Memories in Sea Glass: Driftwood Key Beach Reads #2

13. Glory

The next night, Glory sat beside Tristan at the big round table, feeling wildly glamorous.

Of course, Tristan’s dad was there, and so were her mom and Liberty, but even a family dinner could be glamorous in a place like the resort restaurant. The lights were dimmed, a live jazz band was playing softly, and waiters kept bringing beautiful dishes over for them.

Theirs was the only table up on what the staff called the vista stage of the restaurant. The area was meant to have the most beautiful view over the otter pool and beach. But of course, only half the diners at the round table could see it.

The real reason it was called the vista stage as far as Glory could tell, was that everyone in the rest of the sumptuous, sophisticated space had to look slightly up at you when you were seated there.

And everyone was looking.

Thankfully, Glory was feeling super confident in the pretty dress she’d bought on her shopping trip to Key West with her sisters. And of course, she was sitting beside the handsomest boy in Driftwood Key.

Tristan kept glancing down at her when he wasn’t busy laughing at his father’s jokes. His dark eyes sparkled with a warmth that Glory could feel down to her toes.

He really likes me.

“You look beautiful,” he said softly, as the others around the table began discussing the weather.

“Thank you,” she told him. “My sisters and I went shopping in Key West and Liberty said I needed this dress.”

Maybe she imagined it, but it looked like Tristan winced almost imperceptibly.

Glory bit her lip, thinking back to the movie last night.

After all the great fun they’d had watching the movie at the marina, she had brought Tristan up to meet Liberty and Chase. And they had been uncharacteristically cold to him for no reason she could figure out.

Glory would have chalked it up to their own relationship drama making them act weird, but she’d already spoken to them once, and she’d just watched them laughing and gorging themselves on candy during the entire movie, holding hands like a bunch of middle schoolers, so that couldn’t have been it.

She and Tristan had stood in the waist-deep water trying to be friendly for a few awkward minutes before finally escaping to Tristan’s Jeep.

Then last night when she got home, Liberty had pulled Glory aside and said something about Tristan flirting with another girl in a lewd way while Glory was in the bathroom before the movie.

But it just didn’t add up. Tristan was super nice. Everyone loved him. And though he’d wanted to go farther than a goodnight kiss with Glory once or twice, he was completely understanding and respectful when she said no.

“Well, you look like an angel in the dress,” Tristan said, snapping her out of her thought about the night before. “Liberty was right.”

She loved the way he looked into her eyes when he spoke to her, not letting his eyes rove all over her curves like some boys did. Tristan was respectful, and she liked that a lot. And he was giving her sister the benefit of the doubt, even though she’d been borderline rude to him last night.

He’s a good guy. I don’t know what Liberty saw, but it has to be a misunderstanding.

She glanced over at Liberty and caught her eyeing Tristan suspiciously. Glory normally hero-worshiped her big sister. But right now, it seemed like Liberty was looking for reasons to steal Glory’s joy.

“She’s just feeling overprotective,” Tristan whispered, as if he had read her mind. “It’s natural. You’re her baby sister.”

Glory nodded, but it was hard not to feel like her sisters were both betraying her at once.

Even Justine, who had always been her special cousin because they were closest in age, seemed to have turned on her and now spent all her time with Anthem. The two of them were thick as thieves, and Glory never had any idea what they were whispering about or where they were sneaking off to.

“It’s so nice to have a big family dinner,” Tristan’s dad was saying. “Normally, it’s just Tristan and me. Thank you so much for coming and bringing your girls, Jess.”

He was smiling at her in a way that wasn’t all that different from the way Tristan had been looking at Glory all night.

For a second, Glory felt off-balance.

Mom isn’t going to start dating, is she?

While plenty of the kids at school with divorced parents had stepmoms or stepdads, Glory had never pictured her mother with anyone but her father. And it was super-weird to think of her with her own boyfriend’s dad. There had to be some kind of rule about that.

“It was very kind of you to offer, Dan,” Mom replied, in her usual polite adult voice, without a hint of flirtation. “Wasn’t it girls?”

Glory felt her heartbeat slow. Of course Mom wasn’t looking to date, at least not yet, and not him. But Glory realized that it was something she should probably get her head around at some point soon.

“This is really wonderful,” Liberty said, nodding. “The food is amazing, and I love the band.”

Glory nodded her head in agreement. The live jazz band made her feel like a movie star in a swanky club.

