Wishes at Water’s Edge (Rosewood Beach #8)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

Alexis Bennett stepped into her kitchen and let out an enormous yawn. She caught sight of her reflection in a mirror and burst out laughing.

Oh, I look a sight, she thought with a good-natured grimace. But who can blame me?

Her hair was a mess, and she had her bathrobe tied on sloppily over disheveled pajamas.

Not that she normally came downstairs in the morning looking like a beauty queen—even when she’d been a model, she’d never been that put-together.

But normally she woke up with her hair in a somewhat tidy braid that she redid before washing her face and applying skin creams. She didn’t usually shuffle downstairs to make breakfast until she’d taken a shower and changed into her outfit for the day.

Last night, however, had upended more than her morning routine, it had completely upended her sleep schedule.

She and her husband Grayson were the proud parents of a baby boy, and since he was still only a few months old, he wasn’t used to dealing with normal people things like sleeping during the night without waking up and crying every hour.

She rubbed her eyes as she walked over to the cupboard and opened it.

Normally she liked to make something a little special for breakfast, like waffles or muffins or egg sandwiches, but today she was choosing plain and simple oatmeal.

She figured she and Grayson could doctor the plain dish up with additions like peanut butter or blueberries.

She started the oatmeal cooking and then started to brew a cup of coffee on the Keurig machine.

She used a reusable K cup with coffee grounds inside, and before she put the bag of coffee grounds away, she inhaled the rich, nutty aroma eagerly, feeling that even the fumes of her favorite beverage were helping her feel more awake.

I hope Cash starts sleeping better soon, she thought, shaking her head as she got out bowls and spoons for herself and Grayson. I don’t think I can take another sleepless night like this.

Normally, Cash woke them up every few hours, but lately he’d been fitful and vocal almost all night.

Since they took turns getting up to take care of him, she and Grayson had both been up almost all night.

It had felt as though every time she was just starting to fall asleep, the sound of Cash’s cries were coming through the baby monitor again.

At least he’s asleep now, she thought with a sigh. Maybe I can get a good nap in after we eat this breakfast. Poor Grayson .

She felt bad for her husband, who was about to go to work for eight hours.

Ordinarily, she’d be getting ready to go to work as well, but she’d been on maternity leave ever since Cash had been born.

It was easy to go on an extended maternity leave when she worked at her family’s restaurant, The Lighthouse Grill, and everyone in her family kept insisting she didn’t go back to work yet.

She smiled to herself, reflecting that she was incredibly lucky to have the family that she did.

If it had been up to her, she might have planned on returning to work by then, since she was used to working hard all the time.

When she and Grayson had lived in L.A., she had been a model, a career that required much more work than most people gave it credit for.

Since returning to Rosewood Beach, Connecticut, she’d been working as a waitress at The Lighthouse Grill and running her own online jewelry business.

Managing both jobs had taken a great deal of effort and had often left her feeling exhausted, even though she was a determined person who thrived on bursts of adrenaline.

Motherhood, however, was a whole new level of tired.

She chuckled as she thought about how tired she had felt after a long shift waitressing at The Lighthouse Grill.

Her family’s pub was arguably the most popular place in town, and things were often hectic there during the lunch and dinner rushes.

No matter how much she’d run around waiting on customers and cleaning up messes, literal and metaphorical, however, she’d never been as tired as she’d been lately while taking care of Cash.

It was more than worth it, though. She’d loved her job as a waitress, but it didn’t come with a fraction of the perks that motherhood came with.

Whenever she held Cash, she felt as though she had the most precious human in the world in her arms. She loved to simply stare at him, thinking that everything he did was the cutest thing she’d ever seen.

She felt as though her whole heart had become bigger than it had ever been before, making room for the miracle of the person that she and Grayson were responsible for caring for.

She heard someone yawn, and she turned around to see Grayson shuffling into the kitchen. Even though he was dressed in business casual clothes for work, he still looked rumpled and half-asleep.

“How are you feeling, sweetheart?” she asked, giving him a hug.

“Tired.” He stifled another yawn and then gave her a big kiss. “How are you?”

She was about to answer, but a yawn overtook her. He caught it from her, and they both yawned hugely before starting to laugh about the incident.

“Oh, we’re a pair.” He chuckled. “I’m going to need about seven cups of coffee today.”

“You can have your first one in a minute here, along with your breakfast. Sorry it’s just oatmeal today. I’m too tired to whip together anything else.”

“Don’t apologize,” he said, kissing her head. “You don’t have to make me breakfast at all. I appreciate it very much, even if it’s oatmeal. Do we still have those bananas?”

“The bananas turned brown.” She sighed. “So I put them in the freezer to use for banana bread. But we have blueberries.”

“Blueberries sound great—and a promise of banana bread sounds even better.”

They began to dish out their oatmeal, and soon they were sitting down at the kitchen table together to eat breakfast. Grayson spiced up his oatmeal with blueberries and cinnamon, and Alexis plopped a large spoonful of peanut butter into her bowl along with a handful of chocolate chips.

“You still like peanut butter, huh?” he asked with a chuckle.

