Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Postcards in the Sand

  Copyright

  Thank You!

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Epilogue

  Epilogue Two

  Dear Reader

  About the Author

  Books by Brynn Paulin

  Postcards in the Sand

  Sweet Steamy Nights

  By Brynn Paulin

  Supernova Indie Publishing Services, LLC

  Powered by Your Imagination

  Postcards in the Sand

  by

  Brynn Paulin

  Lexie

  I think it’s time to move. Don’t get me wrong. I love Sweetville. I love my students and watching them grow and thrive in our small town. But the dating pool… Not so great. The only man who interests me is ten years younger, and I’m completely off his radar.

  So it’s time to weigh my options. I crave my happily ever after, and I always thought it would happen by now. The wedding, the man of my dreams, our family… But it’s not happening in this town. After one lonely night too many, I’m taking matters into my own hands. I have a plan.

  First, I’m heading to a resort before my summer break ends.

  Second, I’m going to find someone to make me feel…not quite as lonely. If it’s a vacation fling, so be it.

  And third, I’ll decide if it’s time to move to the city or not.

  Sun and sand, here I come.

  Tristen

  Oh hell no.

  I have a plan of my own.

  First, I’m making it clear Lexie is mine. I’m claiming her once and for all.

  Second, I won’t take no for an answer.

  And third, we’re having our happily ever after even if I have to spend the rest of my life convincing her.

  Lexie better watch out. ‘Cause, here I come.

  Copyright

  © 2020, Brynn Paulin

  Postcards in the Sand

  Cover Art by Supernova Indie Publishing Services, LLC

  Electronic Format ISBN: 978-1-62344-372-6

  Published by: Supernova Indie Publishing Services, LLC

  Warning: All rights reserved. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and occurrences are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, places or occurrences, is purely coincidental.

  Thank You!

  Thank you for your purchase of Postcards in the Sand.

  I hope you enjoy the story and will consider leaving a review or telling a friend about the book.

  I love hearing from readers! To keep in touch and follow my news, please visit me on my website at www.brynnpaulin.com.

  Want a heads up on my upcoming projects?

  I’d love if you’d join me over on Brynn’s Place on Facebook!

  Dedication

  To Pixie and Haven.

  Cheers!!

  Chapter One

  ~ Lexie ~

  If I’ve learned anything in my thirty-three years, it’s that sometimes, you need to face-plant on your bed and scream.

  Today, it didn’t work. I’m so freaking frustrated—in my career, in life, and especially in love. I feel as if I’m spinning my wheels and getting nowhere. By this point in my life, I thought I’d be married, have kids, love my job…because it’s my vocation, my gosh darn calling. But lately, I don’t feel connected. I’m sure it’s because I feel dissatisfied in general.

  To top it off, my two closest friends both fell in love this summer. Real live L.O.V.E., probably getting married love—in Kenna’s case anyway. Gracie went and tied the knot in secret already. I just found out. They’re both glowing, and me…? It’s me and my invisible cat. I need to resign myself to being the crazy cat lady, who lives down the street.

  No, I’m not crazy already. And no, I don’t have an invisible cat. It’s my ninety-five-year-old neighbor’s fully visible cat, and he hates me—the neighbor, not the cat. Though judging by the crap that feline does, maybe she hates me too.

  So this is my existence.

  Dissatisfied.

  Feline and neighbor tormented.

  The fifth wheel in my group.

  Alone.

  It was definitely time for some ménage action with Ben and Jerry.

  Don’t get me wrong. I was happy for my friends. No two women deserved to fall for great guys more than they did. I was just feeling utterly sorry for myself. Poor, poor Lexie. What a lonely spinster.

  I snorted, my overly dramatic bellyaching making me laugh. Were spinsters even a thing anymore? Wasn’t it all about woman power and not needing a man?

  My heavy sigh colored the air as I flipped onto my back and stared at the ceiling. The thing was, I didn’t need a man. I just wanted one. I knew the rules of life. If you don’t like how your existence was going, you need to do things about it.

  And there was only one man I actually wanted, who I’d actually felt anything for in a really long time. As inappropriate as it was, I’d developed a bit of a crush on my student teacher from last fall. Not that he knew it. God forbid. Tristen was twenty-two to my thirty-two at the time. We’d celebrated our birthdays together in December. We’d been born almost exactly ten years apart, him on the fifth of December and me on the sixth.

  Come this next fall, just a few short weeks from now, we’d be teaching across the hall from each other. That might just be unbearable since my heart rate seemed to increase whenever I saw him. Because we’d both instruct fourth grade, we’d work together even more than just being colleagues in the same school.

  That drove home that I needed to do something to change my life. I couldn’t spend my days pining for something or someone I wanted but couldn’t have. It wasn’t happening here in Sweetville.

  So I could…

  Change my career.

  Move.

  Get on a dating app.

  I snorted again at the last idea. I’d tried that. When I’d run across one of the kids I’d taught my first year as a fourth grade teacher, now twenty-ish years old, I’d called it quits. That so was not a pool I wanted to swim in.

