Chapter 1
AN: Sorry for all the errors. Still working my other story and hope to update some. Please let me know if I should continue this story. I hate to wastes both our times.
Olivia adjusted the sunglasses on her face while simultaneously lifting her feet and placing them on the dash. The top of the car was down and the wind blew through her shoulder length hair. The sun was high in the sky and the first day of summer brought with it a nice and much needed change in the climate. She watched as the city disappeared behind her and was replaced with sand dunes, quiet and low flying birds in search for their next catch. She had always loved the beach, she loved the sound of the waves as they crashed on the shore, she love the look of the water in the harsh rays of the sun but more important she loved how carefree and happy people were when they were on the beach.
She had very few occasions to go to the beach. She can count on one hand the times she went with her mother and those times had been some of her better memories. She remembers building sand castles and pretending to be a monster that trampled them. She remembered snow cones and face painting, the few activities her mother allowed that reminded her she was still a child. But more importantly she remembered falling asleep in her arms on a blanket on the sand after a long day of swimming. She never felt her mother's love like she did on the beach.
As a teenage and young adult the beach brought new meaning to her. Then her visits were about young love, alcohol and sex. She had been on the beach the first time she fell in love and the first time sex meant more than just sex. Coincidentally, the first time her heart was broken she was also on a beach. At least her ex believed in symmetry.
After that summer, she no longer went to the beach for fun. On the few occasions she did have reason to venture to the shore, it had always been about work so when the opportunity arose to replace her last memory of the ocean with a more pleasant one- one that did not involve Lewis- she jumped at the chance. The chance had come when Owen, her boyfriend of four months had invited her to a family memorial weekend at the beach.
So here she was riding in the passenger seat of a convertible while Owen sped down a quite road with the ocean on both side. She had no idea what motivated her to say yes to this trip. Their relationship was fairly new, nowhere near the point of meeting the family but when he asked her she had meant to say no but somehow strangely yes came out instead. And so the motions were in place for her to meet the aunt and cousins of a man for whom she had no idea how she felt. She knew she liked him, she knew he made her laugh and she knew she felt sexy when he looked longingly at her but the rest was all a mystery.
"We will be there in fifteen minutes." Owen informs her as he turns off the main road to a much smaller and less smooth road. He watches as she pulls the mirror to her face and fidgets with her eye makeup that is already perfect. "Honey, it will be fine. They are going to love you."
"Who is going to be there again?" Olivia replaces the mirror and turns to look at Owen suspiciously.
"Just my aunt, two of my cousins and a couples of my cousins' kid, I am not sure how many- he has a few. Stop worrying! everything will be fine."
"Thats easy for you to say, You already know these people." Olivia smirks and then a thought occurs to her. "That sounds like a lot of people. Are you sure they have room for me?"
"Who wouldn't make room for you?" He smiles as he reaches for and takes her hand in his. He brings both their hands to his lips as he kisses hers. "The house is huge, all the cousins used to come here all summer. If it could hold the children of four irish catholic siblings, it can certainly accommodated us."
Olivia wishes her memories of the beach were not just bits and pieces of one or two summers but was more like Owen's filled with cousins and slumber parties. She turns back to look at the houses that has come into view from her passenger window. If the house they are going to is anything like these house, it could probably accommodate an entire fleet of contraceptive deprived families. They all have several levels, are separated from each other by miles and has the ocean as their backyard.
She pays closer attention as Owen slows down and turns into the long driveway of a white tri-level home. The house looks like something out of a Martha Stewarts catalog complete with a wrap around porch with swings. It is surrounded on three sides with sand and on two with the ocean. The second and third levels have balconies that boost unobstructed views of the water. Everything about this house screams retreat.
Olivia's mouth is still hanging open as Owen places the car in park and turns towards her. "We are here. Let the fun begin."
With the shocked look still planted on her face, Olivia turns to him. "Are you some sort of Kennedy of something?"
He laughs as he reaches for her small bag in the bag seat. "Far from it. The house belongs to the my dad and his three sisters. It has been passed from generation to generation. We almost loss it to the bank every couple of years." He gets out the car and heads for the trunk to get the other bags.
Olivia is still staring at the house when he opens the door for her, She notices that there are two other cars in the driveway and hears the sound a child yelling behind the house. The sound gets closer as they begin the walk from the driveway to the porch. By the time, Olivia is about to take the first step on the porch a little boy with blond hair and covered in sand runs around the side of the house and bumps into her. He appears to be about about seven and is so busy laughing as he is being chased by a blonde woman that he doesn't notice Olivia until he connects with her thighs. His eyes are fixed on the ground.
"I am sorry." He quickly and politely exclaims as he steps back. Its then that he raises his head and looks at the source of his collision. Its then that Olivia notices his eyes. She would know those eyes anywhere. They are the same bright blue she stared at for twelve year. The same blue she had final learned to no longer crave, to no longer want. The same blue she had no desire to see now or ever again.
It's the same blue that greets her when she looks at the blonde woman that had been chasing the boy, the boys she now recognizes to be Eli.
"Hey Liv!" Kathleen yells as she throws her arms around Olivia as if she sees her daily. As Olivia returns the hug all she can think is that she hopes she isn't faced with the original source of their blue eyes ever and certainly not this weekend.