Winter at the Beach Read online

  “I have decided to let her keep seeing him,” Jenna said. “But seeing and dating are two different things. She can’t date until she’s fifteen and that’s still a few months away. He can see her at our house and at school and parties, and that’s it.”

  “That’s fair,” Brody said.

  “Except she wants to go to the Christmas ball with him, and I don’t know about that. Maybe if a group of them go together.”

  “Safety in numbers?”

  “Something like that.”

  “Sounds like a reasonable compromise. If he wants her, he’ll play by the rules. God knows I jumped through enough parental hoops when I was dating my high school sweetheart.”

  “What happened to her?”

  Brody scowled. “I married her.”

  “Well, you were young. What did you know?” Jenna said in an effort to console him.

  “Not much. And that’s one of the advantages of getting older. You start to figure things out.”

  “I hope so,” Jenna said, thinking of her own confused love life.

  He picked up his glass and saluted her. “Here’s to figuring things out.”

  She picked up her tea mug and echoed, “To figuring things out.”

  And to friends, she thought. She and Brody were definitely friends. Could she see them becoming more? Too soon to know, but it was certainly a possibility.

  * * *

  It appeared that Aunt Edie and Jenna and her committee weren’t the only ones who were excited about the festival. Word spread quickly as the committee got busy, with various shop owners, hoteliers and restaurants happily signing on to decorate, offer specials and be in the parade.

  Even Mayor Parker Thorne was excited when she came to Jenna for her Thursday-afternoon massage. “Of course, the city will be more than happy to print your posters and fliers,” she promised.

  “Thanks,” said Jenna. All right! Getting the mayor on board was the commerce equivalent of getting a blessing from the pope. And the offer to take care of their printed materials would save them a nice chunk of change.

  “I love the idea of a holiday parade,” the mayor continued as Jenna worked out some tightness in her glutes. “You’ll want a grand marshal, naturally.”

  Jenna hadn’t thought beyond Santa, but she said, “Oh, yes.”

  “I’ll be happy to do that for you.” Stylish and pretty, Parker would, of course, make a perfect grand marshal. She would also, of course, never miss an opportunity for a public appearance, but hey, that was politics. “And I told Ellis that my husband, Brewster, will play Santa. Brewster’s a husky man. He’ll do well at that. Oh, and I did remind Ellis he’ll need to build a stage the floats can pass by.”

  Poor Ellis.

  “I’ll be happy to grant interviews to the area papers if needed.”

  That was fine by Jenna. The mayor could be counted on to say the right words, and she’d do a great job of promoting the festival.

  “Whatever you need, the city is behind you one hundred percent.”

  That was good to know. Jenna had a committee of smart, talented people and the enthusiastic support of the mayor’s office. Everything was coming together perfectly.

  “School will be out by then,” Celeste said when Jenna told her. She worked as a first-grade teacher in a school north of Seattle and spent as much time in Moonlight Harbor as she could. “I can come down early and help if you need me to.”

  “Want to be on our Driftwood Inn float?”

  “Sure. I always wanted to be a princess.”

  “What do you mean? You’ve always been a princess,” Jenna teased.

  “One of the perks of being the baby of the family.”

  “Well, Princess Driftwood, you’d better plan to help us work on the float when you come down for Thanksgiving.”

  “I can do that. What’s it going to be?”

  “I don’t know yet. Maybe we’ll just pile a bunch of driftwood in the back of Seth’s truck and you can sit on it.”

  “That sounds comfy. Maybe I don’t want to be in the parade.”

  Jenna chortled. “Too late. But don’t worry. We’ll find a really cool costume for you. I know. You can be a giant fish.”

  “Gee, I can hardly wait.”

  Actually, so could Jenna. Seaside with Santa was going to be amazing.

  Chapter Four

  “I wish I could take the time off to come down,” Jenna’s mom said when Jenna called her on Friday to tell her about the growing enthusiasm for the festival.

  “I wish you didn’t have to work,” Jenna said.

  If only she could hurry up and get the Driftwood showing a profit. She could tell her mom to dump the job and come be part of the family business. Of course, knowing Mom, she’d insist on staying right where she was, checking groceries until she wound up with carpal tunnel. Still, if she was going to get it, she could get it working at the grocery store in Moonlight Harbor, too.

  “I wish you’d move down here,” Jenna said. “I could see if our grocery store is hiring.”

  “Oh, honey, that’s sweet of you to want me. But I’m fine here. I only have a few more years before I retire.”

  “And then you can move down here with Aunt Edie and me.”

  “We’ll see,” Mel said, not committing to anything.

  Widowed young, she had managed to make a good life for herself, but Jenna was convinced it would be better if they were together.

