Spring Break Secret by Holly Rayner
Louisa
After two days filled with adventure, from diving with Jackson to seeking out a secret island full of flamingoes, Tom suggested that they spend the next day of their trip simply relaxing on one of the pristine, white-sand beaches dotting the Florida Keys.
Louisa readily agreed, and Tom found them a spot near enough to a resort that they could order drinks and sip them on beachside lounge chairs, but far enough away that they had enough privacy to enjoy the beach on their own.
As they sipped on icy pineapple drinks served out of coconut shells, the sun rose overhead, and Louisa felt the day growing warmer and warmer.
“Hey,” she said, turning to Tom. He looked like a model, sitting shirtless on a striped beach chair, his stylish sunglasses reflecting the palm trees overhead.
“Hm?” Tom sounded sleepy.
“Want to go swimming?” Louisa asked. “It’s gotten so hot, and the water looks so nice.”
“Sure thing!” Tom set his drink down in the sand and took Louisa’s hand. Together, they raced barefoot down the almost-too-hot sand, splashing into the cool, clear waters of the beach together.
“Are we going to step on a crab or anything?” Tom sounded a bit nervous as they waded farther out into the waves.
“Nah,” Louisa reassured him. He was from Boston, she remembered, and even though he was very comfortable on the sailboat, he wasn’t nearly as familiar with the beach as she was. “Most ocean creatures are fast enough to get out of the way. Nothing around here really wants to hurt you.”
“Ah. Okay.”
“If you want, though,” Louisa said, swimming toward Tom and planting her feet on the soft sand below, “I can carry you.”
She scooped Tom up in her arms, the water making it possible for her to hold his weight.
“Hey!” Tom shouted, startled as his feet left the ground. “I’m not exactly a fainthearted maiden in need of protecting, you know.”
“Ah, well,” Louisa said, “in that case, I’ll let you go.” Instead of gently releasing Tom back into the water, though, she dunked him down, tossing him underwater.
He came up grinning and sputtering, shaking his now-soaked curls out of his eyes. “You rascal!” he said, splashing her. “I’ll get you back for that!”
“You’ll have to catch me first,” Louisa teased, then dipped below the waves and swam away. Tom might be stronger than her, but she was a better swimmer, having spent her whole life in and around the water.
He chased after her, his muscled arms making swift strokes through the water, but Louisa ducked down underwater again, darting past him like a mermaid.
“Not fair!” Tom reached for her, his hands just slipping off her wet skin. “Man, they really don’t call you Squid for nothing.”
“And you’re more like a turtle,” Louisa said, making circles around Tom while remaining at arm’s length.
“Just don’t start calling me Mr. Leatherback,” Tom pleaded.
Louisa laughed. That would make a terrible nickname for Tom. After a few more minutes of their game of chase, Louisa let herself be caught, and Tom grabbed her up in his arms, swinging her around and making her red hair fly out behind her.
“Aren’t you going to dunk me?” Louisa asked, wrapping her legs around Tom’s waist as he held her.
“I think you’ve learned your lesson,” Tom said, his hands on her hips.
Louisa giggled, then leaned down for a kiss. His lips were salty with seawater, but his tongue tasted like pineapple, and they drank each other in, letting the waves rush in and out around them.
As it turned out, the resort where Tom had gotten their drinks from was also hosting a bonfire that night. They decided to stay for a dinner of roasted marshmallows and hot dogs, holding them out on long metal poles until they were just toasted enough to be delicious. Resort staff had laid out a table with buns, relish, and other condiments, and Louisa piled her hot dog high with her favorites—mustard, relish, and cheese.
“I feel like a kid again,” Louisa said to Tom as she slid her second hot dog onto her pole and held it over the fire. “We used to do bonfires and barbecues on the beach all the time back in La Vega.”
“Sounds like fun.” Tom was turning a marshmallow slowly over and over in the fire, waiting for it to get perfectly brown. His patience impressed Louisa—she usually just let her marshmallows burn, then picked off the blackened parts and ate the gooey insides.
