Life as We Know It: A Treasure Key Novel

by Sarah Bates

  When we arrived at Zorbas Taverna, the lunch hour had already come and gone, but they were still doing a fair amount of business – clearly, they were a popular spot for tourists and locals alike.

  “How many in your party?” the girl at the hostess station asked, the tone of her sort of raspy voice clearly bored. Her nametag said Demi, and she had short black hair, buzzed close to her scalp on the sides and around the back of her head, though it was longish and messy on the top, and she had multiple earrings in both ears, a simple silver stud in the right corner of her nose, and she wore a vintage style AC/DC t-shirt with skinny jeans that were worn and fraying at the knees and cuffs. Her nails, trimmed short and round, were painted a glossy black, and on the inside of her right wrist there was a tattoo of the outline of a lightning bolt.

  “Five,” Margo said, and they gave each other pinched looks, clearly not pleased to be seeing each other.

  “Dining in or out?” Demi asked, gesturing toward a set of doors that led out onto a deck where several tables were setup, giving their outdoor patrons an amazing view of the water.

  “That depends,” Margo replied. “Where are you serving? In or out?”

  “Dining room,” Demi replied.

  “Then we’ll take the patio,” Margo replied. She smiled sweetly, and Demi rolled her eyes.

  “Fine by me.” She grabbed five rolls of silverware and menus, then simply turned and started for the patio doors, and I followed her and the others. “Jason will come take your order in a minute,” she said, dropping the rolls of silverware and menus on a table.

  “Leo isn’t working?” Kat asked, and though she tried to hide it, her disappointment was evident.

  “He’s inside with me,” Demi replied, and then she turned and went back inside.

  “Of course, he is,” Kat muttered, and now she gave Margo a pinched look.

  Margo shrugged, then smiled brightly when a guy came up to our table. He was tall, and if the fit of his plain gray t-shirt was any indication, he was in incredibly good shape. “Hey guys,” he said cheerfully. He looked a lot like Demi, though his eyes were a dark, hot fudge brown, while hers had been a clear, sea glass green. “Just you four?”

  “No, Jamie’s going to be joining us,” Margo replied, her lips curved in a flirty smile.

  “So, a Coke for him, a sweet tea for each of the three of you,” he gestured to Margo, Kat, and Maddie with his pen, then glanced at me. “And…you?” he asked, giving me a look of interest. “Sorry, I don’t believe we’ve met. Jason Kanakaris.” He held his hand out in offering.

  “Chloe Courtland,” I replied, shaking his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

  “You, too. So, ah,” he looked between the four of us. “I’m guessing from the resemblance that y’all are related?”

  “Cousins,” Margo replied before I could. “Chloe’s mom is my dad and Kat’s dad’s baby sister. They just moved home.”

  “Ah. Well, welcome home,” he said to me, his tone easy and genuine. “What can I get you to drink?”

  “I’ll take a Diet Coke,” I replied.

  He nodded, then turned and headed for the door, sharing a quick, manly sort of half-hug with Jamie as he came out the patio doors.

  “Don’t even bother,” Margo said to me as I watched him go.

  “Sorry?” I asked, looking back to her.

  She sighed gustily as she adjusted her sunglasses and then reached up to pull her long, thick, wavy golden hair into a ponytail. “He’s already taken.”

  “What? Oh.” I blushed a little, as I had rather enjoyed the look of him. “Sorry.”

  “Oh, no, not by me,” she said, waving a hand at that. “His girl is a summer girl. She’s from Boston,” she explained when I gave her a quizzical look. “Her family has a vacation home over on the south side of the island. They don’t see each other very often, but they are rock solid. He’ll probably have a ring on her finger in a year or two.”

  “It’s true,” Kat and Maddie said at the same time, both of them nodding.

  “Oh,”

  “What’s true?” Jamie asked as he finally joined us.

  “Something female,” Margo replied, and her smile widened slyly when he grimaced. “Find anything good at the Artisan?”

