“She’s having a great time. She calls every day to tell me about everything she’s done and seen. It sounds as though Colleen is making a real effort to show Alice a good time. They’re really enjoying themselves.”
“I’m glad. I’m sure it will be hard for them to say goodbye at the end of their month.”
He shrugged. “Yeah. It’ll be rough. But this is the life Colleen wants and Alice has accepted that, I think. She’s a brave kid.”
“She’s very special. You’ve done a wonderful job raising her.”
“Thanks.” Though the single syllable was a bit gruff, she could tell he was pleased by the compliment. “I won’t take all the credit. Colleen was much more involved in Alice’s earliest years. She waited until she thought Alice was old enough to deal with it before she took off to pursue her own dreams.”
This was hardly the time or place for a conversation about Alice’s mother, Meagan told herself. She took a step toward the walkway. “Tell Alice I said hello, if you think about it. Good night, Seth.”
“Thanks again for bringing Waldo home.”
“You’re welcome.”
She walked down the steps, looking over her shoulder as she moved toward her own home. Something about the way Seth watched her leave made her steps falter a bit. He looked tired. And maybe a little lonely, or was she merely projecting that part? She could only imagine how much he missed his daughter.
“I was just going to eat a salad and take a swim,” she said on an impulse she didn’t try to resist. “Maybe you’d like to join me after you put Waldo away? I’ve always found swimming to be relaxing after a long day at work.”
He seemed surprised by the invitation, but maybe a little intrigued, as well? She couldn’t really tell.
Yet when he spoke, she could tell by his tone that he was going to decline. “Thanks, but I’ve already eaten. And I guess I’d better work on the fence tonight.”
She nodded. “All right. Good luck with that. See you, Seth.”
“See you, Meagan.”
She didn’t look back when she walked away, so she didn’t know whether he watched her leave.
She made a very deliberate effort to enjoy her now-slightly-limp salad when she returned to her patio table. The shadows lengthened around her as the sun slid downward at just past eight o’clock. It had been an especially hot day for mid-June and the air was still quite warm, though a slight breeze rustled leaves and brushed like comforting fingertips against her cheeks. A scarlet cardinal cheeped in a branch overhead and ruby-throated hummingbirds chittered and fought around the feeder hanging outside her kitchen window.
She had vowed during her medical leave to make more time for herself, for relaxing and enjoying her life, taking better care of her health and welfare. As easy as it would have been to fall back into her former routine of overworking and overscheduling, she saw this evening as proof that she had changed her ways—at least a little. Her worried mother would be pleased if she saw her now. Which reminded her that she needed to call her mom after the swim. And then she felt a little guilty because she knew her poor mother had little free time these days for relaxing by a pool.
Sighing, she told herself she was still getting the hang of this new “me-time” endeavor. She didn’t seem to be very good at it yet. She was still fretting about the things she should be doing, instead.
She stood and stretched, her gaze on the clear, sparkling water of the blue-lined pool. A few hard laps, followed by a warm shower and a cup of hot tea, would complete the relaxation regime she had prescribed for herself that evening. After a few hours sleep, she’d be back at work at six-thirty in the morning, bright-eyed and re-energized and happy to be back in the life she loved.
Or so she hoped.
Tossing her cover-up over the back of a chair, she kicked off her sandals and descended the steps into the pool. The water was just the right temperature, closing around her in a warm welcome as she kicked away from the steps to begin the first lap. She wasn’t trying to break any speed or endurance records. She swam in steady, even strokes from one end of the pool to the other, flipping and pushing away in practiced turns she had learned as a teenager.
She could have been on a swim team, she thought, her mind wandering as she sliced mechanically through the pool. She’d been a pretty good swimmer back then. But she’d been so focused on her studies in science and pre-medicine that she hadn’t wanted to take the time it would have required to be truly competitive as an athlete. She was glad that Alice was having a more well-rounded youth. She gave Seth credit for…
But no. Her strokes faltered, and she dipped awkwardly beneath the water for a moment before shaking her head and restarting her laps. She wasn’t going to think about Seth any more tonight, she told herself fiercely, pumping her legs more furiously. Alice, either. This was her “me-time.” She was going to enjoy it, darn it.
“Training for the Olympics?”
The wry question startled her so much that she stopped swimming—and promptly sank. She emerged sputtering, her heart pounding in alarm. “Wha—?”
Seth stood beside the pool, watching her with an expression on his face she couldn’t begin to interpret.
He’d changed, she realized, dropping her feet to stand in the shallow end of the pool. He wore a gray T-shirt and a pair of black board shorts with casual, slip-on canvas shoes. A navy and white print beach towel was draped over one shoulder. He had come prepared to swim.
“You startled me,” she admitted, wondering why he had changed his mind when he’d been so firm in declining her invitation.
He motioned behind him. “I was going to call out to you, but you left your gate unlocked. You shouldn’t do that, you know. Anyone could have walked in and caught you off guard.”
“I guess I forgot to lock it behind me when I came back in.”