“You, looking forward to school?” Holt said, with raised brows. “Wow! That’s a first.” He laughed despite how it made his ribs ache. “Look at you, here for not even a month, and you’ve already lost the city kid blues.”
“Yeah,” Tyler said with a grin. “I guess here, everyone knows you. Whereas in New York…”
“You’re just another face in the crowd?” Holt said in complete understanding. “That’s how I felt when Gram and your late great-grandfather moved us away from Sandpiper Shores to Miami.”
“Oh?’ Tyler’s brows shot up. “You used to live here?”
“Yup,” Holt said, nodding. “My late sister, Carly, and I were both born here in Sandpiper Shores.”
“How awesome,” Tyler said, his eyes darkening with emotion. “I’d have loved to have been born and raised in a small town like this.” He gave a tight smile. “Maybe… well, I just think it would’ve been a lot better and nicer to have grown up in this kind of environment.”
Holt’s chest tightened as he knew Tyler was thinking of his selfish mother, who had walked out on them when he was five for a modeling career. Anger spurted through him as he remembered that his second ex-wife, and his son’s mother, Lillian, had done the same thing to them. Only Lillian had left Holt and their five year old son, Conrad, to marry a famous plastic surgeon. Like Tyler’s mother, Lillian had also never looked back. Never contacted them, not even a birthday card or phone call to find out how their sons were.
Holt swallowed the anger and smiled at Tyler. “Well, you’re here now,” he reasoned.
“And I’ve already made a great friend,” Tyler said, grinning, his glitch over his mother gone in an instant.
They were interrupted when his mother called them for lunch, which was a quiet affair, just the four of them around the kitchen table that had served the Strand family for decades. His mother had made mac and cheese, and despite his lack of appetite sincethe shooting, Holt found himself eating with genuine enjoyment for the first time in days.
“This hits the spot,” Holt said, earning a pleased smile from his mother. “It’s been a while since I had a great mac and cheese.”
“I’m glad you still enjoy the dish,” she said, her shrewd eyes observing him. “You look tired, son. Maybe you should go have a lie down after lunch.”
“Normally, I’d take offence to that,” Holt told her with a smile. “But, I am rather tired after the trip, so I might just do that.”
“Good,” his son said, nodding and looking at his wristwatch. “I have to go get ready for my shift.”
“Are you working today?” Holt and his mother said in unison.
“Yeah,” his son nodded. “I missed a few days, and I’ve only been here for not even a month.”
“Those were extenuating circumstances,” Holt pointed out.
“I know,” his son nodded. “And Chief Morrison has been very understanding, but it doesn’t feel very professional not to go in now that I’m home.”
Holt smiled at how easily the word home had slipped from his son’s lips, and he was pleased that they had chosen to settle down here in Sandpiper Shores. It beat New York, and at least Holt could sleep a little easier at night knowing his son wasn’t in a city where danger lurked around every corner. Holt knew he was being overprotective, but his eyes fell on his grandson. He also knew what it was like to grow up without a father. At least Holt had had his mother. Tyler didn’t have that luxury.
They were just finishing their meal, and Holt’s son had gone to get changed when a knock came at the front door. Tyler’s face lit up immediately.
“That must be Andy!” Tyler announced, jumping to his feet, “Excuse me from the table. But I have to answer the door.”
Tyler dashed off with Holt’s mother rolling her eyes and shaking her head before standing and starting to collect the lunch dishes.
“Let me help you with that,” Holt told her, starting to rise.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “You go and relax, I’ve got this.”
As Holt stood and moved back to the recliner, he heard a woman’s voice at the door, warm and confident as she spoke to Tyler. Something about the tone made his chest tighten, though he couldn’t say why. He turned as footsteps approached the living room, where his mother appeared with another iced tea. Then when the woman appeared in the doorway, the breath left his lungs in a rush.
She was beautiful, with dark auburn hair and blue eyes that seemed to hold depths of experience beyond her apparent age. But it wasn’t her beauty that stopped his heart. It was the way her features arranged themselves in a pattern that was achingly familiar, like looking at a photograph he’d carried in his wallet for decades.
She looked just like June. Not exactly, but close enough to make his chest constrict with recognition. The same determined chin, the same graceful way of holding herself, even the same slight tilt of her head when she was listening. For a moment, Holt wondered if his recent dreams about his ex-wife were causing him to see her face in strangers.
“Holt, I’d like you to meet our Fire Captain, Willa Parker,” his mother said, making the introduction.
“Hi,” Willa said, offering him a warm smile as he stood and walked over to shake her hand, biting back the pain that sliced through him when he’d ruthlessly pushed himself off the chair. But as their eyes met, something flickered across her expression. A flash of recognition that she clearly couldn’t place. “Have we met before?” Willa asked, her brow furrowed as she tried to recall his face.
“I don’t think so,” Holt managed, finding his voice though his heart was still racing. “But I do have one of those faces, I guess.” He forced a laugh, trying to cover his own confusion.
