He waved her off. “No thanks necessary. This beautiful lady is my Bonnie, and this one is her niece, Grace, who is engaged to Brian’s brother, Sean. And the brat who just walked by you like he owns the place is Jinx.” The dog sniffed around the dining area and the living room. “We just stopped by to see if you or your brother needed anything.”
Tess shook hands with both women. “It’s nice to meet all of you. Please, come in.” She held the door open for them, then closed it after everyone had entered. She flashed a hand toward her brother. “This is Andy. Andy, this is Agent Malone’s uncle, Dan Malone. And this is Bonnie and Grace.” She would have used their last names had she known them. “Mr. Malone owns this house and is letting us stay here.”
“Please, call me Dan, and I’m glad I could help you both out.”
Tess tilted her head toward the older man while glaring at her brother. It took a moment before he realized she wanted him to say something. As a typical teenager, Andy toasted the man with a forkful of pasta. “Thanks, uh... Dan.”
Shaking her head, she rolled her eyes before turning back to the trio. “Sorry. He’s at that age when the less said is better.”
Dan Malone chuckled as Jinx rejoined them, his tail wagging. “Try having three of them at that stage. KC, Brian, and Sean brooded like the best of them.”
She wouldn’t be surprised if that were true. Photographs of the brothers were scattered throughout the house, taken at various ages, some with and without their parents, and a few with their uncle. While Tess completely understood what it was like to lose both her parents at once, Brian and his brothers understood it more from a teenage boy’s perspective.
“We didn’t mean to interrupt your dinner,” Bonnie said. “We just stopped by to see if you needed anything and to take a walk on the beach. It’s such a beautiful evening.”
Tess gestured to her empty plate. “Oh, no worries. I’m finished. Andy eats like he’s got a bottomless stomach. If I don’t grab any food within the first minute of setting it down, it would be all gone.” When her brother scowled at her, she scrunched up her nose at him. “Just kidding.”
“If you’re done eating, would you like to take a walk with us?” Grace asked.
“Um, sure.”
“Andy, would you like to come too?”
He shook his head and swallowed the last bite of the meal. “No, thanks. I’ve got two finals tomorrow that I have to study for.”
Dan stepped toward Andy. “Have you found a job for the summer yet? Brian mentioned you were looking for one.”
“Uh, not yet. I figured I’d start asking around on Saturday.”
“Well, if you’re interested, I could use some help at my hardware store in town. The young man who’s been working for me for the last few years has a chance to study in England for the summer semester, so I’ll be shorthanded for the next two months.”
Andy glanced at Tess, then back to Dan. “Um, what would I be doing?”
The man shrugged. “Stocking shelves, helping customers find things, cleaning up, letting me know when some stock is low, stuff like that. Pays fifteen dollars per hour—thirty-two hours per week. I would need you on the weekends, but you’d have Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays off.”
Tess gave her brother a subtle nod, encouraging him to say yes. She knew he would put off looking for a job until the last minute, despite her urging. Although he didn’t seem thrilled about it, Andy replied, “That sounds okay. When would you need me to start?”
“Is this Saturday all right with you? Eight to four? Jimmy can train you for two days before he has to leave.”
“Sure.”
Dan smiled. “Good.”
“That will leave you some time each week to do some volunteer work too,” Tess reminded her brother.
“I can volunteer in the fall, after I go back to school.”
She knew better than to argue with him, especially in front of other people. At least he had a paying job for the summer. One out of two wasn’t bad. She trusted him to get the other stuff done, too, since he knew how important it was for the scholarships he wanted to apply for. As long as he had it done before the end of the year, it would still qualify. “Well, then, on your days off, you can take the driver’s ed course and get your provisional license.”
While he’d been eligible to get it for a while now, he hadn’t seemed to be in a rush to take the course after getting his permit, so Tess hadn’t pushed him. But last week, he’d expressed his interest in it, so she figured it was time.
“Really?”
“Of course.” Once he completed the class and had over sixty hours of supervised driving under his belt, she wanted to buy him a safe used car, so he wouldn’t have to borrow hers. But that wouldn’t be for another few months. For now, he kept his bicycle in the storage shed beneath the house and could use it to get to and from work every day, since it was only about seven or eight blocks into town. That made things easier on Tess—she wouldn’t have to chauffeur him around for most of the summer.
She pointed to the table. “Do me a favor and clean that up while I take a walk. Just put the dishes and glasses in the sink, and I’ll wash them when I get back.”
A few minutes later, she enjoyed a pleasant barefoot stroll down the beach with Dan, Bonnie, and Grace. Jinx was on a leash now, a ball clamped proudly in his mouth as he darted back and forth along the edge of the surf, dancing away each time the waves chased him up the sand. The sun was sinking to the west of Whisper, its low light spilling across the sky in streaks of rose and gold. Out over the water to the east, the horizon was darker, with a pale wash of lavender and silver where the waves caught the last of the light. The sand was cool now beneath her feet, the breeze lifting her hair and carrying the briny scent of the tide. Seagulls wheeled overhead, their cries sharp but somehow peaceful against the steady cadence of the surf.