Cameron, his chin still on her shoulder, grinned. Her heart warmed until he let out the longest, loudest burp he could muster for her 2,500 live viewers to see.
Her smile tilted but held strong.If you pretend everything’s fine, it’ll actually be fine.That mantra had worked for her to this point.
“Okay, bye!” she said quickly and logged off before things got any worse.
There he goes again.
Eliana lounged on a beach chair at the edge of The Palms Retirement Community pool where she kept an eye on Cameron swimming.
A scowling, scruffy-looking man, who most definitely did not fit in with The Palms’ age demographic or well-kempt aesthetic, stalked through the lobby and past the pool for the fourth time in the last fifteen minutes. He looked like a cross between a Marvel hero and a villain, with his huge muscles and dark eyes that had a stay-back glint to them.
She breathed in the scent of chlorine and salt, and pushed away the longing to jump in and cool off. She didn’t want to risk streaking her make-up. Besides, when her hair got wet, it frizzed out like a lion’s mane, and no one wanted to see that.
She opened her phone and flipped to her profile page. It had been two days since she’d filmed her live at Julia’s apartment, and it was shaping up to be her second-most watched video. She wanted to believe it was because of her exciting book announcement and not because of her family’s antics. But had she ever seen so many comments containing the word burp?
Not on her platform.
Cameron grabbed at her toes with his wet hands. She squealed in surprise and yanked her feet under her, and he laughed as he pushed away from the edge of the pool. A ripple of water cascaded away from him and toward where Grandpa Horace and his friend, Smitty waded in the pool.
Apparently Grandpa and Smitty became enemies after a bad business situation when they were younger. But when their grandchildren fell in love, they’d let the past go and had rekindled their friendship. The two men splashed around with Cameron, droplets hitting her legs and offering cool relief.
“How’s the book coming along?”
Grandma Winnie approached Eliana, holding two summery, yellowish-red drinks that matched her sleeveless floral blouse. Eliana gratefully accepted the tall glass of icy strawberry-lemonade. Grandma Winnie’s normally perfectly coiffed short gray hair had gone limp from the heat, as had Eliana’s long blonde hair she’d attempted to curl that morning. No hairstyles stood a chance today. It wasn’t that Eliana had forgotten how muggy Florida could be in June—it was more that she’d selectively disremembered.
Her family was tripping over each other at Julia’s, so they took every available opportunity to escape. Since they could technically live in the house during repairs—though no one wanted to—insurance wouldn’t cover a rental. And due to The Palms bylaws, they couldn’t stay with Grandma and Grandpa for the two months it would take to fix the pipes. But they could use the amenities with their grandparents.
“I’m struggling to concentrate on my book,” she admitted. With Julia and Logan, Smitty’s grandson, getting engaged and married within three months, Eliana didn’t have a lot of time to pull off the perfect wedding. But Logan had just been accepted into a four month extended learning program in Africa that he’d applied for nearly six months ago, and they wanted to get married before he left. Beforetheyleft, actually, since Julia decided to go with him.
“You’re welcome to work at our place,” Grandma said.
“Thank you.” Maybe she’d actually get some work done there.
“You know I love a good self-help book,” she continued. It was a love they shared. “ButHappily Single?”
Eliana was used to skeptics picking at her concept. Everyone seemed to believe you had to be in a romantic relationship to be happy and truly fulfilled.
Eliana had married someone who made her feel the opposite, and she never wanted to feel that way again. She’d learned in the five years since they’d divorced that she was so much happier single than she had been in a relationship, and she wanted to share that wisdom.
“I’m not trying to convince people they should be single.” Most of the time she thought theyshould, but that wouldn’t earn her any points with Grandma. “But if that’s the message they get, then I’m okay with that.”
Based on Grandma’s cloudy expression, that hadn’t earned her any points either.
“Most of the people I know who are in relationships aren’t happy,” Eliana said gently.
“I am.” Grandma sat in a beach lounger and watched Grandpa almost … wistfully.
“You guys are different.”
“Julia’s happy.”
“Is she?” That was another reason Eliana wanted to come to Diamond Cove months before the wedding. She barely knew her sister’s fiancé, and she needed to make sure he was a good guy before this wedding went through.
“Happier than I’ve ever seen her,” Grandma Winnie said.
Eliana hoped that was true. So far, Julia mostly acted stressed, but itwasthe end of the school year, and she was planning a wedding, and her newest picture book just released, and four people plus a turtle had unexpectedly moved into her nine-hundred square-foot space.
Eliana sighed. She had to figure out another living situation. She did livestreams at least once a week, plus filmed her edited long- and short-form videos that kept her platform engaged and coming back for more.
