by Laina Turner
“Are we going to the beach?”
“Yes, it’s one of my favorite places and I thought I’d share it with you,” he said, flirting with her.
“It’s one of mine, too. The sand, the water. It’s all so beautiful. You locals are so lucky to be surrounded by this beauty all the time.”
“Well, it’s not the greatest in January, but I know what you mean. Even in the winter, when it’s so cold that you can barely stand to be outside, I find beauty in it.”
They turned off the road and onto the trail, then walked silently until it opened out onto the beach and the beautiful expanse of water. Zach headed to the right, like he knew exactly where he was going. A few hundred feet down, he stopped in front of a large blanket that was already laid out with an umbrella and a cooler.
“How does this spot look?”
“Like someone else beat us to it,” Kate said, pointing to the stuff that was already there.
“Then I guess they shouldn’t have left,” he said, setting down the picnic basket and taking a seat on the blanket.”
“Zach! We can’t just steal someone else’s space. What if they come back?”
“I guess we can deal with that if it happens,” he replied. He thought Kate’s worried look was adorable, and he watched as it quickly turned to realization.
“This is yours, isn’t it? You already had this all set up,” she said with mock indignation. Before he could say anything, his face gave the truth away, and she started laughing. “You jerk. You really had me worried there for a minute. I thought we were poaching on someone else’s picnic blanket.”
“Sorry. The look on your face was totally worth you being mad.”
Kate sat down across from him on the blanket. “This food better be good. You’ve got a lot to make up for,” she joked.
Zach opened the cooler. “Water? Champagne?”
“I’ll take a glass of champagne since I’m not working today,” she said, looking at him pointedly. Zach just smiled.
He poured them both a glass of champagne. He handed her one and put the bottle back in the cooler, then set his glass on top of it while he shifted to the picnic basket, getting out the rest of the food. Kate took a sip of her champagne while she watched Zach set up. He peeked her out of the corner of his eye and enjoyed seeing her relax a little as she closed her eyes with her face toward the sun.
“Here, help yourself.” Zach handed her a plate and some silverware and proceeded to open the containers that he’d placed between them. Kate looked at the food, then at Zach, then back down at the food. Without cracking a smile, she began to fill her plate. After Zach had done the same, he looked at her and picked up his glass.
“Cheers to a beautiful beach picnic with a beautiful woman.” He watched as Kate blushed. She seemed speechless as they clinked glasses. She balanced her champagne flute between her ankles so that she could set her plate on her lap, and dug in.
After a couple of minutes, Zach asked, “How do you like it?”
“You outdid yourself. I’ve never had such good bologna-and-cheese sandwiches. And are these Cool Ranch Doritos?”
“Why yes, they are. Thank you for noticing that I was shooting for upscale,” Zach intoned with a snooty lilt to his voice. Kate started to laugh until she was practically crying. Zach joined in with his own laughter. It thrilled him that she seemed to enjoy what he put together. He knew that it could have gone badly just as easily, though his impression of Kate was that she was easygoing and playful. Her reaction had confirmed it for him. Not every woman would be wowed with plain old bologna and cheese.
When they had finally stopped laughing, and Kate had wiped her eyes with her napkin, Zach said, “Thank goodness you’re a good sport and like good, old-fashioned Oscar Mayer bologna.” He sang a bit of the jingle from the old television commercials.
“I think this is hysterical. But I do have a question. Is this the extent of your culinary talents?”
“No, but it’s not far off,” he admitted.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, finishing up their food. “Don’t get too full,” Zach warned. “I have a great dessert planned.”
Kate raised her eyebrows. “I don’t know, Zach. I’m not so sure you can top this.”
“I know, I know. I’ve set the bar pretty high.” As he was talking, he leaned over to grab another container out of the picnic basket, and Kate clapped with excitement. She watched as he pulled out a small Tupperware Cake Taker. “What are you smiling at?” he asked as he saw her face light up.
“Nothing. I’m just waiting for my dessert.”
He made a show of opening the Cake Taker and pulling the lid off. Rather than the roughly 9-inch round cake that Kate had expected to see on the tray, there was a Twinkie and a Hostess Cupcake, both cut in pieces and arranged artfully with strawberry slices. As Zach watched Kate’s reaction, and her smile went from ear to ear, his heart skipped a beat.
“Wow, how am I ever going to choose?” She peered thoughtfully at the selection.
“You don’t have to. You can take a piece of each.”
Kate did just that.
“Let me take your trash,” Zach said once they’d finished, standing up and gathering their plates to put in a small trash bag that he’d brought. “Can I top off your champagne?”
“No, thank you. I think I’ve had enough, but I will take a bottle of water.”
Zach finished cleaning up, then handed her a bottle of water and opened one for himself. He took a drink and leaned back on his elbows, and she did the same. They didn’t say anything for a time, and Kate felt there was an easy silence between them. Zach liked it, too. He liked Kate and he was starting to feel that maybe she might like him back.
“I hate to end this, but I need to get back to work,” Zach finally said, feeling disappointment that he needed to ruin the moment and break the connection that he felt they’d shared.