“Speaking of,” Louisa said, realizing the time, “I should call my mom and check on Rei. It’s dinnertime, so they should be home.”
“Sure thing,” Tom said, taking her hot dog pole. “I’ll handle this.”
Louisa stepped away from the bonfire, where the noise of the chattering crowd and the crackling fire faded enough for her to make a phone call. She could still see Tom, though, his handsome face glowing in the firelight.
Digging in her bag, Louisa finally found her phone and called the beach bungalow. Her mom answered, sounding a bit tired but happy to hear from her.
“Hey, Squid,” she said. “How’re things out on the boat?”
“We’re not actually on the sailboat tonight,” Louisa told her mom. “We’re at a bonfire.”
“Are you having fun?”
“Yes,” Louisa said, and she really meant it. “I’m having a great time. How are things at home? How is Rei?”
“She’s doing fine,” Louisa’s mom said. “We just finished dinner, and she’s cutting out green seaweed for some craft with the Eco Scouts tomorrow. I guess they’re making posters about something.”
Louisa could hear Rei shouting something in the background, correcting her grandmother.
“Excuse me,” Louisa’s mom said, “they’re not making posters. They’re making dioramas to be used as part of an anti-littering display out on the boardwalk. And she’s not cutting out seaweed; it’s dune grass.”
“Sounds like an important project,” Louisa said, smiling. She knew just how passionate Rei could be. And how much the little girl enjoyed correcting adults when they got anything wrong.
“I’m sure it is,” Louisa’s mom said. “But I’m worried she’ll be up all night with this.”
“Put her on the phone,” Louisa said. Rei often thought she could push her grandparents around, but she knew better than to try and renegotiate bedtime when her mom was concerned.
“Hi, Mom!” Rei sounded bubbly. “Did Grandma tell you about our Eco Scouts project? Ellen says we’ll have space on the boardwalk to show off our dioramas, and we’re making them all about not littering and keeping the beaches clean.”
“That sounds great, sweetheart, but you can’t work on it all night. You still need to go to bed when it’s time, okay?”
“But Mom,” Rei protested. “This is really important!”
“So is getting a good night’s sleep,” Louisa insisted. “You can’t help save the turtles if you’re too tired to do anything.”
“This isn’t about the turtles,” Rei corrected. “My group is focusing on the trash that stays on the sands and gets tangled up in bird’s legs and feet and nests, and hurts their beaks.”
“Of course. Why don’t you tell me more about this project?”
As Rei chattered about the friends she had made at Eco Scouts, and their decision to focus on protecting shorebird habitats, Louisa kept one eye on Tom over at the bonfire. A small child, looking about five or six years old, had dropped his marshmallow in the sand twice now in his attempts to roast it, and was growing upset. His parents seemed wiped out, probably from an entire day of supervising him on the beach, and weren’t doing much to help.
Louisa watched as Tom bent down to talk to the little boy, holding out his own marshmallow and roasting pole, giving some tips. The boy nodded, and Tom helped him secure a new marshmallow, then guided him gently to hold it in the fire with the pole tilted up, keeping the marshmallow from slipping off the stick onto the sand.
Rei finished her explanation, and Louisa told her how cool the project sounded, and how proud she was of her daughter for tackling such an important issue.
Something else, though, was taking shape in her mind. Watching Tom be so generous and attentive with the little boy, cheering him up and teaching him how to roast a marshmallow, made Louisa think that perhaps it might be time to introduce him to Rei. He was clearly good with kids, and he was patient and kind, and very much wanted to have a relationship with his daughter.
“Hey, Rei?” Louisa asked, taking a deep breath. “I have to ask you something, okay?”
“What, Mom?”
“You know how we’ve never really talked about your dad before recently? And how we talked a few days ago about what it might be like to have him around, and any questions you had about him?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I was wondering if you might like to meet him this week.”