Summer at Oyster Bay: A gorgeous feel good summer romance Read Online Free

old, rusty equipment and grabbed a saddle pad and the rest of her gear, stirring up a cloud of dust. Then she walked back out of the barn.
    “Will you take me around?” she asked. He stood still, looking at her with those brown eyes of his. He still looked strong and healthy. She tossed the saddle pad over his back, and she could feel the happiness seeping back into her bones. This was where she belonged. This was the place she needed to spend her years. She put the saddle on and fastened it. Then, with one foot in the stirrup, she hopped up, throwing her other leg over him until she was atop his back.
    As a girl, she remembered how high up it had seemed whenever she rode Eli. It was an odd sensation being on him now. She tapped his side with the stirrup. “Let’s go, boy.”
    Eli trotted around the field as the sun beat down on them. At first she thought he might be taking it easy on her, but then she remembered that while she’d aged, so had he. As a teenager, she’d gotten caught up in school and friends, and she hadn’t ridden him as much as she had as a young girl. Then she went away to college. After that, she was busy working and finding her way in the world. With every quiet stride that Eli made, she felt the tears begin to surface. She’d missed him so much and she was so sorry she hadn’t visited him more.
    He slowed down and she wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m glad to see you, boy,” she said. “I’m not leaving again. I promise.”
    Eli made a noise and she could’ve sworn that he was pleased.

    E mily walked out to meet her sister as Rachel’s car came to a stop in the driveway. Clara, Rachel’s daughter, was sitting in the backseat, wearing pink sparkle sunglasses, her light brown hair pulled into two ponytails with matching bows.
    “I swear, you have grown!” Emily said, leaning on the open window while Clara attempted to unbuckle her seatbelt. Emily reached in and helped her.
    “I’m four now!” she said proudly.
    Emily opened the door for her. “Four! Wow. I can’t believe how time flies,” she said with a giggle, having seen her only six months ago. She’d been four then too.
    Clara hopped down onto the driveway, her matching pink sandals making a smack on the pavement. “See how tall I am?” she asked, tipping up on her toes.
    “Yes, you are very tall.”
    “Come on in and have some cookies, Clara,” Gram called from the front door, holding two canes. “Let’s give your mama and Aunt Emily a chance to talk.” Clara ran up to meet her, taking one of the canes and mimicking her grandmother as she walked inside.
    “She likes to be like her gram,” Rachel said, then turned toward her sister. “I’ve missed you so much. You okay?”
    That feeling of dread flooded Emily again and she shook her head, unable to verbalize all the emotions she was feeling. It didn’t matter though; her big sister could always read her.
    “Let’s go to the backyard and talk.”
    They made their way to the sand where their grandfather had hung two swings on one of the old trees. Its enormous trunk was perfectly straight, its branches spreading wide as if it were reaching for the house. Despite all the coastal storms, the tree, and the swings survived, the wooden seats that used to be yellow now as white as driftwood, but the ropes still strong. Emily sat down on one, kicked her shoes off, and put her feet in the sand.
    “Gram says there’s gossip going around about the new owner of Water’s Edge,” Emily said, turning toward the bay and letting the breeze blow her hair behind her shoulders. She wanted to hear what her sister thought of Charles Peterson; Emily wondered if she’d made the right decision working there.
    “The elusive Charles Peterson,” Rachel said with a smile. “Did you get to speak to him when you interviewed?”
    “No. Libby hired me.” She knew if she mentioned meeting Charles Peterson, her blunder today would eventually come out because she told her sister