Beach House Vacation

  by

  CORA SETON

  Copyright © 2021 Cora Seton

  Nook Edition

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  ISBN: 9781988896502

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  About the Author

  For my husband, Lennard.

  I love you.

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  CHAPTER 1

  “I’m never leaving Seahaven,” Ava Ingerson said, fighting down a rising panic. “Why would you ask that? Do you think I should?” She stood with two of her closest friends where the ocean met the sand, foamy waves sweeping around her feet. She held her sandals in one hand and impatiently brushed away a strand of hair from her face with the other. It was barely dawn on a day in late July, and a light breeze was blowing, making her glad that she’d grabbed a light jacket on her way out the door.

  “Not forever,” Penelope Rider assured her. “I meant like on a vacation.” She stood in the surf, too, her thick, dark hair piled high on her head, her shorts leaving her long legs bare. Wading in the waves was a tradition they’d recently added to their morning walks as summer unfolded in Seahaven. “I know I could use a getaway for a bit. Maybe head down south. All I’ve done this past year is work on my house. I’m getting restless.”

  Ava relaxed a little. The subject was a touchy one for her. She’d been in Seahaven less than a year, and settling here had cost her the man she’d thought she’d spend her life with. It was no wonder Penelope’s innocent question about future travel plans had hit her wrong.

  “I’m not restless at all,” she asserted. “I’m staying right here. Forever, I hope.”

  “You have to travel sometime, though, right? I mean, you did it for years before you came here,” Emma Hudson said. Her blond hair was in a ponytail, and she wore a light blue sundress, its long skirt bunched in her hands to keep it out of the water. “Don’t you miss it?”

  “Not at all.” That was mostly true. She didn’t miss moving around from place to place, but she missed having a partner—a lot. Todd’s betrayal was still a fresh wound after all these months. She’d gotten over the man himself, but without the sense of purpose she’d thought they’d shared, something was lacking in her life. Of course, Todd hadn’t really shared that sense of purpose after all, had he? He had traveled for the sheer adventure of it. Nature was his playground, but that was the extent of his interest in the world around him. She felt a kinship with the plants and animals, the sea and sky. She was fascinated by the tiniest details. Todd was a big-picture kind of guy, and the focus of the picture was always himself.

  It had hurt a lot when he left, but it helped that she loved this small seaside town where she’d come to settle after she inherited the Blue House from her aunt Laura. She eyed the other women curiously. She’d met them after she moved in. Penelope had grown up in San Jose but spent summers with her uncle at Fisherman’s Point, the beach house that sat to the right of hers. He’d offered bare-bones accommodations to the people who went on his fishing charter trips, but Penelope was aiming for a different type of customer. She wanted to provide a venue for small, boutique destination weddings. Emma had inherited Brightview, the house to the left of Ava’s, from her grandmother, and ran a bed-and-breakfast out of it, showering her guests with comfort and yummy baked goods. Ava had always assumed her new friends were here to stay. Did either of them yearn for more exotic adventures?

  “I was just curious,” Penelope said. “Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere. Too much work to do.”

  Ava thought she looked discouraged. Pen always said she was grateful for inheriting her beach house from her uncle, but beneath her enthusiasm for fixing it up was a trace of discontent Ava didn’t know the reason for. Maybe she was simply missing Dan and her time with him on his fishing boat.

  “I need to belong someplace,” Ava told her emphatically. “Todd made sure we never stayed more than a week or two anywhere, and usually less than that. I never meant to travel for that long, and now that I’ve got a home I plan to stay.”

  “I didn’t realize traveling wasn’t your idea.” Penelope shifted her weight as the waves pulled away and spun in again. The water was only ankle deep here, but it still exerted a tremendous pull, sucking the sand away from under their feet and washing it back over them with every return.

  “I was teaching when Todd and I met,” Ava reminded her. “We were supposed to be gone only one year. He promised after that, we’d pick a place to settle, get married and start having kids.”

  “What made you keep going then?” Penelope asked.

  “Pen,” Emma chided her. “Maybe Ava doesn’t want to talk about it.” Newly married to the handsome millionaire who’d been one of her first guests at her bed-and-breakfast, Emma positively glowed these days, and Ava couldn’t help being a little envious.

  “I don’t mind the question,” Ava assured them. “Todd kept putting it off. He kept coming up with new countries we hadn’t visited yet. New sights we hadn’t seen. I went along with it. I thought that was what couples did—supported each other.” She made a face. “I was wrong.”

  “That’s what couples should do,” Emma said. “Noah and I support each other.”

  “You’re lucky.” Ava squared her shoulders. She was tired of feeling like a victim. Shouldn’t she be comfortable with the single life by now? “Anyway, here I am living my dream.” If her words rang hollow, neither of her friends pointed it out.

  “I wish I was living my dream,” Penelope grumbled.

