do this right.”
As far as she was concerned, they already were.
* * *
Courtney was one happy woman when the gang met at Aunt Edie’s the following Friday night. “Everything in my life is so perfect right now,” she reported. “I’m almost afraid to enjoy it. You know?”
Jenna did know. She felt a little that way herself. She’d first come to Moonlight Harbor feeling like a one-woman disaster area. Now, here she was with a purpose in life, a great community of friends and a man who was committed to her. The future looked blindingly rosy. It was almost too perfect.
Maybe that was why, somewhere at the back of her mind, she kept waiting for that other shoe to drop. Waiting for the other shoe to drop. Ha! Had Cinderella felt that way?
“There comes a point in every woman’s life when she gets to a season of perfection,” Aunt Edie said. “It looks like your season is here.”
“It is,” Courtney agreed.
“The important thing is to recognize it,” Aunt Edie continued, managing to look at both Jenna and her mom, who was back in town, all her furniture in a U-Haul truck in the parking lot, and had joined them in time for that bit of sage advice.
“I certainly do,” Mel said, “and I’m so excited about moving into my new house tomorrow.”
“Have you got enough help?” asked Nora. “I can send one of my boys over.”
“No, I think we’re good,” Mel said. “Celeste and Henry are coming down.”
“Plus we’ve got Sabrina and her boyfriend and Ellis, Brody and Seth,” Jenna added.
“Brody and Seth?” Courtney raised an eyebrow at Jenna.
“They both offered,” Jenna said. “Mom, why don’t you tell everyone about your new digs?”
And that, thank God, turned the subject in a new direction. But later, when everyone was going back for seconds of Annie’s shortbread, Courtney asked Jenna in an undertone, “Both Seth and Brody? Seriously? How’s that going to work?”
“It’ll work fine,” Jenna replied. “We all know where we stand.”
“Okay,” Courtney said dubiously.
But even though they all knew, Jenna felt the undercurrent of dislike as the two men worked side by side the next day to move in her mom’s furniture. They said little enough to each other except for when it came time to move in Mel’s big sleeper sofa.
Then it was great teamwork, with encouraging words like, “Put some muscle into it,” “Lift your end up more,” “Watch what you’re doing, man,” “Hey, you’re gonna push me on my ass,” and, “Look out for that corner.”
“They’re having fun now,” Celeste murmured to Jenna, who was trying to ignore the sniping.
Ellis West set down the armchair he’d carried in. “Need some help, fellas? Scott,” he said to Sabrina’s boyfriend, who had come in through the patio with a box, “run around to the front and get on that other end with Seth, will ya?”
“We’ve got it, Ellis,” Brody snapped.
“Yeah, I can see that. Here, let me give you a hand.”
With the addition of two more men, the big monster was finally settled by the front window.
“Teamwork, that’s the spirit,” said Aunt Edie, who’d been determined to come along and help.
She’d been put in charge of unwrapping dishes, something she could do while sitting at the kitchen table. Even seated, she was working at a snail’s pace. She looked tired and Jenna wished they’d been able to convince her to stay home.
“We were doing fine,” Brody muttered.
“Sure you were,” Ellis scoffed. “Come on, help me guide that freezer into the garage.”
Brody followed him back out the door, pouting like a twelve-year-old, and Seth was right after them. Another pouting twelve-year-old.
“It might not have been such a good idea to have both those men to help us,” Mel said after they were out of earshot.
“What could I do? They both offered.”
“You definitely have a hard choice to make,” put in Celeste as she took baby Edie out of her portable playpen.
“Not really. Only one is truly interested.”
“I’ve seen how Seth looks at you,” Celeste said.
“You can’t build a relationship on looking. Brody’s the one who’s in the game. Seth’s on the sidelines.”
Sabrina came in carrying a box of pictures, and that ended the conversation.
By eleven, both Scotty and Sabrina were gone, off to their summer jobs, her to work in the ice cream parlor and him to help the go-carts keep racing.
Meanwhile, the men kept bringing in boxes. Ellis had a good twenty years on the two younger men, but he was built like an ox and had the stamina of