Surfside Sisters

by Nancy Thayer

  Sebastian looked her right in the eye and grinned. “Nope, but that’s not a bad idea.”

  Once again, she was breathless.

  “I volunteer several days a week at Safe Harbor, the shelter for animals waiting for adoption. Remember Fido? He went to dog heaven a few years ago. I can’t keep a dog in my apartment. But the shelter always has several animals waiting here. I come out to take the dogs for a walk, to spend some human time with them. It makes them happy, and it makes me happy. I thought you’d enjoy it, too.”

  “I do like dogs…”

  “Come on,” Sebastian said. “Wait till you meet the gang.”

  They went around the side of the building. There, in large, clean, wire pens were four dogs of various sizes and breeds.

  Sebastian led Keely into the office, which was filled with smaller cages, each one home to a cat.

  “Sebastian!” Nadine, the manager, jumped up and hugged Sebastian. “Hooray, you’re here. The beasts are so ready.”

  “Nadine, I’ve brought a friend to help. You remember Keely Green from school.”

  “Sure do.” Nadine folded Keely in her arms, then held her away, studying her. “Okay, you’ll get Missy. She’s the quietest of them all. Sebastian, you can take whoever you want. But remember, both of you, when you’ve got them outside on leashes, they have to obey you. You can’t let them run off like they want to do.”

  “But we can run with them, right?” Sebastian asked.

  “Right. And don’t forget these.” She handed them each a plastic bag. “For picking up doggie doo,” Nadine told Keely.

  So Keely spent most of her afternoon on one end of a green leash with a small mixed-breed female dog who preferred sitting in Keely’s lap and being petted to running alongside Sebastian and his leaping, twisting, barking, hyperactive hound. Keely did get Missy to take a nice long walk, and at one point in the afternoon, she leaned against a tree with Missy licking her face and watched Sebastian on the ground, wrestling with a deliriously happy rottweiler/who-knew-what mix named Mike Tyson.

  “Who’s a pretty girl?” Keely asked the small furry creature as she scratched Missy’s pink belly while Missy lay with her eyes closed in ecstasy. Missy really was pretty, with curly white hair and a black button nose. Keely envisioned buying her a pink collar with rhinestones and giving her to her mother. That would get Eloise out of the house!

  In the distance, two other volunteers romped with two other dogs, a greyhound and a black Lab.

  “They’re not as pretty as you,” Keely whispered in Missy’s ear. Missy wagged her tail in agreement.

  When the time came to return the dogs to their kennels, Missy turned in the doorway and shot Keely a beseeching look.

  “She likes you,” Nadine said. “She hasn’t liked anyone the way she likes you.”

  “I can’t,” Keely said, backing away. “I’m not sure how long I’ll be on the island, and I don’t have room for a dog in my apartment in the city.”

  But when she turned away, she was surprised to find she was tearing up. She wiped her eyes before Sebastian could see her, but obviously he detected her mood because he put a strong, sustaining arm around her shoulders and pulled her against him. “Now it’s time for a cool mojito and some nachos.”

  Keely swept her hand over her shirt. “I’m covered in dog hair.”

  “Brush it off,” Sebastian said sensibly. “Anyway, half the people on the island are tracking sand in on their clothes. No big deal.”

  They went to Cru, a restaurant down on Straight Wharf, where they sat inside, looking out at small fishing boats gliding in to tie up at the dock. Once they’d ordered their drinks, Sebastian took out his phone and studied it.

  “Something important?” Keely asked.

  “Very important. I just double-checked. The new Star Wars movie is on at seven on the big screen. If we eat fast, we can make it.”

  Keely leaned back in her chair. “So this date we’re having includes a movie, too?”

  Sebastian gave her a sleepy-eye look. “This date we’re having can go on all night if you want.”

  Keely laughed. “Still the same old Sebastian.”

  Reaching over, he took her hand. “Not the same old Sebastian at all. I think you’ll find I’m the new, improved model.”

