Lost and Found Family by Jennifer Ryan

Sarah pulled the large tote bag up to her shoulder and took both boys’ hands in the parking lot just off the Carmel public beach. Margaret carried the chairs and Bridget pulled the rolling cooler.

Margaret and Bridget went ahead. The boys moved slowly over the sand, but they made it to the spot Bridget chose just as she spread out a blanket.

Sarah pulled out the bucket and tools she’d brought and handed them to Jack. “Pick a spot close by to make sand castles.”

Jack and Nick moved a few feet away, plopped down in the wet sand, and started playing.

“There’s Sophia,” Bridget announced. “Why is he walking her all the way here?” She wasn’t enthusiastic about seeing her ex.

While Bridget came to the house to drive with her and Margaret, Sophia had spent the night at her dad’s place because it was his weekend to have her. Rob agreed to drop her back with Bridget to spend a few hours with all of them today.

Sophia ran over, dropped her towel on the blanket, and said, “Hi, Grandma. Hi, Aunt Sarah,” then ran to play with the boys.

Sarah turned and watched Bridget with Rob.

“You’re late.” Bridget held her hand out for Sophia’s bag.

Rob handed it over, checked his watch, then stuffed his hands in his shorts pockets. “By three minutes. Parking on a Saturday at the beach . . . not easy. And this is supposed to be my day.”

“I’m sure Little Miss Tight-ass-no-brains will keep you company.”

“And I’ll enjoy every minute of it because she won’t be spewing this kind of BS at me.” Rob walked away from Bridget toward Sarah. “Sophia told me you were here.” Rob wrapped her in a quick hug. “It’s so good to see you.”

Finally, someone was happy to see her. She and Rob had always gotten along. “It’s good to see you, too. Thanks for bringing Sophia. The boys loved playing with her when she visited their grandma.”

Rob smiled and nodded at Margaret. “Good to see you.”

Margaret nodded her hello, but didn’t say anything because Bridget seethed beside her with her arms crossed over her chest.

Rob lowered his voice. “Looks like Bridget forgot to bring a chair for you.” Rob shook his head. “If it helps, I get even worse treatment.”

“I’m fine on the blanket,” she whispered back.

“It’s a slice here and there and before you know it, you’re bleeding to death. And she wonders why our marriage fell apart.”

“I heard you’re seeing someone new.”

“It’s nice to be with someone who sees me.” Rob’s gaze got lost out at sea.

Sarah understood all too well. In the end, Sean only looked at her as a means to an end. Not a real person. Not someone he used to love. If he even ever did.

“How’s the construction business?” she asked so Bridget could hear and stop staring daggers at them for whispering together.

“Great. I just got a huge contract to take over the new Oak Park custom home development.”

Bridget sat forward in her chair. “You said you didn’t get the project.” She got a suspicious look in her eyes. “Or maybe you just held off taking it until the divorce was final because you didn’t want that kind of big payday included in our settlement.”

Rob rolled his eyes. “Another construction company got the contract when I initially bid on it, but they had some issues come up and lost the deal, so the developer recently gave it to me. But please, make this into something it isn’t. I’ve missed that so much.” Sarcasm dripped from his lips.

Bridget fell back in her seat. “I haven’t missed the way you lie so easily.”

Rob shook his head and stared up at the sky.

Sarah didn’t want to take a side, so she just went with being nice. “Congratulations on the contract.”

“Thanks.”

Jack ran up to them. “Can we go horseback riding at Luke’s when we get home? Sophia wants to come.”

Sarah sighed. “Honey, I told you Luke has to invite us. We can’t just show up at his place. And Sophia’s daddy is picking her up in a couple hours to take her home with him.” Not that she wanted to play another round of contradiction, with Luke being nice only so he could compare what he saw right in front of him with whatever he dug up next. “Can you say hi to Uncle Rob, please?”

“Hi Uncle Rob.”

Rob smiled. “Hey buddy. I heard you’ve been hanging out with Luke.” He turned his gaze on her. “Lucky guy.”

She blushed, despite the fact she and Luke weren’t a thing. Though for a moment she’d thought . . . But it wasn’t. She hadn’t seen or heard from him after the scene in the stables.

