Sunset on Moonlight Beach - Sheila Roberts Page 0,13
defense.
He shook his head. “This is why I left.”
“This what?” she demanded.
“This nagging. You always were so damned controlling.”
“Yeah, silly me. Wanting to be able to pay the bills.” She’d worked hard to keep them afloat. But there was more than one way to sink a marriage.
“You never understood me,” he grumbled, and started down the front steps.
“No, I didn’t,” she said with a sigh.
Not until it was too late. Too bad she hadn’t realized what a narcissist he was before they got married. Before she got pregnant. But then she wouldn’t have had Sabrina. Like Mom said, every storm brought a rainbow.
Another year and she’d be free of him.
It couldn’t come soon enough.
CHAPTER THREE
“I’m so glad you called me,” Caroline’s daughter Zelda said to Mel as she stepped through the front door of Mel’s house. “You know I’ll work like crazy to make sure you get top dollar, Mrs. J.”
Once upon a time, Zelda had been a skinny little girl with buck teeth and a big voice. She and Celeste had practically been inseparable growing up. Now she was svelte and professional, spoke with softly modulated tones and had a big bank account. She was wearing stylish black pants and black heels and a black blazer over a gray ribbed top. The outfit showed off her dark coloring beautifully. Small gold hoops in her ears, a gold bracelet on her wrist and a gold chain with a swing of freshwater pearls dangling from her neck completed the outfit. Zelda was the number one salesperson in her office and she dressed accordingly.
“I know you will,” Mel said. Top dollar, that was a good thing. Moving...she still had mixed feelings about it.
“Mom’s sure sad you’re leaving,” Zelda said.
“I am, too, but it’s time.”
“I hear you’re going to be down at Moonlight Harbor with Jenna. That sounds fabulous. Beachcombing, kayaking, windsurfing.”
“And clam digging. I remember going there with you all when I was a kid. It was so much fun doing that.”
“You’re welcome to come dig clams any time,” Mel told her.
“If I ever get time. Between work and the kids I barely have a minute to breathe.”
“You are in the busy years,” Mel said.
She was busy, too. But that would have ended with her last day of work, and she’d have been stuck with time on her hands, unsure what to do with it. It was a good thing she was relocating to the beach. With everything going on down there she’d find plenty to do. Yes, this was the right move for her.
“We’ll want to ditch those,” Zelda said, eyeing the blue velvet wingback chairs that had belonged to Mel’s mother.
“They’re still in beautiful condition,” Mel pointed out.
“Yes, but they’re dated. Let’s move out the sofa and love seat as well. I can bring in some things that will look more neutral.”
Mel reminded herself that Zelda wasn’t judging her taste in furniture, only thinking in terms of how best to show off the house.
In the kitchen, Zelda said, “If you can clear everything off the counters, that will be great.” She pointed to the vintage cookie jar, a fat little lady pig with a red-trimmed skirt and red bow on her head. “I remember raiding that with Celeste. You made the best oatmeal cookies ever.”
“Maybe we should keep that out,” said Mel.
Zelda shook her head. “No, go ahead and pack it.” She looked through the row of cookbooks in a corner of the counter and picked out the Williams Sonoma one. “Keep this out. We’ll leave it open on the counter.”
“Wouldn’t the cookie jar be more interesting?” Mel ventured.
“Too distinctive. We want the house to look impressive but neutral. You’ll attract more buyers that way.”
They walked down the hall to the bedrooms, past the family picture gallery. “These all need to come down,” Zelda said.
Mel nodded. Of course. The place had to be scrubbed of all such personal treasures, changed from a home to a property. After someone bought it, it would once more become a home, and a new family would put their own stamp on it.
By the time they got to the bedrooms she already knew what she had to do. More pictures would have to be taken down. Lose her mother’s old slipper chair and the hope chest that had been her grandma’s, make the room look bigger.
“This house will sell right away,” Zelda predicted as Mel signed the listing agreement. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we have a bidding war.