Spring Break Secret by Holly Rayner
Louisa
The next morning found Louisa standing in her childhood bedroom, peering at herself in the mirror. She never put much thought into what she wore, especially when she was working at the conservation center or out on a beach restoration. Just something practical and comfortable.
But for some reason, knowing that Tom would be at the beach cleanup today made her feel a bit more thoughtful about her outfit. She had on a long-sleeved purple shirt that gave great UV protection, but didn’t do much to highlight her red hair. Louisa pulled it off, swapping it out for a gauzy white shirt that looked much better with her complexion. Instead of her trademark braid, she opted to keep her hair loose, held back only by the same large floppy sun hat she’d worn the day before.
When she and Tom had met.
Having finally decided what to wear, Louisa headed out to the small beach where the cleanup was happening. Unlike the day before, it was very easy to find parking; tourists didn’t tend to come out this far, especially not for beaches suffering from an abundance of garbage.
There was Ellen, in her green work shirt, directing a straggly bunch of volunteers. Most of them were locals, familiar with the sea turtle conservation center and in attendance at nearly every beach cleanup. But there, too, was Tom, his brown curly hair unmistakable.
“Hey! Good to see you!” Louisa considered giving Tom a hug to welcome him, but she didn’t want to make things awkward. So she settled for a high five, since his arm was already raised to wave her over.
“I’m all ready to help some wildlife,” Tom said, grinning as he held up a giant black trash bag and a metal pole for grabbing things off the ground.
“I’ll show you where to get started.” Louisa, knowing that Ellen trusted her to show the new guy the ropes, grabbed her own bag and pole, then led Tom to a section of the beach littered with plastic cups, discarded food wrappers, and other detritus.
“Ew.” Tom wrinkled his nose, and for a moment Louisa worried that he would be too grossed out by cleaning up trash and decide that the volunteer project wasn’t for him. But the next words out of his mouth clarified that his disgust wasn’t with the work. “I can’t believe people are so willing to treat nature like that.”
“It’s gotten really bad in the last five years or so,” Louisa said, starting to pick up trash and move down the beach. “La Vega became a luxury destination, and sometimes when people visit, they aren’t so interested in keeping it nice for everyone else.”
“Doesn’t that make you mad? I mean, this is your home.”
Louisa sighed. “Ellen always tells me to focus on the good we’re doing, and not on getting upset about the damage that other people do. She says I’ll get burned out on conservation work. I guess she’s seen a lot of friends get bitter and angry. But…even though I try to stay positive, it’s hard to see stuff like this.”
“Well,” Tom said forcefully as he stabbed a large piece of plastic that looked like it came from a broken chair, “let’s make sure you don’t have to see it anymore. Here, at least.”
They worked in tandem for a while, going quiet as they focused on clearing their area. As the sun rose higher and the morning grew warmer, the work pace slowed down, and they started to chat once more.
“So you used to do this when you were a kid?”
“Yep. My mom and dad would take me, almost every weekend. We’d go with Ellen and some other folks from the conservation center.”
“Did you like it? Or was it something your parents made you do?”
The question surprised Louisa a bit. Of course she liked it. She couldn’t remember a time in her life when she hadn’t been passionate about the La Vega beaches and their wildlife. “It was my idea—they used to leave me with a babysitter, but I’d beg and beg to be brought along, so as soon as I was old enough, I was a beach cleanup volunteer.”
Louisa smiled, remembering those days, drinking lukewarm lemonade and collecting shorebird feathers as she ran around with the other volunteers. “At first I was too little to use one of the poles, so they had me wear gloves and just collect soda cans. My dad would take me to get them recycled, and we’d donate the profits to the conservation center. I remember one day I made almost a whole dollar—I was so excited.”
Tom smiled. “That sounds really fun.”
Louisa watched as Tom snatched up a piece of broken Styrofoam and put it in his garbage bag. “What kinds of activities did you do with your dad when you were a kid?” she asked.
“Hm.” Tom looked like he was thinking for a moment. “Mostly he’d bring me to work with him, once I got old enough. He really wants me to take over the family business, so he would show me around and give me little jobs to do. Nothing as fun as hanging out on a beach.”
Louisa tried to imagine herself as a little kid spending time in an office rather than outside helping her parents and their friends with beach cleanups. If she was honest, it didn’t sound like very much fun. “Did you like it?”
Tom shrugged. “It was important to my dad. He’s always been really focused on me learning how to run a company and things like that.”
“Is that what you’re studying in college?” Louisa asked. “Business?”
“Yes. I was going to go into veterinary science because of how much I love animals, but my dad is the one paying for my tuition, and he said I should study economics and management, things like that. So my major is in business, but I think next year I might get to take a class on zoos and aquariums.”
“Oh, that’s awesome!” Louisa loved visiting the big aquarium a few towns over. She often dreamed of working there someday, after she got her degree in marine biology. “That sounds really fun.”
“I guess. It’s more about how to run them and make sure they’re profitable, bring in enough ticket sales and big donors, that sort of thing. But we might get to visit a zoo and meet with its board members, which would be cool.”
It had never really occurred to Louisa that zoos and aquariums needed to be run like businesses. She was glad that someone like Tom, with his big heart and passion for animals, might end up in a position to lead a zoo or wildlife park someday.
When they took a snack break, unwrapping the granola bars Ellen had brought and distributed to the volunteers, Louisa led Tom over to a quiet spot on the beach. Here, the soft sand gave way to huge boulders that had been smoothed down by the tides.
“Check this out,” she said, pointing at a large divot in one of the boulders that was deep enough to hold water. “It’s like a permanent tide pool. There’s almost always some kind of sea creature in there.”
Tom bent over and peered into the little pool, his eyes going wide. “Whoa—there’s a tiny crab!”
Louisa reached in and gently lifted up the small crab. It was a dark purple color, mottled over a pale golden underbelly. It looked up at the two humans with beady black eyes. “This is a baby stone crab,” she said, letting it crawl over her hand. “Some people eat them, but I think they’re too cute. Do you want to hold it?”
“Sure.” Tom reached out and Louisa nudged the crab over, watching as it skittered onto Tom’s palm. As he held his hand next to hers, she noticed how warm his skin was, how strong and steady his arm was as he took the crab.
“It feels so weird!” Tom laughed as the crab’s spindly little legs made their way over his hand. “Will it pinch me?”
“No, they’re usually pretty peaceful. As long as we don’t annoy it, we’ll be fine.”
Tom held the crab up close to his face, gazing at it intently. He seemed fascinated by its movements. “It’s incredible.”
“Yeah, they’re pretty neat.” Louisa took the crab back, once again letting her hand linger against Tom’s. “But we should put it back now. They spend most of the time in the water.”
Back in the tide pool, the crab swam quickly to a little outcropping of rock, where it hid in the shadows and covered its face with its claws.
Louisa and Tom sat together on the rock, watching the anemones in the tide pool wave their fronds and occasionally tossing bits of their granola down to the crab. As they talked, it was clear to Louisa that they were from very different worlds—her, a girl from a small beach town and him from the wealthy business elites of a big city—but none of that seemed to matter. When they were together, it was like the rest of the world faded away completely.