  He drew his thumb in a delicate swirl on her palm, such a soft touch to cause such an explosion of longing in Keely’s body. She didn’t pull away. She’d been waiting for this moment all her life. She didn’t want to ruin it by being simply too afraid to go into the moment, to really be there. She was almost thirty, after all. She wasn’t an ingénue.

  She smiled back at him, slowly. “I always enjoy sampling what’s new and improved.”

  “Excuse me,” the waiter said.

  They had to unlink their hands in order for the waiter to set the drinks on the table.

  Was it the alcohol? She had only two drinks. Was it the afternoon of running and playing with Missy, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine, the sense of freedom, letting go of words, letting herself give in to a completely sensual part of herself? Maybe it was the delicious sweet mussels she ate, carefully picking the meat out of the iridescent shells, like a jeweler teasing out a pearl. The tangy taste of the sea. The thick soft bread she used to soak up the broth. The laughter of others around her. The slow fade of the bright blue sky to a dreamy lavender. The boats sliding so deftly into a slip.

  Whatever it was, Keely and Sebastian lingered at the restaurant, talking about their pasts in New York and Sweden, their odd lives of writing and scrimshawing, the need for isolation and the need for fellowship.

  “Do you still have feelings for Tommy?” Sebastian asked.

  Keely smiled. “Honestly, no. The last time I even set eyes on him was over a year ago, at Bartlett’s. He and Isabelle were such a couple, so happy together. I moved to New York, and so much in my life changed. I’ve changed. I love my work and I know I’m fortunate to be able to do what I love. Tommy, at least the Tommy I knew, would have been impatient with me spending so much time in isolation.”

  She hesitated, wondering how much Isabelle had told him. “You know Isabelle and I aren’t speaking?”

  Sebastian nodded.

  “But you called me anyway.”

  “It doesn’t matter what you and Isabelle do. I want to see you.”

  “Is that true?”

  “Of course it’s true.”

  “It’s just that your family is so…entwined. Like I have to please everyone, Donna and your father and Isabelle, before I can”—she sought the perfect word—“please you.”

  “I can understand why it seems that way. When we were kids, it’s true, our family was like bees in our own hive. But we’re older now, and separate. I live above my print shop. Isabelle and Tommy and Brittany live in the apartment above the garage. It’s true they see Mom every day, usually so she’ll take care of Brittany while Isabelle goes off on errands.”

  “Sebastian, I miss Isabelle so much. I’d love to be friends with her again.”

  “You probably will be. Maybe it will just take time.”

  Keely bit her lower lip lightly, thinking. “I should tell you, Sebastian, I’m seeing someone in the city. Gray Anderpohl. He’s…nice. I…like him.”

  “Are you committed to him?”

  “No. And he’ll always need to live in New York. While I…I thought I could be a New Yorker, but I’m afraid I’m crazy about this island.” Keely looked at Sebastian. “And then there’s you.” Bravely, she asked, “What are we doing here, Sebastian? I mean…”

  “I know what you mean. And I know what we’re doing. What I hope we’re doing. What I’ve been wanting to do for a very long time.”

  He paid the check and pulled out her chair. He took her hand as they walked out of the restaurant and up the wharf to his Jeep. He drove
to the apartment above his print shop. They went inside and up the wooden stairs. They entered the apartment. He shut the door, and before she could speak, he had his arms around her and his mouth on hers. She put her arms around his neck and kissed him back with all the hunger and desire she’d been holding in all her life. Sebastian picked her up and carried her to his bed.

  * * *

  —

  They didn’t come out until the next morning.

  When she opened her eyes, she saw Sebastian lying next to her.

  “Oh my goodness,” she said. “I can’t believe it.”

  “Believe it,” Sebastian told her. “Check out the covers.”

  The top sheet and light quilt had been twisted into a mountain of fabric.

  “It’s a work of art,” Keely said.

  “You’re a work of art,” Sebastian told her, and drew her close to him, so that her head was on his shoulder and his arm around her back.

  “What time is it?”

