Chapter 24
Roan
“Look what I made!” Roan declared, waving Pope and Sunshine over to see his sand sculpture.
Beside him, Kermit and Ocean were digging for buried treasure, sand flying behind them as they worked on widening their hole. Every now and then one would stop and pull something out, presenting Roan with one of the shiny treasures they’d found.
“Wow!” Sunshine declared as she stepped closer to see the treasure chest he’d made, using the molds and digging tools Pope had ordered for him. “What a stunning piece of sand art.”
They were so cool. He’d used starfish molds and carefully carved the box around it, smoothing the edges, before sticking another mold where he wanted a starfish to be.
An octopus head peered over the back of the treasure chest like she was looking inside at all the sea glass and shells Ocean and Kermit had found.
He used disk molds to make the suction cups on the bottoms of her tentacles and was super proud of the way it had turned out.
“You’ve done a wonderful job with this,” Pope declared as Danger came rushing in from the surf, with three clear, glistening rocks in his hand and a piece of pink sea glass he presented Roan with.
“More treasure!” Roan squealed, cupping his hands.
He studied each one before adding them to the box, carefully rearranging the growing pile in the middle.
“Mew!” Kermit meowed, holding something shiny up.
“All the treasure,” Roan declared when Kermit passed him a slightly dented quarter.
“All the treasure indeed,” Sunshine replied, taking pictures of their creation.
“I can’t believe you did all this while we were talking,” Pope said as he knelt beside Roan, hugged him, and pressed a kiss to his cheek.
“You were talking for a long time,” Roan reminded him.
“We sure were, sweetheart,” Pope agreed.
“Are you done now?”
“We are.”
“Yay, then you can help find treasure too!”
Sunshine’s laughter rolled down the beach, joined by barks and mews as Danger, Ocean and Kermit joined in. They were in their animal headspaces today, and Roan got to play with them and have an amazing day on the beach, having fun in the sand.
“Oh, I see how you are,” Pope said, carefully tickling him so he wouldn’t wiggle too much and wreck his sculpture.
“You’ve got a little taskmaster on your hands, don’t you?” Sunshine asked.
“Looks that way, doesn’t it?”
“Please.” Roan said, folding his hand beneath his chin and pouting at Pope. “Pretty please. With sugar and cherries and marshmallow sauce on top.”
“Well, if you’re willing to add marshmallow sauce, then I’ve got to find something. That’s my favorite,” Sunshine said before heading for the surf.
“And I’m willing to hunt up the world for you just to see that smile on your face,” Pope said, lightly tapping him on the nose first to make Roan giggle.
The day was gearing up to be the best of his life, and it wasn’t even dinner time yet.
Pope didn’t mind at all if Roan called him Papa Pope instead of Daddy because Roan liked the way it sounded better, and he’d promised them a very special treat after they ate supper tonight.
Plus, the best, best thing in the world happened when they’d taken the dogs to the vet.
Diesel and Grunge weren’t chipped. And since no one had replied to any of the posts Papa Pope had made in the online groups, he’d officially declared Grunge and Diesel their dogs and got special tags for their collars and everything.
They even had their names on them and the address to the house on the back.
Today, they were in the newly screened area beneath the deck, where they could watch them from the shade, since Dr. Leroux, their vet, had been worried about the condition of their paws.
Cracked and rough from hot pavement, she’d feared hot sand would worsen their condition and advised them to keep the dogs indoors until their paws had the chance to fully heal.
She’d even given them an ointment to apply, and Roan and Ocean had promised to make sure they rubbed it in every day and checked their paws to make sure they were getting better.
He had pets and a Papa and human pets to play with and amazing treasures too.
The luckiest boy in the world was what he was now, after so many years of feeling like the unluckiest boy to ever exist.
“Will this earn me gooey marshmallow toppings?” Sunshine asked when she returned with a spiral shell that sounded like waves when she held it against Roan’s ear.
“Ohhhh,” Roan breathed, listening to the sound it made. “All the marshmallow toppings. That’s so cool.”
He took it carefully, rearranged the two largest pieces of sea glass in the box, and leaned the special shell against them so it stood up on display.
“Arf! Rrrrruff, rufffff, rufffff!”
Ocean’s barking was soon joined by loud meows, so Roan stood and hurried over to where they were digging, to see what they’d uncovered.
