Chapter 10 #2
“Yes!” Isabella said, getting up from the table. “I’m getting my swimsuit on right now!”
“Isabella, you haven’t finished your breakfast,” Casey called out to her, but Isabella had already gone into her bedroom and closed the door. “She’s so much like you, Faith.”
“You think so?”
“Oh my gosh, yes. Sometimes it’s scary. Isabella, you, and Nan are all so much alike. I feel like the odd man out sometimes.”
What was Casey talking about? This idea had never crossed Faith’s mind.
Nan was the leader of the family, the maker of all traditions, the one person who never seemed to falter with anything.
How was Faith like her? If anything, Casey should feel most like her.
She was a successful lawyer, a mother, and a wife (until recently).
Like Nan, she had everything under control.
Perhaps the divorce had skewed her view of things.
“I suppose I should get ready to go to the beach, since I’m building a sandcastle today,” Faith said, standing up. “Nan, do you want me to help you go down to the beach?”
“No, dear. I’ll watch from the porch. The heat is unbearable today. But, thank you.”
As Faith entered her bedroom, Casey came up behind her. “Thank you for offering to build sandcastles with Isabella. I try to relate to her, but her daddy was always better at it than me.”
“You’re welcome,” she said, glad she could help in some way.
“Do you mind if I stay up here so I can finish divvying out our assets for the divorce? Scott wants the lawyer to draw something up soon, and I guess it doesn’t matter that I’m on vacation.
” She took in a deep breath and let it out.
Even with all that was going on, she maintained her composure.
Her marriage was dissolving right before her eyes, and she could manage to keep herself calm and collected.
Faith had been a total mess when it was clear that Scott had feelings for Casey and had spent many nights crying into her pillow.
She wondered if it was healthy for her sister to bottle up her emotions like she was.
“Don’t worry about us. I’ve got Isabella covered. She and I will spend tons of time making our sandcastles. You do what you need to do.”
Faith looked past Casey and saw Nan in the hallway, smiling.
When she made eye contact, Nan said, “That’s what I like to see.
Take care of each other. That’s the mark of a great family.
If only Clara and I could have been like you two…
” She looked down at the floor for a moment.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going out to the porch to get comfortable. I want to see some sandcastles.”
Faith remembered Nan mentioning her sister, Clara. What had gone on between them? Faith wished she could sit next to Nan and hear her tell the story, but she knew Isabella was waiting.
“Do you mind taking the beach bag down with you?” Casey said. “I’ll send Isabella once she’s ready.”
Faith grabbed the beach bag and a few towels, and walked with Nan onto the porch that wrapped around to the stairs leading down to the driveway.
She set them down and helped her grandmother get settled in the rocker.
“I’d like to hear about Clara,” she said as Nan wriggled into a comfortable position.
“I’d be happy to tell you about her. I miss her and it’s nice to talk about her.” The mention of Clara had brought a smile to Nan’s face.
“Maybe tonight?”
“Yes. Maybe tonight.” Nan’s smile faded to a more thoughtful expression.
Faith picked up her things and headed down the stairs toward the beach.
Even in the morning air, the sun was hot, but it hadn’t penetrated the sand yet, and she felt the cool of it on her bare feet as she lugged two chairs to a clear spot.
The shore seemed to stretch for miles, only a few people scattered along the coastline.
She set the chairs down and opened them up, brushing the sand off the seats of each one.
Faith sat down and faced the sea. She looked back over her shoulder for Isabella, keeping an eye on the part of the cottage steps she could see over the dune.
Nan waved from the porch, and she waved back.
Then the cottage door opened and Isabella came out, wearing her pink, ruffled swimsuit and pink star-shaped sunglasses.
She held the railing as she took each step very slowly, her pink flip-flops wobbling nervously with every step.
That staircase probably seemed huge to her, Faith thought. She remembered that feeling, going up the stairs at the cottage they’d had as kids. Because they were built on stilts, the first floor was raised an entire level and it had felt like she was climbing into the clouds.
Isabella’s blond hair disappeared below the dune, so Faith stood up to try and see her. When she did, her heart leapt as she saw Jake’s truck pull in to the drive. Before she could ponder it further, Isabella was running toward her, a bucket and shovel in her little hands.
“Look what I brought!” she said, plopping down next to Faith. “What should we do?”
“We need to fill a bucket with wet sand. Let’s each get one and take them down to the water.
” As she walked with Isabella, she tried not to think about Jake.
She wanted to see him and talk to him about last night, but Isabella needed her.
Faith enjoyed spending these precious moments with her niece.
Isabella waited for the tide to retreat back to the sea before she squatted on the wet sand and began filling her bucket. Faith leaned over and filled her own bucket. Another wave rolled in, the foam rushing up around their ankles. Isabella held her bucket up high to keep the surf from stealing it.
“Is this good?” she asked, holding it out toward Faith.
“Yep! I think we have everything we need.”
They took their buckets back to a spot close to their chairs. Faith used a shovel to pack down the sand in her bucket. “You have to get it really packed in there. Can you do yours?”
