Buck's Landing (A New England Seacoast Romance) (15 page)

While they celebrated with high-fives and good-natured taunting, Sofia whispered to her youngest teammates. “They might have won, but you guys picked the best team.” Johnny and Henry looked at her with conspiratorial grins. “I always treat my teammates to free mini-golf and ice cream!”

Judy hugged her and high-fived the little boys, who ran to brag to Jake about their consolation prize. Sofia assured Jake that he, too, was welcome to join his brother for a free round. He thanked her with a gap-toothed smile.

~~~

Silas offered to drive on the ride home, but Sofia assured him she was fine.

“You just want to get behind the wheel of a proper car,” she teased.

“Well, yeah,” he replied. “I’m not stupid.”

She gave him a sidelong smile. “Maybe someday.”

“Not if you’re planning on living a golden expat life in Greece.”

He regretted the words the moment he’d spoken them. Her hand tightened on the wheel, white-knuckled.

“Listen,” he said quickly, “that’s not what I meant.”

She stayed silent, focusing on the road, her other hand tense on the gearshift.

“I’m just going to say it,” he began. “I had fun tonight. With your friends, with you. I saw you enjoy yourself, too. Just like I saw you enjoy yourself on the strip. You love this town, deep down you do, but you refuse to let yourself trust those feelings because of what happened with your father. I get it, Sofia. I do. I’m not saying it’s going to just go away, but if you gave yourself a chance…”

“Then what?” she snapped. “I’ll have a good summer? I’ll magically be able to put aside everything that drove me away? I’ll settle down here? Have some kids; grill some burgers in my backyard?”

She glanced over at him. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes glittering. For the second time since they’d met, the phrase came to his mind: she was magnificent. While she spoke, he could see it: the house, the kids, the grill, the two of them.

“You might find that staying here is something worth enjoying.” He met her anger with cool reason, hoping to take the wind out of her sails. What he got was white-lipped silence for another five minutes.

She pulled the car into her parking space and turned to face him. “Look, I was going to say something about Greece.”

He failed to keep the disappointment out of his voice. “Of course you were.”

“It wasn’t a sure thing, and I felt weird about it.”

It was as if the bottom dropped out of her Beamer. “Wasn’t?”

She looked down, her reply scarcely more than a whisper. “They offered me the job.”

“How long have you known?”

“Since Thursday.” Her eyes were shining when she looked back at him.

He couldn’t help the sarcasm. “We spent the night together, Sofia. You didn’t consider I might be interested in that news?”

“You don’t just casually mention to the guy you’re sleeping with that, hey, you’re going to move to Greece sometime soon.”

Her words punched him in the gut. “So, I’m just the guy you’re sleeping with?”

“Silas.” She released the wheel, hands twisting in her lap. “I’m sorry.”

“Please. Don’t apologize.” He unbuckled his seatbelt. “I guess I knew that, but you know what? It still hurts to hear.”

He caught the slight tremor that shook her lips. He wasn’t sure he could take it if she cried again.

“What did you think this was?” Her mouth tightened. He was grateful she held her tears in check. “I was never going to stay here permanently. You knew that.”

“I don’t know what I thought this was. I do know I care about you. More than I should.” He opened the car door, still hoping she’d make some move to keep him there. When she only dropped her gaze to the steering wheel again, he climbed out of her car and walked away. The sound of the slamming door bounced around the parking lot, ricocheting off the adjacent motel walls and the fence that surrounded the Landing.

TEN

Silas’s quiet bitterness was fresh in Sofia’s mind when her alarm shocked her out of sleep the next morning. She had no memory of leaving her car, no real recollection of coming into her apartment. Even what sleep she’d gotten left no evidence of rest. Her skin was dull, and dark shadows settled below her eyes.

Last night’s fight had made up her mind. It was time to leave. Labor Day was a week away; time to close things up and make as clean a break as possible. Sofia choked down a slice of toast with her coffee. She was going to need energy to face everything she needed to get done in the next seven days. Starting with emptying the apartment.

Not knowing fully what to expect, she opened her parents’ closet again. This time, she eyed the contents with more than a desire for old vinyl. The memory of Silas’s arms and the richness of Dusty Springfield;s voice pushed back at her from the shadows, and she fled to the living room for her mp3 player.

Better armed with an upbeat mix of singer-songwriters, she went to work. When she surveyed the damage a few hours later, she gave herself a grudging round of applause. The box of records was stacked with a box of framed photographs and her father’s personal effects. His clothing was stacked in a laundry basket to be bagged and taken to the local thrift shop.

She broke for lunch in front her of laptop. The first order of business was emailing HR and formally accepting the offer. The second was calling Judy. Judging from the noise in the background, her kids were home, and perhaps holding the household hostage.

“Sorry,” Judy said, pausing to holler at the boys not to wake their sister, “it’s a zoo here today. This is twice I’m talking to you in two days. What’s up?”

“I got the job.”

There was a pause, during which Sofia was certain something was shattered somewhere in Judy’s house. When Judy replied, she sounded impressed. “You are getting better at confiding.”

“Maybe a little.” Sofia braced herself. “I found out three days ago.”

Judy only laughed. “Still, at least you’re telling me before you disappear.”

“I won’t be able to make the shopping trip.” She hoped her friends wouldn’t be too disappointed. “I’m going to have to close the Landing after Labor Day weekend and head back to D.C. I’ve just got too much to do, and I’m expected in Greece at the end of September.”

“So soon?” Judy did sound disappointed, but only for a moment before she muffled the phone and ordered the boys outside to play. “What will you do about the Landing?”

“My real estate agent will keep working on finding a buyer, and didn’t Chris or Dex say something about someone who does property management? Maybe I can hire her to keep an eye on the place.”

“Caroline, yeah,” Judy said. “I’ll text you her number later. So, tell me all about Greece.”

Judy sighed and swooned over Sofia’s description of the Luxelle’s amenities and the volcanic beaches, the more relaxed lifestyle and the high class clientele. “You don’t suppose I could just leave Christopher here with the kids and find myself some sheik to run away with?”

Sofia dissolved into giggles. “I’m sure I can arrange that.”

“If anyone could,” Judy trailed off. “I have to ask, where does this leave you with Silas?”

“Nowhere good,” Sofia admitted. “We had a terrible fight about it last night.”

“Oh, shit. Sorry, hon.” The phone was muffled again. “You want to come over for dinner tonight?”

“No, thanks though,” Sofia said. “I have to work the register tonight, and I’m trying to get some of the apartment stuff dealt with.”

“I want to see you before you leave,” Judy warned.

Sofia smiled. “Of course, and I wasn’t kidding about the honeymoon trip for you and Chris. I’m going to make it work.”

“I never say no to free European vacations,” Judy laughed. “That’s a personal motto.”

Sofia ended the call feeling far better about her future than she had when she’d woken up. Her next call was to Kevin Landry, who assured her that her early departure wouldn’t be a problem. He even offered to call Caroline Barclay, with whom he was already acquainted, about looking out for the Landing once it was closed.

With her business settled, Sofia took a long, hard look at the living room. The furniture was nothing special. There was a pillow and an afghan of her mother’s she would keep, and of course the photographs and her mother’s milk glass. Nothing she couldn’t box up this afternoon.

She couldn’t help but linger over the images her father had placed on the mantelpiece. Elena Costa Buck smiled out from a dozen frames, not much older than Sofia was now. Sofia’s eyes traced the streak of white hair that had been forming at her mother’s temples in one particular close-up. She wondered if, in a few years, she’d be thinking about coloring a similar streak.

Next to the close-up of her mother, a photo of her father pushing her on the old metal swings at the boardwalk playground caught Sofia’s eye. Her hair, more unruly then, was blown around her face by the wind, but her joy shone through the dark brown strands. She smiled at the bruised and scraped knees her ten-year-old self hadn’t able to avoid.

Her mother had taken the picture while her father pushed her. The image captured the precise moment of contact when he was about to send her forward, high-flying and free. That was what she was supposed to have had, her father behind her, sending her soaring out into the world, fearless and loved. Instead she’d fled in defiance. Instead she’d given up her home to escape.

Was she giving up and running away again? Silas would think so. She could still hear the cold anger in his voice. It certainly didn't help that he was right. He was far more than just someone she was sleeping with. For that, she’d had Elliot.

Elliot would probably love that she was moving to Greece. One more stop on his global jaunts.

The phone rang, startling her out of her reverie. Elliot’s name on the caller ID was a shock. She wondered if his ears were ringing. After their unpleasant conversation, she hadn’t expected to hear from him so soon.

“Elliot, how are you?” She took the phone back to her bedroom, leaving the photographs and problematic thoughts behind.

