Circle in the Sand
Read Circle in the Sand Online
Authors: Lia Fairchild
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Women's Fiction, #Contemporary Women, #Romance, #Contemporary, #Romantic Comedy, #Contemporary Fiction, #Humor, #Sagas
CIRCLE IN THE SAND
By Lia Fairchild
Bestselling author of
In Search of Lucy
Copyright © 2014 by Lia Fairchild
All Rights Reserved
License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold
or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person,
please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book
and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase
your own copy.
Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of
the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and not to be construed as real.
Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead,
is entirely coincidental.
Praise for
Circle in the Sand
“I'm more than glad to give this book five stars all the way around for the lyrical
writing, the beautiful characters, and all the joy that came from simply living alongside
these people for a time. I could taste the salt on my lips from the beach of their
youth. I could feel the pain of their losses and the joy of their gains. Every moment
was another gift in this gem of a novel.”
~
This Redhead Loves Books
“Circle in the sand practically screams quality from the first page...It is sensational…If
you’re looking for beauty, then this is it.”
~
Mia’s Point of View
“This is a feel-good and satisfying story, beautifully written.”
~
Cath ‘n’ Kindle Book Reviews
Four life-long friends bound by two decades of laughter, love, promises, and secrets.
Once inseparable, the four grow into independent adults pursuing very different paths.
Sage, raised by career-driven parents, follows a carefully laid out future of success
that leaves her wondering what she’s missed out on.
Emily, the college drop-out, now has three children that have become her whole life.
She's slowly lost herself, subconsciously seeking dangerous ways to cope. Can she
find herself in time?
Jax always lived on the edge, skating through life with no apparent ambition, yet
remained the energy and emotional cement of the group. She longs for her friends to
accept her without trying to fix her.
Ned, Emily’s twin brother, yearns to stand up and be counted. But his old loyalties
and new feelings for one of the girls has him pulled in different directions.
Will the ties that held them together as kids be strong enough for them as adults?
These four friends will discover the true meaning of friendship and unveil truths
about themselves they never knew existed.
A look at my bestselling novel,
In Search of Lucy
, Contemporary Fiction
215
NED
An ornate purple butterfly, peeking out of a pair of low-slung jeans, catches my attention.
It’s inked on the lower back of a sexy redhead in front of us in line. Pete slaps
me in the gut, as if I hadn’t noticed the tattoo flashing at me like a neon sign.
Yet
I
found a way to glance at it and not lock in like a deer in headlights. “Knock it
off,” I whisper to Pete and then check to see if my niece, Sophie, spots him staring.
All three of us are in line at the post office.
“You’re lucky I have something to look at now that you dragged me here,” Pete says.
“And why again can’t your sister buy her own stamps?”
His annoyance with me is annoying me. “How about next time your car’s in the shop
you get your own ride home from work?”
Pete snaps back. “How about when you’re doing me a favor, you don’t do anyone else
a favor that inconveniences me while I’m getting my favor?”
I can’t help but laugh at Pete staying true to form. I’ve learned to make allowances
when I visit him in his world; the one that revolves completely around him. Only because
he’s been a true friend when I needed one.
“Hey, be nice to my Uncle Ned,” Sophie says as she yanks on Pete’s shirt.
“Quit it, kid,” Pete says. Then his gaze scans the length of the room. “Look, there’s
a stamp machine over there. Just go use that.”
“Can’t.” I hand him the paperback book I’m holding. “I have to mail this too. Hold
it while I fill out the envelope.”
He turns the book over in his hand, examines the worn cover, flips through the bloated,
wrinkled pages. “
To Kill a Mockingbird
? This is what you need to mail?”
“Yeah, don’t worry about it.” I begin addressing the envelope on the narrow counter
top that runs the length of the line when I feel him behind me, head looking over
my shoulder.
“Why are you sending this piece a crap book to Sage? Is this some new seduction method
you got going on?”
“No,” I say and continue writing furiously as if the line
were
actually moving.