Isabella watched intently, imitating every move Faith made.
“Then, you turn your bucket upside down like this.” With a thud, Faith tipped her bucket over onto the sand and patted the sides of it with her hands.
Isabella did the same.
Gently and carefully, Faith removed the bucket to reveal a perfectly round cylinder of sand.
“How did you learn how to make these?” Isabella asked in awe. She’d stood up and was walking around the little mound of wet sand, scrutinizing it. She bent way down and turned her head sideways. Then, she patted her own bucket and lifted it off. It was perfect, just like Faith’s.
“I don’t know. I just practiced.” She picked up a different size bucket and offered the beach bag to Isabella to retrieve more shovels. “We’re going to need to fill the buckets again. What shape do you want this time? I’m going to make a smaller one next to this big mound I’ve just made.”
Isabella dug around inside the beach bag until she found the one she wanted. It was a purple bucket with a white handle. They walked back to the water together.
On the way, Isabella stopped short. “Oh!” she said, bending down and picking something up. “Look what I found!”
Faith went over to inspect. It was a twisted little shell that was hollow inside.
She turned it over in Isabella’s open hand to examine the beautiful stripes of light brown against its creamy colored body.
It was in perfect condition. “Do you know what this is?” she asked, lifting it out of Isabella’s palm to see it more closely.
“You’ve found a Scotch Bonnet. It’s the state shell of North Carolina.
Not many people get to find them. How pretty.
” She handed it back to Isabella. Faith had bought a book about seashells to read on her way to the beach when she was twelve years old.
As Faith hunted for shells, she would look them up and see if she could find them in her book.
She was surprised that she remembered the name of Isabella’s shell after so many years.
“Can we keep it?”
Faith couldn’t help but smile at this gorgeous little girl.
Casey was right. Her personality was like Faith’s.
Watching Isabella and seeing how she was like her family members made Faith think about her own children.
What would they be like? Would they play with Isabella, build sandcastles with her?
Would they be like Faith? She wanted a house full of children to care for, but until then, she was truly enjoying being with Isabella.
“Sure. We’ll put it in the beach bag.”
They walked, filling bucket after bucket and building their sandcastle.
Each time, Faith tipped her head up on the way back to see if Jake’s truck was gone yet, and every time, it was still sitting right where it had been.
Part of her looked forward to seeing him again.
She wanted to feel out the situation, see how he responded to her, continue their discussions from last night.
And she just wanted to talk to him again, see him smile at her.
But another part of her thought it may be best if she didn’t.
He’d made it clear that he only wanted to be friends and perhaps he was right.
There were obviously some issues between them.
She’d been just fine by herself until now.
Surely all of these feelings and thoughts she was having were just because she was on vacation.
Soon enough, she’d get back to her real life and she’d be just fine again.
There was no need to make her life any more difficult.
“Hey, y’all,” her mom called out, waving to them as Faith helped Isabella carve out the moat with a shovel.
Her mom was at the top of the dune, a beach towel and a novel under her arm.
If Faith squinted her eyes, from that distance, the new cottage almost looked like the old one, and her mother like the young mother who had raised them.
It made her homesick for those times before everything had gotten so complicated.
“Hi, Mom,” she called back to her.
Her mom trudged through the sand toward them, stopping at the western edge of the castle.
“Wow, that’s wonderful,” she said with a big smile, her cheekbones making her sunglasses rise up on her face a little higher.
“Your Aunt Faith used to make those all the time. Remember that big one you made when we were all here with Nan last time? It took you all day.”
“I do.”
Isabella was on her hands and knees, a hot pink shovel in her hand as she crawled around the edge of their castle digging the moat so deep that the sediment underneath was a dark grey color. “Do I need water now to fill it up?” she asked, looking up at Faith.
“You can try, but the water may sink into the sand. You may want to get two buckets full. That’s what I always did.”
Isabella grabbed the purple bucket and another green one and ran, one in each hand, toward the water.
“Faith, honey,” her mother said once Isabella was out of earshot. “I’ll watch Isabella. You might want to check on your sister. She hasn’t come out of her room. I knocked, but she didn’t answer. She’ll talk to you…”
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. But what I do know is that whenever Casey is quiet, there’s something wrong. And, when you two were younger, she’d never talk to me. I’d have to get the scoop from you. Go up and see if you can figure out what’s going on.”
Faith nodded, knowing how Casey wasn’t the best at divulging her feelings.
But her mother was right: She’d talk to Faith.
She called goodbye to Isabella, who was already chatting animatedly to her mom as Faith crossed over the dune toward the cottage.
Jake’s truck was still there. She hadn’t thought about that when agreeing to come up and talk to Casey.
Now, she paused at the bottom of the steps, trying to figure out how she was supposed to greet him if she saw him.
He was probably right there in the front room, painting the built-in.
Should she be breezy and cool, or should she walk over and make conversation?
It made her feel out of control a little bit, and she hadn’t felt like that in a long time.
She started up the steps, trying to keep herself as calm as possible.