Alexis grinned. “Yes, thank goodness. It looks like my new favorite food is going to stay my favorite food indefinitely.” When she’d been pregnant with Cash, she’d been overcome with an intense craving for peanut butter, something that she’d always loathed until her pregnancy.

Her family, including Grayson, were still teasing her about how much she loved to put it on everything—even ice cream sometimes.

She’d been worried that once her pregnancy was over, she was going to go back to disliking it, but she’d been thrilled to find that wasn’t the case.

“You want some?” she offered, holding up the jar. “Protein would probably give you some extra energy. And if you don’t like crunchy, we’ve got creamy peanut butter in the cupboard too.”

He shook his head, laughing. “I’m okay. I don’t think peanut butter and blueberries would go well together.”

“Sure they would.”

“You’re crazy.”

“Mmm, crazy for you.”

They shared another kiss across the table and then shared a yawn.

“Hey, do you think you’d be able to stop by the doctor’s office sometime today?” she asked when she was halfway through her oatmeal.

He looked concerned. “Why? Are we waiting for a report or something?”

“No.” She laughed. “I borrowed that cozy mystery book from Hazel and I finished it last night while I was sitting up with Cash. I was hoping you could return it to her.”

Alexis’s sister, Hazel, worked as a receptionist at the Rosewood Beach doctor’s office, which was directly next to the office space where Grayson worked at his finance job.

“Oh, sure.” He smiled. “No problem. I’ll stop there on my break.”

“Perfect, thank you. I can’t remember if she’s working there today or not, but if she isn’t, you can just leave the book with whoever is there.”

He nodded and they shared a smile. Their simple life in Rosewood Beach was a far cry from the glamorous, big-city life they’d had together in L.A.

, but it was so much better. In L.A. Grayson had been consumed by his company, working long hours and hardly ever spending time with Alexis.

She’d felt lost and listless in their giant house, and as though she didn’t have any kind of purpose after her modeling career had slowed down significantly.

She knew that Grayson felt the same way she did—that their friendlier, more down-to-earth life that they were building together in Rosewood Beach was truly the life of their dreams, even though they’d once thought that being rich and successful was the way to achieve lasting happiness.

As Grayson stood up to put his oatmeal bowl into the sink, she noticed that the buttons on his purple dress shirt were misaligned.

“Come here, sweetie,” she said, standing up and going over to him. “Let me fix your shirt.”

He looked down. “What? It’s—oh.” He sighed. “Thanks, sweetheart. Good thing I’m married to you or I’d be walking out the door looking like a bum.”

She laughed as she fixed his shirt. “Hardly. Besides, you smell too nice for that. Although—” Once she’d finished fixing his shirt, she reached up and smoothed down his hair. “Your hair was a little messy too.”

“See?” He was overcome with another yawn. “I’m a mess without you. You said there was some coffee?”

“Yes, under the—” She turned toward the Keurig and froze. “Oh NO!”

In her fatigue, she had forgotten to put a cup underneath the dispenser. There was coffee all over the machine, the counter, and even the floor.

“It’s okay, I can make coffee at the office,” he assured her as she squeaked and hurried across the room to start mopping up the coffee. He sounded as though he was trying not to laugh. She grabbed a dish rag off the stove and began to wipe up the coffee that had spread across the counter.

“I can’t believe I did that,” she said, wanting to laugh too. “I’ve never been spacey like this before.”

“You’ve never been sleep-deprived like this before,” he reminded her.

“So true.” She pursed her lips and went over to the refrigerator. “I’ll finish cleaning it up later, I don’t want you to be late. Let me get your lunch box for you.”

She pulled his lunch box out of the refrigerator, expecting it to be heavy. Ordinarily, she never put it into the refrigerator unless she’d stocked it with a lunch for Grayson. As soon as she picked it up, however, she could tell by the lightness that there was nothing inside.

She turned toward Grayson with an expression of dismay. “Oh. It’s empty. I’ve been seeing it in the fridge since yesterday afternoon, and I thought I made you a sandwich or something—but I guess I just thought I made you a sandwich…” Her voice trailed off.

He burst out laughing. “Come here,” he said, taking her into his arms. “You try to get some sleep, okay? I’ll go out for lunch. It’ll be fun for me.”

She smiled weakly. “Okay.” Going back to sleep sounded absolutely glorious.

Grayson hurried out the door, and she finished cleaning up the spilled coffee. Part of her wanted to leave it until later, since she felt tired enough to fall asleep standing up, but she didn’t want it to stain the floor or the counter.

Once she was in cleaning mode, she stayed in it for a few more minutes.

She cleaned out her and Grayson’s oatmeal bowls so that the oatmeal that was left in them wouldn’t become crusty and difficult to remove.

Then she went into the living room and cleaned up the baby toys that she’d been too exhausted to pick up the night before.

She was just stepping inside her bedroom, ready to dive into her sheets and fall blissfully back asleep, when she heard Cash starting to cry again.

“Oh, sweetheart,” she murmured. “You need to work on your timing.”

She chuckled as she made her way to the nursery. She could get a little more sleep later on. Right now, her sweet baby needed her.