“That’s totally fine. I need to try to find an affordable rental house.”
Zach looked at her strangely. “Are you looking for a place to live? I thought you were just here visiting.”
“I am. I was. I don’t know. I am thinking about staying. What do you think?” she asked, and he was flattered that she actually wanted his opinion.
“It’s the best place to live out of anywhere in the world, in my opinion.”
Kate nodded her head. “I like it here. I like it more than I thought I would, so I’m thinking about seeing if I can make a go of it here.”
Hearing Kate say that made Zach’s heart skip a beat. He realized at that moment how much he wanted her to stay, and he knew just how he might be able to make that happen.
20
Kate was restless. After she parted ways with Zach, she paced around the house, feeling anxiety that she knew stemmed from not knowing what to do next. It had been a while since she’d felt a sense of purpose. Even when Todd had been fighting his legal battle, she had daily calls or meetings with lawyers to keep her busy. Now, there was nothing to fill her time other than the few hours she spent each week at the law firm, and a sense of urgency to do something filled her. Though she didn’t know what that something should be.
She poured a glass of water and decided to check her email. She opened the Apple Mail program and started to clear out all of the junk. She was amazed at how everything that used to come in her physical mailbox as junk mail now came to her inbox via email. Same junk, different modality, she thought. Some things never changed.
Kate hated checking email these days because it reminded her of how her inbox had once been full of party invitations that had slowly dwindled to nonexistent as her friends had fallen away. Even the few women who had tried to stick around in her life had finally drifted away, and she couldn’t blame them, even though it hurt. Their husbands had run in the same professional circles as Todd, and they hadn’t been able to take the risk that someone might think that they had been involved in his shady business dealings. It could have put their livelihoo
ds in jeopardy.
Though losing those friendships had hurt, what saddened Kate the most about the whole situation was that it made her realize just how shallow her life had truly been. The circles that she and Todd had been part of for the last twenty years had been built on status, not true friendship. They were friends with people who Todd had planned to use to get to the next level in his career, or rather, who he had planned to scam. Their social life had never been about building long-lasting friendships, like the one she had with Claire. She wondered how she could have been so blind all those years and not realized her lifestyle had been so fragile.
She heard a ping indicating that a new email had come in. She smiled when she saw that it was from Zach. He’d asked her for her email address after lunch, saying that he might know of a few rentals that were not currently listed, but she certainly hadn’t expected a message from him this quickly. Nor had she expected the feeling of excitement she got from seeing his name pop up on her screen. It was a little unsettling. It had been a long time since Todd had made her feel that way. Those butterflies-in-the-tummy moments had stopped long before his legal issues started, but she’d just chalked it up to having been married for so long. She had to admit, it was a nice feeling, and one that she had missed. Zach’s email read:
Kate,
Contact Vivian LeMann at 313-555-1596. She’s expecting your call.
Z
How cute, she thought. He had signed his name with just his initial. And then she checked herself. What is wrong with me? Why am I finding this cute?
She wasn’t sure if the butterflies in her stomach were from thinking of Zach or from the prospect of finding a place to live that she could afford. She also needed a job, and soon, because the little money that she had wouldn’t last forever, and neither would her job with Zach. She was also worried that she wouldn’t be able to get a rental without a long-term job.
She reached for her phone, thinking that there was no time like the present to make the call. She wanted to think positively, and figured she might as well see what possibilities were out there.
The call was answered quickly. “Hello, LeMann Properties. This is Vivian. How can I help you?”
21
Kate was a bundle of nerves the next morning.
What had seemed to be merely fun girl talk only a few nights earlier had resulted in her first practice photo shoot being scheduled for that day, all thanks to Claire. The client would be Isabelle, an accountant who needed a new headshot for her company website. While the job seemed straightforward and simple enough, Kate was still petrified at the thought that she might not be able to capture the look that Isabelle wanted. She was so rattled that she’d thought she had made coffee but had forgotten to actually turn the coffeemaker on. When she went to fill her travel mug before leaving the house, there was no coffee to be had. That gaffe was why she was parking her car so she could head into May’s Café to get a to-go coffee from Claire.
She opened the door to walk in, and was so busy thinking about all of the things that could go wrong with the shoot, she ran smack dab into a wall of muscle. Startled, she looked up, then smiled when she saw that the muscles belonged to Zach.
“Watch where you’re going. You could have seriously hurt me,” he chided, with a smile that reached his eyes, causing them to twinkle.
In spite of her nervousness, she couldn’t help but laugh. “Then you’d probably have to sue me, huh?”
Zach grinned. “Lawyer joke. Nice.”
“Sorry, I’m in a rush. I’m just really distracted this morning.”
“Is everything okay? Can I buy you a cup of coffee and we can talk about it?”
Kate looked at her watch. She didn’t have a lot of time, but she did have a few extra minutes, and coffee with Zach sounded really appealing.
“I can spare a few minutes for a cup of coffee.”
“Are you sure?” he joked.
“Well, for a free cup of coffee, I can spare them,” she quipped back. “It is your turn to buy.”
