“Yes! I’m going to text Grant, see if he can do some extra sessions this week. I want a perfect bikini body.”
“You already have one.”
“That’s my sweet husband talking. We’ll see what my hard-assed personal trainer says. Oh!” She hopped up. “I need to shop.”
“Right now we have to get back downstairs.”
The flicker of annoyance marred her face before she smoothed it away. “Okay. You’re right, but give me a couple minutes to fix my face.”
“Your face is gorgeous, as always.”
“Sweet husband.” She pointed at him as she started toward her makeup counter. Then stopped. “Thanks, Aidan. These past few weeks, with all the tributes, the memorials, it’s been hard on all of us. A few days away, well, that’ll be good for us. I’ll be right down.”
While her parents made up, Cate organized a game of hide-and-seek as the final outdoor game of the day. Always a favorite when the family gathered, the game had its rules, restrictions, and bonus points.
In this case, the rules included outdoors only—as several of the adults had decreed no running inside. The It got a point for every hider found, with the first found designated as the next It. If that hider, now It, was five or under, he or she could choose a partner on the following hunt.
If a hider went three rounds without being found, that meant ten bonus points.
And since Cate had been planning this game all day, she knew how to win them.
She darted off when Boyd, age eleven, started the countdown as the first It. Since Boyd lived in New York like his grandmother, he only visited Big Sur a couple times a year at most. He didn’t know the grounds like she did.
Plus, she had a fresh hiding place already picked out.
She rolled her eyes as she saw her five-year-old cousin Ava crawl under the white cloth of a food table. Boyd would find Ava in two minutes.
She nearly backtracked to show Ava a better spot, but it was every kid for herself!
Most of the guests had gone, and more were taking their leave. But a lot of adults still milled around the patios, the outdoor bars, or sat around one of the firepits. Remembering why, she felt a pang.
She’d loved her great-grandda. He’d always had a story to tell, and lemon drops in his pocket. She’d cried and cried when her daddy told her Grandda had gone to heaven. He’d cried, too, even when he told her Grandda had had a long, happy life. How he’d meant so much to so many, and would never be forgotten.
She thought of his line from the movie they’d made together, while he sat with her on a stone wall, looking over the land.
“A life’s marked along the way, darlin’, by the deeds we do, for good or ill. Those we leave behind judge those marks, and remember.”
She remembered lemon drops and hugs as she scurried to the garage, and around the side. She could still hear voices, from the patios and terraces, the walled garden. Her goal? The big tree. If she climbed to the third branch, she could hide behind the thick trunk, in the green leaves that smelled so good, ten feet up.
Nobody would find her!
Her hair—Celtic black—flew behind her as she ran. Her nanny, Nina, had tucked it back at the sides with butterfly pins to keep it out of her face. Her eyes, bold and blue, danced as she flew out of sight of the multitiered house, far beyond the guest cottage with its steps leading down to the little beach, and the pool that overlooked the sea.
She’d had to wear a dress for the first part of the day, to be respectful, but Nina had laid out her play clothes for after. She still had to be careful of the sweater, but knew it was okay to get her jeans dirty.
“I’m going to win,” she whispered as she reached up for the first branch of the California bay, put her purple (currently her favorite color) sneaker in the little knothole for purchase.
She heard a sound behind her and, though she knew it couldn’t be Boyd, not yet, her heart jumped.
She caught a glimpse of the man in a server’s uniform, with a blond beard and hair pulled back in a ponytail. He wore sunglasses that shot the light back at her.
She grinned, put a finger to her lips. “Hide-and-seek,” she told him.
He smiled back. “Want a boost?” He nodded, then moved forward