“I’ll take a soda,” she said.
“Diet Coke?” he asked, reaching back in.
“Great.”
When he passed the can to her, his hand brushed against hers, though she wasn’t sure he even noticed.
He motioned to the chairs. “Would you like to sit?”
She hesitated before taking a seat next to him. When he’d set them up, he’d left enough distance between themso that they wouldn’t accidentally touch. Alex twisted the cap from his beer and took a pull. “There’s nothingbetter than a cold beer on a hot day at the beach.”
She smiled, slightly disconcerted at being alone with him. “I’ll take your word for it.”
“You don’t like beer?”
Her mind flashed to her father and the empty cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon that usually littered the floor next to therecliner where he sat. “Not too much,” she admitted.
“Just wine, huh?”
It took her a moment to remember that he’d given her a bottle. “I had some wine last night, as a matter of fact.
With my neighbor.”
“Yeah? Good for you.”
She searched for a safe topic. “You said you were from Spokane?”
He stretched his legs out in front of him, crossing them at the ankles. “Born and raised. I lived in the samehouse until I went to college.” He cast a sidelong glance at her. “University of Washington, by the way. Go,Huskies.”
She smiled. “Do your parents still live there?”
“Yes.”
“That must make it hard for them to visit the grandkids.”
“I suppose.”
Something in his tone caught her attention. “You suppose?”
“They’re not the kind of grandparents who would come by, even if they were closer. They’ve seen the kids onlytwice, once when Kristen was born and the second time at the funeral.” He shook his head. “Don’t ask me toexplain it,” he went on, “but my parents have no interest in them, aside from sending them cards on theirbirthdays and gifts at Christmas. They’d rather travel or do whatever it is they do.”
“Huh?”
“What can I do? And besides, I can’t say they were all that different with me, even though I was their youngestchild. The first time they visited me in college was graduation day, and even though I swam well enough to get afull scholarship, they saw me race only twice. Even if I lived across the street from them, I doubt they’d want to seethe kids. That’s one of the reasons I stayed here. I might as well, right?”
“What about the other set of grandparents?”
He scratched at the label on his bottle of beer. “That’s trickier. They had two other daughters who moved toFlorida, and after they sold me the store, they moved down there. They come up once or twice a year to visit for afew days, but it’s still hard for them. And they won’t stay at the house, either, because I think it reminds them ofCarly. Too many memories.”
“In other words, you’re pretty much on your own.”
“It’s just the opposite,” he said, nodding toward the kids. “I have them, remember?”
“It has to be hard sometimes, though. Running the store, raising your kids.”
“It’s not so bad. As long as I’m up by six in the morning and don’t go to bed until midnight, it’s easy to keep up.”
She laughed easily. “Do you think the coals are getting close?”
“Let me check,” he said. After setting the bottle in the sand, he stood up from his chair and walked over to thegrill. The briquettes were white and heat rose in shimmering waves. “Your timing is impeccable,” he said. Hethrew the steaks and the hamburger patty on the grill while Katie went to the cooler and started bringing theendless array of items to the table: Tupperware containers of potato salad, coleslaw, pickles, a green bean salad,sliced fruit, two bags of chips, slices of cheese, and assorted condiments.
She shook her head as she started arranging everything, thinking that Alex somehow forgot that his kids werestill little. There was more food here than she’d kept in her house the entire time she’d lived in Southport.
Alex flipped the steaks and the hamburger patty and then added the hot dogs to the grill. As he did, he foundhis gaze drifting to Katie’s legs as she moved around the table, noting again how attractive she was.
She seemed to realize he was staring. “What?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he said.
“You were thinking about something.”
He sighed. “I’m glad you decided to come today,” he finally said. “Because I’m having a great time.”
As Alex hovered over the grill, they settled into easy conversation. Alex gave her an overview of what it was like torun a country store. He told her how his in-laws had started the business and described with affection some of theregulars, people who could best be described as eccentric, and Katie silently wondered whether she would havebeen included in that description had he brought someone else to the beach.
Not that it would have mattered. The more he talked, the more she realized that he was the kind of man whotried to find the best in people, the kind of man who didn’t like to complain. She tried and failed to imagine whathe’d been like when he was younger, and gradually she steered the conversation in that direction. He talked aboutgrowing up in Spokane and the long, lazy weekends he spent riding bikes along the Centennial Trail with friends;he told her that once he discovered swimming, it quickly became an obsession. He swam four or five hours a dayand had Olympic dreams, but a torn rotator cuff in his sophomore year of college put an end to those. He told herabout the fraternity parties he’d attended and the friends he’d made in college, and admitted that nearly all ofthose friendships had slowly but surely drifted away. As he talked, Katie noticed that he didn’t seem to eitherembellish or downplay his past, nor did he appear to be overly preoccupied with what others thought of him.
She could see the traces of the elite athlete he once had been, noting the graceful, fluid way he moved and theeasy way he smiled, as if long accustomed to both victory and defeat. When he paused, she worried that he wouldask about her past, but he seemed to sense that it would make her uncomfortable and would instead launch intoanother story.
When the food was ready, he called the kids and they came running. They were covered in sand, and Alex hadthem stand to the side while he brushed them off. Watching him, she knew he was a better father than he gavehimself credit for; good, she suspected, in all the ways that mattered.
Once the kids got to the table, the conversation shifted. She listened as they chattered on about their sandcastle and one of the shows on the Disney Channel they both enjoyed. When they wondered aloud about thes’mores they were supposed to have later—marshmallows, chocolate bars, and graham crackers, warmed untilmelting—it was clear that Alex had created special, fun traditions for his kids. He was different, she thought, fromthe men she’d met in her past, different from anyone she’d met before, and as the conversation rambled on, anyvestiges of the nervousness she’d once felt began to slip away.
