Sherryl Woods - Sand Castle Bay

“Hey there,” she said with a smile.

“What’re you doing?” he asked, sidling closer.

“Looking for furniture.”

“Can I see?”

“Sure,” she said, sliding over to make room for him.

He crawled onto the bench and knelt, leaning into her. The feel of his body with its little boy smell caught her off guard. She’d never really thought much about being a mother, but suddenly what she guessed were faintly maternal instincts were coursing through her. How about that? she thought, surprised and not entirely dismayed by the sensation.

She observed the way his brow was knit with a frown, the tip of his tongue caught between his teeth as he studied the screen intently. She’d seen that same expression on Boone’s face a time or two, when he was deep in thought. Finally B.J. turned to her.

“That stuff would look kinda weird in here,” he said hesitantly.

Emily laughed at his apt assessment. “It definitely would,” she agreed. “It’s not for here. Tell me why you think it would be wrong, though.”

“It’s all dark and it’s too big.”

“Precisely,” she said. “You have a good eye. Now, can you think of anyplace where it might look right?”

“Someplace really big,” he said eventually.

“Do you think it might look good in front of a great big stone fireplace?” she asked.

His eyes lit up. “You mean like one of those places where people go in the winter to ski?”

“That’s exactly it,” she said, impressed once more. “It’s for a new ski lodge in Colorado.”

“Cool. I think it would be better if it were red, though.”

“Why is that?” she asked, laughing at his boundless confidence in expressing his opinion.

“Because red’s my favorite color. It’s the color of fire trucks and candy apples.”

“And you like both of those things.”

“Uh-huh,” he said, then sobered. “And it was the color of my mom’s car. The one she picked out before she died.” He met Emily’s gaze. “Daddy bought it for her as a surprise for her birthday, but she never got to drive it. She got too sick.”

Emily swallowed against the lump in her throat. “I’m sorry.”

“Sometimes I miss her,” B.J. confided.

“Of course you do. My mom died a while back, and I still miss her, too.”

“Do you ever cry?”

“Sure. Do you?”

“Uh-huh, but I try to be brave, because I know talking about her makes my dad really, really sad.”

Emily suddenly wanted to gather him close and hold him until he could shed all the tears he’d stored up. It wasn’t her place, though. Instead, she said gently, “I’ll bet your dad would want you to talk about your mom anytime you need to. Even when it makes us sad to talk about someone, I think it always helps if we can remember them with someone else who loved them.”

B.J.’s expression brightened slightly. “You really think so?”

“I really do,” she said. “Where’s your dad now?”

“He’s still at his restaurant. I was bored over there, so he called Ms. Cora Jane and she said it was okay if I came over here with Tommy.”

“Does she know you’re in here with me?”

“Uh-huh,” he said, then flushed guiltily. “She sent me in to tell you to get back outside and get to work.”

Emily laughed, immediately suspicious that it hadn’t been Cora Jane’s sole motive. “Did she really? Well, how about we don’t tell her that you forgot? We’ll tell her that I asked for your expert opinion on the job I’m working on. That’ll make you my consultant.”

“Really?” he said, his eyes wide.

“Sure thing,” she said. “But I guess my break is over. I’d better do what she said and get outside.”

And later she’d have a few words with her grandmother about deliberately sending B.J. inside for the sole purpose of nudging the two of them a little closer. She had a feeling there was going to come a time when she’d regret that it had worked so successfully.

* * *

Boone had arrived at Castle’s and stepped inside the restaurant just in time to overhear his son’s conversation with Emily. Her insight and her tenderness caught him by surprise, but it was B.J.’s fear of upsetting him that made his heart ache. He slipped back outside before they caught sight of him.

“Weren’t they in there?” Cora Jane asked, looking puzzled by his quick retreat.

“They were there,” he said tightly.

“Why do you sound angry about that?”

“I’m not angry,” he said. He wasn’t sure exactly what he was feeling, but anger wasn’t part of it. Blind panic, maybe. Once again, he’d seen evidence of his boy bonding with a woman who would wind up leaving and hurting him. There were a lot of things in life he hadn’t been able to protect B.J. against, but he hadn’t anticipated needing to protect him from another loss quite so soon.

“I think I’d better keep him away from here for the next couple of weeks,” he said, trying to figure out how he’d pull that off without a major rebellion on B.J.’s part.

“Why on earth would you do such a thing?” Cora Jane asked, clearly mystified.

“He’s getting too close to Emily.”

“Seems to me that’s a good thing for both of them,” she replied.

“She’s leaving,” Boone reminded her. “Me, I know how that works, how it feels. He’s a kid. He’s already lost his mother. What if he gets attached to Emily and she walks out of his life? How’s he supposed to cope with that?”

Cora Jane regarded him impatiently. “I know you have your issues with Emily, but do you really think she’d be so cruel that she’d get close to B.J., then walk away without looking back? You’re not giving her much credit.”

“Why should I? She left me without a backward glance.”

“And we both know why she did that,” Cora Jane reminded him gently. “She was terrified that with one word, you could make her stay. Instead you didn’t even try. Worse, in the blink of an eye, you turned right around and married Jenny.”

He frowned at the hint of accusation he heard in her voice. “You actually think the breakup was my fault?”

She smiled at his indignation. “No, I think she broke up and your pride stopped you from trying to fix things.”

“You let her go because you loved her,” he accused. “How is what I did any different? I could see she’d never be happy here with me.”

“Really? Even though you could have offered her something I couldn’t, the future she really wants?”

“Cora Jane, she made it abundantly clear that a future with me wasn’t what she wanted.”

“Maybe not right that second,” she conceded. “But she loved you then, and I believe she loves you now. She just has to figure out how to have it all, that choosing you doesn’t mean sacrificing the career she wants. That’s a lesson that comes with maturity. I think she’s just about there now.”

Boone scowled at her. “Too late,” he said stubbornly. “What’s that expression—once burned, twice shy?”

“So you don’t believe in second chances? Seems to me you had a couple of them in your day. I recall sending my husband to the police station one night to bail you out when you got caught trying to buy beer with a fake ID. You called me instead of your folks.”

Boone winced. “I was an idiot.”

“But I didn’t hold it against you, did I?” she said, not denying the truth of his assessment.

“Because you’re a saint,” he joked. “Or maybe because you wanted something to hold over my head for a lifetime.”

“Or maybe just because I love you and know that your flaws are part of the bargain,” she said.

He sighed as he met her gaze. “I hear what you’re saying, Cora Jane. I really do. I just can’t take another chance, not with my heart and sure as hell not with my son’s.”