Page 1 of The Summer We Kept Secrets (The Destin Diaries #4)
T he day dawned warm and salt-kissed, the kind of summer morning Eli Lawson once took for granted—until he was reminded that God could sure throw a curve ball when it was least expected.
Still reeling from the shock of his son’s—and grandson’s—arrival, Eli stood barefoot on the back deck of the Summer House, a mug of coffee cooling in his hand.
As far as the eye could see, the Gulf slowly transformed from teal to turquoise, the light turning Destin’s sand the sugary white that made this stretch of Florida famous.
A pair of pelicans soared past, riding the breeze along the beach, soundless but for the whoosh of their wings.
Eli let the beauty of the world settle over him, his heart sliding into a comforting morning prayer.
He’d obviously skipped church this Sunday morning, but the Lord was present.
So, Eli asked for peace, for wisdom, for all the right things to happen to these two families who, as they had thirty years ago, shared a home on this beach.
But in the 1990s, they’d been teenagers and thought they were immortal and invincible and that life was simple.
He could hear God laughing and winding up the next pitch.
He sensed there were more surprises in store, challenges and some clouds. None of what he’d expected when he decided to spend some time at the Summer House, hoping to develop a deeper relationship with Kate Wylie, the woman he’d rediscovered a few months ago.
From the kitchen just inside the beach house, he could hear her soft laughter right now. Kate was chuckling with his sister, Vivien.
The two of them—women who hadn’t had babies in their arms for many years—were elbows deep into ChatGPT trying to figure out how to sterilize bottles and safely warm formula.
Eli closed his eyes for a moment, trying to process it all. His son, Jonah, had arrived on their doorstep like a wounded animal seeking shelter. Clutching Atlas, his newborn baby, Jonah looked as broken, ravaged, and wrecked as Eli had ever seen him.
And he’d seen that boy pretty far gone a few times in his life.
In halting words, Jonah had explained that Carly, the baby’s mother and his on again-off again girlfriend, had gone out for diapers and never come home.
She’d been killed in a collision with a truck when she’d run a red light—a sleep-deprived nursing mother who, Jonah insisted, should not have been driving.
Eli could practically feel the incalculable guilt, grief, isolation, and panic that ricocheted through Jonah’s almost thirty-year-old body. The kid had suffered more pain than most old men had endured in a lifetime.
Which was no doubt why Jonah kept repeating the same thing over and over.
I’m cursed. I’m cursed.
Eli could still hear Jonah’s dark pronouncement.
He understood the sentiment, no matter how much he profoundly disagreed with it.
Eli’s wife had died in a private plane crash, and the loss of his mother had destroyed teenaged Jonah.
Now the mother of Jonah’s son was tragically killed fifteen years later.
Eli well remembered the sense that Melissa’s death was somehow his fault, or that he should have been the one taken so Jonah and Meredith had a mother. Nothing made sense in the early days, and he could all too easily imagine the depth of his son’s pain.
No, Jonah and Carly hadn’t been married, but they had a child—three-week-old Atlas. And that baby, Eli knew, would be the reason Jonah would recover.
But it would take time.
It would also take something else that Eli had found in those dark days—the solace and comfort of knowing the Lord. Jonah had no faith, sadly. But he’d have to find something to help him handle this new and complicated life. In the meantime, Eli would do whatever he could for Jonah.
“Hey, Grandpa.”
He turned, unable to keep from smiling despite the heaviness in his heart. How could he not at the sight of Kate Wylie? She was the first woman in fifteen years of solitude to make him feel something that had to be love.
She was such a source of comfort. A beautiful, bespectacled, logical, lovely source of comfort and joy.
“Grandpa,” he scoffed. “Yep, I guess that’s what they call me now.” He lifted his arms in invitation. “Come join me, Lady Katie.”
Smiling at the name, she walked to him, sliding into his embrace, giving him a gentle whiff of lavender and…baby formula? He wasn’t sure, but he adored it, and her.
He kissed the top of her head. “Have you checked on him—on them?”
“Both asleep at the moment.” She eased back and reached for his coffee cup. “Is this hot?”
“Lukewarm at best.”
She took it anyway, sipping and wrinkling her nose as she pushed her glasses up and over her dark hair, fluttering her bangs.
“Yeah, awful. We made a fresh pot but somehow it didn’t last five minutes.
Tessa and Lacey filled up and started a ‘baby shopping list’ they’re taking to Target the minute it opens.
Vivien and I are driving Matt and Emma to the airport, then she wants to do some nursery shopping. Crib, changing table, the works.”
