Page 26 of The Beachside Rental

“Jenna?”Simon’s voice drew her from her thoughts.She blinked and glanced his way.“Are you okay?”

“Um...yeah.”No.Not really.The loss of her father still left a gaping hole in her heart.“Why?”

“Because we’ve been sitting at this stop sign for a while now.”

Without a word, she punched the accelerator.It jerked them both in their seats.

“If you ever want to talk,” he said, “I’ve been told I’m a pretty good listener.”

“Talking about the market made me think of my father.He, um...he passed away a little bit ago.Ever since then, things just aren’t the same at the market.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Thanks.You would have liked him.He was a people person.He could talk to anyone.”She was surprised to find it felt good to talk about him.

When she was around her siblings, no one talked about him.Sure, they’d throw his name around when they were at work—using what they thought he would and wouldn’t have approved of as a way to convince the other siblings to do something.Outside of work, they never talked about him and the fun memories they had of him.It was like they were all afraid they would get lost in the grief or something.

“I’m sorry I’ll never get to meet him.”

“He would have liked you and Gus.”Just then they pulled up in front of their duplex.

Simon was quick to get out of the cart.At the beginning of the edge of the sidewalk, he paused and turned to her.“Thank you for lunch.You were right.The food was really good.I’ll definitely be going back there.”

“I’m glad you liked it.Maybe we can do it again sometime.”

He smiled and nodded.“I’d like that.Well, I need to go let Gus out.He probably thinks I forgot about him.”

She nodded.“And I have some stuff to do.”

She didn’t.Not really.But she didn’t want to sound pathetic—like she didn’t have a life outside of work.

As she watched Simon walk away, she was distracted when a cart pulled up.She turned to find it was Myra.

Myra got out and walked up to her.“I heard you had lunch with McHottie.”

Jenna groaned.“Don’t call him that.”

“Why not?It’s true, right?”

Jenna didn’t want to answer her sister’s question.It would just egg her on.“What are you doing here?”

“Can’t I visit my sister?”

Jenna shrugged.“Sure.Come on.I think I’m going to need some coffee.”

She had a feeling that Simon was going to come up a lot in their conversation.She’d need the caffeine to keep from falling into one of her sister’s word traps.

The words flowed, one after the other.

Simon spent the rest of the afternoon on the back deck.He defeated the blinking cursor.His fingers moved so quickly over the keyboard that the cursor didn’t have a chance to blink at him.It was like the writer’s block had disappeared, and now his fingers were struggling to keep up with the words that flowed from his mind.

He’d just finished the fourth chapter of his book, when he had a thought.He reached for his notebook where he jotted down ideas that would impact the book later down the line.That’s when he remembered his favorite pen was missing.

It was an expensive pen that had his name engraved on it.It had been a present from his parents when he’d gotten his first book published.His mother liked to say that a writer should have a special pen.

He got to his feet and looked around.He didn’t think the pen could fall between the boards of the deck.He searched his chair.It was nowhere to be found.How could that be?Two pens were now missing.At this rate, he’d have to buy a case of them.

Still, this wasn’t any pen.He needed to find it.He must have left it inside.Yes, that must be it.He would look for it when he went inside.