he shifted from one foot to the other. Alex began pulling out the cooler.
“Do you need some help?” Katie asked.
He shook his head. “I can handle this. But would you mind putting some sunscreen on the kids and keeping an eye on them for a few minutes? I know they’re excited to be here.”
“That’s fine,” she said, turning to Kristen and Josh. “Are you two ready?”
Alex spent the next few minutes ferrying the items from the car, setting up camp near the picnic table closest to the dune, where high tide wouldn’t encroach. Though there were a few other families, for the most part they had this section of beach to themselves. Katie had slipped off her sandals and was standing at the water’s edge as the kids splashed in the shallows. Her arms were crossed and even from a distance, Alex noticed a rare expression of contentment on her face.
He slung a couple of towels over his shoulder as he approached. “It’s hard to believe there was a storm yesterday, isn’t it?”
She turned at the sound of his voice. “I forgot how much I missed the ocean.”
“Been awhile?”
“Too long,” she said, listening to the steady rhythm of the waves as they gently rolled ashore.
Josh ran in and out of the waves, while off to the side Kristen crouched, searching for collectible seashells.
“It must be hard sometimes, raising them on your own,” Katie observed.
Alex hesitated, considering it. When he spoke, his voice was soft. “Most of the time, it isn’t so bad. We kind of get into a rhythm, you know? In our daily lives? It’s when we do things like this—where there is no rhythm—that it sometimes gets frustrating.” He kicked briefly at the sand, making a small furrow at their feet. “When my wife and I talked about having a third child, she tried to warn me that a third child would mean moving from ‘man-to-man’ to ‘zone’ defense. She used to joke that she wasn’t sure I was up to it. But here I am, in zone defense every day…” he trailed off, shaking his head. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Said what?”
“It seems like every time I talk to you, I end up talking about my wife.”
For the first time, she turned to him. “Why shouldn’t you talk about your wife?”
He pushed a pile of sand back and forth, smoothing over the ditch he’d just made. “Because I don’t want you to think that I can’t talk about anything else. That all I do is live in the past.”
“You loved her very much, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” he answered.
“And she was a major part of your life and the mother of your kids, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then it’s okay to talk about her,” she said. “You should talk about her. She’s part of who you are.”
Alex flashed a grateful smile but couldn’t think of anything to say. Katie seemed to read his mind, and when she spoke, her voice was gentle. “How did the two of you meet?”
“We met in a bar, of all places. She was out with some girlfriends celebrating someone’s birthday. It was hot and crowded and the lights were low and the music was loud, and she just… stood out. I mean, all her friends were a little out of control and it was obvious that all of them were having a good time, but she was as cool as can be.”
“I’ll bet she was beautiful, too.”
“That goes without saying,” he said. “So, swallowing my nervousness, I wandered over and proceeded to use every ounce of charm I had at my disposal.”
When he paused, he noticed the smile playing at the corners of her lips.
“And?” she asked.
“And it still took me three hours to get so much as a name and phone number from her.”
She laughed. “And let me guess. You called the next day, right? And asked her out?”
“How would you know that?”
“You seem like the type.”
“Spoken like someone who’s been hit on more than a few times.”
She shrugged, leaving it open to interpretation. “Then what?”
“Why do you want to hear this?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But I do.”
He studied her. “Fair enough,” he finally said. “So anyway—as you already magically knew—I asked her out to lunch and we spent the rest of the afternoon talking. That weekend, I told her that the two of us would get married one day.”
“You’re kidding.”
“I know it sounds crazy. Believe me, she thought it was crazy, too. But I just… knew. She was smart and kind and we had