I glanced at Cody when she said it, and he smiled and shrugged. "We're stonemasons, my dad and I. Gramps was too, but he left the business to Dad when he passed away a few years ago."
"I'm sorry," I said, since it was always the first thing out of my mouth when someone said the phrase passed away.
"It's okay. It wasn't unexpected or anything. He was fifteen years older than Dee-dee, so he was almost ninety when he died."
"And he left you the family business."
"Yep. It's mine and my dad's now. Uncle David never had any interest in it. He went into banking."
"Stonemasons, huh? I'm afraid I don't know much about stonemasonry other than the fact that it seems like the right sort of person to build a castle."
He laughed. "That was only once. Someone got it in there head to build a castle in the middle of nowhere in Kentucky, and they flew us out there to work for six months. That was before Ryan was born. Mostly we stay put in North Carolina. There's enough work to be had building fences or accent walls on businesses and houses. We have a quarry, too. That's originally how got Gramps into it."
"Like the place where Fred Flintstone works?" I asked, making him chuckle again.
"Yeah, only I don't get to drive a dinosaur."
"Who's Fred Flintstone?" Ryan asked.
"He's a cartoon," Cody said. "He works at a rock quarry like Daddy."
"Dad's gonna build us a castle one day," Ryan said.
I looked at Cody with wide eyes that made him smile. "I said I'd like to build a place that's castle-esque," he said, making sure his emphasis was on the esque part. "I've always liked those round towers," he said, pointing to one of the towers he put on our sandcastle. "I'll probably build a house one of these days and incorporate a stone tower.
I looked down at Ryan with a wide-eyed, serious expression. "He's talking about building you a real castle," I said.
She giggled and nodded.
"I can't believe you're gonna get to live in a real castle one day. You must be the luckiest girl in the whole world."
She continued to dig as she said, "Yep."
She was so cute when she said it, that I stared at Cody with a how do you stand the cuteness expression, which made him smile proudly.
"It's a masterpiece!" we heard from over our shoulders. We turned to find Diane walking toward us with a glass of iced tea in her hand. She had on sheer, linen-like fancy-lady beach attire that made my tanktop and jean shorts look like rags. I wanted to be just like her when I was her age.
"I had no idea I was going to be a part of a professional castle-making crew," I said.
"Cody's got construction running through his veins," she said, coming to stand next to us.
Ryan wiped her hair off her forehead with the back of her forearm since her hands were full of sand. "Hey Dee-dee," she said, staring up at her great grandma.
"Hey punkin'. It looks like you built a good one here."
"Uh-huh, we did. Paige got scared of the ocean, but she said she's gonna try it again tomorrow."
Diane looked at me, and I smiled at her. The wind had blown some hair by my face, and much like Ryan had done, I used my forearm to brush it aside.
"I like water and everything, but I've never swam in anything that has fish before," I said. "It feels a little like it's their territory and I shouldn't be trespassing."
"What's trespassing?" Ryan asked.
"It means going somewhere you don't belong or you're not invited," Cody said.
Ryan let out a laugh at that. "You're invited in the ocean, silly! It belongs to everybody." She pointed to the water. "See? You can just walk right out there if you want to."
I smiled at her. "Yeah, but that's the fishes house, and they didn't invite me to come in."
She laughed again. "Fish don't talk, silly goose!"
She was so adorable that I couldn't help but laugh. "I guess you're right," I said. "Maybe I'll have to give it another try."
I dusted off my hands before standing next to Diane. I didn't want her to think I wasn't enjoying my experience so far, so I said, "I love being out here though. I love the sound of it, the feel of the sand, and the smell of the salt."
Diane smiled sweetly at me.
I knew she was genuinely happy that I was happy, and I wondered what I'd done to gain her favor.
"I can get changed in a few minutes if you're ready to go to the grocery store."
"Don't worry about it," she said. "I sent Dan and Christy."
