(Complete) Lacey Sherman hasn't been searching until her sister intervenes. When she drives to the coast of southern Maine, she finds more than expected.
Reed Davis hasn't been searching until the beautiful girl on the beach makes him believe in lov...
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The knock at Sasha Davis' door should have surprised her, but it never did. She smiled warmly when she saw her ex-husband standing on her doorstep.
She laughed. "Just in the neighborhood?"
"Would you believe I have the hankering for a lobster roll?" He held up a medium-sized paper bag.
"I believe you have the hankering for something."
He laughed. At fifty-four with distinguished gray running through his dark hair, Henry Davis, known to everyone as just Davis, was a handsome man. Their marriage didn't fail because he didn't love her, just as Sasha would always love him. She was loyal once she loved a person, she never stopped. Even after Davis strayed and ruined their marriage, underneath the hurt was love.
"What happened to... to I can't remember her name?"
"Carley. She realized I was serious about no children. If I wanted another child, I would have had one with you."
She smiled but felt an emptiness. "I wasn't ready, and now I'm too old."
"I'm sorry, Sash."
Davis had a vasectomy not long after their marriage ended. Sasha had felt disappointed to learn of it just as she was ready to give motherhood a real try. She wouldn't have taken him back, but she may have shared a sibling for Reed with him. Instead, Davis' son Reed didn't even know about his father's visits to Maine. It was pure luck because both Davis men had a habit of showing up without a text or phone call. Davis came for her company and warmth. Reed came to surf and often to vent about his father.
She handed him a bottle of white wine to open. He took the corkscrew out of the drawer. Whenever he visited, she stepped back in time and it felt like the cottage they had shared together. It was never their home, but they spent weekends together in the summer at the beach. After the divorce, Sasha moved from Massachusetts to the cottage on The Point. He awarded her the place of Puffin Way in the settlement. The small beach community in southern Maine was her family.
They talked over the famous sandwiches, mostly about Reed. Sasha loved the boy like her own, even though there were only thirteen years between step-mother and stepson. He was ten, and she was twenty-three when she married Davis. At almost thirty, Reed worked for Davis as an architect. When Davis wasn't cuddling up to a woman, he spent all his time building a successful architecture firm. Sasha had always felt closest to Davis at the cottage where he had allowed himself to relax and enjoy his family.
She never regretted marrying the man eleven years older than her. She wished he could have been faithful, but he wasn't wired for monogamy. Call her foolish for welcoming him, because Davis drove to Maine from Massachusetts to stay the night, to share her bed. She only allowed it between his relationships. It was a pattern, and she often felt foolish and weak, but never turned him away.
The light of dawn cast shadows on the wall as Sasha rolled over and gazed into Davis' relaxed face. He looked like the man she married. Her heart felt a mingling of love and nostalgia. It was easy to get lost in the past whenever he returned to her. She felt special to be the one he loved the most, the one he returned to. He was friendly with Marnie, his first wife, Reed's mother, but she had moved on before Davis met Sasha.
