He arched an eyebrow. “You did? For what date?”
“The eighth of July.”
“This year?” He took a bite of cracker.
“Yes, this year. In two months. I can’t believe I did that, knowing we were going away.”
“I’m sure you thought you could manage it.”
“I believe my thinking was that I’d delegate while I was away, but I forgot all about it. We were having too much fun. And now I have no one to help me, and no idea what we’re going to do. I mean, I suppose we could all meet at theSurf and Seafor dinner, but that’s boring. And when you get a whole bunch of people around a long table, no one gets to talk to anyone other than the people seated right next to them. It’s not a great way to catch up after so much time.” She chewed on a fingernail. “I don’t know. Maybe I should talk to Evie and Taya. They’re bound to have better ideas than that.”
“I think that’s probably wise. And what about Chaz? She was great at planning our wedding. Maybe she can help too.”
“That’s brilliant,” Bea said, perking up immediately. “Chaz can help with it.”
Aidan laughed. “But it’s not her reunion, so you can’t dump it on her.”
“I’m not saying she should pull the whole thing together, but so long as it’s notallon my shoulders. I’m tired—we’ve had a busy six months. And besides, I can’t remember why I wanted to plan it in the first place. I’m going to call Chaz and ask her to be my party planner.”
“Speaking of the future,” Aidan said, “have you thought about what you’d like to do now that the café is gone?”
Bea swallowed. She had thought about it, but she was nervous. Not about what Aidan would think of her idea, but about whether it made any sense. Could she handle it?
“I’d like to go back to university,” she said. “I never finished my degree all those years ago, and I’d like to do that.”
“Weren’t you studying accounting or something?”
“Business,” she said. “I might’ve ended up in accounting, but I hadn’t decided yet. Still, I don’t think that’s what I’ll study this time around. I’m thinking of studying food science.”
“I didn’t know that was a degree,” Aidan said, “but it sounds perfect for you.”
“It may not lead to a job. I have no idea. But you know how much I love food, and I like the idea of studying nutrition and the process of food development from the moment the seed is planted in the ground until it’s eaten and then how the body processes and uses it for energy. There’s so much value in nutrition. It can make our bodies healthy or sick, it can heal us or make us worse, it can give us good mental health or bad. I don’t think there’s enough emphasis on it, and I’d like to get a better understanding of it all.”
Aidan reached for her hand and squeezed it. “That would be amazing, and exactly the kind of thing you’d enjoy doing. I say go for it.”
“You don’t mind that I won’t be earning any money, and it may not result in me having a career at the end of it? I mean, I hope it does, but I don’t know how many jobs are out there in the field of food science. It’s not exactly mainstream.”
Aidan shrugged. “It doesn’t matter to me. We have plenty to live on for the rest of our lives. I only teach PE because I like it. I won’t be earning until next year either, although I’m going to check on a real estate development I’ve got going over in Blue Shoal later today. I’ve been slack in following up with the builder, and the project has practically ground to a halt.”
Bea wanted to squeal with delight. Instead, she climbed into Aidan’s lap and kissed him softly on the mouth. “I’m so grateful for you.”
She still wasn’t accustomed to having a husband who supported her choices no matter what they might be, but she would never stop being thankful for him and for the second chance they’d had to find each other and spend their lives together.
Two
Charmaine Billings wastwenty-seven years old. She’d moved past her mid-twenties with a rush of nervous energy and family crises, and now she was headed for her late twenties. How did she get here? And so quickly. She stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror at the beach cottage she’d rented from Beatrice six months earlier. She poked and prodded at her face, noting the new laugh lines around her mouth and the crow’s feet beginning to make an appearance beside her eyes. This was not good.
“I’m old,” she whispered to herself, at which point her face turned bright red and she wanted to laugh. It was ridiculous to consider herself old at twenty-seven, but she couldn’t help it. She wasn’t used to being an adult, let alone someone approaching thirty. Apart from the fact that she finally had a long-term job and had rented her very own cottage by the beach, she didn’t feel much like an adult. Although, she supposed she was more adult-like than she had ever been in her life before, so at least she was heading in the right direction.
She even had a steady boyfriend, something she’d previously thought would be impossible for her, given her shyness. But Bradford was still in her life, astounding her every day with his ability not only to stick around but to treat her like a princess. She didn’t quite know how to handle it, but she was growing used to that as well.
With a glance at her watch and a rush of nerves that formed a ball in her gut, she realised she was going to be late. She threw on a dash of lip balm, ran her fingertips over her crazy eyebrows to calm them down, and hurried for the door. Her cat, Watson, sat bathing himself in a puddle of sunshine on the kitchen floor. He looked up at her lazily as she rushed past.
“Bye, Watson. Make sure to take care of the place while I’m gone.”
She grinned to herself — she truly believed that if Bradford ever dumped her, she would end up a cat lady, surrounded by felines and talking to them as if they were her children. But she could imagine worse fates, so the prospect didn’t particularly scare her. What could be better than a bevy of cats preening and washing themselves or curling up in her lap at night while she painted at her easel?
Finn, her aunt and Watson’s official owner, had gifted her the cat when she moved into the cottage as a housewarming present.