  And I loved teaching. I just happened to be a little down on it right now because of dissatisfaction elsewhere.

  Maybe, I really should move. I’d come to Sweetville from Grand Rapids, ten years ago, to teach. Coming from a big city to this Rockwellian town had been a culture shock, that’s for sure. But I loved it here. I loved my little Cape Cod house. I adored my friends—especially Kenna and Gracie. My neighbors were the perfect mix of small town and artistic community. So friendly and welcoming—except for my crotchety ninety-five year old neighbor, Mr. McCain, who let his cat, Penelope, have free roam of my yard to rip up my flowerbeds. He also repeatedly called the cops on me for noise complaints. Spoiler alert: hearing aids are very loud when they need to be adjusted or have a battery change.

  Also, I thought his cat was bored and didn’t like being as much of an outdoor cat as she was. I was pretty sure that would explain why she was always trying to sneak into my house. More than once, I’d come home to find her curled up on my couch with no idea how she’d gotten in.

  Maybe, I should take a vacation. From Sweetville. From Penelope. From everything, really. Time away might give me a fresh perspective. It was summer break after all, but that was winding to an end. If I wanted to go away somewhere, I needed to act now. God knew, I couldn’t decide while I was here in Sweetville. Every time I turned around, something I loved about the town would distract me from making an unbiased decision.

  So going away somewhere was the plan. I’d take a couple days to drive there and back, enjoy the country, spend a week wherever I decided to go…

  Maybe I could head to the ocean? That sounded fantastic. I’d visited Atlantic Beach NC the year I’d graduated high school, and I’d always wanted to go back. Why not now? It would be a good place to think, to make some decisions about my job and life in general.

  I couldn’t see me changing careers—I loved teaching, actually. But I might move. Teach somewhere else. Maybe, I could move back to the city.

  But that was something to be sorted out on vacation, hopefully while slathered in coconut-scented sunblock and with a cold drink in hand.

  With my decision made, I felt less like sulking and more like it was time for action.

  Chapter Two

  ~ Tristen ~

  Adulting 101: Buy real food and not college food. I gazed longingly at the frozen pizzas before swerving away and heading for the produce section. My girl was a vegetarian. I should probably learn to like the fruit and veg more. Thank God, she wasn’t vegan. I wasn’t sure I could give up cheese.

  Which was kind of crazy, I guess. We weren’t dating. I wasn’t sure she’d give me the time of day when we started working together in the fall, but I had six vegetarian cookbooks on my kitchen counter because I was learning to cook food for us. You know for when we fictionally got together.

  Eventually.

  I really was going to make this happen.

  “Hey, Tristen.”

  I looked up from deciding on what avocado to buy to find one of the teachers from Sweetville Elementary standing a couple feet from me. Not the teacher I really wanted to see, though.

  “Hi, Kenna,” I said, just putting both avocados in the cart. I didn’t know how the fuck to pick a good one anyway. “Just doing a little shopping.”

  Obviously. Smooth, Tris.

  “Congratulations on the job. It’ll be great to work with you officially.”

  “Thanks. I think Lexie and I will make a good fourth grade team. I was going to call her later to see if she wanted to do some pre-planning together before the back-to-school rush.”

  “Oh… Well, darn. She left for vacation today. Driving and planning to get there tomorrow.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, she’s headed to North Carolina. She rented a little place in Atlantic Beach. She called it a singles vacation.”

  And… Apparently, I was taking a vacation now. My Lexie was not having a singles anything. Just the thought of some guy coming on to her. No way.

  “Oh, yeah? Where in Atlantic Beach? Any idea? I’ve always wanted to visit there.”

  As of a minute ago anyway.

  Now, it was top on my vacation list.

  “Oh, yeah, sure. She sent me a pic of the place she’s renting.” Kenna pulled out her phone and showed me. Lexie must have taken a screenshot of the listing because right there at the bottom was the address. Yes! I filed it away as a guy with reddish-brown hair walked up to us and put his arm around Kenna, his message clear. Back away. She’s mine.

  “Looking to trade me in?” he teased, kissing her temple.

  She laughed. “Of course not. Emmett, this is Tristen. He’s going to be working at my school this fall. And unless I miss my guess, he’s taken.” She raised an eyebrow. “Or will be soon.”

  I grinned. “One hundred percent correct. It’s nice to meet you, Emmett. Sorry to meet and run, but I need to…um…”

  Kenna chuckled. “Go take care of business, Tristen. We’ll see you when you get back.”

  As they walked away, I put back the avocados then headed out of the store since I wouldn’t be buying anything.

  In the parking lot, I booked myself a one-way ticket for tomorrow. Hopefully, I’d be driving back with my new girlfriend. Now to plan and pack.

  Chapter Three

  ~ Lexie ~

  Mrow.

  What the hell!

  I almost swerved off the road as the meowing right in my ear. I glanced up into the rear-view mirror. No! There was a cat on the back of my seat! Practically on my shoulder. Not just any cat. Penelope, my neighbor’s pet.

