Page 101 of Distant Shores


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Cappuccino on the table for you. Would probably go great with leftover cake.

Just a suggestion :-)

P.S. I like just about everything.

If I were a different person, on a different timeline, in just about any other situation than this, I probably would’ve completed the sentence how I wanted.

I like just about everything about you.

Seeing her reaction to the cake—the surprise, the faint blush—it’d done things to me.

Just like finding the note she’d left on my doorway had done things to my heart, making it beat wildly. I’d tucked it into my wallet with the others. Right beside a new punch card to the closest coffee shop.

Unless I could get my hands on an espresso machine, they’d be seeing a lot of me this summer.

I was smiling to myself, still thinking about theconversation with Ireland and Delly that’d gotten easier as it went, when Delly came running out of her bedroom, red-faced and sputtering.

“Delly?!” I asked, hurrying toward her, cringing when I stepped wrong. “What’s wrong?”

A door opened and shut before Ireland appeared, her brow pinched in concern.

“Delly? What is it?”

My sister opened her mouth, but then closed it. Opening it again, she pointed toward her room.

I started for it, but when I got to the doorway, I was yanked back by my shirt.

“Don’t,” Delly said, tugging again for emphasis. “Addy, don’t. Trust me.”

Exasperated, I looked from her to Ireland, trying to make sense of what was happening.

Ireland was in another shorts-and-T-shirt combo, her gaze calculating as she looked from the main bedroom, to me, and then to Delly. Then she rolled her lips together as her chest started to rise and fall in silent laughter.

Delly pointed an accusing finger at her. “Youknew.”

“Sunday morning yoga is pretty standard around here,” Ireland said. “I guess you missed it last week.” Ireland shrugged. “I thought you liked yoga.”

“Naked?” Delly screeched. “What even is this?! Are my brother and I now part of a clothes-free cult? Did we enthusiastically sign a leaseandsign away our clothes at the same time? Are we part of a nudist community now? Oh my God, I should have read the paperwork better. I just signed it! I didn’t really read it at all.”

Delly turned toward me with an accusatory glare. “You read it! I know you did. You would’ve never let us live in a nudist community. You wouldn’t even take your shirt off at the beach yesterday!”

My face heated as I flicked my gaze to Ireland, who was looking at me curiously.

“Delly,” I said, taking a pointed step away from her room. “What is it?”

“Miss Lenny, the lady next door, is in her side yard, NAKED. Buck-ass naked, Addy. At first, I thought she’d had a terrible accident or was having some kind of episode because she was just… lying on the ground. I was about to rush out there, but then she… shifted… and everything—and I meaneverything—was there. She lifted her hands to the sky, andoh my God.Why couldn’t I look away? Why, Addy?”

“Sun salutations,” Ireland supplied. “She does them with the sunrise.”

“Nude?!” Delly spluttered.

Ireland rolled her lips together again and made a slight “Mmhm” noise.

“Every day?” Delly asked. “Or just on Sundays?” Delly squeezed her eyes shut. “Why am I trying to cope with this or make it better? Goddamn my baggage! This isn’t okay! I won’t be seeing the bright side so quickly, dammit!”

Delly buried her face in her hands, and I patted her on the shoulder sympathetically.

The undeniable sound of a strained grunt came from outside, and I took a pointed step away from Delly’s room—and therefore the window—and ended up beside Ireland.