Mosaic (2 page)

His brow creased. It wasn’t enough. “That doesn’t prove much.”

“Oh, no?” Jules flashed him a glance. “She was holding out her hand and tracing the brush strokes just so… I know she was thinking of him.”

They continued walking against the wind. “Sounds like you read a lot. Romance fan?”

“Well, naturally! But that’s not why I’m saying it.” She gestured to him as if making her big reveal. “There’s also the ring.”

He turned his face to the waves so she couldn’t see his expression change. “What ring?” He could barely ask the question.

“Well, Dad was brilliant.” A smile was in her voice. “He made her this gorgeous dragonfly ring when they were in high school, and she still has it.”

His eyes pressed closed. “Does she wear it?”

“No.”

“Then how do you—”

“I busted her trying it on one night, and there were tears in her eyes.”

He stopped walking and sat down in the sand. The soft white grains were cold and damp from the night before, and the sun hadn’t come out to warm and dry it. His slacks would be ruined, but he crossed his arms on top of his bent knees and forced the air in and out of his lungs.

“Hey, are you okay?” Jules asked, dropping beside him.

“Yeah.” He struggled to smile. “I like this weather.”

“Me, too.” She smiled and looked out at the horizon. “Like something’s coming, brewing. I hope we move back.”

“Is that a possibility?”
Did he want it to be?

The girl shrugged. “Mum’s always saying she misses it here. I can certainly see why.”

They were quiet a moment then he gestured to the growing waves. “When I was your age, I’d be out there surfing.”

Jules turned to him. “You live here?”

“Just up the road.”

She glanced at his slacks, dress shirt, and tie. “Very formal for a walk to the beach.”

“My office is right there. I was on my way to work.”

Her brow creased over her blue eyes. His chest tightened at the sight of them, at the knowledge of what it all meant.

“You work in that big condo?”

“In Phoenician I. Penthouse suites.”

“What are you? The resort manager or something?”

He exhaled with a laugh. “Something like that.”

“Did you go to Fairview?”

Pushing against the sand, he rose to his feet. “Yep. I’m supposed to be at that reunion, too.”

“Hang on.” The girl fished a phone out of her pocket. “It’s Mum. ‘Where are you?’” she read aloud. “She’s just waking up, I’m sure.”

The memory of how she looked just waking up warmed him, and he glanced at the phone that held her words. A picture was there, but it disappeared before he got a good look.

“I’m at the beach talking to some old tosspot.” Jules read her response aloud.

“Thanks.” His eyes narrowed, but he smiled. Her cockiness reminded him of someone from his past, someone he used to be.

“It’s okay,” she laughed. “I’m just messing with her. Watch this.”

They were quiet a split second before her phone buzzed again. Jules burst into familiar-sounding peals of laughter. “Come home
now
—five exclamation points,” she read.

She giggled again, speaking as she typed. “But he asked me to run away with him!”

“You’re not being very nice to your mother,” he scolded gently.

“She’s used to me.” The girl poked her chin at him. “She likes to say I act just like my dad.”

Frustrated, he pushed his hand into the side of his hair, and Jules caught her breath.

“Hey, cool ink!” She reached for his hand, and he let her take it. “It’s a dragonfly?”

“Yeah.” He watched as she slid her thumb across the small tattoo between his thumb and first finger. Her instinctive response, exactly like her mother’s, burned in his chest.

So many times he’d considered having that little reminder removed, but he could never bring himself to do it.

The buzzing of her phone interrupted them, and it was followed by the girl’s laughter as she read aloud. “911! 911!”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I have to go.” She released his hand and turned, but she paused. “It was fun talking to you. Maybe I’ll see you at the reunion?”

“Yes, you will,” he nodded, making a decision.

“What’s your name?”

“Julian.”

Their blue eyes met, and a wave of recognition passed between them. Jules’s brow creased, but she didn’t say what she was thinking. Instead she nodded. “Unusual. I like it.”

He watched her walk away and observed that she moved exactly like his mother.

* * *

Her

Pine needles and lemon furniture polish. The woman’s nose wrinkled. Had her old house always smelled like summer camp? How was it possible she’d never noticed it before?

Her eyes roamed around the familiar room as she stretched her arms over her head. With Jules in her old bedroom and Gabi in the guest room, her only option was to sleep in her parents’ bed, and even though they’d been RV-ing all over the United States for a year, it still felt awkward—comfortable, but somehow like she was breaking an unwritten rule.

At the same time, she couldn’t imagine spending the night in her old bed anymore. She imagined lying in it with that window overshadowing everything. It would’ve been impossible to sleep without seeing the ghost of him sitting on the tree limb right outside. Or worse, smiling at her through the glass, waiting to be let in.

Her throat tightened at the memories of all the nights they’d spent together in that little bed holding each other close. They were just kids, but somehow they’d found something very real and strong together. Like magnets, it was almost impossible to stay apart. Her whole body flushed with heat at the memory of their first night as more than friends. She hadn’t forgotten a single touch. Every kiss, every sigh, the quiet sense of wonder as they discovered how perfectly they fit together was as clear as a bell in her mind’s eye.

Sitting up fast, she threw the sheets back, ripping the bottom corner loose from where it was tucked. There was no way in hell she’d go back down that road. Julian LaSalle or Kyser or whatever he called himself now, would
not
spoil this high school reunion like he’d spoiled her high school memories. She couldn’t even think about those years without a gut-twisting ache pulling at her insides.

Why was she here? Why was she doing this?
It was inevitable they’d run into each other. She was doing it for Jules, she reminded herself. Yes, she fully expected to see him, and it was time he knew the truth, even though she shuddered to think what he would say.

