“Bossy man,” I whispered.
Then I took off the one-piece, pulled the bikini from my suitcase, and put it on.
My hands trembled a little as I tied it.
By the time I reached the sand, the family was already settled beneath two umbrellas. Daniel was reading something on his phone. Megan was rubbing sunscreen onto Tyler’s neck while he complained as if she were torturing him. Ava and Chloe were taking pictures of their drinks before anyone had even tasted them.
All four grandchildren looked up when they saw me.
I felt their eyes move over me. My stomach. My legs. My face.
For one second, I wanted to turn around so badly that my feet actually stopped.
But I kept walking.
Every step felt like a decision.
The sun was sharp and bright. The air smelled of salt, coconut oil, and warm sand. Children were shouting happily near the waves. A teenage boy tossed a football with his father. A little girl in pink floaties stomped past me like she owned the entire ocean.
No one gasped.
No one fainted.
The world continued exactly as it had before.
I spread out my towel, removed my cover-up, folded it neatly, and placed it beside my bag.
That was when I noticed a man a few yards away looking in my direction.
He looked to be in his sixties, lean and tan, with gray hair and a face shaped by sun and time. He said something to the woman beside him, and she turned to look at me too.
My stomach dropped.
There it is, I thought.
Ava noticed too. I heard her whisper to Chloe, “I told you.”
Then the man stood.
To my horror, he started walking straight toward us.
Heat climbed up my neck. My first ridiculous thought was that maybe my bikini top had come loose. My second was that he was going to offer some kind of polite but humiliating comment, the way strangers sometimes do when they think they are being encouraging.
He stopped in front of me, glanced at my grandchildren, then looked back at me.
For a second, I thought I might cry.
Instead, he smiled.
“Nora?” he asked.
I stared at him. “Yes?”
His expression softened, like he already knew he had found the right person.
“I can’t believe it,” he said. “I told my wife I thought it was you, but I wasn’t sure. It’s been… my goodness, more than forty years.”
I blinked. “I’m sorry. Have we met?”
He laughed gently. “You probably wouldn’t remember me. My name is Richard. I went to Westview High. I was three grades behind your brother Paul.”
The name sparked something faint in my memory, but not enough to place him. He seemed to understand. Then he looked at my grandchildren again.
“I only wanted to say hello,” he said. “And, if you don’t mind, I’d like to tell these kids something.”
No one answered.
Richard rested his hands on his hips and looked toward the water for a moment before continuing.
For Complete Cooking STEPS Please Head On Over To Next Page Or Open button (>) and don’t forget to SHARE with your Facebook friends.