  Ava exchanged a surprised glance with Emma. “I thought you were. Pretty soon you’ll have your house fixed up, and there’ll be a wedding there every week. Besides, Seahaven is your home. You have a huge extended family close by.”

  “But now my uncle is gone and my mom is in Costa Rica with her new husband.” Penelope ticked off her sorrows on her fingers.

  “You own a beach house that you’re getting to fix up exactly the way you want. You live in the best place on earth.” Ava didn’t have an extended family at all now that Aunt Laura was gone. Her parents and brother lived outside Philadelphia, and that was the extent of the family she’d known. Her mother’s parents had died young; Aunt Laura was her only sibling. Her father’s family lived in Belgium. He’d come to Philadelphia to go to school and refused to go home again. He kept in touch with his family, but she’d met them only once or twice.

  “I guess I saw my life going differently.” Penelope shrugged. “The grass is always greener, right?”

  “You’re just cranky because of all the construction at your place,” Ava said. “I’d offer to put you up, except I’ve got a big party arriving today.”

  “Me, too,” Emma chimed in. “Tell us if there’s any other way we can help, though.”

  “You’re right,” Pen said. “I am cranky, and I’m going to shake it off.” She shaded her eyes to look at the surfers farther out in the water. “I’m spending too much time in my house and not enough time out here. I don’t have anyone to go out fishing with anymore, so maybe I should take up surfing. Maybe I’ll meet someone as nice as Noah and won’t feel so out of sorts.”

  “That’s not a bad idea,” Ava agreed.

  “Next time the Surf Dads and Moms have a barbecue, you two need to come along with us,” Emma said. “The Surf Moms love to teach newcomers.”

  “Sounds good.” Ava made the resolution right then and there that she would do just that. She needed to be braver about exploring her new home and all the activities that were possible here. In a few short months she’d be a science teacher to kids ranging from first grade to eighth, and she’d need to lead them on day trips all over the county to illustrate the concepts they’d be learning. This was no time to be a wimp. Besides, she’d traveled the world, climbed mountains, camped out in deserts and jungles, navigated the biggest cities, faced all sorts of dangers—with Todd by her side.

  Ava bit back a groan. She didn’t need Todd to try new things. In fact, she felt braver these days than she had when he was around. It wasn’t until he was gone that she realized how much he’d taken over her life. He’d been the one who always made the decisions. His whims guided their travels and their activities when they reached a new place. Seahaven was all hers. She could do whatever she wanted here, which more than made up for the fact she was without a partner.

  At least, that’s what she told herself.

  “I’m so glad I met you two,” Penelope said as they trooped out of the water onto the sand. Winston, Emma and Noah’s dog, who’d been roaming the beach nearby, trotted up to join them. The retriever submitted to a thorough head patting and scratching behind the ears from each of them in turn.

  “I know what you mean,” Ava said, taking her turn lavishing love on the dog. Ever since she’d met Emma and Pen, they’d walked at dawn every m
orning and saluted the sunset in the evenings from their top-floor decks with a glass of wine—or soda or chocolate—when the weather permitted. Ava wondered if Noah’s constant presence in Emma’s life would eventually put a stop to either of those traditions. “It’s okay if you want to go on vacation now and then,” she added to Penelope, straightening again, “but don’t you dare ever move away. Seahaven is where I’m growing roots, and I want both of you nearby.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Emma declared.

  “Me, neither,” Penelope said, “despite my whining. I want an adventure or two, but I love Fisherman’s Point. I mean, EdgeCliff Manor,” she corrected herself with a shake of her head. “I swear, it doesn’t matter how much I do to my house, it’s always going to be Fisherman’s Point in my mind. I wonder what Uncle Dan would think if he could see the place now?”

  “He’d love it,” Ava told her stoutly, even though she’d never met the man, and from the sound of it he hadn’t been one for fancy touches. “He obviously doted on you since he gave you the place. He had to know you’d change a few things to make it suit.”

  Penelope made a face. “Actually, right up to the end he thought I’d marry a fisherman who’d take over the business as it stood. He was always asking about my boyfriends. Always trying to fix me up with one of his clients. I was so sure he’d leave the place to one of my cousins since I hadn’t married, you could have knocked me over with a feather when I found out he left it to me after all.”

  “Why didn’t you take over your uncle’s business, then? You still have his boat, right?” Emma asked.

  Penelope kept her gaze on the sand. “Women don’t run fishing charters. The customers are too rough. Too male. I’m no use in a brawl. That’s what Uncle Dan always said. Given that he was in the business for over fifty years, he ought to know.”

  Were there a lot of brawls on fishing charters? Ava had no idea: she’d never been on one. She sensed this was a sensitive area with Penelope and skirted the conversation. “You’re doing a great job with your house, and soon you’ll have a booming business,” she said, but in truth she had her misgivings. Pen was fun and capable, but Ava wasn’t sure how well she’d get along with the fussy, high-end clientele she was targeting.

