A Lullaby in the Bay (Chasing Tides #6)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

Corey Easton sighed as he set down another box on the counter of his new store in Blueberry Bay. He rolled his shoulders back, trying to ease the tension that had started in them that morning, even before he’d started moving boxes of merchandise.

It wasn’t that he wasn’t excited. Blueberry Bay seemed like a great town, and he felt confident that it would be a good place for him and his two twins, Haley and Max, to start over after his wife had passed away. The little Rhode Island town was picturesque and seemed peaceful, and he got a sense that the people there were kind and genuine.

The shop was small, but sunny and cheerful-looking. It was part of an old building that had been kept in great condition, and the walls had been painted a beautiful robin’s egg blue. He felt confident that he’d be able to create an excellent store there. It was a good location—near the water and several other popular businesses where there was a lot of tourist traffic. So despite some physical fatigue and a little stress, his mood was optimistic overall. That was a nice change. Things had felt especially hard for a long time.

“Is that the last of the boxes?” asked Daniel Ryan, appearing in the doorway of the store with a cardboard box in his arms.

“Should be,” said Corey. He smiled at Daniel, who co-ran the Blueberry Bay grocery store, Sandy’s Grocery, with his wife Sandy. He still felt surprised that Daniel was helping him set up his store, even though he was technically a rival of the grocery-store owner, since both businesses sold souvenirs. “Thank you again for your help. I really appreciate it.”

“Oh, for sure. Happy to have you taking over this place.” Daniel set down the box he was carrying and grinned.

“So… you don’t feel threatened by my arrival in town?” Corey asked. “Even though your store also sells souvenirs?”

Daniel shook his head, smiling. “I know you’re a business guy, so you’re probably used to people being extra-competitive, but we’re not like that in Blueberry Bay.” He clapped a hand on Corey’s shoulder. “Our grocery store sells a few souvenirs, but we don’t have nearly enough of a selection to satisfy tourists. Blueberry Bay has really needed a designated souvenir shop for a while now. We’ve all talked about it.” He laughed. “We’re all happy you stepped up to take on the job, honestly.”

Corey smiled at the other man, again feeling that he’d made the right decision in moving there.

At that moment, a soccer ball flew into the store, nearly hitting one of the boxes. It bounced against the far wall and rolled to a stop in the middle of the room. A moment later, Max, one of Corey’s eight-year-old twins, burst into the store after the soccer ball. He raced across the room and picked up the ball with dirty hands.

“Sorry, Dad!” he said. He stood there holding the ball, his dark curly hair messy but his blue eyes shining brightly. “I didn’t mean to.”

“Max, you’ve got to be careful around the shop,” Corey scolded him gently. “What if that had knocked over one of the boxes, or gone through a window?”

Max nodded, looking serious. “I’m sorry, Dad. I’ll make sure I stay away from the shop when I’m practicing soccer.”

Corey ruffled his son’s hair. Max was a good kid. He was still struggling after losing his mother, but he kept up his spirits and had a great attitude about almost everything. If only his sister acted the same way.

“I’m tired.”

Corey turned, his heart sinking. Haley stood in the doorway, her shoulders drooping. She was even skinner than her twin brother, and her dark curly hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail.

“And I’m hungry.”

Corey recognized the familiar higher pitch in his daughter’s voice, which meant she was in danger of having a meltdown. He’d have to do something to help her soon—he knew that the clock of her pressurized frustration was ticking. But he was never sure what to do for her. Often when she said she was hungry or tired, getting food or rest wasn’t enough to make her feel better, and she ended up having an outburst anyway. He knew things were especially difficult for her right now, but he felt helpless to know how to handle her fluctuating emotions after his wife’s death.

“Go lie down in the car, Haley,” Corey suggested gently. “Keep the windows open. There’s snacks in the tote bag in the back seat.”

“I’m sick of granola bars,” Haley complained.

“There’s some other stuff in there too,” Corey said. “If you need something else, you let me know, okay? We’re almost done here.”

“I want to go home,” Haley said.