"Mom and dad are here?" Cody asked. He put the finishing touch on the bridge and stood next to us, dusting his hands off as he did.
"They got here about an hour ago," Diane said. "Evan's here too. Your dad went and picked him up. He and Mia said they'll be down in a few minutes."
"Did Mia ride with Mom and Dad?" Cody asked.
Diane nodded.
"Why'd they decide to come early?"
She shrugged. "I guess they knew Evan was coming today," she said. "Your dad had to go pick him up."
"At the airport?"
Diane smiled and rolled her eyes. "Greyhound station."
"He came on a Greyhound?" Cody asked, making Diane nod again.
"Who knows where he's been. He smelled like a goat when he came in. That's why he's at the house taking a shower."
Cody laughed. "I guess we'll have our entertainment for the night, hearing all about his latest adventures."
Diane shifted her attention to me. "Evan's our free spirit," she explained. "I can't wait for you to meet him. He's been all over the world with the EOC. It's an environmental group. One minute he's chasing down whalers in the south Pacific, and the next he's organizing a protest against some environmental travesty."
"Evan Hunt saves the world!" Ryan yelled triumphantly with her arms above her head.
"He taught her that," Cody said.
"It'd suit me just fine if he moved back to Charlotte and went to work for the family business," Diane said, "but he's got it in his head to fight the world's injustices."
"And Mia's your little sister who still lives at home in Charlotte," I said. It was more of a question than a statement, but I was relatively sure I was correct. Diane had done a good job of telling me who went with whom, and I knew there were three kids in Dan's family.
"That's right," Cody said. "Mia just finished her junior year of college. She's still at home with Mom and Dad." He glanced at Diane. "Does Evan have anyone with him?"
She shook her head. "Was he supposed to?"
"Last year he brought those Irish guys from the ship."
"I forgot about that," she said. "No, he's alone."
Cody reached out for Ryan's hand. "We should go rinse the sand off," he said. His statement was directed to Ryan, but he glanced at me. "Wanna come? I'll tell the fish you're coming."
"Will they leave me alone?"
"I'll make sure they do," Cody said with a confident smile.
"I'll hold your hand," Ryan offered. I took her hand, and off we went to wash our hands, feet, and knees. Sand was all over my bottom as well, but I wasn't even close to ready to go that deep, so I settled for dusting it off as best I could. We were still out there when someone yelled at us from the direction of the house.
"Ryan Diane Hunt, you better get over here and hug your favorite Uncle!" he called.
Ryan squealed with delight the instant she heard him. She dropped my hand like it was a hot potato and ran to meet Evan as fast as her feet could take her, yelling and waving her arms the whole way. The girl I assumed was Mia was behind Evan, smiling as she walked. Cody and I both began walking to meet them. I watched as Ryan ran straight into Evan's arms, and he spun her around before resting her on his hip and looking down at her.
We all came to stand by Diane near the sandcastle. Diane put a hand on my shoulder. "Evan and Mia, this is Paige. She finished college last month, and she's helping me out this summer before she gets a real job."
"These are Dan's other two babies—Cody's younger brother and sist
er."
I shook both of their hands and tried to smile even though I was feeling self-conscious. It was so weird that she kept referring to these people as babies. It made me ill prepared to think straight when I met them and figured out they weren't. Evan was equally as handsome as his brother, and he, too, had no shirt to speak of, displaying his perfectly sculpted body. It must run in the family, I thought.
Unlike Cody, who had none, Evan had several tattoos running down the lengths of his arms. I tried not to look at them, but I was curious about what they were, so I tried to steal glances without being obvious. He had dirty-blonde shoulder length hair that fell in perfect, surfer style waves. He ran a hand through it as he smiled down at his niece. He was literally every girl's dream—the gorgeous bad-boy type who was brave enough to chase down poachers who hunt endangered species.
