Nicholas Sparks - Safe Haven

The food was delicious, a welcome change from her recent austere diet. The sky remained clear, the blue expanse broken only by an occasional seabird passing overhead. The breeze rose and fell, enough to keep them cool, and the steady rhythm of the waves added to the sense of calm.

When they finished eating, Josh and Kristen helped clear the table and pack away the uneaten items. A few items that wouldn’t spoil — the pickles and the chips — were left on the table. The kids wanted to go boogie boarding, and after Alex reapplied their suntan lotion, he slipped off his shirt and followed them into the waves.

Katie carried her chair to the water’s edge and spent the next hour watching as he helped the kids through the breakers, moving one and then the other into position to catch the waves. The kids were squealing with delight, obviously having the time of their lives. She marveled at the way Alex was able to make each of them feel like the center of attention. There was a tenderness in the way he treated them, a depth of patience that she hadn’t quite expected. As the afternoon wore on and the clouds began to drift in, she found herself smiling at the thought that for the first time in many years, she felt completely relaxed. And not only that, she knew she was having as much fun as the kids.

After they got out of the water, Kristen declared that she was cold and Alex led her to the bathroom to help her change into dry clothes. Katie stayed with Josh on the blanket, admiring the way the sunlight rippled on the water while Josh scooped sand into little piles.

“Hey, do you want to help me fly my kite?” Josh suddenly asked.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever flown a kite before…”

“It’s easy,” he insisted, digging around in the pile of toys Alex had brought and pulling out a small kite. “I can show you how. C’mon.”

He took off running down the beach, and Katie jogged a few steps before settling back into a brisk walk. By the time she reached him, he was already beginning to unwind the string and he handed her the kite. “Just hold this above your head, okay?”

She nodded as Josh started to back up slowly, continuing to loosen the string with practiced ease.

“Are you ready?” he shouted as he finally came to a stop. “When I take off running and yell, just let go!”

“I’m ready!” she shouted back.

Josh started running, and when Katie felt the tension in the kite and heard him shout, she released it immediately. She wasn’t sure the breeze was strong enough, but the kite shot straight to the sky within seconds. Josh stopped and turned around. As she walked toward him, he let out even more line.

Reaching his side, she shielded her eyes from the sun as she watched the slowly rising kite. Black and yellow, the distinctive Batman logo was visible even from a distance.

“I’m pretty good at flying kites,” he said, staring up at it. “How come you’ve never flown one?”

“I don’t know. It just wasn’t something I did as a kid.”

“You should have. It’s fun.”

Josh continued to stare upward, his face a mask of concentration. For the first time, Katie noticed how much Josh and Kristen looked alike.

“How do you like school? You’re in kindergarten, right?”

“It’s okay. I like recess best. We have races and stuff.”

Of course, she thought. Since they had arrived at the beach, he’d barely stopped moving. “Is your teacher nice?”

“She’s really nice. She’s kind of like my dad. She doesn’t yell or anything.”

“Your dad doesn’t yell?”

“No,” he said with great conviction.

“What does he do when he gets mad?”

“He doesn’t get mad.”

Katie studied Josh, wondering if he was serious before realizing that he was.

“Do you have a lot of friends?” he asked.

“Not too many. Why?”

“Because my dad says that you’re his friend. That’s why he brought you to the beach.”

“When did he say that?”

“When we were in the waves.”

“What else did he say?”

“He asked us if it bothered us that you came.”

“Does it?”

“Why should it?” He shrugged. “Everybody needs friends, and the beach is fun.”

No argument there. “You’re right,” she said.

“My mom used to come with us out here, you know.”

“She did?”

“Yeah, but she died.”

“I know. And I’m sorry. That must be hard. You must miss her very much.”

He nodded and for an instant, he looked both older and younger than his age. “My dad gets sad sometimes. He doesn’t think I know, but I can tell.”

“I’d be sad, too.”

He was quiet as he thought about her answer. “Thanks for helping me with my kite,” he said.

“You two seemed to be having a good time,” Alex observed.

After Kristen had changed, Alex helped her get her kite in the air and then went to stand with Katie on the compact sand near the water’s edge. Katie could feel her hair moving slightly in the breeze.

“He’s sweet. And more talkative than I thought he’d be.”

As Alex watched his kids managing their kites, she had the sense that his eyes missed nothing.

“So this is what you do on weekends after you leave the store. You spend time with the kids?”

“Always,” he said. “I think it’s important.”

“Even though it sounds like your parents felt differently?”

He hesitated. “That would be the easy answer, right? I felt slighted somehow and made a promise to myself to be different? It sounds good, but I don’t know if it’s totally accurate. The truth is that I spend time with them because I enjoy it. I enjoy them. I like watching them grow up and I want to be part of that.”

As he answered, Katie found herself remembering her own childhood, trying and failing to imagine either of her parents echoing Alex’s sentiments.

“Why did you join the army after you got out of school?”

“At the time, I thought it was the right thing to do. I was up for a new challenge, I wanted to try something different, and joining gave me an excuse to leave Washington. With the exception of a couple of swim meets here and there, I’d never even left the state.”

“Did you ever see…?”

When she trailed off, he finished her sentence. “Combat? No, I wasn’t that kind of army. I was a criminal justice major in college and I ended up in CID.”

“What’s that?”

When he told her, she turned toward him. “Like the police?”

He nodded. “I was a detective,” he said.

Katie said nothing. Instead, she turned away abruptly, her face closing down like a gate slamming shut.

“Did I say something wrong?” he asked.

She shook her head without answering. Alex stared at her, wondering what was going on. His suspicions about her past surfaced almost immediately.

“What’s going on, Katie?”

“Nothing,” she insisted, but as soon as the word came out, he knew she wasn’t telling the truth. In another place and time, he would have followed up with another question, but instead, he let it drop.

“We don’t have to talk about it,” he said quietly. “And besides, it’s not who I am anymore. Believe me when I say I’m a lot happier running a general store.”

She nodded, but he sensed a trace of lingering anxiety. He could tell she needed space, even if he wasn’t sure why. He motioned over his shoulder with his thumb. “Listen, I forgot to add more briquettes to the grill. If the kids don’t get their s’mores, I’ll never hear the end of it. I’ll be right back, okay?”

“Sure,” she answered, feigning nonchalance. When he jogged off, Katie exhaled, feeling like she’d somehow escaped. He used to be a police officer , she thought to herself, and she tried to tell herself that it didn’t matter. Even so, it took almost a minute of steady breathing before she felt somewhat in control again. Kristen and Josh were in the same places, though Kristen had bent over to examine another seashell, ignoring her soaring kite.