Shelley Galloway - The Good Mother

But when her monthly had come and with it the knowledge that no baby was on the way, the damage to their relationship had been done. Summer ended, college had come calling, and though they’d promised to stay friends, their letters and phone calls to each other became a thing of the past.

Evie had gone to Texas A&M, August to Florida State. Then she’d met John, had thought she’d found her future, and before she knew it, those summers down at Bishop’s Gate at the Silver Shells Beach Resort were a distant memory.

Until her dad called on Memorial Day and said she should pack up the girls and join them for a month of fun in the sun. Evie found she couldn’t say no. Life had become too hard and too stressful, the memories of happier times too vivid to ignore.

With a clunk, Missy’s cell phone dropped to the floor of the backseat as she fell asleep. A quick glance in the rearview assured Evie that Jenna had done the same. Seeing that she only had fifteen miles to go, Evie dialed her mother.

“I’m on I-85, on the edge of town, Mom.”

“Good! Your dad and I just got back from the store and are putting groceries away. Dad got you two six-packs of Coors Light.”

Evie couldn’t help but smile. Their relationship had truly come full circle. Back when she’d been a teen, she clearly recalled the night she and August had each sneaked a bottle of beer and drank them on the beach, the warm water swirling around their toes as they perched on rocks and pretended they’d never get caught.

Now her parents were buying Evie her own supply. “I’ll be ready for a cold one.”

“Your dad’s gonna fire up the grill. You hungry?”

“I am,” she said with some surprise. It had been a while since food sounded good.

“We can’t wait to see the girls. Dad and I just put fresh sheets on Jenna’s bed and put the crib together. You won’t have to worry about a thing.”

Evie could feel her shoulders relaxing. “Thanks, Mom.” Evie already pictured herself in an old pair of sweats, sipping a Coors and watching the sunset, while her mother held Missy and her dad chatted with Jenna about anything and everything. She might even have ten whole minutes to sit and do nothing. Ten minutes to—

“We’re going to have so much fun together, especially since the Meyers are coming over tonight.”

Hold on, now. “The Meyers?”

“Yep, your dad’s going out to play golf with August tomorrow morning.”

“Why are they coming over tonight?”

“Because we asked them to. Goodness, Evie, it’s been a full three years since you’ve been here. Bev said all I do is talk about Missy. She wants to see that baby.”

Three years. When she and Jenna had last gone down to visit, John had been away on business, and August had been on vacation.

“Evie, is that all right?”

“Of course, Momma,” she answered in a rush. “I’m sorry, I’m just tired.” And nostalgic. Gosh, seeing August again! She wasn’t sure how she felt about that.

“August and Tanya are doing pretty good managing that resort. You’ll have to ask them all about Silver Shores.”

“I will.”

“And August finally broke up with Erin, thank goodness.”

Evie turned off Harry Potter and listened to her mother a little more closely. “Erin?”

“She’s a local girl. I guess Erin and August knew each other back in high school. I have to tell you, Beverly and I knew from the beginning that that match wasn’t meant to be.”

“How long did they date?”

“Off and on a couple of years, I guess.”

“I never heard about that.”

Her mother paused. “Well, you were busy with John, then busy with other things.”

Other things. Code for getting a divorce and trying to pick up her life. “Oh,” Evie said, though that word pretty much summed up nothing.

“You’re going to love catching up with August and his family, I’m sure of it,” her mom said brightly. “We’ll talk more when you arrive, honey. Bye!”

Stunned, Evie clicked off and pondered that one as she exited the highway, drove on the bypass, then finally took the turnoff to Silver Shells, a cottage and resort community that had been nestled in Bishop’s Gate for well on twenty years.

After another series of right and left turns, she pulled into the driveway just as Jenna was waking up.

Evie had just opened her car door when her dad came trotting out.

“Hey, honey,” he said, enveloping her in a hug. “Glad you made it okay.”

“Me, too,” she said as her dad opened the van’s side panel and smiled broadly at Jenna.

“JJ!”

“Grandpa!”

Evie stood to one side as she watched her dad scoop up her eldest and shuttle her on inside, Jenna squealing in delight when he pretended to almost drop her.

As the front screen door slammed, a huge sense of relief filled Evie as she climbed in the backseat and crouched in front of Missy, whose head was listed to one side. Just looking at the sleeping twenty-two-month-old made her smile, and think every day was so worth it, even when things seemed completely insurmountable.

As she unfastened the front buckle and carefully lifted the top out from around Missy’s wispy curls, her daughter’s body hung limply. She had never known anyone who could sleep as soundly as Missy. Evie scooped the baby up, resting her daughter’s curly-topped head against her shoulder as she backed up and began scooting out toward the door.

Only to be stopped by a hand on her hip.

“Whoa, there,” the hand’s owner murmured.

Whoa, was right. Though the contact had only lasted a split second, the touch vibrated through her whole body. Evie twisted out of the van, planted her feet on the ground and took a deep breath, all the while doing her best to keep Missy firmly upright.

And then it was all she could do to stand still because the man staring at her was one she would’ve known anywhere: August Meyer.

“Need a hand?”

She looked at his hand—big, capable, devoid of rings. And because he looked just a little bit cocky, she raised an eyebrow. “Not on my butt.”

“Sorry.” He didn’t look the least bit contrite. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You didn’t.” She juggled Missy a little closer.

His eyes softened. Green eyes that looked so familiar and warm. Comforting, like a hug. “How are you, Evie?”

Her mouth went dry as she realized she remembered far more about August than she’d ever admitted to herself. “Truthfully?”

He held up a pinkie, just like they used to do so many years ago. “Of course.”

“I…I don’t really know.”

Thankfully, August didn’t have a moment to reply because her mother came flying out the front door.

“You’re here! When you called and said you were close, I thought you’d maybe get here in an hour, not in fifteen minutes.” Jan smiled at August before hugging Evie and scooping Missy out of her arms at the same time. Missy opened her big blue eyes and squirmed.

“I’m going to go take our baby on inside,” Jan said, pressing kisses to Missy’s chubby cheeks. “August, you’ll help Evie unload, right?”

“It’s why I’m here.”

Evie blinked. His words were bland, his expression open and friendly. Their past was just that…in the past. So why did she feel as if his words held special meaning just for her?

As the screen door slammed shut again, leaving the two of them alone with just the sound of a couple of bullfrogs, August met her gaze. “It’s good to see you.”

“You, too. It’s been a long time.”

“Almost ten years.”

“Yes.”

He tilted his head toward the excited chatter filtering out from the cottage. “Your girls are pretty.”