Carson laughed and was secretly pleased to hear this. She could well imagine that Blake would eventually grow bored with someone who was not well-read.
Toy continued. “Blake says he’s just waiting for the right one.” Her eyes pinned Carson with a tease. “Maybe he found her.”
Even knowing it was a tease made in jest, Carson was annoyed. She handed the tube of lotion back to Toy. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Blake and I are just friends.”
“Just sayin’,” Toy said with a smirk. “Besides, you’ve already been preapproved by Ethan. Be right back.” Toy rose and went to sit beside her children at the sand castle. The little girl silently submitted to the slathering of lotion over her body, but predictably the boy groused and tried to squirm away. Toy was quick and efficient, and in a flash her two young ones were coated in the thick white lotion.
“Those two keep me busier than a moth in a mitten. Want some water?” Toy asked, wiping the lotion off her hands on a separate towel. She pulled a large thermos out from her bag.
“Love some,” Carson replied, helping her with the four cups. She marveled at Toy’s mothering. Her enthusiasm for her children and Ethan, for life, hummed around her, creating a cool and confident aura.
Toy poured cold water into the red plastic cups, then screwed the top back on the thermos and put it back into her enormous beach bag. She rummaged through it and extracted a plastic container. Opening it, she set out crackers and cut celery and carrots. In another bag were sugar cookies. These she carried to the children, along with cups of water. “Don’t you throw those cups away,” she ordered.
“I don’t use plastic bottles anymore,” Toy explained to Carson. “When you’ve pulled out as much plastic from a turtle’s belly as I have, you learn to not use plastic bags, bottles, or whatever.”
“You are an amazing mother,” Carson told her.
Toy’s face lit up. “Thanks. If you knew my mother, you’d know how much that means to me.”
“Did you always know you wanted to be a mother?”
“Oh, Lord no,” Toy said, putting on her head a navy cap emblazoned with the South Carolina Aquarium logo. “I was a mother before I was old enough to even wonder about it. I had little Lovie when I was nineteen. Her father was a no-good scoundrel. But even being with him was better than being with my mother.”
Carson realized she’d met someone whose childhood was probably worse than her own.
“But once I looked into Lovie’s eyes”—Toy’s own eyes took on a wistful expression—“I knew I was home. That’s what I always wanted, you see. A home. Course, then I met Ethan and that was that.” She looked out at the water and tracked her man’s ride on the waves. “Will you look at him,” she said, her face a vision of infatuation. “He’s just showing off for us.” She turned to Carson. “And it turns me on like nobody’s business.”
Carson spotted Ethan riding close along the beach, kicking up a large spray. She scanned the water and farther out she caught Blake catching air. He soared high into the sky and at the peak he lifted his legs, arching to bring the board high behind his back.
Toy giggled and pointed. “Ethan’s not the only one showing off.” She turned her attention back to Carson. “I see the way he looks at you. I’d say that’s one fish that’s been hooked.”
Carson’s gaze drifted away from Blake to Toy, grateful for the sunglasses covering the discomfort she knew was reflected in her eyes. The comment both delighted and troubled her. When people started pairing her off with someone, that was usually her cue to cut and run.
Later, Toy suddenly straightened on her knees, laughed, and pointed to the ocean. “Here come those two rowdy boys, back from the war. Take off your hat, girlfriend, ’cause they got up-to-no-good smirks on their faces. You just know they’re going to drag us down to the water.” She squealed as the men rushed toward them.
Carson looked up to see the two men bearing down on them at full speed. She went into a defensive crouch. “Don’t you dare,” she warned as Blake grabbed her by the arms and gave a tug that had her on her feet. Ethan went straight for the two children, hoisting one under each arm. Toy had no choice but to run after them, laughing and crying out to Ethan that little Danny wasn’t a very good swimmer yet.
The tide was in and the sun shone high in the cloudless sky. The group caught their second wind, splashing in the waves while the children laughed and squealed in delight. Blake and Ethan put the children on their shoulders and had a chicken fight while Carson and Toy cheered them on. Danny crowed like a rooster with triumph when he and Blake toppled Lovie and Ethan into the surf. As the afternoon waned and the children began shivering, their fingers and toes wrinkled from the time in the water, they returned to their towels, where Ethan and Toy rubbed their shoulders dry. The women gathered the supplies and the men packed up the kite gear. The two children stood, towels wrapped around their slender shoulders and dragging in the sand, their damp hair sticking out at odd angles, nibbling cookies. Their eyelids were drooping like lowered awnings.
Carson watched them and felt a strange ache in her heart. She’d never seriously considered having children. All her life she’d been consumed with whatever project she was working on, the glamour of traveling to exotic places, meeting famous people. Today, however, she’d had a lovely time playing with these two little ones on the beach, enjoying their squeals and refreshingly honest comments. She’d enjoyed spending time with Nate at Sea Breeze. This past month she’d rediscovered a different, quieter kind of happiness in the lowcountry with her family, new friends, and Delphine.
They formed a ragtag army as they left the beach. Blake and Ethan carried kite gear and bags like pack mules. The two children trailed behind them, dragging their heels. Carson and Toy brought up the rear with the rest of the bags. Carson’s gaze followed the men. Blake was taller than Ethan, but not by much. They shared the same easy gait and the same devotion to these lowcountry waters.
Blake turned his head to check on her. They made eye contact and smiled a message that spoke volumes. He was unlike other men she’d been with, and she’d dated a lot of men. Or, was he really that different? she wondered. Was the difference in her? Or was it simply more about the place and the timing?