Holly saw three boys approach Katie and Brittany. Her mom radar went on alert. Like all good moms, she swung her binoculars in their direction to make sure everything was okay. She recognized Craig Butler and the rest of the boys as being from Katie’s class. They were shoving each other around and trying to impress the girls with handstands in the sand and other ridiculous feats of bravery.
And then Craig borrowed a surfboard from a group of older teens.
Holly focused on that group. She recognized Craig’s older brother as the one who’d loaned him the board.
As Craig headed toward the water, her daughter sat up and watched him with rapt fascination.
Holly watched with him with lifeguard eyes. She didn’t know if the kid knew the first thing about surfing, or if she was watching a complete Barney on his first ride. His paddling looked efficient, no wasted strokes or fumbling. Still, paddling didn’t equal riding a wave.
A quick glance at the girls told her Katie wasn’t taking her gaze off Craig.
Yeah, maybe she should’ve thought sooner about teaching Katie to surf. Heck, she should’ve started at least seven years ago. She sighed. She and Steve had surfed a lot, and for a long time, just looking at her board saddened her. A couple of years after Steve had died, she’d moved both of their boards to the attic and locked them and the memories away.
Luckily for Craig, he was paddling in an approved area for surfing at this time of the year. He got out past the rolling waves and sat up on his board. He waved to the group watching. Holly swung her glasses around in time to see Katie stand and jump up and down, waving her arms in the air.
Her baby girl definitely had her first boy crush.
Holly quickly scanned the beach and water for activity. For some odd reason, the beach wasn’t as crowded as usual, but it was still early. Seeing that everything was calm, she refocused on Craig as he waited for the right wave.
She saw a fairly benign wave building behind him. He did, too. Lying flat, he began paddling in an attempt to catch it. As the water lifted his board, he rose to his feet like a pro and rode the wave to the shore.
Not his first time. To her left, she could hear the girls clapping while the guys whistled.
Getting Katie on a board climbed high on her list.
So did resigning her job.
Last night’s conversation had kept her awake late into the night. Her daughter was maturing and Holly needed to be there for Katie. She didn’t want to look back and regret missing the teen years.
On the other hand, argh. The teen years. She personally wouldn’t relive that time for a million dollars. Well, maybe a million dollars, but she’d have to think about that.
Later, just before her shift ended, her cell phone pinged with a text. The name Ben Blackwell popped up and she smiled.
What’s on your agenda tonight?
Nothing that I know of. Just getting off work.
Want to catch a movie? Maybe pizza before, then movie?
I’ll need to check with Katie and see if she has plans. I hate to leave her alone.
Especially after their conversation last night.
Invite her along.
[Laughing emoji] Last time I invited her to go to a movie with me, she said it was a gross idea. What movie?
Does it matter?
No blood and gore.
Wimp.
Yep and proud of it.
New Avatar movie. 3-D
Ohh. I loved the first one. I’ll get with the kiddo and back to you.
Later.
Katie and her friend had headed for home a couple of hours before Holly’s shift ended. Since her daughter wasn’t waiting on her, Holly took a few extra minutes to stop by the office and turn in her resignation notice. She’d been nervous that she might be leaving the lifeguard staff short, but her supervisor had taken the news with a calm acceptance and assured Holly that her position could be easily filled from the applications on file. While she was relieved the entire conversation went better than expected, she was a little nonplussed at how replaceable she was.
“You home?” Holly called from the kitchen as she entered the house. “Katie? You here?”
“Yeah. I’m in my room.”
Holly walked to her daughter’s room. “Ben asked if we wanted to go to get pizza and see a movie.”
Katie looked up from her computer and scoffed. “That is so—”
“Gross. I know. But I thought maybe you’d want to invite a friend.”
“Mom.” The girl