Chapter 10

Cal got home several minutes after Sierra, who was already barricaded behind her locked bedroom door. “I know you’re in here,” he said, knocking on her door. “We have to talk.”

He heard something behind the door, and a moment later, Sierra opened it. She wore the same tank top, but instead of the shorts she’d had on earlier, she now wore a pair of pajama shorts. “Look, Dad, I’m sorry.”

Yeah, sure sounded like she was. Cal didn’t say that, though. He shouldn’t have been sarcastic at the outdoor cinema either. Jo would’ve hated that, and Cal had regretted his angry actions and words with his daughter in public.

“I’m sorry too,” he said. “I shouldn’t have made a scene at the cinema.”

Sierra folded her arms. “I suppose I’m grounded.”

“Big time,” he said. “I don’t understand why you couldn’t have just told me you broke up with Travis.”

Sierra heaved a great big sigh. “I don’t know, Dad. I was…embarrassed.” She mumbled the last word, and Cal’s heart started cracking.

“Honey,” he said. “It’s just you and me. You have to tell me stuff.”

She nodded, her eyes turning a little glassy. “I know.” Her voice broke, and Cal gathered her into his arms. “And Justin seemed so nice, too.”

“He wasn’t nice?”

“He said he didn’t know I was so young, and he just went out with me because I was hot.” She cried into his shoulder, and Cal wanted to drape her in a bedsheet every time she left the house, starting tomorrow.

“I’m sorry, bug,” he said.

Sierra composed herself quickly, and Cal kept his arm around her. “Let’s go see what we have in the freezer.”

“There’s no coffee,” she said.

“I wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway,” he said. “And I finally have a day off tomorrow, and I want to sleep in.” He grinned at her, taking her down the hall to the kitchen. “Then Lisa and I are meeting for lunch. If you want to come, you can.”

“Yeah, pass,” Sierra said dryly.

“Oh, ho,” he said. “What? Are we too old for you? We can go to one of your trendy places.”

“It’s not that.” Sierra opened the freezer, reached in, and handed him a carton of ice cream.

“What is it, then?” he asked.

“She’s…do you really like her?” Sierra looked at him, and Cal found seriousness on her face.

“Yeah,” Cal said. “I really like her.”

“She seems a bit…fake.”

“Fake?” Cal could use a lot of words to describe Lisa, but fake wasn’t one of them. Never had he thought that.

“Yeah, no one has hair that blonde. And all that jewelry? Who dresses like that?”

“Just because you won’t even wear a ring your mom left you, doesn’t mean that everyone hates jewelry.” He made his voice light, so his daughter would know he was teasing.

“And the clothes. I mean, that dress probably cost a thousand dollars.”

“Okay,” Cal said. He had enough money, and obviously Lisa did too.

“She, I don’t know.” Sierra opened a drawer and pulled out an ice cream scoop. “She probably goes to the nail salon weekly. She gets manicures and probably those makeup tests to see which color of lip gloss works with her skin tone. She’s shallow.”

Cal felt like he’d been hit with a bucket of ice water. He didn’t know how to answer. Fake. Shallow.

He’d never gotten those vibes from her. They’d had meaningful conversations, and the chemistry between them felt off the charts.

“I mean, if you like her, it’s fine,” Sierra said, but it clearly wasn’t fine. “But I don’t see how I’ll have anything in common with her.” She handed him the scoop, and Cal busied himself by dishing up their late-night treat.

They sat at the table together, and Cal still had no idea what to say. If he brought a new woman into his life, he brought her into Sierra’s life too. He’d want them to get along. No one could replace Jo as Sierra’s mother, but Cal couldn’t mediate problems between his new wife and his daughter for the rest of his life. That didn’t sound fun at all.

“How long am I grounded?” Sierra asked.

“Let’s start with two weeks,” he said. “And I want your phone plugged in out here during that time.”

“I hate that,” Sierra complained. “I need it for my alarm clock.”

