Epilogue
Two weeks later
My head pops out of the water and I push my soaking hair out of my face.
“Grab hold!”
With one hand, I grab the ladder at the back of Angela’s son’s boat; with the other, I grab Daniel’s hand. He helps me hoist myself up.
“How was it?” Daniel beams from under the brim of a Rays cap.
“So fun!” I wrap a beach towel around myself, momentarily chilled although I know I’ll be sweating again in three minutes. “I haven’t done that since I was a kid.”
Angela and her son had invited us—and Gramps—to join their family on their boat outing, which is just something they do most weekends (mind blowing to me).
He has a tube that he tows behind the boat.
His two kids, both in their late teens, are constantly telling him to crank up the speed and do more zigzags.
“You wanna go again?” Angela’s son, the captain, asks me from his spot at the steering wheel.
“No, thanks!” I’d rather sit up here, drying off in the sun and chatting with Gramps and Angela.
“Sounds like it’s my turn!” Daniel sounds like a big excited boy as he kicks off his flip-flops and jumps feetfirst into the water.
“He’s a good egg, that one,” Angela says. She’s sitting with her ankles crossed, wearing a bright-purple bathing suit underneath a white caftan, a wide-brimmed sun hat keeping her hair in place, one hand holding Gramps’s. I agree with this.
“Mallory, when are you going to join my workout class again?” she shouts over the noise of the engine.
Gramps gives me a knowing, uh-oh sort of look. I’d joined her class again last week and I don’t know if my core muscles or my dignity will ever recover.
“You guys are too intense for me,” I admit.
She shrugs, like she’s heard this before.
“And what about that job opening at the cybersecurity firm in St. Pete?” It had turned out that her son only had openings for snorkel instructors, which I was in no way fit for, but Angela had put out her feelers for other jobs.
Like Mom, she thinks of the ice cream shop as a stopgap measure.
Again, Gramps looks at me.
“She’s on sabbatical,” he says with a grin.
I smile back at him. The cybersecurity job seemed like it would pay well and like it might be something I could finagle my way into.
But, as I had confided in Gramps, I’m not ready to tie myself to another corporate job quite yet—or maybe ever.
I need some time to breathe. I might even do some traveling.
But for now, I’m soaking up the moment I’m in, in the place I’m meant to be.
The next evening, I FaceTime Carmen from my sunroom. I will never get tired of coming home from a shift at the ice cream shop and kicking my feet up with a cold drink in hand. It’s comfortable out here now, with some new wicker chairs and ottomans and a bright-blue outdoor rug.
“I am so jealous of that pool,” Carmen says. She’s currently walking down a busy Seattle street. I can hear the rush of cars and see the crowds of commuters around her. Meanwhile, the only sound on my end is the rustle of the breeze in nearby trees, punctuated by the chirp of crickets.
“It’s pretty great.” I sip my rosé.
“And you can bike to the beach from there?”
“Yep. I went swimming in the ocean this morning.” The doorbell chimes. “They’re here, I have to go.”
“Don’t let your new friends replace me! Don’t forget about me,” Carmen cries dramatically, clutching her phone closer to her face.
“How can I when you’re coming to stay with me for two weeks?”
“I mean, when you told me you have two extra bedrooms, I realized I had no choice. I can’t just let you be all alone down there.”
“Of course not.” I wave at her through my phone. “See you on Friday!”
She squeals and then hangs up.
Daniel and Amanda, along with Francis and some of the other friends I met kayaking, are here for game night.
My first time hosting friends in my new house.
I put out bowls of chips and decked out the living room with some throw pillows and candles—I can’t get over how cozy it looks in the evening light.
I look around, savoring one last minute of solitude, and then I open the door.