  “Actually, yeah, I did. They’ve got a ton of new stuff. You should take Coco. I think she’d like it.”

  “We’ll try to fit it in, but after this we have appointments at the day spa for manicures and pedicures, and then we’re going to go hang out at your mom’s boutique,” she told him.

  “Well, don’t take too long. Some of the others want to hit the beach this evening, and Leo was talking about maybe going to see something at the theater.”

  “Sounds like fun,” Kat said, and she ignored the knowing look her twin brother gave her.

  Then they all looked at me.

  “Um…yeah. Sounds great,” I said, and I was glad when Jason arrived at our table with our drinks, and Jamie and Margo began to argue about the movie choices – there were only two – while Kat and Maddie both began to offer suggestions from the menu, even as they both studied their menus while they weighed the pros and cons of each dish.

  Jason grinned at me, shook his head, then tapped the menu in front of me, pointing out a Greek chicken pita, which came with wilted greens, sautéed red onion, feta, and tzatziki sauce, with a side choice of Greek style cucumber salad, or a Greek pasta salad. “Always the favorite for new customers,” he said.

  “I’ll take it,” I told him, and handed my menu to him. “With the cucumber salad.”

  He patiently took everyone else’s orders, then headed inside, and it was then that I looked out over the beach.

  I don’t know if it was Fate, or simply luck, but at that very moment as my gaze slid over the rolling waves and sea of sand, I saw him.

  Even with the distance between us I could tell he was tall, and every part of his sun-kissed body that was bare was strong and sculpted, rippling with each movement he took as he walked out of the water, slicking a hand through his shaggy, dark wet hair. We were too far apart for me to see the color of his eyes, but I could swear I felt it when he turned his gaze on me.

  For a moment he simply stood there in the hot sand, staring back at me, then he cocked his head, and his lips curved up on one side in a sexy kind of lopsided grin. Never breaking his gaze from me, he caught the bottle someone tossed to him, and unscrewed the cap, taking a drink from it.

  Then that other person, another guy who had dark mocha skin and very short black hair and who was sitting on a blanket, tossed something else at him, and he caught it as well, and unfolded it to slide on a pair of aviator sunglasses. He said something to his companion and took another drink, still without looking away from me.

  I could feel my heart racing and my mouth went dry as my belly danced with giddy butterflies.

  Then, when his companion said something, he nodded, touched the cap of his water bottle to his temple and saluted me, then he turned and began to help gather their things, and I saw a dark shape on the back of his left shoulder.

  It took me a minute, but then I realized it was a tattoo, a cross of some sort, though it was hard to tell from this distance.

  I watched him, blushing when he turned to face me as he began to walk backwards toward the parking lot. He smiled, then turned and hurried to catch up to his companion, and a moment later was lost in the sea of beach goers.

  I sighed, honestly disappointed to have him go, and shifted my attention back to the others.

  Jamie, Margo, and Maddie were still discussing the plans for later, but Kat was watching me, her gaze full of interest. When I blushed again, she grinned and bumped my foot with one of hers under the table, then turned her attention to the others. “I vote for the Fun Center,” she said. “It’s been ages since we’ve gone go-karting.”

  Grateful for the distraction, I reached for my soda and took a deep drink. “Sounds like fun,” I said, joining the conversation. “I’m in.”
>
  Three

  We ended up foregoing the movie, and instead, after getting our nails done and spending a couple of hours hanging out at my Aunt Nora’s boutique, we met up with a group of my cousins’ friends at the beach.

  While Margo complained about the cool wind blowing in off the water – I mean, it was in the eighties, and the breeze, as she called it, barely ruffled my humidity curled hair, so seriously? – I felt like I was being slowly baked alive, and drank about a gallon of Gatorade, opting out of the volleyball game, in favor of sitting under the stingy shade of someone’s bright beach umbrella. Which turned out to be a wise decision on my part, because it quickly turned from a fun way to pass the time to a full out competition, where my sweet little cousin Maddie became a voracious beast, systematically decimating Margo and Jamie’s team.

