The Summer Reset (Sanibel Island #4)

Chapter 1

The drive back to Sanibel felt twice as long as the drive to Fort Myers had been.

Levi kept his eyes on the road and his hands at ten and two on the steering wheel.

The radio was off. It was all wrong. The silence was the very opposite of comfortable.

It was tense and felt icky, like shoes that were too tight.

She couldn’t believe they were at this point. They had gotten along so well.

And now he couldn’t seem to string together three words to say to her.

Abby tried to fill it. She told him about the crew's progress on the pool and how they'd broken through more of the concrete than expected. She mentioned Gerald's apparent grudge against the construction noise. She asked about his next shift at the station.

He answered. However, the sentences were short and did the bare minimum. Yes. No. Tuesday.

Each word landed between them like a stone. There was zero inflection in his tone.

She stopped trying around the halfway point.

Let the silence win. It was better than watching him search for things to say to her.

She was done watching him be polite when an hour ago he'd been looking at her like she was something he wanted to keep. If her money were an issue, it was his issue. She wasn’t even sure she wanted a relationship.

He failed the test, and she was glad to find out sooner rather than later. Singledom isn’t so bad. It’s what she wanted. It’s what she promised herself. He was a nice side quest, and now it’s time to get back on track.

The causeway lights reflected off the dark water.

She watched them pass, one after another.

There was a cloak of sadness that clung to her.

She'd known such a scenario could happen and had warned herself against exactly this.

But knowing something might happen and watching it unfold were two entirely different experiences.

When he pulled into her driveway, she didn't wait for him to get out. She reached for the door handle.

"Abby."

She stopped. Looked at him.

His face was shadowed, half-lit by the porch light she'd left on. She couldn't read his expression. He was using the darkness to keep her from being able to look directly into his eyes. Or more like he didn’t want to look into her eyes.

"I just need a couple of days," he said. "To think."

The words were kind. Reasonable even. But they felt like a door closing. And she always knew that was a possibility.

"Okay," she said and forced herself to smile.

He got out of the truck and walked around to her side. He opened the door and held out his hand to help her down. She took it because refusing would have been petty, and she was trying very hard not to be petty.

They walked to her front door together. Her hand was still in his, but it felt different now. Like he was just doing what was expected. It wasn’t because he wanted to hold her hand. He was a good guy and a gentleman.

At the door, she turned to face him. She wasn’t going to get the kiss that had been so easy just two nights ago on this same porch.

He squeezed her hand instead. Gentle. Final.

"I'll call you," he said.

"Sure."

“I will,” he said. “I need to think.”

“No, you don’t,” she said. “I mean, you can, but you don’t need to call me. I’ve already got everything I need.”

“That’s not fair.”

“It is. And it’s okay. Goodbye, Levi. I’ll see you around town.”

And then she went inside. It gave her the power. She got to be the one to shut him down and reject him. She was done being rejected. Taking the choice off the table was very satisfying.

Satisfying wasn’t the right word because she wasn’t satisfied to have lost him.

The house was dark except for the lamp she'd left on in the living room. The pool crew's equipment sat silent in the backyard, hulking shapes in the moonlight.

She dropped her purse on the counter and walked through the kitchen to the back door, flipping on the porch light.

Gerald stood in the middle of the torn-up yard, one leg tucked up under him, perfectly still.

"You're out late," she said through the screen.

He didn't move. He just stood there watching her with that unreadable heron expression that could have been judgment or complete indifference. She imagined he probably had some thoughts about the destruction.

“I promise it’s going to be beautiful when it’s done,” she said. “What do herons like? Bushes? Trees? Maybe I’ll have someone create a little oasis for you. Would you like that? At the rate I’m going, you’re about to be my only boyfriend.”

She turned off the light and left him to it.

Her phone was on the counter where she'd left it. She picked it up and scrolled to Dana's number. Hit call.

It rang four times before going to voicemail.

"You've reached Dana. Leave a message, and I'll call you back."

The beep sounded.

Abby opened her mouth. Closed it. What was she supposed to say? That she'd finally told someone about the money and watched them pull away in real time? Her sister was going to love being told she had been right.

"Hey, it's me," she said finally. "Call me when you get this. It's not urgent. Just call me."

She hung up and set the phone face down on the counter.

She wasn’t ready to go to bed. She turned on the TV for some background noise but didn't really watch it. She sat on her teal sofa, staring at the screen without really seeing it.

She kept replaying the dinner. The moment she'd said the words. Ten million. The way his face had changed. He hadn't gotten angry or made a scene. He had just withdrawn and pulled back into himself like a turtle into its shell.

And that was that.

Maybe she shouldn't have told him. Maybe it was too soon. They'd known each other for what, a month? Less? And here she was dumping this enormous piece of information on him like it was nothing.

But it wasn't nothing. And if she'd waited longer, it would have been worse. Wouldn't it?

She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

The truth was, she didn't know. Didn't know if there was a right time to tell someone you had ten million dollars. Didn't know if there was a way to say it that wouldn't change how they saw you.

Abby reached for her phone again. She scrolled through her contacts and paused on Meg's name.

No. It was too late to call. And she didn't want to have this conversation over the phone anyway.

She set the phone back down.

The television droned on. It was a crime show she'd seen before. She watched the detective interview a suspect and, thirty seconds later, remembered nothing about it.

She should go to bed. Lying awake on the couch wasn't going to solve anything.

But going to bed meant lying in the dark with nothing to distract her from her own thoughts, and that sounded worse.

She stayed on the couch.

The crime show ended. Another one started.

Her phone buzzed.

She grabbed it, heart jumping.

Meg: Book club was fun. Thanks for coming. Let me know about Cayo Costa.

Not Levi.

She typed back quickly to have something to do.

Abby: Sounds good. I think it is better to ferry to the island and then kayak.

Meg: Good plan. We’ll pick a day.

Abby: Want to get coffee tomorrow?

Meg: Absolutely. 9?

Abby: I’ll see you then.

Tomorrow, she'd talk to Meg about things.

She turned off the TV and went to bed. She told herself she wasn’t going to be sad. She had a pool being built, a kayak trip planned, painting, and the book club. Her life was full.

Levi was a nice addition, but easy come, easy go.