“And I need to know you’re not sending pictures of yourself in that lingerie to seventeen-year-old boys who think you’re hot.” He pinned her with a look that said not to test him on this, and wisely, she didn’t argue.

“In fact,” Cal said. “I’d like to see the phone right now.” He held out his hand and took a bite of the peanut butter ice cream. “You didn’t erase the texts, did you?”

Sierra heaved a sigh and got up. “No, Dad. I didn’t erase the texts.”

“Good, because if you had, you wouldn’t have a phone until you’re eighteen.”

“I know, I know.” Sierra semi-stomped down the hall and returned with her phone, pure distaste on her face. Cal cared, but not enough to do anything different. He navigated to her texts and found the string with Justin’s name on it. He ignored the fact that it had a little heart next to the name.

“No last name?”

“Briggs,” Sierra said in a bored voice.

Cal went to the top of the string, and he saw that his daughter had initiated the conversation with this boy. They were flirtatious, but he didn’t see any foul language, no naked pictures, and nothing to suggest that he needed to take this phone from her for four years.

Heck, his texts with Lisa were probably more scandalous. She’d sent him a selfie of her at her desk earlier this week, and one of her in a bathing suit as she searched for a new one.

“Okay.” He handed the phone back. “You can use it as an alarm clock. No texting after nine. If I see one text after nine…”

“I know, Dad.” She took the phone, and he sensed her patience with him was almost gone.

They ate the rest of their ice cream in silence, and Cal wished he was better at coming up with something to talk about. As it was, his mind started circling around Lisa and if she was really fake and shallow. And if she wasn’t, why had Sierra thought that?

***

Cal felt completely out of his element on the beach. Sure, he’d grown up on this island, and he loved the beach as much as the next Hawaiian. But he’d always come with a woman—his mother or his wife—and they carried bags with all the necessities for spending time in the sun. Sunscreen, towels, a hat, cold water.

He carried his towel over his arm, feeling foolish because Lisa hadn’t shown up yet. He glanced down the beach, noting how busy this stretch had gotten since the food trucks had started gathering here on weekends. He could picture it from the perspective of a child, of his boyhood afternoons on this beach.

No paved parking lot. No restrooms. Just half a block from the house where he’d lived for six years, his brothers yelling at him to slow down as he ran down the path ahead of them. They carried nothing then, and he’d pull his shirt over his head as soon as he came out from under the trees and saw the whole world in front of him.

His mother would gather all the T-shirts for him and his brothers, and spread out their blankets, and have spam and egg sandwiches waiting for them when they finally dragged themselves out of the ocean.

Cal had loved beach afternoons with his younger brothers. He missed them powerfully in that moment, and he pulled out his phone to send them a quick text about this beach on their family string.

He smiled at the responses from Collin, then Cole, then Carter, and he laughed at the emojis his youngest brother used. He toyed with the idea of telling them that he’d started seeing Lisa, but his daughter’s words about Lisa being shallow kept him from saying anything.

“Hey.”

Cal jumped at the sound of Lisa’s voice, as if she could see inside his head and know what troubled him.

“Hey.” He laughed with her and threw his arm around her. She wore a gauzy, white coverup that her body heat easily came through.

“I hope you’re hungry,” she said. “Because I’ve eaten at all of these food trucks before, and they’re fantastic.”

Cal stepped back and looked at her, trying to see what his daughter had. Fake smile? Shallow because she wore diamond studs in her earlobes? Nice clothes? Cute sandals?

Cal didn’t get any of those vibes from her, and he said, “I’m really hungry.”

“Coconut shrimp?” she asked. “Fish tacos? Shaved ice?”

“Tacos first,” he said. “Shaved ice with the fruit second.”

“Oh, you like the fruit.”

“I mean, it’s not coffee and ice cream, but I do love the fresh fruit shaved ice.”

“Me too.” Lisa linked her arm through his. “Let’s go find a spot first, okay? Then we can eat.”