Corey didn’t know if she meant their new house there in Blueberry Bay, or their old house where they’d lived before. He guessed it was the latter, especially since their new house was also filled with boxes and hardly felt like a home yet.

“I’ll come with you, Haley!” Max said, hurrying across the shop and wrapping an arm around his sister. “We can play travel chess in the back seat.”

“Okay,” Haley said quietly, and the two of them disappeared.

“They’re a blessing,” Daniel said, smiling at the kids.

“They are,” Corey agreed, “but I have to admit that sometimes they feel more like a test. One that I am afraid I am going to fail at miserably most of the time.” He shook his head, lost in his own troubles for a moment. Then he turned back to the other man. “Do you have any kids?”

“I do.” The grocery store owner grinned proudly. “My wife and I became parents just recently. We have a teenage boy and a baby on the way.”

Corey’s brows lifted. “I’m going to need you to explain that one.”

Daniel laughed. “We just adopted our teenage son Tommy after fostering him for a while. Right around the same time we found out that my wife is pregnant. We’re going to be having our first biological baby soon.”

“Congratulations.” Corey shook the other man’s hand, smiling warmly. “That’s very exciting.”

Daniel nodded. “We used to foster pretty often, since we’d thought we couldn’t have kids of our own. We’d talked about adopting before, but we’d thought we could do more good by continuing to foster. Tommy helped us change our minds about that—and now of course because of the pregnancy we’re getting ready for our family to grow even more.”

Corey nodded, listening respectfully. He felt a sense of admiration for the other man’s enthusiasm. Daniel didn’t seem nervous at all, even though he was about to become the parent of a baby for the first time. “Are you nervous at all?”

“Oh, definitely.” Daniel laughed. “But I’m mostly excited. I know we’re going to handle it as a team. Sandy and I do everything together, and now we have Tommy too. He’s a great kid—I know he’s going to be a huge help when the baby is born.”

Corey’s heart ached a little when he heard the words. He didn’t have anyone who could help him raise his kids—not anymore. He missed having someone else there who could help him with how complicated parenting was at times.

“Well, let me know if you need anything when the baby is born,” Corey said to Daniel. “I certainly owe you one, after today.”

“Don’t mention it.” Daniel smiled. “Like I said, Blueberry Bay is thrilled you’re here.”

The two men chatted briefly for a while longer, and then Daniel left the shop. Corey lingered for a few more minutes, making the finishing touches on a few tasks. His mind reviewed his conversation with Daniel about raising a family as a team.

He sighed. Parenting was hard, and he was already so busy with the store. He wondered how he was ever going to raise his twins alone.

Olivia Dunlap finished wiping off the craft table at Little Clams and heaved a happy sigh. She glanced down at her hands and saw that her palms were lightly sprinkled with glitter.

Hazards of the occupation, she thought cheerfully. I feel like I’ve been sprinkled in magic. Pixie dust.

Now that all of the kids had been picked up for the day from their summer camp classes, the school was strangely quiet. Sunlight streamed across the tables and the brightly colored rugs. Olivia hummed happily to herself as she continued to tidy up the room.

She’d only been working at Little Clams for a little while, but she’d loved every day there so far. The charming red brick elementary school also offered summer programming for the children of Blueberry Bay, and Olivia had never had so much fun at work before.

After her last nannying job ended—because the family she’d worked for was moving across the country—she’d heard about a job opening at Little Clams, and she’d jumped at the opportunity, feeling like it was an ideal position for her. She’d been hired almost right away, and the job had proved to be everything she’d hoped it would be.

Caring for a room full of energetic kids was hard work, but Olivia loved taking care of children more than anything else. She felt a special kind of happiness whenever she was able to help a child grow in some way.

“How’s it going in here?” Maddie, Olivia’s co-care facility worker, appeared in the doorway, smiling.

“Got almost everything all cleaned up,” Olivia said, grinning.

“Whoa, already? You get to take a break before you start to clean, you know.”

“I know. I don’t mind. Cleaning relaxes me.”

“Okay.” Maddie laughed. “Just wait until the days when the craft table is extra-sticky. I don’t think that could be relaxing for anyone.”

