I didn’t know why, but I was incredibly nervous about going to Caspian’s house for the day on the beach with his daughter and mother. I changed my sundress at least four times until finally looking at myself in the mirror and demanding that I find my brave. I drove over with a bottle of wine, not knowing what else to bring since he said they would have everything. When I pulled up, I could see Bella running around on the beach in the back, and I smiled at her little pink ruffled bathing suit. Her brown wavy hair blew around wildly, and her arms were high in the air, taking in the warm sunshine. Before I could get to the door, an older woman with sweet blue eyes and greyed, dirty blonde hair opened up the door.

“You must be the wonderful Lacey,” she said, opening up her arms and bringing me in for a hug. “I’m Betty, Caspian’s mother. I’ve heard so many amazing things about you.”

“Thank you,” I said, overwhelmed by the welcome. “I’ve heard equally amazing things about Grandma Betty.”

“They were most certainly the truth,” she said, smiling. “Come in, come in. Caspian and Bella are outside cooking on the grill, and I was just finishing up the potato salad and water cress salad.”

“Oh, may I help?”

“Well, I’ll never turn down some help.” She smiled.

I followed her into the kitchen and set my purse and wine down on the breakfast bar. I looked around at all the food and wondered if this was a party or not. My grandmother used to do the same thing, invite five people over and cook for fifty.

“So, Caspian says you just moved here from New York,” she said excitedly. “I just love New York, or I did in the sixties when I visited with Caspian’s father. God Rest his soul.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I had no idea,” I said sheepishly.

“It’s alright, dear,” she replied. “It’s been years. Why did you move here?”

“My grandparents owned a home just five minutes away, and when they passed six years ago, they left it to me,” I said.

“Six years ago? They wouldn’t happen to have been Martha and Stewart Pierce?”

“Yes,” I said, smiling. “That was them.”

“Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry,” she said. “They were the loveliest of people. Martha volunteered with us at the schools all the time. She was a teacher before retirement, right?”

“She was, and that was why I decided to become a teacher,” I said proudly. “I used to come here as a child every summer and stay with them.”

“Wait,” she said, turning toward me. “I think I remember you from a bake sale that we did one year. You couldn’t have been older than nine or ten.”

“Was it the one with the clowns?”

“Yes.” She laughed. “Those damn clowns scared all the kids.”

“That was me,” I replied, smiling.

“What a small world,” she said, looking at me and handing me a bowl of food. “Come on, let’s join the others. I’m starving.”

I smiled, feeling good about the fact that Betty knew my grandparents. They were really loved people. When they died, at both of their funerals, there wasn’t enough room to house everyone during the service. We ended up moving it outside by the water.

As I walked out into the sunlight, Caspian looked up from the grill and smiled big.

“Hello there. I see my mother already put you to work.” He laughed.

“I volunteered.” I smiled.

“That’s right, she volunteered like a good child would do,” she said, swatting him playfully with the towel.

“You’re making me look bad,” he said with a wink.

“Lacey,” Bella screamed, running up on the deck and throwing her sandy body into my arms.

“Hi, beautiful,” I said, smiling. “Are you having fun?”

“Oh, yeah,” she said, giggling at her grandma who was sticking her tongue out at her.

“Alright, who is hungry?”

“Me,” Bella said, squirming out of my arms and running to the table.

We all sat around eating lunch and talking, listening to Bella tell us all about the turtle she saw earlier on the beach. Betty was an amazing grandmother to Bella, and she seemed like such a wonderful lady. After lunch, while Betty cleaned Bella up, Caspian snuck over and leaned down in my ear.

“Come sneak away with me for a few minutes,” he said.

I smiled and took his hand, trotting down the stairs and out on the beach. We walked along the sand, him reaching over and taking my hand. Just the feeling of his warm skin against mine brought heat to my body, and I could feel my cheeks blushing. I was really starting to like this guy and his family, too.

“This has been a lot of fun,” I said, looking over at him.

“It has been, hasn’t it?”

“You seem surprised.” I laughed.

“No, it’s not that,” he said, kicking the sand as he walked. “I just don’t do things like this ever, so it is really nice.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” he said.

“I see all these pictures of Bella’s mother but not a word about her? Is she close by?”

“I know you are curious about this,” he said, stopping and looking at me. “But I don’t think I am ready to talk about it just yet.”

“Alright.” I smiled. “Then you don’t have to tell me anything. Let’s just move on.”

“Thank you,” he said, leaning down and kissing my cheek.

