Page 99 of Heartless

I walk out of the bathroom and head to the living room. Grabbing my tote, my oversized straw hat with the large sunflower, and my sunglasses, I head out of the cottage and down to the beach.

The sun is up high, and it’s noon on a beautiful Saturday. The laughter of beach visitors trickles down to the area of the beach that I’m on.

Although it’s not secluded, there are fewer people at this end than at the other public part of the beach. The end that I’m at is sprinkled with the families staying in the cottages surrounding mine.

I lay the oversized beach towel out and pull my umbrella from my tote. Opening it, I try sticking it in the ground, but it tumbles over.

“Need help with that?”

I look up to see Matt walking towards me. He’s beaming, and a bright smile takes over his eyes.

“Sure,” I tell him.

He grabs the handle and jabs it expertly and proficiently into the sand.

Sitting down, I gesture to the empty portion of my towel and say, “Have a seat.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” he says, taking a seat beside me.

He pulls his legs up to his chest and wraps his arms around them.

“I just wanted to thank you.”

“For?”

“Giving my mom hope again.”

Turning to stare at him blankly, I ask, “How’s that?”

He shakes his head and smiles. “Mom can be a bit of an enigma. She’s got all this sage advice, life experience, and bountiful talents, but she doesn’t use them for her own good, but for others.”

“I can understand that. She’s a beautiful soul, Matt, and she wants to give more than she wants to receive.”

“Mm.”

“I’m sure by now you know that she’s a licensed psychologist.”

I nod.

“Well, she hasn’t been practicing...at least not until you came around.”

“Why’s that?”

“She didn’t think that she was fit to be giving anyone any advice. Not after all she’d been through.”

“With your father, you mean?”

“No. With the cancer.”

“Cancer?”

He nods. “Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer about six years ago. She thought that she’d beat it, but it came back again three years ago.”

“I’m sorry, Matt, I didn’t know.”

“She doesn’t tell people. She says the world is burdened down enough, and people got their own problems as is. They don’t need hers to add to them.”

“We all need someone, though.”