Bowled Over by Victoria Hamilton

watching the couple, who appeared to be arguing.
    “Kathy Cooper?”
    “Yeah, Kathy and Craig, her husband,” she said, motioning toward the couple. “
You
know. At least Craig seems to have some good sense.”
    Anna looked toward the two and frowned, but as Valetta claimed Jaymie’s attention, she spread a pretty pastel plaid blanket on the grass and set down their little wicker basket. It was one Jaymie had found for Anna, and she had filled it with children’s melamine dishes and pastel vintage linens for the Joneses. Tabby then insisted on having her fairy wings attached, and she fluttered around while Hoppy barked at her.
    As Valetta went back to her brother, Anna tugged on Jaymie’s sleeve. “We need to talk,” Anna said, shooting worried glances toward the Coopers.
    “Okay. What’s—oh, wait; there’s Becca!”
    Arm in arm, up the walkway from the docks, came Becca and her new fellow. Jaymie examined him from afar, wondering if this would be brother-in-law number three. Numberone had remarried and now had a family, and number two had moved back to England, leaving Becca a poorer but wiser woman. This guy was older than Becca. He looked to be in his early fifties, with a trim gray beard and sunglasses, and he wore cargo shorts, a short sleeve shirt and a Tilley hat.
    “Jaymie, this is Kevin Brevard. Kevin, this is my sister, Jaymie.”
    “Hello, Jaymie, so nice to meet you,” he said, holding out his hand, then pulling Jaymie in for a hug. He smelled nice, like a bottle of allspice, and had a faint English accent.
    They chatted for a while, and he gratefully shared her tea, doled out into melamine mugs. He didn’t sit down on the ground. Instead, he had a walking stick that folded out into a stool, and he sat on that while Becca fussed around him, making sure he was comfortable. Tabby took to him immediately, and he picked her up to sit on his knee and told her a story while they waited for the sailboat race to begin.
    Becca pulled Jaymie aside. “Well?” she said.
    “Well what?” Jaymie said, with a deliberately blank look. When Becca made a sour face, Jaymie laughed. “Of
course
I like Kevin. He seems really nice.”
    “He is. And he’s…kind.” Becca chewed her lip while she watched Kevin and Daniel talk. Daniel was pointing into town, toward where his house was. “We went to see Grandma Leighton on the weekend, and she took to him so fast! You know how she can be; no one is good enough for you or me. But Kevin told her a joke about a parrot, a vicar and a barmaid, and she was howling with laughter. She took me aside and told me to marry him.”
    “That’s a little fast, isn’t it?” Jaymie said, watching her sister’s face.
    Becca had a round face, and right now an earnest but undecided expression, her mouth pulled down, her eyessquinted. She fiddled with her long string of red, white and blue beads. But at Jaymie’s assertion, she nodded, and said, “Of course.
Too
fast.” She turned to Jaymie. “What about you and Daniel? How is that going?”
    “I like Daniel,” Jaymie said, “but…” She trailed off as she saw Joel Anderson and his girlfriend, Heidi, walk over and first talk to Kathy and Craig Cooper, then move on to Valetta. Heidi, a pretty, slim blonde, bent over to talk to Brock’s kids, then took his daughter, Eva, by the hand to some open grass and showed her how to do a cartwheel.
    Becca followed Jaymie’s line of sight, and her lips tightened. “You’re not still pining after him, are you? Joel is a jerk.”
    “Why do you always do that?” Jaymie said, rounding on her sister. “Do you think I’ll magically one day agree with you and hop away transformed?”
    Becca put her hand on Jaymie’s arm. “I’m sorry. I should know you have to get over this in your own time.”
    “I’m almost there, Becca, really. Just leave it alone.”
    “Okay, I just…” She trailed off and shrugged.
    “No, I’m fine. I don’t miss him, I don’t want Joel back. I think