Summer by the Sea (23 page)

Despite her apprehension, a bolt of excitement shot through Faith at seeing Jake again, overpowering her anger towards Casey. She tried to squelch it. It was silly of her to allow herself to be so eager. The truth was that she hadn’t gotten excited like this in a long time, and it made her happy.

THIRTEEN

They’d spent the whole evening yesterday sorting photos for Nan. Faith had taken one of the albums into her room last night to look through it once more before bed. She’d left it open at the photos of her and Casey, the sun now casting a glare on the plastic pages. In one photo, they were dressed up in their mother’s fancy gowns, wobbling in oversized high heels. In another, they were dangling from the branches of the old maple tree in their back yard, their feet bare, their clothes dirty from playing. It made her think about how much had changed.

Faith thought again about how excited Casey had seemed after seeing Jake. Casey probably wasn’t smitten with Jake like Faith was; she was just truly excited to have found common ground with someone. She loved meeting new people and learning about them. She explained it once: the more people she met who seemed in some way like her, the more normal she felt about her experiences.

Faith, on the other hand, had always surrounded herself with a small but tight group of friends. She preferred to be with those people because they were the ones who knew her best. She felt like she could be honest with them, and their sincere care for her made her feel good. She didn’t connect with strangers like Casey did. She was quiet around them. That was why she’d been so surprised by Jake. He‘d been able to read her, calm her, and bring her out of her comfort zone.

Knowing this fact made her more nervous about seeing him than she should be. It had all hit her pretty hard. She was trying to lessen her fears, not to think the worst. But she worried. She’d go home and never see him again. A long-distance anything would be out of the question, given that she’d only known him for less than a week. She was rational enough to understand all that, but at the same time, she would love to see him again. Then, she thought about this party. Would it be like that restaurant where he’d taken her? Would it make her feel out of place?

Casey came in to borrow Faith’s powder. “What’s this party for?” Faith asked as she fastened her earring. “Who has a party during the day on a Friday?”

Casey shrugged. She didn’t bother to ask, and just dipped right in to Faith’s makeup bag, like she’d done when they were kids. It made Faith smile. “I don’t know. I think it’s pretty big, though. He’s having it catered.”

“Is it at his house?”

“Yeah.” Casey finished powdering her face and dropped the powder back into Faith’s makeup bag. “I can’t wait to see his house,” she said, rooting around for something else.

“Do you not have your own makeup?” Faith laughed.

“I do,” she said, not looking up. “I just like your colors.”

Was Casey trying to look nice for Jake? She took a few breaths to steady herself. She was trying not to have these thoughts, but it was hard, especially when she saw Casey looking so great.

“I’m going to try and enjoy myself.” Casey said.

Casey was right. Faith needed to ease up and just let go. “Me too,” Faith said.

The door opened and their mom poked her head in. “Your nan is waiting. She says her hip’s starting to hurt from sitting so long,” she kidded. Then, her face contorted into a look of concern, and she said, “Should we get Jake a bottle of wine? We shouldn’t show up empty-handed.”

“He’s loaded, Mom,” Casey said, swiping Faith’s mascara. “I think he can buy his own wine. He’s probably got a whole cellar full.”

“That’s not the point,” she said in a motherly voice. Faith turned to look at her as if she were commanding her attention. “We should show our appreciation for being invited, and let him know that we are happy to be there. That’s why we buy the wine. I know he can afford it, and truthfully, ours may be too cheap, but it’s a nice gesture. It would be considerate.”

“I’ll help you pick some out,” Faith said. She remembered the taste of the wine Jake had poured, and how the fruitiness and smoothness of it had contrasted with his masculine attributes. But then again, he could be gentle and sweet.

“Great! Now,” her mom pointed at Casey playfully, “hurry up your primping so we can go. Isabella’s antsy, and your Nan’s driving me crazy.”

Faith pressed a little harder on the adhesive tab of the giant curly ribbon she’d bought at the Quick Mart in town. It didn’t want to stick to the glass wine bottle, and she’d been holding it on the whole ride to Jake’s. She’d chosen a white—it was only table wine but at the top of her price range. She knew it probably wouldn’t matter, but she wanted to try and make the best impression that she could. Her hands were a little nervous, so she was glad to have the task of keeping the bow in place.

“Good heavens!” her mom nearly cried as they pulled up to Jake’s house. “You weren’t kidding, Faith. It’s a mansion.” Her mom’s eyes darted over to the wine, clearly wondering if they’d gotten a sufficient gift. Faith pressed her finger on the bow again. Her mom pulled the car to a stop between a BMW and a Lexus. “Careful when you get out. Don’t ding their doors! Isabella, Nan, stay put. I’ll help you.”

Faith grinned to herself when she spotted Chuck’s old Ford parked under a tree.

They all wriggled their way out carefully and helped Nan and Isabella to do the same. Isabella walked next to Faith. She was wearing a white sundress with a bright purple sash that tied in the back, a purple bow in her hair, and a delicate, gold necklace around her neck. She looked so cute. When she got to the grass that stretched the length of the lawn, she started skipping, her golden hair bouncing with every step.

The house was a far cry from what it had been when Faith had been there with just Jake and his father. The immense yard was littered with bright white tents to keep the sun off, their peaks stretching upward into the sky. The blue sea was calm beyond, its surface glittering in the sun on the other side of all the tents. There must have been over a hundred people there, all holding glasses of wine with little white napkins pressed against the side of their crystal glasses. They were talking to one another, laughing, nodding. From somewhere—she guessed the same outdoor speakers he’d used when it was just them—music was playing softly. Faith steadied her rising nerves by holding onto the bottle of wine, the ribbon pinched between her fingers and the neck of the bottle. Against this backdrop, it seemed out of place.

