Page 29 of Distant Shores (Stapled Magnolias #2)

IRELAND

“ T hat young man has eyes for you,” Dad said conversationally.

He was having a good day. A really good day, if he was fishing like this.

It was the best gift.

“He’s just nice, Dad,” I said.

He narrowed his eyes and harrumphed. “I don’t trust nice.”

I snorted, changing the subject. “How’s Mr. Smith?”

“Who?” he asked, not bothering to look up from his art.

“Wilbur,” I said.

“Oh, Willie. Not much of a talker.” He stopped whatever shading he was attempting on the napkin, cursing viciously when his crayon ripped through it. I subtly pulled out my phone and made a note to get a small notebook for him to bring to meals now that he was eating down here more often than not.

Dad paused, frowning as he looked over at me. “He wasn’t feeling well this morning. ”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said.

When he went back to his napkin, my gaze traveled to the cafeteria line.

I was bracing myself for when everyone would be back.

The guy glued to Liem’s side must be Cody.

I cringed internally just thinking of that moment of understanding and realization—that we’d spoken before—that would go down whenever he got back to the table.

“He was sad to miss your birthday lunch too.”

I glanced sharply at him. He hadn’t said a word about my birthday since the incident here, and I hadn’t planned to bring it up.

“Is this seat taken?” Ari asked Dad, who surprisingly looked away from his napkin.

“It’s not,” I answered for him, once it was clear that he wasn’t going to.

As Ari smiled and sat down with her plate, Dad tracked her movement. “You must be Ireland’s father. Beck, is it?”

“Yes, ah…. Yes,” Dad said, seeming flustered as Ari introduced herself.

“Now, tell me, Beck,” she said seriously, “what do you think of the art here at Live Oak?”

“Soulless,” Dad answered immediately. “Positively soulless.”

She hummed. “I think I agree. It could use some sprucing.”

Cody and Liem returned next. Cody was carrying both their trays, and they sat across from us. I shouldn’t have worried about facing him, I realized, as Cody slung his arm over the back of Liem’s chair and nodded to me. “Ireland.”

“Cody,” I said, nodding back.

And that was that.

Everyone dug in to their meals without further ado, and I cast my gaze around at all the people gathered at the table.

When was the last time I’d shared a meal with someone besides Dad?

Liem leaned forward to get a look at Dad’s napkin art, which Dad ignored. After a few seconds, Liem sat back in his chair and leveled an exaggerated pout in my direction.

A few seconds later, he gave me a pointed look just as my phone beeped. I opened the new message under the table, like a kid hiding their phone in school.

Liem

You didn’t tell me your dad was an artist

I glanced up at him, but he was talking quietly with Ari.

My dad is an artist.

Adair and Adeline returned, and I shoved my phone between my leg and the seat, the volume turned off.

Adeline took the open seat beside me, and Adair set his tray down in front of the seat beside her before coming to stand behind me and Dad. He slid a piece of cake between us on the table.

My heart skipped as I looked at it, but then I remembered that Dad asked him for it.

Adair returned to his seat without a word, meeting my eyes as he smiled warmly at me.

I looked away.

He was nice, and I didn’t know what it meant, or if it meant anything.

Adeline casually tapped my shoulder just like her brother had a few minutes before. “I’ll hold down the fort if you wanted to go get your lunch. ”

This impromptu lunch party had gone from novel to overwhelming in a split second. Dad didn’t seem bothered, though, which was a relief. If he was okay, I would be too.

This time last year, we celebrated my twenty-fifth birthday with a big party at Dad’s.

He burned chicken on the grill, and people came and went.

Some of Dad’s friends hung around late into the night, talking and laughing so loud while sitting in camp chairs in the open garage that the neighbors complained.

All those faces had disappeared from our lives one by one after Dad’s diagnosis.

That was the kind of shit that made it hard to trust this, whatever this was. Which, to be fair, could be nothing. But it was enough of a reminder for me that I waved off Adeline’s offer with a mumbled excuse. Adair frowned, looking concerned as he tried to catch my eye, but I looked away again.

Only to find someone else looking at me across the table.

Cody’s hazel eyes held me captive, somehow feeling familiar to me even though this was definitely the first time we’d met in person.

Then, it hit me.

Cody’s eyes were almost the same as Adair’s, that unique mix of brown and green.

With no expression on his face whatsoever, Cody slid a small basket of French fries across the table.

Then he held up a packet of ketchup and pointedly raised his eyebrow.

I couldn’t help the twitching of my mouth as I shook my head.

He dropped the packet and raised the mustard instead.

Rolling my lips inward, I held back a laugh and nodded. He smirked as he tossed it toward me, landing it on top of the basket of fries.

Liem looked between us with a serene smile before leaning over and kissing Cody on the cheek.

To my surprise, Cody blushed.

I tore my eyes away, my stomach clenching at the love between them.

Everyone ate in relative silence, small conversations popping up between pairs here and there. I joined them while drawing a line of mustard on each of my fries.

Out of the corner of my eye, I clocked Adair watching me with a contemplative expression right before he and his sister stood up from the table in unison.

“We’re gonna go now so we have time to check on Pops,” she said with a bright smile. “Wouldn’t wanna be late getting back to it on our first official day. See you tonight?”

I jolted when she touched my arm and looked up to find her and her brother watching me, waiting for my answer.