“Maybe on days when the craft involves a lot of glue, we can put out a paper cover and then just throw that away at the end of class?” Olivia suggested. “It would help keep the tables from getting damaged too.” She tapped the edge of the long table, which was beautiful and made out of maple.

Maddie nodded enthusiastically. “That’s a great plan. I knew hiring you was a good idea.” She winked. “And you did great with the kids again today. They really like you.”

Olivia beamed. “I really like them. This is a great job. I loved nannying, but it’s even better getting to take care of more than one kid at once.”

The two women continued to chat lightly as they finished tidying up the room together, reminiscing about particularly funny things that had happened that day and chuckling over them. After a while their conversation turned toward their weekend plans.

“I was thinking about going shopping this weekend,” Maddie said. “I can keep an eye out for you if you’re still looking for furniture for your new place.”

“Aww, thanks for offering, I appreciate it. I’m good on furniture, but I am on the hunt for more houseplants. Give me a shout if you see anything good.”

“Hey, maybe I’ll just buy it for you as a very early Christmas present.” Maddie grinned. “Are you liking the place so far?”

“I am.” Olivia smiled, but inside her heart sank a little.

She did like her apartment very much. It was quaint and charming, and she loved being in Blueberry Bay. But she missed living with her aunt Marsha a little. She’d decided to move to give her aunt more space, now that the older woman was rekindling her old romance with Willis Jenkins. And although she kept in touch with her parents and her brother Isaiah by phone, she missed having someone around to talk to every day.

“Sometimes it gets a little lonely,” she admitted. “But I guess I’ll get used to that.”

Maddie nodded. “You lived with your aunt for a while, right?”

“Yeah, I did. She gave me a place to stay while I was wondering what to do for a career. After college, I just worked as a waitress for a while because I didn’t know what I really wanted to do. Aunt Marsha helped me see that what I really want to do is work with kids.”

“And now here you are!” Maddie smiled.

“Yes.” Olivia grinned. Even though she felt a little lonely in her apartment sometimes, her work at Little Clams more than made up for it, since it brought her such great joy.

It would be so nice if I had kids of my own, she thought, feeling the old ache of longing rise up in her. Then my home would never feel lonely. Maybe someday I’ll find the right person to have a family with. I wish he’d hurry up and show up already.

She smiled quietly to herself as she and Maddie finished resetting the room for the next day. After a while, they started trading stories about the funniest things they’d ever heard kids say, and were soon laughing so hard they had tears in their eyes. Finally, they were finished with their task, and Olivia headed out to the parking lot where her car was.

She felt a little sad as she started driving toward her apartment. She didn’t like the idea of going somewhere where there was no one to talk to. But she reminded herself that she had moved to give her aunt Marsha more private time spent with Willis, and that made her smile. She pictured the two of them sitting quietly together on the back porch, holding hands and watching the waves rush up along the beach.

She stopped at Sandy’s Grocery, where she picked up a few grocery items that she needed in order to make dinner. She always enjoyed the smell of grocery stores, and this one smelled especially nice—the air was filled with the slightly sweet aromas of fresh bread and produce.

When she reached her apartment, she pushed open the door and flicked on the light switch. She didn’t have a lot of belongings, and she’d already fully moved into her little place. She set her grocery bags down on the kitchen counter and gazed around her.

It was cute. Very cute. But empty.

She sighed as she started to unload her groceries, reminding herself that she was lucky to have a job she loved so much. She’d just arrived in Blueberry Bay, and was just starting to craft a life for herself there. She already had some friends in town and would soon have more. She assured herself that she would stop feeling lonely in no time.

She started to cook her dinner, and smiled as she inhaled the savory smell of frying onions. She missed her aunt Marsha, since the two of them had usually cooked together, but she tried to focus on all the things that were going well for her. She looked around her apartment again, appreciating how cute it was. She’d start having friends over more often soon. That would help her feel less lonely.

And plants. She’d fill the place with plants. Those would help keep her company.

Chuckling to herself, she turned on one of her favorite music playlists to listen to while she continued to cook.