Faith looked around for Jake, her eyes stopping at the back door to the kitchen off in the distance. Her heart sped up. She remembered the look in his eyes, the way his breathing accelerated, the softness in his features as he looked down at her. Now, seeing that door from so far away, it made her feel like none of it had been real, as if it had all been in her imagination. Funny how time can change perspective. Before she could ponder it any longer, she felt a lift in her hands as Casey took the bottle from them, the ribbon falling to the ground. Martha scooped it up and put it in her pocket. Jake was coming toward them.

“Hi, Jake,” Casey said with that flirty smile of hers as she walked ahead of Faith. She held out the bottle. “We brought this for you. Thank you for having us.”

Faith had to grit her teeth together to keep herself from snapping at Casey.

“Thank you for this.” He peered down at the wine. “And it’s no problem. Happy to have you here. How are you, Sophia?” he patted Nan on the shoulder. “Let me know if you need anything. There are chairs under the tents if you’d like to have a seat. Martha, it’s nice to see you.”

Faith waited to see how he would greet her. She willed him to look her way, hoping she’d see something significant in his face.

He turned to her, and every nerve in her body was on high alert. “Hey,” he said with a grin, and she felt like her heart would beat right out of her chest. His eyes were gentle, like they had been the other night, as if he had something more to say. Instead, he turned back to her family, leaving her breathless.
What in the world is happening?
she thought. Faith had always been a no-nonsense kind of person. She’d never been a dreamer, a romantic. She’d always been the levelheaded one. But, being around him, she was a complete mess. The feeling scared her, and she almost wanted to leave. She wished she’d had more than a few seconds with him, that he hadn’t said more.

Jake said he’d get them all a glass of wine, and they started walking away from him toward the tents. She could feel every step she took away from him in her ears, her heart still drumming in her chest.

“Why did
you
take the wine and give it to him? You weren’t even involved in buying it,” she whispered loudly over the chatter to Casey, feeling a lot like her younger self. It was a petty thing to get irritated by, but it bothered her.

Casey looked at her as if she was crazy, and for a second, she wondered if she was. But her irritation won out. If it had been up to Casey, they wouldn’t have even brought wine, and now she looked like she’d had the idea in the first place.

“Since I was the one he invited, and you weren’t offering it to him yet, I just took it so that we could give it to him in case he got sidetracked by another guest or something. I didn’t want to walk around indefinitely, holding a bottle of wine. And he knew it was from all of us,” she said.

“But I picked it out. I bought it.”

“…As a favor to
all
of us.”

Faith let it go, but she didn’t want to. She looked out at the ocean and tried to calm down. Her anger was coming back as quickly as the waves were rolling in.

They found a table and Faith helped Nan get comfortable. Jake was still inside, and she wanted so badly to talk to him. “I’m going to go to the little girls’ room,” she said with a smile to hide the irritation that she felt. They all nodded, and she headed inside.

It was a long walk across the lawn, and as she got closer, her hands became jittery, her heart beating so fast she felt like she’d just sprinted to the house and back. She took in a big, warm breath of salty air and let it out, focusing on the sound of the tide to calm her. It wasn’t helping. Casey’d gotten her quite upset, and now, mixed with the buzz of excitement at seeing Jake, she was having trouble calming down. What would she say when she got in there? What did she want to ask first? How was she going to ask it? And would she even get a chance to have that kind of time with him today?

As she passed a group of men wearing dress trousers and pressed shirts, she stopped to get herself together, pretending to look at the flowers nearby. The men’s ties flapped in the ocean breeze, and she heard one of them say, “Can you believe Jake’s plans for Corolla? Laughable. What a terrible idea.”

“I’m not sure it would go over well with the current landowners. They like it the way it is. He’ll never get it off the ground. The Board of Supervisors will stop him at every turn,” another one said. She understood this, glad someone had some sense on the matter, but their criticizing Jake made her feel a little uncomfortable at the same time. It was true. They didn’t need any more Tides Wine Bars going up.

As she moved away and the conversation faded, she just caught one last comment.

“They’re outnumbered,” the first man laughed. “Jake owns half of the Outer Banks, it seems. I wonder how many he can wine and dine on the Board.”

Jake owns half of the Outer Banks
… She repeated it in her head. She’d heard it correctly, but she wanted to say it to herself to really understand it. It drove home the fact that he’d made a lot of money doing what he was doing. Although, that still didn’t make it right. She walked past the table where they’d had dinner together. It was filled with glasses of champagne and wine, more napkins, little hors d’oeuvre plates and silver forks, the chairs askew, some filled with people in fine clothes and designer sunglasses. It was so different than the serene, calm place she’d visited just a few nights before. She liked it better then. She grabbed the doorknob and twisted it open.

The kitchen and living area were full of people standing so close together that Faith had to say “excuse me” to make them step aside. The round kitchen table had been transformed by the caterer with white tablecloths, and silver platters, an enormous chocolate fountain in the center with bright, artful arrangements of fruit on either side. Shrimp and clams and other little seafood bites sat on more platters along the bar where she’d watched Jake cook for her.

The chatter of the crowd faded away as she remembered the quiet of that night. She’d loved getting to know him, hearing his stories, finding out more about the man who worked hard all day just because he loved it, the man who could make her feel at home faster than she’d ever imagined possible, the man who could make her stomach flutter with nerves. As she surfaced from her thoughts, she looked around for Jake but couldn’t find him.

“Faith!” Chuck was waving to her as he made his way through the crowd. “Fancy seein’ you here,” he said as he reached her. His gray hair was combed, although it looked like the wind outside had gotten to it. He had on a button-up shirt and a pair of trousers. Given that most of the men were wearing ties, it was still quite a casual outfit, even though she was willing to bet it was quite formal to him.