~~~

Silas stormed through the early part of the day. Theo sensed his mood and laid low, working the register with none of his usual smart-ass banter. Silas’s customary ease with shoppers was replaced with stony silence or snarls; the tension in his body held on despite a punishing run in the midday heat. Sofia’s secrets and her defiance of the magic between the two of them weighed heavily, as did the way he’d left her, slamming the car door hard enough to feel it under his feet.

She’d started to slip away, to turn on the one foot she’d kept out the door all summer, and like an idiot he’d pushed her through it. He’d seen the bags in the trash cans under her stairs on the way back from his run, seen her hauling more bags to her car. He was a smart enough man to know she was cleaning out the apartment, easing herself away from her temporary life in Hampton.

To hell with that.

“Theo, I’ll be back,” he barked, and shoved his way out the back door and around the fence.

He kept his steps light on the stairs, not wanting to begin an argument before he even arrived. The door was open, music drifting through the screen. He could see a stack of photos in a cardboard box. Half the mantel was bare, and a bundle of newsprint and packing tape sat on the shelf where Elena Buck’s treasures once lived.

“Sofia?” He knocked gently, but got no answer. He tamped down the urge to barge in and demand to have his apology heard, to demand she admit there was more to them than a casual summer fling.

“Sofia?”

“I am sorry.” Her voice was faint; he assumed she was back in her room. At first, he thought she was speaking to him, but the playlist on her iPod ended and the truth quickly became apparent in the resulting quiet. “Elliot, you have no idea how wonderful that sounds. I’ll be back in Washington in ten days. Let me know when you get back.”

He knew that voice, the softness and intimacy of her tone. He knew when he was interrupting. He descended the stairs as quietly as he’d arrived.

~~~

Sofia’s remaining work days at the Landing took on a new rhythm. She divided her time between her shifts on the course and preparing to leave Hampton, this time truly for good. The apartment was stripped down to the basics she needed to survive. Everything else she’d sent to D.C., care of the DeVarona, until she could arrange for storage and, for some of it, overseas shipping. With the weight of her father’s memory divided and packed away, she could almost pretend her heart was whole, but only as long as she kept her gaze from lingering on the Atlantis Market.

Charlotte and Gavin were now rumored to be dating, though they were only flirtatious at the Snack Bar. Amy's erstwhile boyfriend, Jamie, changed his tune and came around one night to see about taking her out after work. August’s heat was nurturing love affairs everywhere she looked.

The twenty linear feet between her apartment and Silas’s might as well have been the Grand Canyon for all either one of them was willing to cross it.