Spring Break Secret by Holly Rayner
Louisa
Louisa hadn’t heard from Tom for a few days, but she knew she’d see him at the beach that day, since it was the date they’d arranged for him to meet Rei for the first time.
Rei was in her messy bedroom, picking through her massive collection of marine-life-themed T-shirts.
“Honey, why don’t you just choose one?” Louisa leaned on the doorway, crossing her arms as she took in the scene. It looked, as usual, like a tornado had hit Rei’s room. Every time she complained about it, though, her mother was careful to remind her that she had a very untidy room at that age, and so she left Rei mostly alone about it.
“How about this one?” Rei held up a shirt that Louisa knew was one of her favorites, a neon blue and pink tie-dye shirt with dolphins embroidered on the front in silver thread.
“Perfect,” Louisa said.
“Do you think he’ll like it? Does he like dolphins? What is his favorite sea mammal?” Rei had been full of questions ever since Louisa told her that her dad was back in the picture and that she would have a chance to meet him.
“I’m sure he’ll love any shirt that you wear,” Louisa said, “but you’ll have to ask him what his favorite sea mammal is, because I don’t know.”
“You don’t know!?” Rei sounded incredulous. “What did you even talk about on your boat trip?”
Louisa laughed. Sometimes she really missed being Rei’s age, when it was absolutely critical to know everyone’s favorite sea mammal.
Still fielding questions from Rei, most of which Louisa did not have answers to, they walked over to the boardwalk. Rei spent the entire time chattering about how excited she was to meet her dad, and wondering aloud which of her Eco Scouts projects she should tell him about first. Louisa listened patiently, genuinely curious about what Tom would claim to be his favorite sea mammal.
But as they approached the boardwalk and beyond it, the stretch of beach that Rei enjoyed most in all of La Vega, Louisa felt a buzz in her pocket.
Taking it out, her heart sank when she saw that it was a text from Tom. He was apologetic, and promised to explain later, but said that something had come up, and he wouldn’t be able to make it.
Louisa blinked back tears, frustrated and angry. Apparently, even though he talked a big game about wanting to be in Rei’s life and tend to his newfound connection with Louisa, he was still a businessman through and through. Whatever had come up as part of his CEO duties must be more important than meeting his daughter, and Louisa knew she could draw plenty of conclusions about Tom based on that.
“I’m really sorry, sweetie, but your dad can’t make it today,” she had to explain to Rei, putting on a brave face.
“What’s wrong?” Rei’s blue eyes, the spitting image of Tom’s, started to glisten with tears. “Is he okay? What happened?”
“He is okay. Everything is okay,” Louisa said, pulling her daughter into a tight hug. “It’s not your fault, and he really does want to meet you, but sometimes things happen and we can’t control them.”
“I wanted him to see my dolphin shirt.” Rei sniffled. “Now I won’t get to know what his favorite sea mammal is.”
Louisa held her daughter, stroking her hair and doing her best to comfort her. She understood, though—she felt just as crushed as Rei was at Tom’s sudden cancellation.
Louisa asked if Rei wanted to stay and play on the beach for a while, and they tried to build a sandcastle, but it was clear Rei’s heart just wasn’t in it. So they went back to the beach bungalow, stopping on the way for boardwalk ice cream in an attempt to cheer themselves up, and Louisa spent the rest of the afternoon folding Rei’s laundry and putting back all the T-shirts she had taken out while trying to choose what to wear that morning.
Louisa didn’t sleep well that night. She missed the gentle rocking of the sailboat, and she was devastated about Tom. Maybe Ellen had been right, after all, and he was just trying to waste her time while keeping an eye on his bottom line.
She let Rei sleep in the next morning, knowing the little girl probably needed some extra rest after the difficult day they’d had the day before. Louisa was downstairs, making coffee, when her dad turned on the local news.
“Squiddo,” he called, “come in here! They’re talking about that Palmco development, the one you and Ellen have been trying to stop.”
The last thing Louisa wanted to think about was the Palmco development. But she still had a job to do, and it involved staying informed about the ongoing issues, so she joined her father on the faded living room sofa.
“In a startling turnaround,” the news anchor was saying, “the massive land reclamation planned by Palmco Development, and the source of much local controversy, has been permanently halted.”
“What?” Louisa leaned forward, forgetting all about her coffee, hardly believing what she was hearing.
“Concerns are swirling about the loss of revenue and the effect this will have on the real estate company, but CEO Tom Palmer could not be reached for comment.”
On the coffee table, Louisa’s phone started buzzing. She picked it up and saw dozens of incoming messages from her friends, colleagues, and fellow environmental activists. Everyone was thrilled, but also stunned and confused. What had happened? Was it really over?
Louisa scrolled through, not sure what to say to everyone. She didn’t have any more information than they did, even though she had been at the forefront of the efforts to kill the project.
Then, a few minutes after the initial flurry of activity, one more message appeared at the top of Louisa’s phone. It was from Tom, and it was short and simple. “Need to talk. Can we meet?”