Page 38 of Beautiful Place By the Sea

Dad spoke next. “I appreciate your attempts at mediation, Ivy, but I think this is a lost cause.”

“It’s not a lost cause,” Mom had practically shouted. “That’s the whole point.”

My father stood up from the bench. “I’m going to head back. You two enjoy your walk.”

Mom didn’t reply; she just watched him leave with a sad look on her face. I wasn’t sure who to be angry at, or what had caused the argument in the first place. It felt like it was about something deeper than Dad buying the wrong milk, which was what started their bickering this morning.

So I’d just pasted on a fake smile and asked, “Should we go into town and window shop?”

“That sounds like the perfect way to spend the afternoon,” my mother had replied, forcing a smile of her own.

By the time we’d gotten back to the rental cottage after browsing jewelry and pottery for hours on end, Dad had left a note saying he went for dinner with Uncle Greg, and that we shouldn’t wait up.

I couldn’t quite put my finger on it at the time, but I had the sense that something big was coming. Little did I know that in a few short months, my parents’ marriage would essentially be over. Hell, maybe it was over already that day in July.

“How was work this week?” Laurel’s voice breaks through my rumination.

“Not bad,” I reply. “Got Oliver to read Ella Enchanted.”

Laurel’s brows fly up. “Seriously?”

“Yep.” My mouth twitches with a smile I can’t fight.

“I’m just going to say I called this,” she says with an obnoxious grin.

“Called what?” I run my finger over the “A + G” carved into the bench next to my leg.

She smirks. “You and Oliver.”

“There is no ‘me and Oliver.’”

“If you say so.” Laurel rolls her eyes.

“I do.”

“Fine. Should we keep walking? I can smell the fudge in Perkins Cove from here.”

I snort. “Let’s pack it up, Montgomery-Parker.”

But later, when we’re eating the fudge on yet another bench overlooking the cove, I find myself thinking maybe she did, in fact, call it. Call something. Because the words “me and Oliver” won’t stop flashing through my mind.

I spend most of Monday reading, toes buried in the sand. I’d managed to find several intriguing books in the bargain bin at work on Friday, so I’m all set for many a peaceful afternoon at Beach Haven.

I’d asked Oliver to check me out at the register when there was a lull, and he’d made a joke about me spending the entirety of my paycheck on novels.

“This is why I’m shopping the bargain bin,” I’d smiled.

“You should let me take you to the library,” he countered. “If you promise not to get sand all over the books, I’ll let you use my card.”

The idea of Oliver checking out books for me, like we were together, was, quite frankly, a little hard to take. I don’t think Kyle even had a library card. And until that moment, I hadn’t realized a man bankrolling my library holds was on my list of fantasies.

I’m pretty sure Oliver noticed the flush of my cheeks and how it had taken me an extra moment to respond, because he grinned to himself and muttered something about how I could buy him ice cream as payment.

The image of his face when I agreed to go to the library with him after work on Tuesday flashes through my mind more times than I care to admit while I’m reading today.

Halfway through the second novel, my mind starts wandering even more, traversing the distant horizon rather than swimming through the words on the page. Working at Shoreline is a pleasant surprise; I wasn’t expecting any kind of income this summer. I’m excited to help Maisie and to get to talk about books with customers.

It’s a far cry from a tenured job with benefits, but there’s something about the bookstore that intrigues me. No two shifts at Shoreline seem alike. It’s a refreshing change from what I’m used to at Farnsworth, where time crawls by in exactly the same monotonous pattern every day. At the bookstore, the customers and their preferences vary by the hour. The tasks of operating a small business are many, but that means plenty of things to do, and time seems to fly by. Granted, I’ve only worked two shifts so far, but I’m excited to see where the summer takes me. I think my boredom on the first day was just a fluke, my mind flustered by whatever was going on with Oliver.