Sunset on Moonlight Beach - Sheila Roberts Page 0,2
here. You’ve got power now, girl,” she said to Jenna. “You need to use it.”
“Yeah, to save the deer,” said Courtney. “They’re God’s creatures, Tyrella. Don’t they teach you to have love for God’s creatures at church?”
“I love God’s creatures,” Tyrella insisted. “But I eat hamburgers. Don’t you?”
“See what I mean?” Nora said to Jenna. “I think we’d better take up a collection and buy you a suit of armor. Now that you’re on the city council you’re going to need it.”
Good grief. What had she gotten herself into?
She said as much later when it was just her and her family, seated around the living room, finishing up the leftover appetizers from the party.
“Nothing you can’t handle,” Celeste assured her. She burped baby Edie and handed her over to her daddy.
“Pretty thankless job,” said Celeste’s husband, Henry, as he took the baby.
“Some jobs need to be done, whether we get thanked or not,” Mel said. “I’m proud of you for taking this on.”
“I’m looking forward to it,” Jenna said. “Moonlight Harbor is my forever home and I want to do my best for it.”
“It does my heart good to hear you say that, dear,” Aunt Edie said. “I can rest easy knowing the Driftwood will be in capable hands after I’m gone.”
“You’re not going anywhere for a long time,” Jenna said firmly. “You’re going to live to be a hundred.”
“Who knows?” Aunt Edie said, just as Pete Long, the motel’s not-so-handy handyman walked into the dining room, resplendent in dirty jeans and a shirt in need of patching at the elbows. As usual, the old coot needed a shave and his chin was a bristly white mess.
He stopped at the little dining room table to help himself to a cupcake. “You’ve got lots of good years left in you, Edie, old girl,” he said.
“Pete, you missed the party,” Aunt Edie scolded.
Which meant that there had been enough food for all the guests. Pete was a two-legged locust and about as useful.
“Yeah, I hear congrats are in order,” he said to Jenna.
“She won by a landslide,” Celeste told him.
“Fourteen votes is hardly a landslide,” Jenna said.
“It is if there’s not that much land to slide down,” Celeste argued. “Moonlight Harbor isn’t exactly Seattle, and it’s not like everyone gets out and votes.”
“True, but the ones who really care did,” said Aunt Edie.
“I voted,” Pete said, leaning against the archway. He stuffed half the cupcake in his mouth.
“Who did you vote for?” Celeste asked him.
“Jenna, of course,” he said around a mouthful of cake.
“Did you, really?” Jenna asked, surprised.
He half frowned. “Sure. Why not? You whipped the Driftwood into shape. I guess you can do the same for this town. Anyway, keeping you busy with Moonlight Harbor business will keep you off my back.”
“The real reason,” she said with a knowing nod. Pete needed constant nagging.
“A win-win,” he said, then gobbled up the last of the cupcake and returned to the refreshment table to forage for more goodies.
He stayed long enough to finish off the last of the appetizers plus two more cupcakes. Then he left to go hang out at The Drunken Sailor, the town’s favorite watering hole.
Baby Edie was soon fussy and tired, and Henry took her over to the motel room where he and Celeste were staying to put her down for the night and work on the final edits for his latest thriller novel.
“Take the dog with you,” Aunt Edie said.
Nemo, not feeling the love, whined, but he followed his master out of the house. Then it was just the women and time for girl talk.
“What did you think of Ellis West?” Aunt Edie asked Mel.
Mel’s cheeks turned seashell pink. “He’s very nice.”
“And he’s very successful,” said Aunt Edie. “Plus he’s good-looking.”
“Looks like he’s interested in you, Mom,” Celeste said.
The pink got darker. “He was just being friendly.”
“I think he’d like to get a lot friendlier,” Celeste insisted.
Mel blew it off. “Oh, nonsense.”
“Melody, I think you’ve forgotten how to read the signs when a man is interested,” said Aunt Edie.
“Interested and friendly are two different things,” Mel told her.
“Yeah, friendly says, ‘Hi, nice to meet you. You from around here?’ then wanders off to talk to someone else. Interested wants to hear the story of your life, never leaves your side and hurries off to fetch food for you,” Celeste said. “How many times did Ellis get you more canapés?”
Now the pink was sunset-vivid. “Oh, honestly,” Mel said in disgust.