They walked into May’s and sat at the counter. Claire walked over. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at Isabelle’s?”
“I had a coffee mishap this morning, so I thought it safer to get one here before I head over to her office.”
“She threatened me with bodily harm if I didn’t buy her the coffee,” Zach quipped.
Kate elbowed Zach as they laughed at his comment, causing Claire to look at both of them with a smile.
“To-go cups or regular?”
“To-go for me, please,” Kate said, and Zach nodded in agreement.
“So, what’s this big problem that’s got you so distracted?”
Kate looked at his face and saw that all signs of his joking demeanor were gone, and that in its place was true concern. Seeing a man look at her with so much attentiveness felt like a first. She couldn’t remember the last time Todd had looked at her with true concern. Even when he’d been arrested and then put her through the whole ordeal that followed, he hadn’t expressed much emotion.
She found herself wanting to talk to Zach about her new venture, even though she hadn’t really planned on telling anyone outside of the ladies who already knew. He put her at such ease, she felt like she wanted to confide in him. Plus, she thought his opinions and local business insight might prove to be helpful.
“I’m going to start a photography business, and today I have my first practice client.” As Kate finished speaking, she braced herself, expecting that Zach might make some negative comments, which she realized was what Todd would have done. She’d begun to comprehend that her marriage hadn’t been as great as she’d thought. She had regularly turned a blind eye to a lot of Todd’s negative behaviors.
Instead of being critical, Zach’s reaction was encouraging. “That’s fantastic!”
“You really think so? And please, be honest. Claire and her friends kind of talked me into this the other night, and I haven’t really had a chance to decide if it’s a bad idea or not.”
“Well, I haven’t seen your pictures, so I can’t speak to the skill part of it, but from a business standpoint, I do believe that you could make a go of it here,” he answered her solemnly. He proceeded to cite many of the same reasons that Claire and her friends had given during their night out as to why Moonshire Bay could support a photographer of its own. “Do you have any of your pictures that you can show me? I can use my expert eye to put my seal of approval on your talent,” he teased, and Kate rolled her eyes.
“You never told me you were an expert in photography,” she teased back.
“There are a lot of things you don’t know about me. I have many hidden talents.”
Claire caught his last comment as she set down their coffees. “Speaking of talent, so does Kate. Have a lot of talent, I mean. And Kate, maybe Zach here can help you set up your business, at least the legal paperwork end of things. He handled all of that for me when I took over May’s Cafe.”
Zach nodded. “I definitely could.”
“Well, use your talent to judge my pictures first,” she insisted, then she dug out her laptop and set it on the counter. As she pulled up the folder with the pictures she’d taken during her walk on the beach, she became increasingly nervous about what Zach was going to say. If anything, she knew that if he hated her pictures, he would let her know in a kind way, or at least she hoped he would.
Kate poured cream in her coffee and stirred absentmindedly while waiting for Zach to look through the photos. After a few minutes of scrolling, he looked back at her.
“Those are really good, Kate. I mean it.” He swallowed thickly. “Though, I wish you would have told me you were taking those pictures of me on the beach.”
Something was wrong. She could sense that he didn’t seem mad, and yet he didn’t seem happy about having been photographed. She looked at Claire, who’d waited at their table to hear Zach’s reaction. Claire gave a small shrug, as if she didn’t know what the problem was either. Kate l
ooked back at Zach, whose expression was difficult to read, though it made Kate feel as though he were upset, and she was perplexed as to why.
“I completely forgot to tell you I’d photographed you that day. I didn’t even know it was you at first, but you just looked so—"
“You definitely have talent, Kate,” Zach broke in, cutting her off before he stood and took out his wallet. He pulled out enough cash for the coffees and a tip, placing it on the counter. “If you’ll excuse me, ladies. I need to get to an appointment.” He grabbed his coffee and walked out, leaving Kate dumbfounded.
“What did I do wrong?” she asked Claire. “I totally forgot about those pictures, and I didn’t even think about mentioning them to him before.”
“He didn’t seem mad,” Claire said. “Just a little off. Something was certainly wrong.”
“Should I go to his office to talk to him? Apologize?” Kate asked.
Claire shook her head. “You know men. If something is bothering him, he probably just needs some space to cool off. And you have an appointment to get to. Can’t start off your new business by being late.” Claire winked, and Kate groaned.
“I’m so nervous. What if I screw this up?”
“That’s no way to think. This is just practice. There’s no expectation for today. Besides, you’re going to do great. Take your coffee and get out of here!”
Kate did just that, electing to walk to Isabelle’s office since it was at the end of the block. As she went to her car to get her equipment, she noticed that Zach’s car was sitting a few spots over from hers. She considered taking a quick moment to talk to him, but as she slung the strap of her camera bag over her shoulder, she realized that Claire was probably right. Whatever had bothered him about her pictures of him, the last thing he needed was her bugging him right after he’d gotten upset. She decided that she would give him some space and text him later to apologize. Maybe by then, he would be able to tell her why he had gotten upset.
