Faith looked down at her menu. More options? People who come here, don’t want more options; they want the local seafood, they want a table full of friends and a band in the corner after the dinner hour. They want a casual, beachy atmosphere with pitchers of strawberry daiquiris and finger foods on brightly colored plates, not this. How could he think this was okay?
“Are you planning on developing more like this one?” she asked, trying to keep the animosity out of her voice.
“I’m always planning,” he said, smiling.
Did he really not see what was wrong with this? His comment at Bodie Island about seeing so much hope and potential hit her—did he mean for development? Why did he want to destroy what she’d grown up to love?
The waiter brought a glass, unlabeled bottle of water and two goblets. He filled them half full and then set a basket of something on the table—crackers? She looked at the flat crisps with some sort of seeds protruding from the surface. Before she could reach for one, he set another small ramekin in front of her. It had a pink paste of some sort. Beside it, he placed a bright, silver butter knife and then left them alone again. With each passing minute she spent here, she felt uneasier, and she wondered if she knew Jake at all.
“Know what you’re going to get?” Jake asked, seemingly oblivious.
She folded her menu and set it down on the corner of the table and shook her head, trying to keep her disappointment in check. Her whole picture of Jake was changing, crashing down around her, and she didn’t quite know the best way to handle the situation. What she loved about the Outer Banks was that it had remained true to itself, it hadn’t fallen victim to the over-the-top development that had happened in other places. It was a slice of paradise to her.
Her manners told her to just order something and eat it. Then she could leave here and go about her business and finish her vacation without seeing Jake again. But there was a part of her that loved being with the Jake she’d met at the cottage. She wanted more ofhim. Not this.
“There are a lot of choices.” She didn’t want to admit that she didn’t know what any of them were. She tried to look past the overdressed people to the glass wall. On the other side of it was the sea, and the sea gave her calm.
“Are you ready to order?” the waiter said, appearing out of nowhere.
Faith could feel her shallow breathing and the speed of her heart in her chest. She didn’t want to be rude to Jake, but she didn’t have a clue what to do. “May I have a few more minutes?” she asked. The waiter nodded and disappeared as quickly as he’d come. She looked back at Jake.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She didn’t want to seem ungrateful or rude. She liked him so much but this restaurant had brought her to a new reality that she didn’t want to admit to herself. She didn’t like any of this. It was too fussy, too expensive, too unlike her in every way. It didn’t even fit with the town. Had it not been for the cars outside, she would swear it would never survive, and she still had her doubts.
“You don’t like it,” he said, an unsure look showing on his face. “I thought this would be perfect.”
She didn’t know what to say. She was ruining their date, but she was actually upset with him for building this. He was selling out. He’d grown up here, yet he was falling prey to all the big business that was booming. He, of all people, should recognize what was so beautiful about the Outer Banks, but instead, he’d defaced miles of gorgeous coastline for this restaurant.
“You’re uncomfortable here.”
She leaned forward, careful not to disturb the pink paste in front of her. “I’m fine,” she lied very quietly, forcing a smile, trying not to make a scene. She felt terrible. Her hands were shaking. She saw his eyes change as he noticed, and she slipped them under the table to try and hide the outward signs of her dismay.
The look on Jake’s face was a look of complete mortification. She worried she’d hurt his feelings, and she felt bad despite herself. He raised his finger at the waiter who returned in a flash. “I apologize, but we’re going to have to leave unexpectedly. Forgive me.” The waiter, of course, nodded in the same way he had when she’d first seen him, and within a few seconds, they were back outside in the daylight.
Faith took in a large breath of salty air, trying to let it calm her.
“I don’t understand,” Jake said, facing her as they stood beside the valet. The man noticed their conversation and moved a few paces away from his podium to give them space. Jake didn’t seem to be worried at all by the valet; he was looking straight at Faith. “I thought this would be a wonderful surprise. We’d have drinks, have fun. I thought you’d love it.”
“I’m one of those people who loves the quirks, as you say, of those out-of-the-way places. I’m not alone. My whole family is like that.”
He didn’t seem offended. “People like you are harder to find these days.”
“Do you really think so?” As upset with his view as she was, she still really liked being around him. She even wondered if she could persuade him to think differently. “Let me cook you something. I’m sure you’re hungry. I know I am. Let’s go back to the cottage, and I’ll whip us up something for dinner.”
“No, no.Iaskedyouout. I’m not going to make you cook for me. I’ll cook for you. If you don’t mind, we can go back to my house and I’ll make you dinner. Would that be okay?”
Thiswas the Jake she liked so much. “That sounds wonderful.”
The drive this time was much quieter, the air between them now filled with questions on both sides. Faith looked out the window at the cottages that dotted the shoreline as they made their way to Jake’s. She wondered what his house would look like. After seeing the restaurant, she wasn’t sure she knew who Jake was now. Would his house be showy and grandiose? She hoped not. After a little while, the cottages gave way to grass. The grass thinned out as it met the sand, and, when she finally saw where they were, there was nothing but beach and sea and a sight she’d never seen before. It looked like a cottage-style castle.
Just like her cottage, this one sat on stilts, but with thickly painted white lattice covering the open areas under the house. Along the lattice, contrasting with the starkness of the white were bright pink roses on green bushes. A wide, wooden staircase—big enough to have at least ten people or more standing shoulder to shoulder as they went up it—was at the front, the treads left a natural wood color and the risers were painted white to match the lattice. The whole cottage was bright yellow like the sunshine above them, each piece of the trim white. A country porch wrapped all the way around the enormous structure, and every few feet, she saw two white rocking chairs angled toward each other. The home looked big enough to be an inn. It was beautiful, and nothing like that restaurant.
He parked next to a red antique Ford truck that looked like it had been used as a work truck. He’d noticed the truck too, because his eyes went straight from it to the ocean where she saw a man fishing. They got out of the car, and she followed him to the beach. The shore was so wide at this point that it seemed like a desert, the ocean its mirage.
“Dad?”
The man turned around and put up a hand to shield his eyes. As Faith looked at him, she knew exactly what Jake would look like in thirty years. The man had his eyes, his nose, and his hairline, although his hair was silver in color. He smiled just like Jake, and she smiled back without even meaning to.
