Sunset on Moonlight Beach - Sheila Roberts Page 0,50
want. Those of us left behind have to figure out how to hit Restart. For me, it was finding a new community to be part of. Bought my fast food place, got a nice house on the beach, made some good friends.” He shrugged. “Came back to life, I guess. I still miss my wife, but I’m also glad to be here.”
“That was well said,” Mel approved. “I’m glad to be here, too. I love seeing how well my girls are doing, and I love having another grandchild.”
Ellis smiled. “Life is good.”
It certainly was in this moment. They parked the car at Pacific Beach and went for a walk. The sand and the water all stretched on forever. Surprisingly, except for another couple, small in the distance, they had the beach to themselves.
“There’s something comforting about all this, isn’t there?” Mel said. “I look at those waves and can’t help thinking about God. What an awesome being to have created all of this.”
Ellis looked out at the waves. “I was mad at God for years.”
“Are you still?”
He shrugged. “No. What’s the point?”
“It’s still hard to accept bad things, though, isn’t it?”
“The good balances it out.” He smiled at her and then pulled a cigar out of his windbreaker pocket. “Does cigar smoke bother you?”
“Not in the great outdoors.”
He bit off an end, spit it out and lit up. “I’m cutting back. My daughter’s been on me to.”
“A good daughter,” Mel observed.
“She is. Got a son, too, living in DC. A couple of grandkids. There’s always something positive to balance the bad. Today piles a lot of positive on the scales,” he added, and smiled at her.
And she smiled back. He was so right.
He took her to the dining room in the nearby Ocean Crest Resort. The resort itself was a midcentury motel set on a bluff overlooking the beach. In addition to the million-dollar view, its dining room offered five-star meals and wines from the best boutique wineries in Washington.
“What looks good to you?” he asked as they read over their menus.
“Everything,” she said, trying to find something cheap. “Maybe I’ll have a salad.”
“I hope you’re not trying to save me money,” he said.
“The food here is awfully pricey.”
“Some things are worth the price. Pick what you want.”
They dined on Kalamata rosemary bread, citrus-cumin-glazed prawns and charbroiled steelhead, and Mel tried not to feel guilty over how much he was spending.
With evening, the temperature dropped. Ellis put the top up on the car for their drive home, turned on the heat a little, got the music going again. Mel relaxed against her seat, mellowed out by the wine and the food, feeling like a little girl who’d just been taken to the county fair and allowed to go on all the rides.
“This has been lovely,” she said to Ellis. “Thank you so much.”
“No, thank you. I’ve enjoyed your company a lot.”
“I’ve enjoyed yours, too,” she said.
“I hope you’ll let me show you more of Moonlight Harbor once you get moved down.”
“I’d like that.”
She’d missed having someone to do things with, someone with a voice lower than hers. The Righteous Brothers were singing now. “Unchained Melody.” A feeling of longing for what she’d had so many years ago with John swept over her like a sneaker wave. She wondered if Ellis was experiencing similar feelings. He was now as silent as she.
The Righteous Brothers left and in their place came the Monkees, singing “I’m a Believer.” The music lifted her up, bringing back a happy, carefree vibe. She started singing along. Ellis joined her for the chorus.
She was a believer. Love had happened to her, the fairy-tale kind. She had much for which to be thankful.
The sun had set by the time they returned to the house. She had the house key out before they even got to the door. Fumbling with a key was a sure signal that a woman wanted to be kissed, and Mel didn’t think that was a good idea. But what if Ellis was expecting one?
She suddenly felt like a kid again, only this time a thirteen-year-old girl sitting on the couch in the basement with a boy at a party after someone had turned out the lights. What was expected of her? Should she offer a friendly hug? And if she did, would that be the same as a kiss?
Would it send a conflicting message? She herself was feeling conflicted. She really liked this man. And deep inside her was the longing for what she’d