“You’re pretty, Mama.” Eli sat on the side of the bathtub, swinging his feet.
“Thanks, baby.” I put the cosmetics away.
“Let’s go, let’s go!” Eli grabbed my hand and tugged me towards the door.
I could smell the barbeque as soon as we parked on the street. I hauled a large tote bag that carried my purse, phone and Eli’s towel, and took Eli’s hand firmly in mine. We walked around the back of my sister’s spacious home to the gate.
“Remember the pool rules,” I said to Eli.
Eli grinned up at me, wearing red swim trunks, a white tank, and his blue pool goggles. “I can swim. I swim real good,” he argued.
“Yes, I know you can,” I said opening the gate. “However you will stay in the shallow end of the pool or you won’t go in at all.”
Eli’s bottom lip poked out. “Okay,” he grumbled.
I heard my name called, and I lifted a hand in greeting. Eli made a mad dash for the in-ground pool. He tossed his tank top down, kicked off his flip-flops and waded in the water, heading straight for his cousin Margot.
I went directly to a chair at the shady side of the pool, settled in and kept watch over my son. I told myself I wouldn’t brood over the day’s events. Yet I started to anyway.
“Hey, Hannah.” Rowan sat beside me wearing a red bikini top and denim shorts. “Girl, you look good.”
“Thanks,” I said distractedly, accepting the frozen Margarita she handed me.
“No seriously,” Rowan said, sipping at her drink. “Something put you in a mood, and you wear it well.”
To my surprise I discovered I wanted to confide in her badly, but sitting in Kayleigh’s backyard surrounded by splashing children, our witchy family, and my sister’s mundane neighbors was hardly the place for that type of conversation. “Rowan, I—” I caught myself, shook my head and sipped at the drink before the words started to tumble out.
I heard my mother call out that dinner would be ready in five minutes and she waved me over to help. I told Eli to climb out of the pool to dry off, and when Rowan volunteered to stay and keep and eye on him, I got up and went to give my mother and sister a hand.
Kayleigh and I were carrying out food to the covered patio when a scent caught my attention. I recognized it immediately. It was the same one that I’d detected right before I’d seen Henry Walker for the first time. The scent of brine, water and the beach.
I took a deep breath, forced myself to step outside, and discovered Henry Walker was indeed at my sister’s home, and he was wearing new clothes. A thin, blue plaid shirt, and dark denim shorts were casual but stylish and unwrinkled. He was holding a bottle of beer and chatting easily with my father and Edmund. I was so surprised to see him that I stopped in my tracks and bobbled the pasta salad.
Kayleigh walked right into me. “Hannah!” she laughed.
“Sorry.” I shook off my shock, while my sister called out a cheery hello to both Henry and Edmund. What the hell?How did Kayleigh know him?
Henry’s eyes locked on mine. Slowly he inclined his head in acknowledgment.
I slapped the bowl down on the long table with a bit more force than necessary. Grabbing my sister by the elbow, I steered her inside. “What’s that man doing here?” I hissed.
“Curtis and I invited him,” Kayleigh said.
“How do you know him?”
“Curtis is his real estate agent,” she said. “He showed him a piece of property on the outskirts of town. Henry put an offer on it this afternoon.”
“Oh,” I managed. “I didn’t know.”
“I thought Edmund would have told you,” Kayleigh said, prying my hand loose. “The man has a better line on gossip than I do.”
“Well, why did you invite him here?” I asked, again.
Kayleigh rolled her eyes. “He’s new in town, your business partner, and an old friend of Edmund’s.”
“He’s not my partner—”
“We thought he would enjoy himself,” Kayleigh interrupted.
My mother walked in oblivious to the conversation. “What are you girls doing in here? Let’s go out and eat.” She shooed us along.
I put on a false smile and joined the family at the tables. As luck would have it, Rowan and Margot were seated across from me. Eli was to my right and Edmund sat down to my left. Henry was on the opposite side of Edmund, so I focused my attention on my cousin, Edmund and the children and tried to ignore Henry.
I probably shouldn’t have bothered. Kayleigh was trying so hard to keep Henry’s attention that if I wouldn’t have known any better, I’d have said she was flirting. But more likely she was trying to pump him for information, so she’d have something to gossip about.
I managed to make it through dinner, thanks mostly to Rowan and the children. Afterwards I went back to my poolside chair, while my sister slipped inside to feed the baby, and kept an eye on Eli and Margot as they played Marco Polo with a few other children in the water.
I jolted when a bottle of beer was set on the little table at my side. “Brought you a drink.” Henry took a seat next to me.
“I don’t drink beer,” I said, and angled my head slightly away from him. Damn it! I’d done my best to avoid him for hours, I thought. And now the man plops himself down next to me as if nothing ever happened between the two of us. I caught a hint of the ocean, sitting next to him. The tang of seawater and crazily the scent of the little rocky beach I’d visited earlier today.
He smelled like one of my favorite places...I realized while my stomach clenched, and my heart began to beat a little faster. I’d had strong reactions
