctors only because their parents wanted them to? They were mostly miserable and lost. You don’t want that for Charm.”
“No.”
But there was a melancholy weight on his heart. Nothing to do with thoughts of Charm’s future, which he was sure would be bright, no matter what she decided to do.
As so often happened, Mina seemed able to read his mind.
“Karlene would be so proud of her and of the job you’re doing, Kiah.”
“I like to think so,” he replied. “But I wish she were here to raise Charm herself.”
Mina’s hand was cool against his shoulder, her fingers squeezing gently.
“I know you do.”
When he laid his cheek against her hand, she sighed and squeezed again.
Mina was quiet for a moment, and Kiah turned to watch Charm and her friends. The boys were setting up to play cricket on the grassy stretch between the sand and the parking lot, and the girls were watching them, all giggles and sassy smiles.
Lord, it was too soon for that particular can of worms to be opened, in Kiah’s opinion. Just the thought made his stomach curdle. When it came to his niece, he definitely wasn’t ready to deal with the boyfriend-girlfriend thing just yet.
Yet, said a little voice in the back of his head, at that age weren’t you secretly pining for the very woman sitting next to you?
That may be true, but he really didn’t want to think about it right now. Not with the sensation of her hand on his shoulder, the gentle sound of her breathing reaching his ear, even over all the ambient noise.
A group of four young women strolled by, and Kiah, still lost in his thoughts, hardly noticed, until Mina sighed and said, “Wouldn’t it be nice to be that age again, but with all the knowledge we have now? Before all the failures of life piled up on us, and everything seems so much harder?”
She sounded so pensive he sat up straighter and turned so he could see her face.
“What failures, Mina?”
“Oh, like my marriage, my career, my life.” She smiled slightly and lifted one shoulder in an abbreviated shrug. “Stuff like
