Page 38 of Winter Break

I turned back and whispered, “The boyfriend?”

Turner took the paint brush from my hand and leaned back to place them both in a tray he had sitting next to him, but he didn’t pull away from me.

“Get this. He’s the guy that brought her here!” It took me a minute to process what Turner was saying—another silent pause in our conversation.

“Wait! Are you telling me that’s the guy she ran away with, what, like forty years ago?”

He nodded. “Closer to fifty. I’m surprised you hadn’t heard. It’s the talk of the boardwalk. Of great interest to your father, and it’s all Martin can talk about, for different reasons. Austin didn’t say anything? Or your mom?”

“You know, Aus might have said something about it over the summer, but no, he hasn’t mentioned his since then. He and I usually do some Christmas shopping together. I guess it’s a tradition or whatever. We popped in and out of a few shops, then went to the Three B’s for lunch. Where you saw us … Obviously …

“We mostly … Yeah, we didn’t really talk, other than to hold up stupid trinkets so the other person could guess who we wanted to buy them for. If it were up to him, Mallory would definitely be getting an I’m with stupid T-shirt from me this Christmas.”

Turner shook his head no, though I couldn’t figure out what I had said to cause that response.

“Then what are you doing here, Dalt?” Turner asked softly, looking down at our legs.

I wanted to see you, I thought.

What I said was, “I wanted to see the new place! Dude, you’ve been hyping it for months.” I pointed to one of the half-built counters. “That’s the café, right? You’ll put some chairs and tables over there with some shelves, or display racks, or whatever. And the register in that corner, yeah? If you line the shelves this way”—I motioned—“people will have to pass a lot of merch before they get there.”

“I was thinking I’d add a nook by that window, like a bay window. People can sit there and read or sip their coffee and …”

“And people on the boardwalk will see them and think, damn, I could use a cup of coffee!”

“You know, in England they say cuppa.” He was smiling as if fondly remembering his time there. I felt like I was melting. I gave him a questioning look, in no way hiding my own smile as I leaned back on my arms, my leg still resting on his. “Like, Would you like a cuppa? Or, Sure, I’ll have a cuppa,” he explained.

“Cuppa Café. I like it.”

“Shit, Dalt. That’s perfect. Do you remember? This whole thing was your idea. Anita was reluctant at first.”

“Really?”

“‘Coffee, at the beach?’ she said.”

I laughed at his high-pitched impression of Anita.

“But I reminded her that lots of people drink iced and frozen coffee these days. She trusts me, and she’s letting me go for it.”

“And now she’s leaving? For how long? Why didn’t you tell me about Wyatt, Turner?”

He shrugged and looked down before looking back up at me. “I don’t know, Dalt. I guess I should have. Anyway, Anita says they’ll only be gone for a few months, but I don’t know. She’s really happy, and Wyatt seems kinda restless, hanging around the store.”

He left it at that, but he didn’t sound very happy. No matter that he’d only met her a few years before, Anita was his family, his only family, and she was leaving him. It mustn’t have been easy for him when Wyatt showed up. I wished he had told me about it, that he felt he could have confided in me. I thought we were becoming friends even if it was only over text. But maybe I really was just Brett’s annoying little brother to him.

I found myself fighting off tears right there in front of him, the energy from his leg and the sheer embarrassment factor the only things keeping me from melting down.

Not sensing my looming breakdown, he perked up and asked, “Hey, do you remember Casey?” He let his leg jump up and tap mine. So, he had noticed that we were touching.

“Casey?” I tried to follow the conversation.

“Emily and Ellana’s mother.”

“The twins!”

“Yeah. She’s going to help me manage this place, and in the great tradition of BT&G, I’ve got a high schooler who’s worked here for a few years. He’ll work full-time in the summer as, like, the assistant manager of the toy store, so that I can focus on the stuff Anita usually does.”

“While starting a new business at the same time. Holy shit, Turner. You’ve been busy.”