The food was delicious, a welcome change from her recent austere diet. The sky remained clear, the blueexpanse broken only by an occasional seabird passing overhead. The breeze rose and fell, enough to keep themcool, and the steady rhythm of the waves added to the sense of calm.
When they finished eating, Josh and Kristen helped clear the table and pack away the uneaten items. A fewitems that wouldn’t spoil—the pickles and the chips—were left on the table. The kids wanted to go boogieboarding, and after Alex reapplied their suntan lotion, he slipped off his shirt and followed them into the waves.
Katie carried her chair to the water’s edge and spent the next hour watching as he helped the kids through thebreakers, moving one and then the other into position to catch the waves. The kids were squealing with delight,obviously having the time of their lives. She marveled at the way Alex was able to make each of them feel like thecenter of attention. There was a tenderness in the way he treated them, a depth of patience that she hadn’t quiteexpected. As the afternoon wore on and the clouds began to drift in, she found herself smiling at the thought thatfor the first time in many years, she felt completely relaxed. And not only that, she knew she was having as muchfun as the kids.
11
After they got out of the water, Kristen declared that she was cold and Alex led her to the bathroom to help herchange into dry clothes. Katie stayed with Josh on the blanket, admiring the way the sunlight rippled on the waterwhile Josh scooped sand into little piles.
“Hey, do you want to help me fly my kite?” Josh suddenly asked.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever flown a kite before…”
“It’s easy,” he insisted, digging around in the pile of toys Alex had brought and pulling out a small kite. “I canshow you how. C’mon.”
He took off running down the beach, and Katie jogged a few steps before settling back into a brisk walk. By thetime she reached him, he was already beginning to unwind the string and he handed her the kite. “Just hold thisabove your head, okay?”
She nodded as Josh started to back up slowly, continuing to loosen the string with practiced ease.
“Are you ready?” he shouted as he finally came to a stop. “When I take off running and yell, just let go!”
“I’m ready!” she shouted back.
Josh started running, and when Katie felt the tension in the kite and heard him shout, she released itimmediately. She wasn’t sure the breeze was strong enough, but the kite shot straight to the sky within seconds.
Josh stopped and turned around. As she walked toward him, he let out even more line.
Reaching his side, she shielded her eyes from the sun as she watched the slowly rising kite. Black and yellow,the distinctive Batman logo was visible even from a distance.
“I’m pretty good at flying kites,” he said, staring up at it. “How come you’ve never flown one?”
“I don’t know. It just wasn’t something I did as a kid.”
“You should have. It’s fun.”
Josh continued to stare upward, his face a mask of concentration. For the first time, Katie noticed how muchJosh and Kristen looked alike.
“How do you like school? You’re in kindergarten, right?”
“It’s okay. I like recess best. We have races and stuff.”
Of course, she thought. Since they had arrived at the beach, he’d barely stopped moving. “Is your teachernice?”
“She’s really nice. She’s kind of like my dad. She doesn’t yell or anything.”
“Your dad doesn’t yell?”
“No,” he said with great conviction.
“What does he do when he gets mad?”
“He doesn’t get mad.”
Katie studied Josh, wondering if he was serious before realizing that he was.
“Do you have a lot of friends?” he asked.
“Not too many. Why?”
“Because my dad says that you’re his friend. That’s why he brought you to the beach.”
“When did he say that?”
“When we were in the waves.”
“What else did he say?”
“He asked us if it bothered us that you came.”
“Does it?”
“Why should it?” He shrugged. “Everybody needs friends, and the beach is fun.”
No argument there. “You’re right,” she said.
“My mom used to come with us out here, you know.”
“She did?”
“Yeah, but she died.”
“I know. And I’m sorry. That must be hard. You must miss her very much.”
He nodded and for an instant, he looked both older and younger than his age. “My dad gets sad sometimes. Hedoesn’t think I know, but I can tell.”
“I’d be sad, too.”
He was quiet as he thought about her answer. “Thanks for helping me with my kite,” he said.
“You two seemed to be having a good time,” Alex observed.
After Kristen had changed, Alex helped her get her kite in the air and then went to stand with Katie on thecompact sand near the water’s edge. Katie could feel her hair moving slightly in the breeze.
“He’s sweet. And more talkative than I thought he’d be.”
As Alex watched his kids managing their kites, she had the sense that his eyes missed nothing.
“So this is what you do on weekends after you leave the store. You spend time with the kids?”
“Always,” he said. “I think it’s important.”
“Even though it sounds like your parents felt differently?”
He hesitated. “That would be the easy answer, right? I felt slighted somehow and made a promise to myself tobe different? It sounds good, but I don’t know if it’s totally accurate. The truth is that I spend time with thembecause I enjoy it. I enjoy them. I like watching them grow up and I want to be part of that.”
As he answered, Katie found herself remembering her own childhood, trying and failing to imagine either of herparents echoing Alex’s sentiments.
“Why did you join the army after you got out of school?”
“At the time, I thought it was the right thing to do. I was up for a new challenge, I wanted to try somethingdifferent, and joining gave me an excuse to leave Washington. With the exception of a couple of swim meets hereand there, I’d never even left the state.”
“Did you ever see… ?”
When she trailed off, he finished her sentence. “Combat? No, I wasn’t that kind of army. I was a criminal justicemajor in college and I ended up in CID.”
“What’s that?”
When he told her, she turned toward him. “Like the police?”
He nodded. “I was a detective,” he said.