  His chin dug slightly into her head as he leaned over to check the clock. “Nine-thirty.”

  “I don’t think I’m going to get much writing done today,” she said.

  “Maybe not, but I’m going to give you some good material.” He lifted her hair and kissed the back of her neck, and turned her to face him, and kissed her throat, and then her collarbone.

  I have morning breath, Keely thought in a panic. Then she forgot about everything except Sebastian’s mouth.

  Later, they sat on his sofa, drinking coffee. Keely was sitting propped with her legs stretched out and her feet in Sebastian’s lap. They’d heard sounds from his shop—his employee entering and opening the doors, voices, a phone ringing. Sebastian was in no hurry to get to work.

  “So,” Sebastian said, “want to see that movie tonight?”

  Keely smiled. “I’ll see any movie you want to show me.”

  Sebastian ran his fingers over Keely’s ankles. “Are you ready to take this public?”

  “This?”

  “You and me. As a couple. Together.”

  “Are we going from zero to sixty too fast?” Keely asked. Her heart was jumping rope and it wasn’t from the caffeine.

  “Are we? I don’t think so. We’re adults now. We’ve had some fun and we’ve been in and out of love. We’ve traveled. We can trust what our hearts tell us.”

  Keely dipped her head at his romantic words. They delighted her, and frightened her a little, too. “What about your Swedish stewardess—”

  “She’s not a stewardess and never has been. Ebba is an artist. And the Swedes were doing scrimshaw before we were. I learned a lot over there.”

  “Do you want to go back?”

  “Do you want to go back to Tommy?”

  Keely laughed. “No, Sebastian. First of all, he’s married to Isabelle. They have a child. They’re happy.”

  “But you were angry with Isabelle when she married Tommy.”

  “True. It happened so fast, sort of like the moment my back was turned. Isabelle didn’t tell me what she was going to do. I felt—spurned. Scorned. By Tommy, yes, but also by Isabelle. Like she was playing a trick on me. But I’m over all that now.”

  “Okay, then, do you want to live in New York?”

  Keely thought a moment. “Not anymore. I want to live here, on this island. But I want to go there often. You know my editor and agent are there, and I love the museums and plays and shops…”

  “And the guy in New York? Gray?”

  Keely stared down into her coffee mug, as if she could find the answer there.

  Finally she said, “I admire Gray. I’m fond of him. He’s a pediatric surgeon, and he’s intense. I want to love him”—she glanced up at Sebastian with a smile—“but I can’t…I don’t know how to say it. I can’t get comfortable with him.”

  “Can you get comfortable with me?” Sebastian asked.

  Keely smiled at him. “More than comfortable, I’d say.”

  “But out of bed. Out in the world. Daily life.”

  She took a deep breath, marshaling her thoughts. Somehow she’d arrived at a crossroads, a place she never dreamed she would be. “I don’t know, Sebastian,” she answered honestly. “The thing is…well, your family.” She held up her hand. “No, let me finish. It’s not just about Isabelle. It’s that all my life I envied your family so terribly it was like an open wound in my heart. Your mother is so lovely, and so perfect. She always took good care of you kids, and never missed a game or a meet. And your father is an important man in this town.” She hesitated, wondering whether to mention Al Maxwell’s coldness the day he read her father’s will. Let it go, she decided. “And that wonderful house…and my mother is totally a good person, she’s a nurse, she’s helped so many people, but she is…quieter…than your mother. My father liked to do things with me—he taught me how to surf cast out at the Madaket Beach. Stuff like that. But often he was working, and too tired to do much else. I loved him. I miss him. But…it’s terrible, and I feel guilty, but I just always wished I had your family.”

  “But if you’d had my family, you couldn’t be with me. That would be incest. Our children would be cross-eyed.”

  Keely nearly fell off the sofa. Our children? Sebastian was thinking: our children?