“Then what’s the deal? Because if I’m remembering right, last time you tried to hook
up with her you ended up in that oh so familiar place called…the friend zone.”
“What’s a friend zone?” Sophie says.
I stop writing, glare over to the two open windows and note the same two people standing
there from when we entered this chain gang. A young, stalky guy wearing a still-wet
bathing suit stands at one window and an ancient-looking man in a business suit and
flip-flops at the other. Only in Ocean Beach. Then I run my hand across Sophie’s soft
blond hair. “Pete’s just playing around.”
I turn to Pete with a plaster-tight grin. “Sage and I are
friends
. Just friends. It’s not even my book. I’m sending it as a fav…” I shake my head,
return my attention to writing the envelope. “The girls share this book. They take
turns reading it.” The
girls
, meaning
my
girls: Emily, Sage, and Jax. The three constants in my life for the last twenty years.
They’ve helped shape who I am. Life with them can make the lava-drenched plains of
Mordor, look like a stroll at the beach. But I wouldn’t change a thing.
“And then they get errand boy to mail it to the next chick? Sisterhood of the travelling
book.”
“Something like that.”
He opens to a random spot. “What’s all this writing?” Before I can answer, he reads
from some black handwritten notes in the margin. Sage’s notes. “
Atticus melting my heart. The ideal father
. What is this shi… I mean stuff?”
I don’t explain to him that each girl has their own color: Sage writes in black, Emily
in blue, and Jax in red. He wouldn’t understand their relationship or mine with them.
This is just one of the ways they try to stay connected with each other. “Who cares?
Just give me the book.” I take it from his hands and place it in the envelope. Like
a distractible puppy, Pete shrugs it off and returns to his tattoo viewing. Sophie
follows his line of sight right to the woman’s exposed back. Her arm raises; her finger
extends. “Pretty, I want one.”
Just before her finger makes contact, I intercept her little wrist and turn her to
me. “Hands to yourself, shrimp.”
“But I want one of those…just like Auntie Jax.”
I’m sure Emily would cringe at hearing that. Not because her little girl wants to
be like Jax—a generous, kind-hearted, free spirit who’s often a pain in my ass. It’s
because Sophie seems drawn to the side of Jax that is impulsive and unpredictable,
not to mention tattoo-laden. This has given my twin sister some serious parenting
challenges lately.
I kneel down so I’m eye level with her. “I’ve seen you paint a prettier butterfly
than that,” I say quietly to her.
She shrugs and folds her arms, trying to appear older than her seven years. But then
she says, “I have to pee.”
“Yeah, me too,” Pete says. Then he tears his eyes from the butterfly, glances toward
the front and says, “This freakin’ line isn’t moving either.”
I shoot him a “you idiot” expression, my patience running razor thin. “I told you
two to go before we left the house,” I say trying to smile. “I don’t want to lose
my place in line.”
“But I can’t wait, Uncle Ned.”
“Here, make yourself useful.” I hand everything to Pete including money and a stern
order not to screw it up while I take Sophie to the Starbucks next door. As I open
the door, Pete shouts. “But I have to pee too.” Tattoo girl turns for the first time
but, surprisingly, gives Pete a suggestive nod.
As I stand outside the women’s restroom waiting for Sophie, I think about Sage. But
not because I’m lusting after her. I just miss seeing her gorgeous smile. It’s been
a few months since her last visit. Then I think of all three girls and the solid friendship
they built over the years. A friendship that seems to have molded itself into an impenetrable
circle, with me nestled contently in the middle.
Growing up surrounded by women—these three women—was both a blessing and a curse.
There’s something sort of strange, yet magical, about watching girls grow into women.
Seeing it first-hand gave me a unique perspective on the opposite sex. Over the years
I’ve served as a friend, a brother, a boyfriend, and a punching bag at one time or
another. I guess I could say that things could have been worse. I didn’t have to stick
around as much as I did. But they were a shitload more interesting than my neighbor,
Louis, and his collection of fossils. Hanging out with the girls taught me about a
much more fascinating species.