We stood out there and talked about the castle, and the weather, and other things like that. Mia said she was going to school at UNC, and I told her that's where I'd gone. We tried to figure out if we knew any of the same people, but couldn’t come up with anything. Evan said he had several good stories to share, but he wanted to save them till everybody got there so he didn't have to spend the rest of the trip repeating himself. He told Ryan he brought her a gift, which made her anxious to get back to the house right away. The two of them along with Mia and Diane headed back to the house, leaving Cody and me to gather the castle supplies. They were just going to leave Cody, but I agreed to stay behind and help him out.
"You were really great with Ryan," he said as we picked up buckets and tools.
I let out a chuckle. "I think she was the one who was great with me," I said. "I was acting like a little kid being scared of the water like that. I didn't think I'd be so overwhelmed by it. I'm sure I'll be good to go once I have a little while to get used to it."
"I don't even remember the first time I saw the ocean," he said. "We've been coming here as long as I can remember. I'm sure it'd be weird seeing it for the first time if I did it as an adult. I'm not sure how I'd react."
"I'm sure you wouldn't squeal like a little girl."
He laughed. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't do that. I don't think I've ever made a noise quite like that."
I laughed and nudged him playfully with my elbow as we walked. "All I could picture was Jaws."
"I promise I won't let you get eaten by Jaws," he said.
"How can you promise?" I asked.
"I just can."
We took a few steps and companionable silence.
"Your little girl's pretty great," I said.
I glanced at him to find that he was smiling. "She's pretty terrific, if I do say so myself. I have my family to thank for that. They help me out a lot with her. My mom keeps her while I'm at work."
"And her mom?" I asked, feeling, for whatever reason, comfortable enough to ask a question like that.
"I was twenty-two, and she was nineteen when we found out. She wanted to get rid of her, and I didn't. I had to beg her to reconsider. That was an ordeal. She ended up saying she'd go through with the pregnancy, but that the baby would be my responsibility. She didn't want anything to do with her. She left for Maine two days after Ryan was born. She didn't even look at her."
"If she would have looked at her, she would have stayed," I said, since I didn't know what else to say.
He breathed a humorless laugh. "It's better off that she didn't, honestly. I'm glad things turned out the way they did."
"Has she tried to get in touch?" I asked.
"Nope. I heard she moved out west somewhere, but I'd just as soon not know."
"I don't know where my mom is either," I said. "Last I heard, she was in Sedona. She's probably eating mushrooms and going to all the Burning Man festivals."
He laughed. "She probably knows Evan," he said.
For some reason, that struck me as funny, and I busted out laughing. I was still giggling at the thought when we made our way back to the staircase that led to the back deck.
"These are fine here," Cody said, stashing the shovels and pails off near the foot of the stairs. "We could have probably just left them out on the beach, to tell you the truth. Nobody bothers us over here." He glanced at me. "But thanks for helping me bring them up."
Chapter 6
I went upstairs to shower as soon as we got back to the house. I had brought some of my own toiletries, but the bathroom was stocked with professional products that were much nicer than the ones I had with me.
I stared at myself in the mirror as I combed my wet hair. It hung past my shoulders and seemed longer when it was wet. The medium brown color appeared darker than usual, and my loose waves hung straight from the weight of the water.
My eyes were a deep shade of brown, and as I stared at them, I wondered if they were as dark as Cody's and Ryan's.
I smiled at myself in the mirror and shook my head a little to erase any thoughts I was having about Mrs. Hunt's grandkids. I had already resolved to be myself, and there I was worrying about it again. I took a deep breath and put away my comb before heading to the couch I had claimed.
My plan was to read a little bit so I could give the family a chance to catch up without having a stranger around. I was about halfway done with the love story I had started a few days before, so I nestled into the corner of the couch with the Kindle my dad got me for Christmas last year.
I absentmindedly brought a handful of damp hair to my nose as I read, loving the smell of Mrs. Hunt's shampoo. I read a few paragraphs before glancing out of the windows that lined the back wall. Then I read a few more paragraphs before it dawned on me that I was being silly for sitting inside when I had access to a beautiful balcony overlooking the ocean.