  “We did have a happy family,” Sebastian admitted in a more serious tone. “We’re fortunate. But God knows we’re not perfect. My father’s a lawyer, sure, but as the years have passed, his profession is wearing on him. He’s getting short-tempered. Argumentative. Nothing lives up to his standards. Certainly not my work, which he sees as unworthy of a Maxwell. He wanted me to be a lawyer, too. He thinks scrimshaw is outdated and foolish. We argue about it a lot, which is one reason I don’t go over for Sunday lunch anymore.”

  “I’m sorry,” Keely said.

  “As for Isabelle and Tommy—Dad disapproves of Tommy.”

  “But your father bought him that fishing boat…”

  “Isabelle’s always been Dad’s favorite. He’d give her the stars from the sky if he could. So no guy could ever be worthy of her in Dad’s eyes.” Sebastian’s voice softened. “But Brittany, now there’s the one person who can do no wrong. No matter how much time Tommy spends out drinking beer with his buddies on his boat, Dad will always champion Tommy because of his granddaughter.”

  “Tommy spends a lot of time drinking beer on his boat?” Keely asked.

  Sebastian shot her a look. “You want to talk about Tommy?”

  Keely shook her head. “No. No, I want to talk about families. Your mother has two children and a granddaughter. I’m all my mother has. And she’s become seriously depressed since she quit nursing. I’m doing my best to cheer her up, and I think she’s gotten better, but it’s sad to see her this way.” Keely paused. “Sebastian, I don’t know if Isabelle and I will ever be good friends again. I’ve reached out to her but she refuses to talk. I think she’s kind of angry with me because I got a novel published first.”

  Sebastian turned toward Keely, lifting her feet off his lap so that she shifted positions and tucked her feet under her. “Keely, Isabelle is my sister, and I love her. I know how desperately she’s wanted to publish a novel. I don’t think she’s angry at you. I think she’s hurt, not by you, but by circumstances. I think the sight of you—the thought of you—wounds her.”

  Keely nodded. “I understand that. So maybe in time, she’ll be my friend again.”

  “Right. Now look at me, Keely. I am not my sister. Nothing I do has anything to do with my sister.” Impatiently, Sebastian stood up. “And at this particular moment, I’m hungry. I’ll make us some eggs and bacon.”

  “All this and you cook, too,” Keely joked.

  She went with him into the kitchen and took on the job of microwaving the bacon. She thought this moment, with the smell of buttery eggs and salty bacon, with Sebas
tian, who loved her, sprinkling cheese over the eggs, with her body aching in the most delicious way from all they had done in the night—she thought this moment was the happiest in her life.

  * * *

  —

  After breakfast, Sebastian kissed Keely for a long, sweet time. Then he drove her to her house.

  He smiled as she opened the car door. “See you later.”

  “Yes. Later.” She could hardly pull herself away.

  When Keely entered, her mother was in her recliner again, watching television.

  “That was a long date,” Eloise remarked.

  “It was wonderful.” Keely didn’t want to talk about it yet. “Have you eaten breakfast?”

  “Don’t worry about me, sweetheart. I don’t want to interrupt your writing schedule.”

  “You mean you’re addicted to your television shows,” Keely said cheerfully. “I’m going to take a shower and get right to work.”

  Keely showered and dressed for the day and took her place at her desk with her laptop, and—she didn’t have a thought in her head for her book. Her mind ricocheted back between flashes of her night with Sebastian—his gentle hands, his sweet mouth, his long legs—and anxiety for what might happen.

  What if she got her heart broken? He had told her he loved her, but she knew it was too soon for them to promise to spend their lives together. Who knew what would happen when his family heard he was seeing her?

  With sudden insight, Keely realized she had a family, too. Nervously, she called Sebastian. “Can you come to dinner here tonight?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Good. I’ll call again about the time.”

  Keely hurried back to her mother. “We have to go. We’ll get ice cream for energy, because after that, we’re going to the grocery store. We’re going to have Sebastian over for dinner tonight.”

  “Really? Oh, how lovely! Let’s buy some nice juicy steaks!”

  Eloise was up and out of her chair and dressed and ready to go in a matter of minutes.

  * * *

  —