He studied her, processing it all. “I forgot your kids are leaving today.”
She tipped her head. “You’ve been a little preoccupied. And, God knows, we need the space, even in this oversized monster built by my favorite architect.” She grinned and leaned in, giving that favorite architect a light kiss.
“We’ll give the smaller of the two bedrooms downstairs to the baby, and Jonah can go in the other one right across the hall,” she said. “So Floor One will be baby central. I’ll move in with Tessa now.”
He frowned, thinking through the logistics, very happy he had designed such a spacious house when his mother had given him the assignment to build on this property well over a year ago.
“My mom and Jo Ellen are moving into the apartment above the garage,” he reminded her. “Why wouldn’t you take the other room upstairs? Lacey and Vivien are glued to each other in the main suite, so that leaves an empty bedroom up there.”
She shook her head. “I’d rather be with Tessa. We should keep that room ready in case someone else from your family shows up. Crista might come back, or Meredith.”
“My daughter leave work? Not only would my firm collapse, I don’t think Meredith Lawson knows the meaning of a vacation.”
“Does she know Jonah is here with Atlas? And what happened to Carly?”
He nodded. “I called her late last night to fill her in.”
“And?”
He made a face, remembering the call. “She seemed really distracted. Sympathetic, of course, but something was on her mind. Knowing Meredith, she was face down in blueprints, reveling in the fact that she passed the ARE test and is now a licensed architect. Nothing will get in my little overachiever’s way, even family tragedy. ”
“So she won’t come here?”
He lifted a shoulder. “Unlikely, but by now she’s probably ordered a two-month supply of diapers and vetted five nanny services on our behalf.”
She laughed. “She sounds like a force, and I can’t wait to meet her. But tell her to hold off on the nannies, please. We have two great-grandmothers, multiple aunts, and you, Grandpa. We don’t need outside help for Jonah.”
He sighed at that, cupping her cheek and looking into her dark eyes. “I’m sad about something,” he admitted softly.
“Being a grandfather at fifty-three?”
“Are you kidding?” he laughed. “I’m thrilled about that, just not about what poor Jonah has to endure. No, I’m sad about this summer. It’s going to turn into one big…babysitting gig. And I had…plans. A few fantasies. Some very romantic ideas.” He leaned down and kissed her lightly.
“Plans?”
“To make you fall madly in love with me.”
“Halfway there,” she whispered, then lifted her brows playfully. “And the fantasies and romantic ideas?”
“Oh, you know. Long walks on the beach. Some champagne sunsets. Don’t make me belt out the ‘Pina Colada’ song. I know it’s on Tessa’s oldies playlist.”
She laughed. “We can squeeze in a few walks and sunsets, I promise.”
“We will, but this isn’t going to be the summer interlude I hoped it would be.” He sighed. “But God always has different plans than we do, and they’re always bigger and better.”
A shadow crossed over her face, as it often did when he talked openly about his faith. She never questioned it, but she never wanted to hear more, either.
Instead, she snuggled closer and wrapped an arm around his waist, and they stood quietly in the sweet hush of morning.
“It’s good Jonah had somewhere to go,” she finally said.
“Family,” Eli said. “It was the only place to go. But the poor kid believes he’s cursed.”
“Ridiculous,” she said. “Do you really think Carly’s parents will try to take Atlas?”
“They could try,” he said. “He shouldn’t have up and left without telling them where he was going.”
“He has every legal right to take his child,” she said matter-of-factly. “He said Carly put Lawson as Atlas’s last name on the birth certificate. They were going to get married.”
Eli nodded. “Yes, but Carly’s parents’ concern and involvement is inevitable. We need to handle it in a way that respects and helps everyone, including that tiny baby.”
She turned to face him fully. “And we have to prove that Atlas is indisputably Jonah’s baby. He should do a DNA test and hire a good lawyer right away.”
Eli hesitated, uncertain of that path just yet.
“I’d hope we can reach an understanding with the Danes family without involving lawyers or DNA testing.
We should talk to them first. Make sure they know that Atlas will be loved and safe.
Here, he’ll have a large family, stability, a routine.
Jonah will go to culinary school and can give that child a good, loving home. ”
“Yes to all that, but we need the science and law on our side, too. Love isn’t enough.”
“It can be,” he said, “if they’re reasonable.”
“Their daughter was killed three weeks after giving birth to their grandchild. Do you think they’re thinking reasonably?” she challenged. “We may need to fight with everything we have.”