Like all her other interactions with him, he left her wondering where she stood. He didn’t hide his attraction to her. He’d kissed her. But then he questioned things that had nothing to do with who she was now. Did he really want to use her past against her? Or did he see that what happened to her as a child and her marriage to Sean made her who she was today?

And what did his investigator tell him about Sean’s accident?

Did he know the truth?

If he did, he hadn’t shared it with Margaret.

Which made her wonder if he’d dropped the whole thing or if he was just biding his time to use it against her if she refused to let Margaret see the kids in the future.

She hated not knowing what he really wanted from her.

Bridget called out, “She hasn’t been back to Luke’s place and he hasn’t been to Mom’s in days.”

Margaret must be keeping Bridget up to date on everything Sarah related. Great.

Bridget sneered. “He saw her for exactly who she is. Too bad Sean didn’t sooner or he’d still be alive.”

Jack stared at his aunt, dead quiet and still.

Sarah wondered if Bridget was right.

Rob stepped in front of Jack and stared down Bridget. “You never know when to keep quiet. Not in front of Sophia or Sean’s sons. You used to be nice. Now you don’t seem to care about anything or anyone’s feelings.”

Bridget looked angry and remorseful all at once.

Sarah touched Jack’s back. “Go play with Sophia and your brother.”

Jack ran back to them.

Rob turned to her. “I’m sorry her anger with me has spilled over onto you.”

“She doesn’t like me either.”

“It’s no excuse to say something like that in front of Jack. Or at all,” he called over his shoulder, knowing Bridget hung on their every word. Rob lowered his voice. “If it wouldn’t cause another fight, and Sophia wasn’t so excited about spending a couple hours at the beach with the boys, I’d just take her back with me.”

“I’ll keep an eye on her.”

Rob nodded. “Thanks. Ask me, Luke’s a fool. I never believed even half of what Sean told Bridget.”

She touched his arm. “Thanks.”

“Isn’t your girlfriend waiting for you?” Bridget called out.

Sarah removed her hand, angry that she couldn’t even get away with a simple gesture of gratitude without Bridget thinking it meant more.

Rob turned and called back, “I’ll be back at three to pick her up.” He turned and started backing up from Sarah. “You agreed to six weeks of this.” He shook his head, gave her a “you’re crazy” look, then turned and walked off.

Sarah sighed. Then she pulled her shirt over her head, grabbed the sunscreen she’d sprayed all over the boys before they left the house, and applied a generous amount on her arms, chest, belly, legs, and her back the best she could.

“You’re so pale, you’re going to fry out here.” Margaret awkwardly scooted out of her low chair and stood.

Bridget brooded and didn’t even attempt to help her struggling mother up.

Sarah would have tried, but Margaret usually snapped at her for trying to help.

Margaret held her hand out for the can of sunscreen.

Sarah gave it to her.

Margaret surprised her by moving around her, pulling her ponytail off her back, and spraying her down thoroughly. She handed the can back.

“Thank you.”

Margaret acknowledged that with a tilt of her head, then struggled to sit in her chair again, mostly falling into it.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m old.” Margaret tried and failed to hide a wince of pain and went back to watching the kids.

Sarah sat on the edge of the blanket, kicked off her flip-flops, and sank her toes in the sand. She pulled her phone out of her cutoff jeans shorts back pocket and tapped the screen, sighing when she saw 123 new emails from yesterday to today.

“More work?” Margaret asked, an edge to her voice.

“Just a few emails,” she said, hoping to not have another argument about how she didn’t pay enough attention to the boys.

“Mom! Can we go in the water?” Jack called, all three kids standing and waiting to splash in the waves.

Sarah stuffed her phone in her tote bag and got up. “Wait for me.” Before she joined the boys, she turned to Bridget. “Do you mind if Sophia goes in the water?”

“I mind that she’ll be staring at you in that skimpy bikini top.”

Jealous much?

Sarah’s suit wasn’t any more revealing than those of any of the other women sunbathing on the beach.

