Cara considered this as she walked a few paces. “Afraid not. Everyone I know has either rented their house or isn’t renting at all and moved in themselves to shelter in place here.”

“Exactly. So…” Linnea sneaked a quick glance at Cara, who was looking straight ahead toward the ocean. “He’s asked to move in with me.”

Cara swung her head around to look at Linnea. “In the beach house?”

“Yep.”

Cara reached out and linked arms with her. Linnea felt a gush of relief at the touch. “Is that what you want?”

“Well, he is my boyfriend. Albeit absentee. I might be in love with him. We’ve been separated for so long… I was hoping to find that out this summer.”

“But you missed him?” It was a question.

“Oh yes. A lot. We were planning on being a couple this summer. But I didn’t plan on living together.”

“But he needs a place to stay.”

“Right.”

“Is this what you want?”

Linnea hesitated.

Cara seized on this. “If you are moving in with him because you feel you should do it—don’t.”

“But you said the beach house is a safe haven. That we should offer it to others.”

“True. But Linnea, first of all, your home is supposed to be a safe place for you.”

“I feel safe with Gordon.…”

“Then I ask again, is this what you want to do?”

Linnea nodded, deciding in her own mind. “Yes.”

“Okay, then.”

“I don’t want to overstep my bounds by inviting him to the beach house. It’s your house, your rules.”

Cara turned to look at her and removed her sunglasses. Linnea felt the power of her aunt’s gaze.

“No, Linnea. You live there now. It’s your home. It’s your rules.” She paused and slipped her sunglasses back on. “And your consequences.”

chapter nine

Sometimes it was the little things that cheered people up.

May

COOPER COULDN’T PEDAL the old beach cruiser bike fast enough. His head was bent and he pushed like it was a Peloton class. Two weeks in quarantine under his parents’ roof and he was about to lose his mind. He had to get out of the house. Twenty-one years of age, and every morning at seven sharp his father called out, “Up and at ’em!”

His mother, God love her, kept shoveling food his way. So much food. Julia had asked him to sit at the dining table, but he’d played the coronavirus card big-time, using it to stay confined in his room. His father was already passing him the blueprints of the house he was building, telling him he needed a good man on the job. How it’d be father and son, working together, building an empire.

Cooper had worked construction during high school summer breaks and knew his way around a hammer. It was hard work, but he’d enjoyed it. He liked being outdoors. Sure, he’d take a job, gratefully. They were hard to come by these days. But working for his father was dancing on the head of a pin. And to be honest, he was pissed that his father had lost the import/export company. That was the job Cooper was interested in. He puffed out air. He and his father had never shared the same dreams.