Danger slid down a dune, landing with a thud at the bottom and a yip, as everyone, even Papa Pope and Sunshine, gathered around the hole.
There, in the bottom, was a shimmery blue glass bottle completely intact.
“Now this is truly an amazing find,” Sunshine said, taking a few pictures before gently brushing the sand from around the edges, dislodging it fully, and lifting it free of the deep hole Kermit and Ocean had dug.
“Mew?” Kermit said, cocking his head and studying it.
“Would you like to know what it is?” she asked.
“Meow! Meow!”
She turned the round bottle over, the base reminding Roan of a bubble with a smaller bubble on top and pointed to the symbol on the bottom.
“This is an Avon bottle,” she explained. “It used to hold perfume. Now it gets to go in the treasure chest.”
She placed it in Roan’s hands and took more pictures, this time of him adding it to the collection of amazing finds.
“Can I bring them all in after we’re done playing?” Roan asked Papa Pope.
“Of course you can,” he replied. “We can even get you a special chest of your own to keep all of your beach finds in.”
“Really?”
“Absolutely,” he said.
“Yay, we get to keep everything!”
“Woof! Woof!” Danger said, bringing something to him Roan had never seen before.
It was so light, he was afraid to close his hand around it for fear it would crumble. “What is it?” he asked.
“That,” Papa Pope said. “It is a sand dollar.”
“Dollars are treasure!”
“They sure are,” Papa Pope said.
“There’s a hole in the bottom. Did something live in here?” Roan asked.
“I truly don’t know,” Papa Pope said. “We’ll have to do a bit of research later and find out.”
“Okay.”
He carefully placed it in the chest, right beside the perfume bottle. They were all so pretty and different. Turning, he hurried over to Danger and hugged him tight.
“Thank you!” he said before giving him a big, wet smooch on the cheek.
By the time they were finished collecting treasures, they’d added a bunch more shells and sea glass, but the biggest treasures of all remained the sand dollar, blue perfume bottle, and the fist-sized spiral shell that sounded like the sea.
Yummy scents had been drifting down the beach for the last hour, all coming from the grill, so they gathered around the sand sculpture for a few final pictures, forever memories of their amazing day on the beach.
Papa Pope had found a shoebox he’d lined with a soft cloth and helped Roan place all the treasures inside so they would stay safe until they found a proper treasure chest. By then, he was getting hungry and slipping out of his little headspace, more than ready to head up to the deck and sprawl in one of the comfy deck chairs so he could eat.
“Today was perfect,” he declared as they headed up the steps, the dogs scrambling after them now that they’d been freed from their screened enclosure.
“You can say that again,” Danger said.
When they reached the top, Ocean went inside, returning with two of the dog beds they’d brought home from The Pet Emporium, and arranged them between the deck chairs so Grunge and Diesel wouldn’t have to lie on bare wood.
Kermit pulled a chair closer to them, and Roan did the same, so they’d be close enough to pet them whenever they wanted.
Pope had even installed a wooden gate at the top of the steps, so they didn’t have to worry about the dogs spotting something on the beach and taking off after it if they got excited.
“That is the most fun I’ve ever had on the beach without getting in the water,” Ocean admitted.
“You guys didn’t have to do that,” Danger admitted. “But I appreciate that you did. Getting to play today erased the sting of having to wait to wait nine more days before I can get these stitches out.”
“Thanks for inviting us over to join in,” Kermit said. “I rarely get to have pet play dates.”
“Now we can have them all the time,” Ocean said. “It’s so cool that you guys live less than a mile away.”
“Next time, we’ll have you over,” Sunshine said.
She’d smiled more today than Roan had ever seen her do.
When they first met, he’d been low-key terrified of her scowl and the way she had of commanding everyone’s attention with a glare or an ear-splitting whistle.
Now, she was just another awesome new friend he was getting to know better, along with Kermit, whose artwork was etched into her skin.
Ocean had even asked if Kermit would draw something for his next board, which had made the man blush just as much as he’d grinned when they’d started discussing design ideas.
That he’d asked for an octopus wearing ruby slippers had earned them both a side eye from Danger, who’d muttered about never living down the whole Wizard of Oz experience everyone likened his misadventures in the grocery store to.
“Well, you will never believe who stopped in at Joker’s Wild yesterday, asking how a certain person was doing,” Sunshine said as she pulled iced teas from the cooler and started passing them around.
“I’m curious,” Pope said. “Who?”