We walked along the beach quietly for about a half an hour before returning back and sitting down on the beach with Betty and Bella. Bella was building a sand castle, and Caspian immediately jumped in, grabbing some tools and telling Bella he would build her a monster castle. I watched him build the most amazing sand castle I had ever seen and laughed as Bella went barreling right into it, knocking it to the ground with loud laughter.

The sun was starting to go down over the water, so we gathered our things and headed back to the house, where Betty put a lasagna in the oven while Caspian got Bella in the bath to wash all the sand off of her. When dinner was almost ready, I helped set the table and opened the bottle of wine that I had brought over. We all gathered around the table and ate, listening to Betty tell stories about Caspian when he was a boy.

“He was a bit of a wild child.” Betty laughed. “I can remember more than once finding him drunk with his buddies, passed out on the beach with a horrible sunburn.”

“Hey, that sunburn turned to a golden crisp tan,” he said. “All the ladies loved it.”

“Yeah, once you were able to sit down again.” She laughed.

“What about that time you went out on the dingy that I told you would never float, and you ended up being rescued by the coast guard?”

“You act like it was so dramatic.” He laughed. “I was about half a mile from shore on a calm day. And you were the one that called the coast guard to come check on me.”

“It was a good thing I did.” She smiled. “You are welcome, son.”

“Then you had all the coast guard guys in for dinner, and they cracked jokes on me all night.” He grimaced.

“It is the penalty you pay for not listening to your mother.” She smirked.

“You are too much.” He laughed.

“I want to meet the Coast Board,” Bella said.

“It’s Coast Guard, sweetie,” Betty said, wiping her mouth. “And I’m sure if you are even a quarter of the child your father was, you will get that chance.”

We all laughed loudly, watching Bella’s confused face. It made me feel like I was back with my grandmother again, with her spicy personality and humor. I missed her in that moment, but being with them made it a little bit easier. Caspian breathed deeply, pulling his arms over his head and stretching.

“I think it is about your bedtime, little lady,” he said, looking at Bella.

“Aww,” she pouted.

“You have learning to do tomorrow,” I pointed out.

“Oh yeah,” she perked up. “Okay, I’ll go to bed.”

“Really?” Caspian looked at her and then back at me in shock. “I’m pretty sure that has never happened in her whole five years.”

“What can I say? It’s magic.” I smiled, winking at Bella.

“On that note, Grandma Betty is going to hit the road before she has another glass of wine and gets crazy,” she said, tickling Bella. “I love you, sweet girl. I will see you soon.”

“Love you, Grandma,” she said in her sweet little voice.

“It was lovely meeting you,” she said, looking at me sweetly.

“You too, Betty,” I said.

She left for the night, and Caspian put Bella to bed. She was out almost immediately, and I smiled at Caspian as he walked out, shuffling along the floor. I held up the bottle of wine, and he nodded quickly, making me giggle. I poured us both a glass of wine and followed him over to the window, looking out into the darkness of the ocean.

“That was a good day,” he said, tapping my glass.

“It was,” I replied, turning and looking at him.

He paused and looked deeply into my eyes, making my hand shake slightly. He leaned over and set his glass down on the table and stood back up, looking at me again. I bit my bottom lip and shifted in my stance, hoping he was about to kiss me again.

“I want to do this right,” he whispered, cupping my face in his hands.

He leaned forward and kissed me, softly at first and then deeply. I leaned into him, almost dropping my glass of wine. He took it from me and set it down, grabbing me by the hand and pulling me across the room and down the hall. My heart was beating about a million miles a minute as I walked into the dark bedroom and while he carefully closed the door. I turned and looked at him, grasping my shaking hands together. He leaned forward and kissed my cheek as his hands slipped down my arms and grasped my hands. He pulled them to his belt buckle, and I looked up in his eyes, immediately feeling the heat in his eyes.

As I slowly worked his belt loose, he untied the tie on my dress that held it up around my neck and scooted it down over my hips, letting it fall to the floor. He grabbed onto my breasts and began to massage them, pulling the breath from my lungs. I finished undoing his shorts, looking down at the huge bulge in his boxer briefs. I pulled his shirt over his head and ran my hands down his huge chest muscles, watching them flex in the light of the moon cascading through the window. He pushed me backward onto the bed and pulled my panties off, tossing them to the side. I saw his mood change from passion to lust, and I bit my lips as his face dove down between my legs. I rolled my eyes backward and screamed out, feeling his hot tongue run up my wet pussy without pause.

He grabbed onto my thighs and pulled me closer to his face, going crazy through my juices with his mouth. I reached out and grabbed onto the bed, never feeling anything like that before in my life. I closed my eyes and focused on his mouth swirling over my clit, feeling everything like it was the first time. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I knew right then that I wanted more.