Bridget wore a simple one-piece tank-style suit. She looked cute in it, but obviously didn’t feel that way and kept a sarong tied around her hips and covering her thighs to her knees.

“But she can swim, right?”

Bridget waved her away. “Yes. Go strut your stuff.”

Sarah rolled her eyes. She didn’t strut anywhere. But she did join the kids down the beach where the waves crested on the sand. She took Nick’s hand and walked with him farther into the surf. He was too little to keep his balance in the rolling waves. Jack did better, but Sophia had to help him every once in a while. But the kids had a blast and Sarah found herself laughing and kicking and playing in the sand and surf with the kids and really enjoying herself like she hadn’t done in a long time.

She needed more of this.

She definitely needed more sleep.

But instead of doing that the last few days, she found herself leaving her laptop in the boys’ room with the camera on so she could keep an eye on them on her phone while they slept, and she snuck out of the house in the dead of night. She didn’t think Margaret would hear them from downstairs if they awoke for some reason. She walked in the fresh air and under the stars so she could wind down and finally sleep after work. Inevitably, she found her way to Luke’s place and the horses that drew her there as much as thinking about him did.

She didn’t know what it was about him that had her turning over their every interaction to figure out what she’d said or done to make him react the way he did around her. Or what she should have said or done to make him like her.

She thought they’d gotten to a better place, but then he’d received that call and she got scared that he’d dig up things better left buried.

“Watch out,” Sophia called, racing with Jack toward her as a big wave followed them in.

She picked up Nick just in time to save him from toppling over and spun him around as the water rose up to her thighs.

Jack and Sophia made it up the beach and out of the worst of it.

Sophia ran back to her as the water receded. “Nice save.”

“Thanks.” She smiled and laughed with Nick as he splashed her legs.

“You’re really pretty,” Sophia blurted out.

“Thank you, sweetheart. So are you.”

“I hate this suit.” The princess on the front was a bit juvenile for a ten-year-old. “Mom won’t let me get a two-piece. Not even one of the tank ones.”

“Yours seems to be getting tight on you. Next time your mom takes you shopping for one, if you can’t get what you want, look for a one-piece that is a solid color or a pattern. It will make you look your age. More sophisticated,” she added, earning a huge smile from Sophia.

“Thanks. Good to know.”

She was happy to help, but no way was she going to tell Bridget how to parent her child. Or suggest an appropriate two-piece wasn’t the end of the world to make Sophia feel like the young lady she was blossoming into.

“You’re way cooler than my mom.”

“Only because she’s your mom. Mom’s aren’t cool to their kids.”

“I think you’re cool,” Nick said, holding on to her leg as another wave washed in.

“Thank you, buddy.”

He smiled real big and hugged her close. “I’m glad you came and played instead of working.”

She bent and kissed him on the head. “Me, too, bud.”

“How come your dad didn’t stay?” Jack asked Sophia.

“My mom wouldn’t let him,” she said plainly. She looked up at Sarah. “They hate each other now.”

“I hope not.” She meant it. “They’re both hurt. I hope they find their way back to being friends.”

Sophia kicked at the wave that rolled in. “I don’t think that’s possible.”

Sarah hugged Sophia to her side. “Anything is possible if you try. Always remember that, sweetheart.”

“Will you try to get Luke to ask us to come over again?” Jack’s mind got stuck on one thing sometimes.

“If I talk to Luke again, yes, I’ll ask if you guys can go over and ride the horses. But I don’t know if I’ll see him again.” She hoped she would, but she couldn’t promise her boys anything because Luke’s silence and absence spoke volumes.

“Let’s have lunch,” Margaret called out to them.

The kids ran to get something to eat. Sarah took a minute and turned to the ocean. She let the breeze blow over her and took in the beautiful view, but all she saw in her mind’s eye was a gorgeous man who was always pulling her close and pushing her away at the same time and she got nowhere with him.

She didn’t expect to ever hear from him again.

He obviously wasn’t missing her the way she missed him when she allowed herself to think about him.

So she did what she’d been doing for days, wiped that image of him out of her head, and went back to her boys and the 120-plus emails waiting for her. Because he wasn’t.