I toted my Kindle out there and settled into one of the comfortable chairs. When my little brother was young, he went through a stage where he made this one certain sound all the time. It was that "Ahhhh," breathing sound you make after you take a sip of something really refreshing. Anyway, when Seth was little, he would make that sound for anything he liked—anything that made him feel refreshed, and he'd do it three or four times in a row if he was especially fond of something. It started with him taking a sip of a drink he enjoyed but grew into a habit that he repeated for anything that made him feel good. Dad said he'd sit in a comfortable chair and go, "Ahhh, ahhh, ahhh," as he propped his feet up and crossed his arms behind his head. Or he'd get into the bathtub and go, "Ahhh, ahhh, ahhh, ahhh," as the warm water hit his body. In other words, the sound wasn't reserved for taking a sip of a refreshing beverage, Seth made it all the time. My dad thought it was really cute and funny, and ever since then, it's been sort of a family joke to make that sound if anything feels really good to us.
All this to say, I made the sound about four or five times as I sat in that chair on the balcony even though neither dad nor Seth was there to laugh and appreciate the sentiment with me.
I sat and read a few chapters of my story. The main characters were high-school sweethearts who had been torn apart right after graduation only to reconnect five years later when they'd both finished college. I was in the middle of reading a particularly sweet kissing scene that had the butterflies in my belly on high alert when I heard the sound of the sliding glass door opening from behind me.
I couldn’t turn the Kindle off fast enough. I closed the cover of the case as if I were reading some diabolical plan to wipe out all of Myrtle Beach.
"What are you doing?" Ryan asked, coming to stand by my chair and blinking up at me with her beautiful brown eyes.
"I was reading," I said smiling. I got to the edge of my chair, but didn't stand up. She was so precious staring at me that I reached out and ran my hand through her hair.
"You like my hair?" she asked.
"I love your hair," I said. "I was just thinking about different ways I could style it."
"Like for a fashion show?"
"Yep."
"You can do that if you want to."
"Can I braid it for
you?"
She nodded and began crawling into my lap, but I stopped her, and stood up instead. "Let me go put my Kindle away and grab a comb and a ponytail holder."
We took a step toward the glass door, but Cody opened it before we got there. "Is she bothering you out here?" he asked.
"Not at all," I said. My senses were still on overdrive from the scene I'd just read, and the sight of Cody standing there, leaning against the doorframe had me feeling breathless. "I, uh, she's, I was, uh, gonna braid her hair if it's okay with you."
"You don't have to do that if you were busy. I was gonna bring her downstairs to help set the table. Dinner will be ready in a few minutes."
Set the table? Were there really people in the world who set a table? I worked in a restaurant, but all we did there was wrap a fork, knife, and spoon in a cloth napkin and put one in front of each chair. My gut clinched at the thought of eating a proper meal with a proper family. I knew you were supposed to use certain utensils for certain things, but I had no idea what to use and when.
"Are you okay?" he asked, obviously noticing my dismay.
"Me?" I asked plastering on a fake smile. "Fine. I was just wondering what I should wear down there for dinner."
"What you have on is fine," Cody said gesturing to me with an expression that said he wasn't sure why I was worried about it. "It's just us, and we're having tacos."
"Why do you need to set a table for tacos?" I asked nervously. And obviously, I was just planning on blurting out all of my fears, which was great.
He smiled, and I immediately started to backpedal. "I mean, I guess I just got a little nervous about distinguishing my salad fork from my dinner fork. I don't really come from a salad fork type of family. We usually just use one fork for the whole meal."
He let out a good-natured laugh. "I think there's only one fork per person down there. Dee-dee just likes to have the placemats and cloth napkins set out. She's old-school like that. To answer your question, though, we do eat tacos with our hands." He smiled. "You can sit next to me if you're nervous about it. I'm a taco professional."
Meet Me in Myrtle Beach (Hunt Family Book 1) Page 4
