Sunset on Moonlight Beach - Sheila Roberts Page 0,15
grandmother there.
“Nobody told me you were coming,” she said to Mel, who was giving the baby a bottle. She bent to kiss her grandma’s cheek and cooed a hello to the baby.
“Surprise attack,” Jenna said, pouring herself a second cup of tea.
“Don’t feel you have to stay home if you had plans,” Mel said to her granddaughter.
Sabrina’s face clouded over and she plopped onto a chair. “I don’t have a boyfriend anymore.”
“You can have plans even without a boyfriend, darling,” Mel said gently.
“And we are going to party all weekend,” said Celeste. “So that counts as plans.”
Now that they were all together it was the perfect time for the big announcement. “It looks like we’ll be able to keep that party going,” Jenna added, looking to her mother. “Right, Mom?”
“I’m moving down,” Mel announced.
Celeste had been standing at the counter, chopping celery. She whirled around. “What?”
“Seriously?” Sabrina asked, perking up.
“I put the house up for sale,” Mel said. “Zelda’s doing an open house this weekend.”
“OMG! That is lit,” Sabrina cried happily.
“It will be wonderful to have you here,” put in Aunt Edie.
It would also be helpful. Jenna hoped the house sold right away.
Pete arrived in time for dinner, as usual, and joined the women for clam chowder and French bread.
“Melody’s going to be moving down here,” Aunt Edie told him. “Isn’t that exciting?”
“Guess you’re gonna retire then, huh?” Pete said. “The medical down here sucks.”
“It does not,” Aunt Edie argued.
“Nearest hospital is Aberdeen,” he said.
“Well, who needs a hospital, anyway?” Aunt Edie argued.
“I might,” he said. “I’m not in the best shape, you know. My back.”
Ah, yes, the legendary bad back. Jenna rolled her eyes and helped herself to another piece of French bread.
After dinner Pete left to go hang out at The Drunken Sailor. Sabrina got an invite to an impromptu party from her best friend, Hudson, and left with her grandmother’s blessing, promising to stick around all day Saturday.
Then it was just the four women and the baby. Jenna built a fire in the woodstove and they settled in the living room with Aunt Edie’s beach sandies and hot chocolate to continue visiting.
“An open house already?” Aunt Edie said, bringing them back to the subject of Mel’s big life change.
“Zelda doesn’t waste any time,” Mel said, staring at the flames crackling behind the glass door of the woodstove.
“Funny. Sometimes it’s hard to think of her as a successful real estate agent,” Jenna mused. “She wasn’t all that ambitious in high school.”
“She had other interests,” Mel said diplomatically.
“Yeah, boys,” Celeste said, and smiled down at baby Edie, who was in her lap, regarding her with great interest.
“Like you,” Jenna teased.
Her sister had been much more interested in the social aspects of school than the scholastic ones.
“Yeah, well, I remember reading a couple of interesting passages in your journal,” she shot back at Jenna.
“Touché,” murmured Aunt Edie.
“But I actually did my homework,” Jenna said.
“So did I,” Celeste insisted. “Eventually.”
And she’d done well enough to go on to college and get a teaching degree. Along with a nice collection of student loans it had taken several years to pay back.
“We all end up finding our passion in life sooner or later,” Mel said. “I’m glad Zelda found hers.”
It seemed like, eventually, if a woman looked long and hard enough, she did. Jenna was glad she’d finally found her passion in fixing up and running the Driftwood Inn.
But had her mother ever really found hers? Sometimes it seemed to Jenna that her mother had spent much of her life watching everyone else have adventures. She’d been on the sidelines, coaching her daughters, consoling and encouraging them. But she’d never jumped back into the game.
“Zelda’s hoping for a bidding war,” Mel said, returning Jenna to the moment at hand.
“A bidding war,” Aunt Edie said in disgust. “What happened to the days when you saw a house you loved and made an offer and it was accepted?”
“I’m sure that still happens down here. But it’s a hot market where Mom is,” Jenna said.
“It still doesn’t seem right. It should be first come, first served,” Aunt Edie said with a frown.
“I won’t complain if there’s a bidding war,” Mel said. “That will give me more money to live on.”
“You don’t need to worry about having money to live on,” Aunt Edie told her. “You’ll be with us.”
“That’s kind of you,” Mel said to her, “but I think I’ll see if I can find a little place of my own.”