“Oh, umm,” I said, glancing between them. “Yes?”

Adair smiled as if that was the answer he was hoping for.

It made me feel crappy. I’d definitely planned on hanging around the Locc late, either with Dad or in the Cadillac in the life skills room, depending on his mood, followed by some late-night boarding. Any combo of the things I’d done this weekend, really.

I watched them go, Adair’s mismatched gait a stark contrast to Adeline’s bouncy one. Not for the first time today, I was distracted by those dark-green scrubs on Adair. Unlike the baggy clothes he hid himself under outside of work, the scrubs molded to his body .

After seeing him naked, simple scrubs shouldn’t be such headline material, but my eyes disagreed.

Once they disappeared from view, I sucked in a deep breath and pulled my gaze from the door.

And immediately regretted it.

Liem was looking right at me, doing the only thing worse than smiling knowingly.

He was trying not to smile.

A second later, my phone vibrated under my leg.

I didn’t check it.

It vibrated again. And again.

Liem gave me his sad eyes.

I closed mine against their power, took another deep breath, and reached for my phone.

Liem

If I drew your portrait right now, I’d call it “Hot for Doctor”

You’ve been holding out on me

Woof

I locked my phone and glanced up warily.

Cody was leaning toward Liem with a tiny smirk on his face as he looked down at the phone.

I scowled at the pair of them when they looked at me, but then I relaxed my expression after a few seconds, letting the humor show on my face.

Yeah, Adair Jacks was hot. The only person who was unaware of this was Adair.

Which, unfortunately, only made him hotter.

Dad slid a napkin over to me with a Tic-Tac-Toe board drawn on it, then handed me a crayon.

I wasn’t even sure if Dad still realized it was my birthday, but this was enough for me. More than I expected .

Everything else fell away as we played, his smack talk so familiar, so comforting, that I found my smiles coming easier. Ari leaned over and whispered in my ear to meet her in the courtyard when I was done, and I nodded.

Then she left, and the rest of the table cleared out after her, leaving just us.

By the time we’d exhausted the game, we’d made a serious dent in Live Oak’s napkin supply.

I didn’t see Adeline or Adair when I walked Dad back to his apartment, but this time, it wasn’t intentional. Dad was more than ready for his nap, so I helped him wash up and get into bed quickly before leaving him to it.

I hesitated for a single second when I looked through the Zinnia House front door and saw Ari waiting for me at the fountain in the courtyard. But then I pushed the door open and walked straight to her, knowing it was time.

The beaded necklace her cat-eye glasses were attached to gleamed in the afternoon sun as she regarded me with a warm look before gesturing to the stone bench beside her, and we sat down together.

The cascading sounds from the fountain’s waterfall and birdsong surrounded us as we sat in silence for several long seconds.

I took the opportunity to look her over discreetly, but besides the bags under her eyes, I found no other obvious marks from the last month.

“I’ll cut to the chase,” she started. “I’d like to start on our greenhouse project as early as next week. If you’re still available and willing to be my assistant, that is.”

I wasn’t sure what to say. This woman had just lost her husband, and I was afraid that what she saw in me—desperation, maybe—was what had motivated her.

She took a slow breath. “I think I need something to focus on. Will you help me do that?” Ari smiled at me, her right hand unconsciously fiddling with her wedding ring on her left. When she saw me notice it, her smile didn’t dim at all.

It made no sense to me how her warmth wasn’t tempered by her loss.

I hadn’t even lost Dad, and definitely not in the way she lost Gil, but the past few months had left my heart coated in a thick layer of ice.

Even if Dad magically got better and all the people who fell out of our lives walked back into it… it wouldn’t matter.

I was pretty sure that there was nothing left under the ice. That if it were carved away, there wouldn’t be anything to find. Or worth finding.

“I’ve thought it through,” Ari continued, cutting through my intrusive thoughts, “and if there are any times when I’m not, ah… at my best, let’s say, Liem and his beautiful boy have agreed to step in. I wouldn’t want to put it all on you.”

I took a deep breath, firmly pushing down my spiral. “Whenever you’re ready, I’m ready.”

She looked pleased at that, reaching out and squeezing my hand affectionately. Hope threatened to bloom in my chest—just like it had the first time we’d discussed this—but it didn’t take root this time. It was only visiting.

“Ari.” My throat tightened up as I raised my gaze, looking at her straight on. She deserved that. “I’m so sorry.”

“I know, dear,” she said, her smile watery. “And I am too. But let’s just acknowledge this now and get it out of the way. From now on, when we’re working together, let’s save our sorrys. We can just leave them out of it, okay? We need something good, I think. Both of us.”

I sniffed back the threatening tears as she pulled me into a hug. Just like Adair’s hug the other night, this one put some small part of me back together. Maybe not my heart, but my resolve to keep going. To take another step forward.

“Good.” She produced a handkerchief out of the pocket of her skirt like a magician and dabbed under her eyes with it.

“Now, since we’re here, maybe we can strategize?

I don’t want Live Oak to forget about their promises to match the funds we raise.

Just another reason to not let this idle.

” She whipped out a notebook from her other pocket and flipped it open. “I have some ideas. Do you have time?”

There were very few things on this Earth that could’ve made me say anything but “yes” to Arizona Thames in that moment.