Summer by the Sea by Jenny Hale

Author:Jenny Hale
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781910751114
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

Faith tentatively opened the door. Jake was tapping the lid of the paint can with a mallet. The built-in was beautiful—book shelves on the top and a double cabinet on the bottom, all painted a glossy white. But her eyes didn’t stay on it long. Her attention was on him. She was anxious to talk to him again. She wanted to see him, to look for any sign of how he felt about last night. Jake slipped the paint-filled paintbrush into a plastic bag, the hands that had held a glass of wine last night now spotted with white paint.

“Hey,” he said as she walked over to him.

“Hey.”

“I’m all done. No more work to do on the cottage, so I’ll be out of your hair.”

He was finished?

His words surfaced: I’ll be out of your hair. Faith was hoping the answer was no. She wanted to have more time with him. She wanted to have more time with him. To get to know the Jake she’d been with at the lighthouse and back at his cottage more. And she wanted to show him what this place meant to her, why she’d reacted how she had to learning about his work and what he was missing out on. Would he give her a chance to do that?

“There’s no more work to do? The cottage is complete?” She felt a stab of anxiety at the idea of not having Jake around. She enjoyed him popping by.

“Yep. It’s totally finished.” His words seemed flat. He wasn’t his usual, happy self.

“Oh…” She hadn’t meant for her disappointment to slip out.

“I’ll be back tomorrow, though, when I pick up Casey and Isabella to go fishing.”

With that statement, it was clear that he wasn’t planning to see her, in particular, again. And the fact that he was seeing Casey made her chest ache. She would have loved to try and lengthen the conversation to work in the fact that she wanted to see him again, but she had to go check on her sister. That was the whole reason she’d come in.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, then,” she said, trying to put on a believable smile.

As Jake started to leave, Nan came into the living room, wobbling the box of photos.

Jake immediately took it from her and walked with her over to a chair where she sat down.

“Thank you, dear. That was kind of you.”

“You’re welcome. Is this good?” he asked, setting the box on the floor beside her and righting himself next to Faith.

“Yes.”

Jake was standing so close his hand brushed Faith’s, and her stomach did a little twirl. He didn’t seem to notice their proximity. He took a step toward the door. “Do you need anything else before I go?”

“No, Jake. Thank you so much.”

He offered his perfect smile and said goodbye, his eyes fluttering over to Faith momentarily and then away. Then, he turned around and headed toward the door. She wanted to run after him and ask him to stay but she watched him let himself out instead.

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