They had a daughter.

She’d kept it from him in the beginning because it was all too much, turning up pregnant an ocean away after the way they’d parted. As time passed, she’d started to tell him so many times. Every time, she’d only get as far as the first words…
We had a daughter…
when she’d back down and vow to do it the next year.

Now, almost seventeen years later, with the school reunion invitation sitting on her desk, she realized it was the only way she’d ever do it. And at least in Fairview, she’d have his mother, Gabi, her friends, everyone around to hold her hand.

Still she shivered at the prospect of seeing him again—of giving him the news. A dark flash streaked through the door, and she was plowed back against the pillows.

“I made it!” Jules shrieked, holding her in pretend relief. “Just barely escaped being kidnapped into the sex trade. Thank everything that’s holy you called when you did!”

Pinching the slim, ivory arm around her neck, she struggled to get out of her wild daughter’s vice-grip. “I’m sending you to your Nana’s for the rest of the trip if you don’t behave.”

Jumping up, her blue eyes twinkling, she bounced on the bed. “Oh, please, yes!!! Didn’t you say she used to dance naked on the beach at night when she was my age?”

“Good lord, Jules, No. And don’t you dare tell her I said that!”

Peals of laughter filled the room like water rolling over rocks. “I can’t wait to beg her to kidnap me!”

The woman’s tight lips curled in a smile as she watched her child. Jules was so much like her dad at that age—confident, in love with life, and able to charm the pants off anybody who crossed her path.

“She’d probably get a kick out of you wanting to do something like that. Your grandmother was very ‘new age’ at a time when that had pretty much gone out of style.”

“From what you’ve told me, she never gave a rip what was in style.”

Lifting her robe off the back of the chair she nodded. “Lexy definitely followed her own drum. But it left her very lonely.” She shook the past away as she tied her belt and studied her daughter lying back on the bed, dark curls spread all around her face. “Who was the old tosspot you met on the beach? I probably know him.”

That made Jules sit up fast, but while her expression was eager, she hesitated.

“What?” Her mother’s brow creased.

“I actually do think you know him.”

“Did you tell him I’m your mom? Who was it? Maybe Brad Brennan?”

“I don’t think so.” Jules chewed her lip, her blue eyes wide. “He was actually quite lovely, with dark hair and blue eyes…”

The girl’s hesitation filled the room with a silence that pressed heavy on her mother’s shoulders. Was it possible on her daughter’s first trip to the beach she met him?

“Which beach did you say you went to? Romar?”

Her daughter nodded slowly, but the moment was interrupted by the other boisterous personality in their group.

“I am
not
cooking today!” Gabi jumped on the bed beside Jules, completely oblivious to the tension. “Make yourself useful, small fry, and get in there and cook me some eggs!”

Jules blinked and then threw her arms around her adopted aunt. “You know I can’t cook, but we’re at the beach. I want fish for breakfast.”

“Fish and chips! Anna, you’ve had yourself a true Brit.”

“We can talk more about that later.” Anna finished, going to the closet. “Hey, Gab, wasn’t the best place for breakfast always Tacky Jack’s?”

“If you’re wanting seafood it definitely is.”

“Give me a second to throw on some clothes.”

* * *

The canal rolled past in brown ripples just across the break of pines separating the island from the rest of South County. It was a man-made trench dug years ago for some reason Anna couldn’t remember.

“It’s so lovely here—even with a storm hanging over it all.”

Mother and daughter both had their natural curls wrapped in matching buns at the back of their necks. “Lovely and hot and humid.”

Gabi’s short, blonde curls blew wild around her head as she scooped a bite of shrimp and cheese grits into her mouth. “The hair is the worst part. Otherwise, it’s all good. I miss living near the water.”

After years of moving all over the edge of the continent with her Coast Guard father, Gabi had settled, land-locked in Arizona—it helped that her occupation forced her there. She’d followed her dream and landed an amazing job studying astronomical anomalies and running the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at her alma mater.

Jules shoved a bite of tortilla in her mouth. “Mm—you just like the heat. I don’t know how you could ever leave this place.”

“I thought you were getting fish for breakfast.” Anna took a bite of her wheelhouse pancake, big as the plate and stuffed with pecans.

“How could I resist a menu item referred to as ‘Mexican trash’?”

Her mother frowned. “Well, it is called
Tacky
Jack’s.”

“I think I’d go into a coma if I consumed so much sugar this early.” Gabi stole a whipped cream-covered strawberry from her best friend’s plate.

“I’m taking my coffee black!” Anna cried, as if that made it better.

Jules quietly stirred a drop of salsa into her sour cream, turning it pink. “So what’s our plan for today?”

“Well, your Nana won’t be back from New Orleans until tomorrow—”

“I still wish we could drive down and see her show. I can’t wait to see her again. One visit was not enough, and I want to see the Big Easy!”

Anna gave her daughter a warm smile. “You two will be thick as thieves by the end of the first day, and I’ll take you to New Orleans sometime—show you where I went to school.”

Gabi leaned back with a sigh and rested her hands on her stomach. “A NOLA visit would be fun, but I don’t know how we could fit it all in. Tonight’s ice-breaker reception starts at five. Love how they’re calling it that, as if we need to break the ice.”

“What about…”

Jules’s concerned eyes caught her mother’s, and Anna knew this was about their interrupted conversation from earlier. A familiar tightness pulled at her throat muscles. It was ridiculous to avoid it. Seeing him was part of the reason they’d come back.