  Great. Now, he’d call the cops on me again. Penelope had freaking stowed away in my car, only to make her presence known two hundred miles from home.

  “You have to be freaking kidding me,” I griped. A cat. This frigging cat. Carefully reaching up, I moved her off my headrest and onto the seat beside me. To my surprise, she just sat there, looking around like this was the best thing ever.

  “Well, I hope you like North Carolina, you little hitchhiker. Just don’t go running away. I’m going to be in enough trouble as it is.”

  I swear she rolled her eyes at me.

  One pet store stop and over a hundred dollars later, I knew two things. Penelope really liked walking in a harness like a dog, and this trip was totally not shaping up the way I’d thought it would. Oh! and I was one cat closer to crazy cat lady status.

  She wasn’t such bad company for the long drive. When she wasn’t watching out the window, she curled up with her new blanket in her new bed on the passenger floor and slept. She was less concerned than I was about her being on the trip. Also…I couldn’t get hold of her owner though I’d tried him several times. I wondered if he had his hearing aid off, and I hoped he wouldn’t freak out over his missing pet.

  Off hand, I wondered if Tristen liked cats. I knew he was an animal lover. The kids had loved that about him. And why was I thinking about my off-limits crush, anyway?

  Because you always do, Lex.

  I sighed, letting my thoughts wander to him as I tooled down the boring highway. From the moment he’d walked into my classroom, I’d been toast. Tristen Bacca was a freaking Adonis. Taller than me by close to a foot, he made me feel petite, which was difficult. No one ever made me feel that way. And his blue-gray eyes and dark brown hair… The way he bit his full bottom lip when he was trying so hard not to laugh but was failing. Just seeing it always tripped me up, and soon, it brought on my own laughter.

  Warmth prickled through me followed by thready sadness when I remembered his last day in the classroom. He’d hugged me goodbye, and that hug, the only one we’d ever shared, had been…everything. My world had shifted. I’d been attracted to him before that, but every ion of my being had wanted to attach to him and never let go when we’d embraced.

  And it had been so hard to let go. To say goodbye. To not let him know I was on the verge of tears. To watch him walk away.

  He’d turned one last time, with a half smile, before he’d disappeared around the corner. Was it my imagination that he hadn’t wanted to go, that he’d hesitated for that brief instant? Or had he regretted us parting just as much?

  I’d second-guessed those few moments so many times since then.

  I had cried that night. My feelings and the sense of loss had never made sense to me. It would all be so much worse when he started teaching at the school in the fall. When he embarked on his new career then found someone to share his life with.

  I wasn’t sure I’d be able to handle it and keep my feelings secret. But I had to. Geez… He was in his twenties with ten years of living and experience parting us.

  Lost in my thoughts, I jumped when my phone rang. I’d been driving through the night and was just an hour or so from the beach house I’d rented for the next week. Everyone knew I was on vacation, so I didn’t figure anyone would dial me up.

  I pressed the button on my steering wheel to connect. “Hello?”

  “Hey, did you get there yet?”

  “No. About an hour out. What’s up? I didn’t think we’d talk until I got back.”

  She was silent for a second. “I hate to even call you about this. I have some bad news.”

  “Oh no. What?” It had to be bad if she was calling me. God, I hoped it wasn’t anything with Gracie or someone else we knew.

  “It’s about your neighbor. He collapsed on his way to the mailbox last night. Someone saw it and called 911 right away, but…he didn’t make it.”

  “Oh no,” I whispered.

  “And anyway, they can’t find his cat. I know she likes to sneak inside your place. Do you think she might be there? I could check since I need to get your mail.”

  “Um…” Well, crap. I looked over at the feline sitting on the seat beside me and taking in the countryside rolling past us. “Um…I might have an idea where the cat is.”

  On cue, Penelope meowed loud enough to be heard back in Sweetville without the phone.

  “Lexie Graves! You kidnapped his cat?”

  “I did not kidnap his cat, and anyway, I think it would be cat-napping, by the way.”

  “Catnapping is sleeping.”

  “Technicalities but isn’t that the English language? Multiple meanings. Anyway…Penelope is a stowaway. I didn’t know she hitched a ride until about an hour ago. I’ve been trying to get a hold of Mr. McCain to tell him where she is.”

  “I’ll let animal control know they don’t need to search for the cat.”

  “Animal control?”

  “There’s no one else to take her. He didn’t have friends or family.”

  I glanced over at my nemesis companion. Looked as if I had a new pet. I reached over to scratch her, and she batted away my hand. Okay then. We’d figure it out. “Yeah, tell them she’s safe.”

  “Do you even like cats?”

  “I like Penelope.” Step one toward my future image. Cat acquired.

  * * * *

  Standing outside the townhouse, I stared up at my bright blue home away from home for the next week. Thank God, they were okay with the cat. Though I did have to add a hefty deposit for her. At this rate, Pen was going to bankrupt me. The way she snuggled into me right now, I didn’t care.

 

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