“Oh good. I’m glad they’re moving forward. I’m only sorry I can’t expedite the entire project. Bryce tells me there’s a problem with some of the materials that your designer ordered. They’ve been delayed because of a shipping problem and are somewhere stuck on a boat in the Pacific right now.”
“I had hoped all these details would be worked out before we arrived.”
“I’m sorry for all the delays. How is the carriage house apartment working out?”
“It’s tight quarters, only two bedrooms, one bathroom and a kitchen/living area, but we’re making it work. It helps that your crew has mostly finished my office in the main house. The kids are heading to the first of several summer day camps next week so I should have more time to focus.”
Before she could answer, his daughter called for his attention. “Is this an urchin, Dad?”
He turned away from Rosie, leaving her feeling an odd mix of relief and disappointment. When he bent to take a look at the creature in the tide pool, she couldn’t help but notice the gold streaks weaving through his brown hair.
As she watched him interact with his children, a shiver of awareness thrummed through her, taking Rosie completely by surprise.
Where didthatcome from? Okay, she couldn’t deny Andrew Morgan was an attractive man, with those serious features and blue eyes. But she wasn’t in the market for any man, attractive or not.
Rosie studiously turned her attention to her granddaughter. Hergranddaughter, for heaven’s sake. The fact that she was here with her daughter’s child ought to help her keep her head, no matter how sexy she found her new neighbor.
Rosie knew she wasn’t exactly ancient. She was only forty-five years old and barely heading into perimenopause, after all. She hadn’t lived like a nun in the ten years since Gary died. She had dated on and off, usually when friends insisted on setting her up with a friend of a friend or when she needed a plus-one to some event.
A few years ago, she actually had dated a divorced Lincoln City restaurant owner for nearly six months. On paper, they worked well together and she had tried hard to fall in love with Jim Rylan. She enjoyed his company and they invariably had fun together, but that elusive spark never quite materialized, no matter how hard they tried.
Eventually they both decided they were better off as friends. Only a few months after they broke things off, Jim had started dating one of his neighbors and the two of them had married the previous Christmas.
Rosie was happy for them but had accepted that if she couldn’t fall for a decent, kind, good-looking guy like Jim, maybe she was destined to spend the rest of her life alone.
She found it grossly unfair that she had only exchanged a few words with Andrew Morgan and wasn’t even sure she liked the man, yet her traitorous body suddenly decided to wake up and instinctively respond to him.
“I don’t know what kind of creature that is,” he said to hisdaughter. “I’ll take a picture of it, though, and we can look it up after we get home.”
Rosie peered around him to the tide pool all three children were gazing into. “That is a frosted nudibranch, or ‘sea slug.’ They are incredibly rare. You’re so lucky to have found one!”
“It’s too pretty to be a slug,” Zara declared. “Slugs are gray and slimy. This one is almost see-through and is all frilly and cute.”
“It is cute. You’re right,” Rosie said. “She probably prefers to be called a frosted nudibranch rather than a slug.”
The children admired the creature before moving to a larger tide pool where several sea stars clung to the rocks.
“Why are they all different colors?” Finn asked.
“Lots of different reasons. Their diet, their age and their particular species all play a part,” she answered. “Sea stars are actually more rare than they used to be. Unfortunately, many of them have died of a disease. It’s one of the most widespread marine wildlife diseases ever.”
“That’s so sad,” Zara said.
“It is. But there are a few signs that they’re making a comeback. You can see more of them now than even a few years ago.”
“How doyouknow so much about tidal creatures?” Andrew asked when the children moved on to admire a tide pool brimming with colorful anemone that undulated in the water. “Have you read the book about local flora and fauna, too?”
“No. I’ll have to look for it. I’ve lived in this area for years and have spent a lot of time on the beach. You learn a thing or two along the way.”
“Where did you live before you came here?”
His question took her by surprise and she paused a moment before answering. “All over the place, actually. My dad was inthe military, so we never spent long anywhere. He died when I was twelve. My mom was restless for a few more years. I went to six different schools in four years. Finally, she took a job here as the director of the high school library right before my junior year. I’ve been here ever since.”
Where did the time go? It felt like only yesterday she was that scared, defiant, angry kid moving to yet another school.
From the very beginning, Wood Briar had felt different. More like home. Unlike some of the other places where they had lived, the other students had been kind and welcoming. She had loved the scenery even back then and would take long walks on the beach or drive down the coast in her beat-up Toyota to find a long stretch of sand where she could be alone.
“Was it tough, moving around so much?”