  Honestly, it was a little scary to watch, but at the same time I couldn’t take my eyes off her. And with Zach and Kat both on her team, Margo and Jamie’s team apparently hadn’t stood a chance.

  After spending some time in the water – I was still too much of a Yankee to go beyond my knees without the theme song from JAWS playing in my head – we all headed en mass to what the others called the Fun Center.

  It was there that I finally got to meet Leo, and understood right away the appeal Kat found in him. And if I read his body language right, there was obviously something there for him, too, though he made no move to openly flirt with her, and I quickly concluded that it was because of Jamie.

  Best friend and twin sister were not, apparently, supposed to cross certain lines.

  It made me feel a tug of sympathy for her, but she just smiled and shook her head when I tried to convey this to her. It was for that reason why I cheered a little louder than I normally would have when she beat Jamie in not one but two go-kart races.

  The girl had superior driving skills, that was for sure.

  Me, not so much. I ended up in the tire wall both times, but I did dominate during our round of mini-golf, so that was something. I even got a little trophy with a windmill made of little putters for its propellers, which now sat on the top of Kat’s bookcase, along with her collection of go-kart trophies, and medals from volleyball – apparently, she was on the girls’ team at school with Maddie.

  Her collection kind of reminded me of the medals I’ve won at past skating competitions and made me miss home even more.

  Sighing over that, I turned my gaze away from the shelf and sat on the side of her bed to put my sandals on. At times it didn’t feel as though we’d already been here for three days, and others it felt as though we’d been here for forever.

  I’d left Minnesota a week ago, and yet in all those days I hadn’t heard from my dad at all, not even after I’d sucked it up and had texted him to let him know that we had reached Treasure Key all right, and were settling in.

  I imagined he was probably too busy ripping our family home apart and letting his trophy girlfriend do whatever she wanted to it. Doing my best not to think about what she was going to do to my bedroom, I stood up and grabbed my purse.

  “Hey, where are you off to?” Kat asked as she came into her room.

  “My mom decided she’s going to make some of her homemade tapioca for dessert tonight, so I volunteered to go to the grocery store to pick up some of the ingredients she needs.” I had a feeling she had decided to make it because she knew it was a favorite of mine, and she wanted to do something to cheer me up.

  “Mmm. I’ve never had it homemade before.” She dropped a stack of laundry on her desk, then rested her hands on her hips. “Mind if I come with? My mom just asked me if I could go pick up my dad’s uniforms from the cleaners, and they’re in the same shopping center.”

  “Sure.” I waited while she got her purse and slid her feet into a pair of flip flops, then went with her to the front of the house.

  “Coco and I are heading out. Anything else we need to get?” she called out into the front living room.

  “Pick up something to drink; soda, tea, whatever,” Aunt Nora said as she stepped into the hall, her arms loaded with a big laundry basket. “Scott and Derek are coming for dinner, and Donovan and Duke are coming with them, and possibly Delaney, too. Either way, between Zach and Donovan, they’ll go through at least a couple of two-litters, and I didn’t think to pick anything up when I was at the market yesterday.”

  “I’ll make sure it’s caffeine-free,” Kat said.

  Aunt Nora snorted out a chuckle and headed down the hall. “I’d appreciate it. Have fun.”

  Kat merely waved at that and led me out to the driveway, and since my mom’s SUV was parked behind her mom’s van, went straight to the passenger side and got in.

  “So, I haven’t been wanting to pry,” she said when I climbed in behind the wheel, “but I’ve been wondering…how are you doing?” she asked, buckling her seatbelt.

  I hesitated, then shrugged when she lifted her gaze to me, and reached out to turn the key and crank the engine. “I’m doing okay,” I told her. “It’s been a major adjustment,” I said when she simply continued to study me in that patient way of hers. “Everything is so different down here; I feel like I’m not even in the same country anymore. But it’s nice here,” I added, not wanting her to think I wasn’t happy to be there – even though, technically, I kind of wasn’t. Still, my unhappiness had nothing to do with her or our family, or even the island itself, and had everything to do with the fact that I missed my home.