  “I’d better.” Penelope caught their concern. “Don’t worry about me. Like I said, I’m grumpy today. And hungry. And ready for coffee. Let’s get going.”

  Their conversation turned to the guests Emma and Ava were expecting as they made their way home, slipping on their sandals when they reached the stairs that led to the street on top of the bluffs. Winston followed dutifully behind them, investigating interesting smells now and then. It was only a few hundred yards from there to EdgeCliff Manor, the Blue House and Brightview. Ava said her goodbyes and went inside.

  Once there, she spent the rest of the morning bustling around readying the first two floors for her guests, turning on music when the place began to feel too big and lonely. She told herself she’d feel better as soon as everyone arrived and meanwhile she should enjoy the quiet, but after five years of spending almost every moment with Todd, she was still adjusting to living alone. The Blue House was spacious and made the most of its ocean view, with an open-concept floor plan on the first floor, its kitchen, living room and dining area all surrounded by windows and sliding glass doors. There were several bedrooms at the back of the house and more on the second level. The guests had the full use of those two floors, along with a deck and two second-story balconies that all faced the ocean. She was able to accommodate parties up to fourteen people, but today’s group had only nine.

  That was plenty, to Ava’s way of thinking. She was a little worried about this particular group. For one thing, Chloe Spencer, the woman who’d booked the rental, had made it clear she was the type of picky guest who was going to find fault with something. For another, they were staying for two weeks, which in Ava’s experience would be about eight days too long. People thought they wanted extended vacations until they actually took them; then they got bored being away from their homes and possessions. She might not have to interact much with her clients, but living on the top floor of the house as she did, she overheard plenty of conversations—and arguments.

  Usually, on the first day, people were tired from their traveling but thrilled with the house, the view and its proximity to the beach. Days two and three generally went well, too. Everyone fought on day four, however. Kids were sick of being dragged to boutiques and galleries. Adults were sick of the beach. Married couples were sick of each other. Day five could be sullen, but by day six of a weeklong trip, people realized their vacation was nearly over and they rallied, often drinking on the deck until the wee hours of the morning. On day seven there was the scramble of packing up, and by noon they were gone, leaving Ava to hurry and clean everything before a new party arrived.

  Add a whole extra week to that equation, and you got chaos. Not many people attempted it, and thank goodness some who did had a strategy in place. Those were the digital nomads who worked on their laptops part of the day or the retired couples on golfing vacations who’d made a science out of traveling together.

  It was the extended families and groups of friends who tended to overestimate just how much they really liked each other. Ava had a list of possible activities on hand to offer them, not that it helped much, but she hoped this time would be different. Chloe seemed extremely organized, and Ava would bet she had a plan for every day she and her friends would be in Seahaven.

  Besides, it wasn’t any of her business what her guests did. She was there to change lightbulbs or fix a clogged sink if necessary. Otherwise they were on their own.

  When she was done with the guest floors, Ava used the separate outside staircase to reach her third-story suite. Ready for a break, she picked up the photo album her aunt had sent to her one summer when Ava was traveling with her family in West Sumatra. Knowing Ava was desperately homesick and lonely, Aunt Laura had created a compendium of photos that captured all the places and people she routinely encountered during her days in Seahaven. That way Ava could better imagine the homey stories that filled Laura’s letters and emails. There were images of every room in the Blue House and the view from the back deck. The Cliff Garden and Sunset Beach were documented, as were the Santana Redwoods and Sunset Slough, two places Aunt Laura loved to explore.

  There were pictures of the grocery store where she liked to shop and the farm stand she visited every Wednesday and Saturday at Heaven on Earth farm, photos of the bank, the post office, the library and more. There were images of all her friends and acquaintances, too.

  Aunt Laura had sent her new photos to add over the years as people came and went from her life. Every summer, when Ava travelled with her family, Laura wrote to her often, comforting Ava with funny little stories about the town and the people in it. When Ava moved to Seahaven last December, she’d missed her aunt horribly, but she’d found herself meeting the same people whose photos she’d been staring at for years. Aunt Laura had given her a big head start in making Seahaven feel like home. She had several good friends and many acquaintances. If only she could find someone who loved the place as much as she did—a man who thought of Seahaven as his home.

  Someone who loved nature. Who loved being outside and learning new things. Someone who cared about the world, who could see the beauty in a rainstorm and the way water flowed across the land. The kind of guy who could slow down and watch a spider spin a web or stop traffic while a duck ushered its ducklings across the road.

  Did men like that exist? Men so at ease with themselves they had something left to give to others?

  Ava wasn’t sure anymore—or rather, she wasn’t sure those men were attracted to her. Noah struck her as filling those criteria, but Emma was special, the kind of woman everyone loved. Noah couldn’t keep his eyes off his new wife. He spent much of his day supporting her career choices, photographing the dishes for her cookbook, helping her with videos and social media. Todd had participated in Ava’s videos, but he’d always been the star.