“You got it, kiddo.”
We settled there, and Aya joined us, a jar half full of shells in her hand. She smiled at me as she pushed up her sunglasses.
“I found something for you,” she said.
“What’s that?”
She opened her other hand. In it was a conch. It was pale, pearlescent. Perfect.
“Pretty!” Levi exclaimed.
“Ay…”
“I know,” she whispered.
I met her gaze. “It’s going on my nightstand.”
“I want one,” Levi pouted.
Her smile widened. “Good.”
My lips brushed over hers, even as I slid the shell into the pocket of my board shorts.
“I want a shell!” Levi said again, louder.
I pulled back, my gaze still locked with Aya’s. “You have twenty-three in the jar already.”
“Not one like yours,” Levi pouted.
I cleared my throat. “We’ll look for one for you.”
“Okay,” he said, the slight frown still pulling at his brows.
He must have sensed the shell was special, and he didn’t like being left out. But the conch, like the malas Aya wore on her wrist and around her neck every day, was ours. Still, Aya and I helped Levi search for another conch until he grew bored and settled into the surf.
“We still need to agree on a name,” Aya murmured. She wrapped an arm around her belly as she sat next to our son, who kicked his legs, flinging water and foam everywhere. She smiled.
“Takes time to pick the right one,” I said. I lowered myself next to her and kissed her temple. “But we’ll get there.”
I wrapped an arm around her and brought Levi into my lap, enjoying the warmth of the sun and sand and the closeness of my family.
* * *
End
Please join my mailing list to learn more about my newest releases, subscriber-only scenes (check out the one in the back of Deep in the Heart!), and excerpts that I send out weeks or months before a book launch.
Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this series, I’d greatly appreciate you writing a line or two on your favorite retailer about it. That’s what helps other readers decide to pick it up!
Want to read more about Cam and Jenna’s story? That makes me so, so happy. Click on the cover to go to your preferred retailer.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Tina Glasneck for putting up with my millions of questions even when she had to have much better things to do.
Thank you to my beta readers. This book wouldn’t have been the same without you!!! You ladies ROCK.
Jessica Royer Ocken, your patience with my idea to write a four-part book was immense, and your attention to detail amazing.
Thanks to Charity Chimni for your amazing proofreading skills.
And, as always, to Chris. You help me in so many ways. Thank you for all that you do (and for putting up with my crazy all these years).
About the Author
USA TODAY Best-Selling Author Alexa Padgett's books have garnered recognition from Kirkus Reviews, The Romance Reviews, Publishers Weekly’s The BookLife Prize, National Indie Excellence Awards, and Readers' Favorites. Her novel, Deep in the Heart, has been added to myriad Goodreads “Best” lists and her mystery, A Pilgrimage to Death, which she writes under the pen name J. J. Cagney, topped international Amazon bestseller lists.
Alexa spent a good part of her youth traveling. From Budapest to Belize, Calgary to Coober Pedy, she soaked in the myriad smells, sounds, and feels of these gorgeous places, wishing she could live in them all--at least for a while. And she does in her books.
She lives in New Mexico with her husband, children, and Great Pyrenees pup, Ash. When not writing, schlepping, or volunteering, she can be found in her tiny kitchen, channeling her inner Barefoot Contessa.
Also by Alexa Padgett