  She hummed softly, but otherwise didn’t reply as I backed out of the driveway.

  In fact, neither of us spoke as I drove toward town, and Kat simply gave me directions on where to go by pointing them out to me.

  It was easy enough to find the shopping center where the island’s sole grocery store was located, as it was directly across the street from the Courtyard. In the shopping center, which was aptly named Seaside Shopping Center, the grocery store anchored one end, while a pharmacy anchored the other, and between them there was a used bookstore, a sandwich shop, a small yoga and dance studio, a floral and gift shop, a thrift store, a Thai restaurant, a pizza place, and a laundromat and dry cleaner.

  Across the parking lot was another building, this one made up of different office spaces, and the two other free-standing buildings that shared the lot were a bank on one end, and the post office on the other, not far from the grocery store. There was even a food truck parked in what appeared to be a permanent location, with a small picnic area set up around it, a short white picket fence surrounding it. A large sign at the entrance welcomed people to Sal’s Sandwich Shack.

  “Wow,” I said, breaking our silence as we headed into the grocery store. “You know, for a relatively small island, this place sure does offer a lot in way of shopping.” And every one of the shops, I realized, was privately owned. There was not one chain store or restaurant around. Even the grocery store appeared to be independent, and was simply called Island Market.

  Kat shrugged as she reached out for a cart and pushed it through the doors as they slid open for us. “Some of it’s fairly recent, relatively speaking,” she said. “The previous mayor started a revitalization project throughout the island, hoping to bring in more tourism. I mean, we were doing all right, especially since the opening of the Humphrey Resort over on the east side of the island, but for the most part a lot of the people who come to stay there don’t usually come into town, and he wanted to boost the economic growth for everyone.” She reached out and grabbed a large bag of tortilla chips and a jumbo jar of salsa from an endcap as we made our way to the baking aisle.

  “That eventually resulted in renovating the Courtyard and the opening of the Artisan, and adding a splash pad over by the community pool at the park. All the buildings got a fresh new coat of paint, and the roads were all repaved, and some landscaping has been done to spruce things up as well. Since Uncle Hank became mayor, he’s been continuing the project, and has been working with a developer who wants to come in and build a bunch of time-share
condos. But honestly, I don’t think he’s really all that keen on that, as he thinks it might take away from the local motels and homeowners who have vacation rental properties.”

  “How long has he been mayor?” I asked. Though we’d been here for three days, I’d only seen my mom’s oldest brother the one time, the night we arrived, and he’d come over for family dinner. Unlike my mom and Uncle Jim, Uncle Hank was more reserved, and very businesslike. Honestly, he kind of reminded me a little bit of my dad, though I didn’t say so.

  Understandably, given my father’s most recent actions and his treatment of my mom, he wasn’t high on anyone’s favorite list.

  “A year.” She reached out and grabbed another jar and held it up. “Bean dip, or no?”

  “For what?” I asked, needing some clarification before I could answer.

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. Nachos maybe.”

  “I thought we’re having roast chicken for dinner,” I said, confused.

  “We are. Hmm. Maybe two.” She grabbed another jar and dropped both into the cart along with the other random things she’d collected on our way to the baking aisle.

  Wondering if I’d ever figure out the way her thought process worked sometimes, I finally turned a corner into the aisle that had been my destination and began to gather the ingredients my mom had written out on a slip of paper.

  Next, we went to the soda and snack aisle, where Kat added three jumbo sized three-liters of fruit flavored soda, and a couple more bags of munchies – cheese balls and pork rinds this time…just let me say eww to that second one – to the pile she’d already gathered.

  “Is that really all you’re getting?” she asked as we turned around and started down the aisle again, heading for the front checkout counters.