Read The Topsail Accord for Free Online Page B

Fridays? Rest day?”
    “ Nope.”
    “ Do I have to guess?” she asks.
    “ Nope. If you really want to know, meet me here at seven. Walking around or hiking clothes will work.”
    “ But we’re not running?”
    “ Nope,” he says.
    She smiles a little girl smile, not quite a night before Christmas smile, not even a night before your birthday smile. But a little girl smile like when Dad is coming home from a business trip and he might have something little in his suitcase for you smile.
    But then the smile disappears and she realizes that he is asking her to meet her at his coffee shop to go to places unknown to do things unknown and while she knows that his name is Joe and that he says he is forty-nine and nearly fifty that she knows nothing else about him.
    “ I don’t know,” she says. A run on the beach, starting and ending at her house is something that she has been able to accommodate into her world. But this? A date with a man she just met to do something unspecified.
    He senses her retreat and guesses at the cause.
    “ Bring some other people with you. There’s going to be a small group anyway, maybe like five or six others.”
    “ Others?” she asks. “Other women?”
    “ Other people, from here, who all know me. My sister will be coming too.”
    “ Your sister? From the spa?”
    “ Yes.”
    She reconsiders, figures that the small group will be safe.
    “ Seven. Walking around clothes. And if you want me to be functional at seven oh five, please consider having a grande ready for me. And not a half regular, half decaf. Fully leaded.”
    “ Got it,” Joe answers.
    “ If you want my sister to be functional, you better have a double espresso grande ready for her!”

Shannon
     
    “ So did you decide whether he was handsome?” Cara asks her sister Shannon.
    “ I forgot to look. But you can look closely tomorrow and let me know,” Shannon answers.
    “ What are you talking about?” Cara asks.
    “ Tomorrow morning. You’re coming with me to his coffee shop, at seven, to do something for which ‘walking around or hiking clothes’ are appropriate.”
    “ Are you joking? Exercising at seven?”
    “ He’s going to have a double espresso ready for you.”
    “ Why didn’t you say so?”

Joe
     
    “ Was that the same sundress from yesterday?” Joe’s sister asks.
    “ I don’t know. Was it?” Joe answers.
    “ Yes it was,” his sister answers.
    “ And?” Joe prods.
    “ And you’d think that someone who owns the biggest house on the beach would own two sundresses,” she says.
    Joe rolled his eyes. “What do you think people say about me and my wardrobe?” Joe asks.
    “ I know exactly what people say about you and your wardrobe,” she answers.
    “ Because you are the person who talks most frequently about my wardrobe?”
    “ Maybe. If you can call ten t-shirts, two pairs of jeans, a dozen pair of running shorts, one pair of khakis and one polo a wardrobe.”
    Joe smiles at his sister.
    “ I love you too,” he says.
    “ But she must be wealthy to own the biggest house on the beach and not even rent it out,” she says.
    “ Enough,” Joe says.
    “ And she has a cottage too?”
    “ Were you eaves-dropping?” Joe asks.
    “ No.”
    Joe stares at his sister.
    “ Yes,” she admits.
    “ Please don’t. Please just let this be. Please stay out of it,” Joe says.
    She scrunches up her face and returns to the nail salon.

Shannon
     
    He didn’t flinch when I asked him not to pretend. Okay, I told him not to pretend. And he agreed. I could tell he didn’t like the berries, but he choked them down anyway. On the one hand it probably means he likes me. But on the other hand it means he isn’t honest. I need honesty in my life.
    Honesty with myself, and from others.
    So what’s my honesty here? Two coffee dates, a jog, and a mystery date for tomorrow morning where I can bring my sister? What’s my honesty?
    He is attractive. He’s older. Ten years older. Does that matter to