“Well, it’s our pleasure, right, Tristan?” Dan Jansen glanced expectantly at his son.

“Definitely,” Tristan agreed.

“I’m sorry your other daughter couldn’t make it,” Dan said. “Anthem, right?”

“She’s probably too busy signing autographs,” Tristan laughed.

“What?” Glory asked, thinking she had misheard him.

“Those viral BeeBops were her, right?” Tristan said. “Unless there’s another guitar-playing girl named Anthem hanging out in Driftwood Key.”

“What in the world?” Mom asked, looking fascinated.

“She played at open mic night,” Tristan said, pulling his phone from his pocket. “Did you not know? Over at the café in town. Here, I’ll show you?—”

“Oh, put the phone away, son,” Dan said with a smile. “We can all watch it together after dessert.”

Glory felt completely lost, and more left out than ever.

Tristan mouthed sorry to Glory, and she nodded.

But it didn’t ease the hollow feeling in her chest. Her own sister was doing all kinds of cool stuff, and Glory had to find out about it from Tristan, like she was a stranger.

Maybe if I had accepted Anthem’s apology, she would have told me…

The idea of it still made her stomach twist. If Glory had heard from Dad even once, she would have told Mom and her sisters right away. It hadn’t been right for Anthem to quietly report back to him while he was paying her tuition. Especially when she’d known what they were going through back home.

She tried to stop thinking about it and focus her attention on the conversation happening at the table.

“So, Jess, I heard you were thinking about selling the house,” Tristan’s dad was saying. “I’d be interested in buying it, just to put it on the table. All cash, no realtors, if you wanted.”

“Oh, wow, Dan,” Mom said. “That’s really generous. But we’ve decided we’re staying, if we can afford to.”

She glanced down the table at Glory and winked. Glory smiled back at her, feeling relieved that at least there was one Steele left who had her back.

“Tristan mentioned you were thinking of staying in town,” Dan said. “And we think it’s wonderful. But did you really want to stay in that big old house? We have beautiful condos right next to the resort, and a local firm restored a whole block of those pretty cottages in town if you like having a bit of lawn. You’ve got choices, Jess.”

“Oh, I like having space for everyone to come and stay,” Mom said, gesturing to Liberty and Glory. “And besides, you and Tristan wouldn’t really want my house. It needs so much. We just found a plumbing issue in the kitchen that needs a retroactive permit I don’t even know if the council will grant.”

“Oh, that’s not a problem, Jess,” Dan said with a smile. “I’m on the council. Let me see if there’s something I can do to help.”

“That would be wonderful,” Mom said, looking genuinely grateful.

“And if not, maybe I can take the place off your hands after all,” he went on. “I’d be glad to pay enough that you could pick up a nice condo, or one of the cottages in town.”

“Why would you pay so much?” Jess asked.

“Well, I have a business idea, and your place would be perfect for it,” Dan confided. “You have a really pretty view of the sunset, don’t you?”

“We do,” Jess said, sounding intrigued.

“Dance with me?” Tristan asked Glory, distracting her from the conversation going on between their parents that they were clearly not needed for.

The band had just slid into a cover of “Africa”by Toto, one of Glory’s favorite songs from Mom’s iPod. And Tristan was already standing, his hand held out to her like he was a Disney prince.

“That would be nice,” Glory said happily, placing her hand in his and letting him lead her down the steps of the vista stage and onto the dance floor.

No one else was dancing, and Glory could feel all the eyes on her. A month and a half ago she might have felt self-conscious and tried to scamper away, or at least suck in her tummy.

But she was feeling good in her own skin these days. She might not be as stick-thin as Allie and some of the others, but Tristan had chosen to date her, and he could be with any girl he wanted.

I’m back,she decided.

“I’m the luckiest guy here,” Tristan murmured to her, placing one hand on her waist and pulling her close. “Want to know why?”

She shrugged, feeling pretty sure he was going to say it was because his dad owned the place. The guys back home were sort of self-centered too. It was just rich-boy syndrome. She didn’t see it as a character flaw.

“Because I’m dancing with you, Glory Steele,” he told her.

She tilted her chin up to look at him.

There was a certain vulnerability in his eyes that caught her off guard. The boys back home were too busy posing and preening and zoning out with their phones to look at anyone like that.

Tristan looked at Glory like there was nothing more interesting in the whole world.

Before she knew it, he was spinning her around with him, swaying and dipping her like they had been taking dance classes together for years or something.

She laughed, feeling like they might just float away.