“I used to come to this beach as a kid,” he said. “My family owned a house in the neighborhood right on the other side of the trees there, and we’d walk down all the time.”

“Wow, nice. Must’ve been great for a boat maker, to be so close to the water.”

“We did always grow up near water,” Cal said. “When we left that house, we moved over by the cove on Lightning Point.”

“I love that cove,” Lisa said, dancing ahead of him. “It’s the best snorkeling on the island.”

“So they say.”

“You don’t like snorkeling?”

“I like it fine,” he said.

“It’s in my top five outdoor activities,” Lisa said. “How’s here?” She’d found a spot big enough for the two of them, and maybe one other person on each side, which meant no one would take that sand.

“Here’s great.” He spread his towel out, so glad to be rid of it finally. She set her bag on the towel and lay hers next to his, moving her bag to the middle of the space.

After digging out her wallet, she said, “Let’s go.”

Cal said, “I’ll pay.”

“Oh, you sure will,” she said with that cute, coy smile he really liked. “I just don’t want to leave my wallet unattended.”

They got in line at the taco truck, and Lisa turned back to him. “Tell me about your brothers.”

“What about them?”

“Married, single? What do they do?”

“You looking for a new boyfriend?” Cal asked, chuckling.

“No.” Lisa pushed both hands against his chest, and he put his arms around her. He didn’t normally act like this in public, but he decided he didn’t care how he normally did things. He’d worn that stupid shirt with the sailboats on it.

“Carter’s working a fishing boat out of Anchorage,” Cal said. “He’s got a wife and a baby.”

“Mm.”

“Cole’s still here on the island. He works as an accountant for the city. And Collin bought an avocado farm.”

“An avocado farm?”

“I’m not even lying.” Cal chuckled. “I’m the only one who loved the carpentry enough to learn it from my dad and go into business doing it.”

“Well, I want some free avocados,” she said, stepping up to the truck to order.

“Yeah, well, I’m still waiting for my dance,” he said. “Sometimes we don’t always get what we want.”

“Oh, you’ll get your dance,” she said, stepping out of the way. “But we’re having tacos first.”

***

A few hours later, Cal helped Lisa stand. “I’m sorry,” he said. “But I grounded Sierra, and I promised her I’d be home by five with dinner and a movie so we could spend some time together.”

“I’m glad,” she said. “This has been such a great day, hasn’t it?”

“Great,” he echoed. “Where’d you park?”

“I didn’t,” she said. “I got a ride with a friend from work.”

“You had to work today?”

“Yeah, Deirdre has this high-needs bride, and the wedding is in two weeks, and we were there making sure everything is set for the final meeting on Monday.”

Cal nodded. “You want a ride home?”

“Absolutely. I can’t walk to the Avenues from here.” She gave him a flirtatious smile that made his heart pound. All he could think about was kissing her when he dropped her off, and his hands felt slick on the steering wheel.

He managed to get down the road, make the right turns, and pull up to her house. Was this really where he was going to kiss her for the first time? Was that romantic? A middle-of-the-day kiss on her front porch?

“What about brunch tomorrow?” he asked when she didn’t get out. “I’m not the best cook on the planet, but I can make poached eggs, and Sierra is great with toast and hash.”

“What time?” she asked.

“Brunch time? Eleven?”

“I can make that work,” she said. “Your place?”

“My place. I’ll text you the address, okay?”

“Okay.” She reached for the door handle, but Cal didn’t want her to go yet.

His hand shot out and touched her arm. She turned back to him, a question in her blue, blue eyes. The moment heated, and he dropped his eyes to her lips. Nothing had to be said, and she leaned toward him in the same second he moved toward her.

He brushed his lips against her, his brain screaming at him to get this right! Don’t mess up!

His hand slid up her neck and cradled her face, and the second time their lips touched, he held on as he kissed her. And while he still wasn’t sure he was doing it right, kissing Lisa sure did feel amazing.