Read Online Life's a Beach by Claire Cook - Free Book Online Page A

up long tables on the sidewalks in front of their shops, and a farmers’ market featuring local produce took up the center of the street. Craftspeople and a couple of mortgage brokers occupied the remaining space.

    I sat down on a bench at the edge of the sidewalk and started reading the flyer. Wow, these people were serious—they even had T-shirts you could order. CHILDFREE BY CHOICE. PARENT YOURSELF. FAMILY OF ONE. NO KIDDING. I COULD HAVE KIDS, BUT I JUST DON’T LIKE THEM . Not only that, but there were
activities for married or single adults who have never had children
. I scanned the list. The Chocolate Trolley Tour sounded good, but it also seemed like something I’d bring one of the kids to so I didn’t have to go alone. Riley loved chocolate.

    I looked up. A guy was staring straight at me from one of the booths. “AA?” he asked.

    “Excuse me?” I said.

    He nodded toward the hall. “Did you just come out of an AA meeting?”

    I sat up a little straighter. “Nah, they make me too thirsty.”

    He brushed some hair away from his face and smiled. “Not very PC,” he said.

    “I have that tendency,” I said. I folded up the flyer and stuffed it into my pocket.

    He watched me do it. “So,” he said. “What kind of meeting was it?”

    “I can’t remember,” I said.

    “Hmm,” he said. “Well, I guess I could go in there and find out. For both of us.”

    I shrugged. “I guess you could. But then someone might steal your stuff.”

    “Good point,” he said.

    “Childfree by Choice,” I said. “I was just lurking.”

    He tilted his head to one side. “Childfree by Choice in a Catholic church? Isn’t that philosophically inconsistent?”

    “Church hall,” I said. “Maybe there’s an equal opportunity rental clause.”

    “Actually,” he said, “I was just wondering if the meeting was about to get out. Whether I should wait around for a few minutes or pack it in now.”

    Somehow I ended up helping him break his booth down. He introduced me to Sage, his cute, redheaded mutt, who followed his every move with such clear adoration that it seemed to me it would be a lot to live up to. I’d never really thought about it before, but Boyfriend’s indifference was a whole lot less pressure.

    “Do you live in Marshbury?” I asked.

    “Yeah, I’ve lived here a couple years.”

    “And before that?”

    “I apprenticed in Seattle, which is supposed to be kind of the new Mecca for glassblowers.”

    “What’s the old Mecca?”

    “Venice. You should see the stuff they have over there. Anyway, Seattle didn’t work out for personal reasons, so Sage and I went looking for a place where I could make enough money to support us. I knew this was it as soon as I saw it. Great beaches, good vibe. No other glassblowers.”

    I didn’t know anything about glassblowing, but as I wrapped newspaper around a bunch of bowls I seriously wished I could afford, even I could see Noah was talented. I held up the waviest of the bunch. “This is amazing,” I said.

    Noah shrugged. “You can turn most of your mistakes into a wavy bowl. You just hang it upside down and start spinning. It’s basic angular momentum—when an object is spinning, everything flattens and goes to the outer edges.”

    He’d pretty much lost me, so I picked up a cute little folded-over glass plate that held Noah’s business cards. “Great idea,” I said, thinking maybe I could get him to make me one as soon as I figured out what my next business cards would say.

    Noah shook his head. “You would not believe how many of those silly things I’ve sold. I was always forgetting to put out my cards, so one day I just thought I’d recycle a mistake. . . .”

    “Wavy bowl,” I said. “Next time just turn it into a wavy bowl.”

    “Thanks,” he said. “I’ll remember that. So, what do you do for a living?”

    I told him how I’d just quit another stupid sales job because I found out that pretty much everyone who