Seaview Inn by Sherryl Woods Page B

them than you realize.”
    “I don’t think so. We always argued about everything. You don’t know what it was like.”
    Kelsey chuckled. “Really? Come on, Mom. Think about it. You and I have our moments. It comes with the territory. It wasn’t until the past couple of years, when we’ve had some space between us, that we stopped arguing and started treating each other like actual people, instead of mother and daughter. You just moved away from here so I don’t think that ever happened between you and your mom. She was actually pretty amazing.”
    “Well, I know that,” her mother responded, that defensive note creeping back into her voice.
    “Do you really? Did you know she was on her college swim team? Did you know that she was the first woman president of the Chamber of Commerce here?” Kelsey saw the flush in her mother’s cheeks. “You didn’t, did you?”
    “No. How do you know that?”
    “Because we talked, just like you and I are doing now. Every day I was here, we would walk on the beach and she’d tell me stories about this place and her life. And at night, on the porch, Grandma Jenny would tell me things about her past, too.”
    “Such as?”
    “She won a prize once for doing the tango in a dance competition.”
    “Grandma Jenny? You have to be kidding.”
    Kelsey chuckled at her stunned reaction. “Not kidding. It’s true. She and Great-Grandpa could really dance. He sang, too.”
    “In the church choir,” her mother said slowly. “I remember hearing him when I was little.”
    “Not just in the choir. With a band. They played all over Florida. She showed me pictures.”
    Her mother turned to her with a bewildered expression. “How did I miss all this?”
    Kelsey shrugged. “Maybe you never asked or never listened.”
    “Probably not.”
    “Let’s never be like that, Mom, okay?”
    “Never again, ” Hannah said pointedly.
    “I love you,” Kelsey said impulsively, giving her a fierce hug.
    “Love you more.”
    “Thanks for letting me come here. I know you’d be happier if I were in school, but I need this time to think and I needed to do that here. Not even in New York, but right here with you and Grandma Jenny.”
    Maybe on Seaview Key she could start to understand who she really was and where she came from in a way that would be impossible anywhere else. Maybe she could figure out what family was supposed to be, so the thought of creating one of her own wouldn’t be so absolutely terrifying.

6
    L uke managed to avoid Hannah for most of the day. First, he’d gone to the mainland with Grandma Jenny to exchange the paint she and Hannah had bought. When they got home late in the afternoon, he made an excuse about needing some time to himself and walked into town.
    Seaview’s official downtown, which was a few blocks farther away from the inn than the mom-and-pop grocery store he’d walked to the night before, had grown over the years, but it still wasn’t much. There were two or three new restaurants, maybe half a dozen clothing boutiques and gift and antiques stores, and a couple of places that called themselves art galleries. He was no expert, but the works on display seemed more like some of the crafts his kids brought home from school than high-end art. Still, it made him smile to see that Seaview had gone upscale. In the old days, those spaces had sold bait and tackle and cheap T-shirts.
    Though he’d had no particular destination in mind when he’d left the inn, he found himself in front of The Fish Tale, an unpretentious place that used to offer the best grouper sandwiches he’d ever tasted, along with ice-cold beer. The memory of that particular combination drew him inside.
    He aimed straight for the bar and was stunned when he recognized the man behind it. Jackson Ferguson—Jack to his friends—had opened the place thirty years ago. Luke could remember the occasion as if it had been yesterday. As rustic as it was, it was the first real restaurant, besides the