  Of course, there’d be no Sabrina around by the time her mother retired. Who knew where her daughter would end up or what she’d do with her life? All Jenna knew was that she wanted Sabrina to go out and see the world, do big things.

  One thing she didn’t want her to do was be in a hurry to get married. How did that old saying go? Marry in haste, repent at leisure.

  Jenna had certainly done her share of repenting.

  But she’d gotten a great kid out of the deal, and now she was someplace she really wanted to be, doing something useful. So what if she wasn’t working toward becoming a famous artist like her ex? She was planning a festival, and that was pretty important, considering how many people would benefit. More people than would benefit from looking at sculptures made out of dumpster finds.

  Okay, she told herself, be generous. If Damien succeeds, you can be glad for him. Mostly, though, she could be glad she was rid of him.

  She ended the call with her mom and got ready for her first and best massage client, Frank the cop, who was currently working nights.

  “Oh, man, I need this,” he groaned as she started on his legs. “The job’s a killer.”

  He made it sound like he pushed his muscles to the max chasing bad guys around Moonlight Harbor, but as there weren’t currently any bad guys in residence, she knew his muscles couldn’t hurt from racing into danger. And he wasn’t exactly the fittest specimen on the police force, so she doubted he’d hurt himself working out at the community club gym. Frank’s main reason for massage was to keep an eye on Jenna’s love life. He never failed to ask about Brody, and she never failed to let him think they were an item. Maybe they were moving in that direction. She wasn’t sure. But she was sure she and Frank weren’t a match.

  Once they’d gotten the usual banter out of the way, him talking about what a great catch he was and reminding her that money and good looks weren’t everything, and her replying that she was entirely too superficial for him, they switched to the topic of the upcoming festival.

  “Sounds like a good idea,” he said. “Make sure you guys talk to the chief about putting extra cops on duty that day. You’ll need ’em for crowd control.”

  She hoped so. She wanted a crowd.

  She got Frank all fixed for the week, then worked on Patricia Whiteside.

  “How’s the poster design coming?” Patricia asked.

  “I haven’t quit
e hit on the right idea yet,” Jenna confessed. She couldn’t help remembering how Damien used to point out that he couldn’t simply turn on creativity like a faucet when she nagged him to be more productive. Now, she had to admit, she got it. Inspiration was an elusive little bitch.

  Not that Jenna hadn’t been kicking around ideas. She’d known she needed to have Santa on the poster and she needed a nod to the beach, since Moonlight Harbor was a beach town. Santa riding on a whale? Santa under a beach umbrella? Santa sitting on a piece of driftwood? Nothing quite felt right.

  Even if something did feel right she wasn’t sure she’d be able to bring an idea to life on paper. As a child, she’d loved to draw, and she’d enjoyed her high school art classes, but marriage to Damien had sucked away much of her confidence in her artistic abilities.

  “You’ll come up with it,” Patricia said.

  She needed to do that soon. The festival clock was ticking, and those posters needed to get done and distributed.

  Patricia left and Jenna took care of two more clients, then went over to the motel office to...do nothing. There were no new reservations, no guests to look after, no paperwork needing her attention. Okay, back to the house for lunch.

  “Do we have any new reservations?” Aunt Edie asked when she came into the kitchen.

  “We’ve had some inquiries,” Jenna lied. She had a small nose, with room to grow a couple of inches, Pinocchio-style. She grabbed an apple and said, “You know, I think I’ll just go work on the festival poster.” Then she escaped before her aunt could question her further.

  She settled at her desk in the spare bedroom, where she’d set up her massage table, and begged Ms. Inspiration to put in an appearance. What could she put on that poster? Santa in a fishing boat? Santa filling a stocking with...clams? Clams. Hmm.

  Suddenly, just like that, she had it. It took her another couple of hours messing around, but she finally had something she liked, a drawing of a jolly Santa reclining on a giant clam shell, waving to festival-goers. A hint of sea in the background and she was good to go. Who said she didn’t have any artistic abilities? Oh, yeah, her ex. Well, to heck with him.

  She spent a little more time toying with her creation and then scanned it and sent it to her committee members. She also printed off a copy to show Aunt Edie later.

  She sat for a few minutes, staring at it. Pretty darned cute. Did poster design count as legitimate art? Surely it did. No matter. Jenna was pleased with what she’d created. She didn’t need affirmation to feel good about herself.

  Oh, who was she kidding? Of course, she did.

  And it came in quickly from all her committee members.

  This is positively brilliant, wrote Kiki.

  So darling, declared Patricia. I knew you’d come up with something.

  I love it, Tyrella enthused.

  Ellis and Rian also gave it a thumbs-up, and Brody suggested they go out to dinner to celebrate.

  Well, why not? She liked going out to dinner with Brody.

  When Jenna finally surfaced, her daughter was home from school, enjoying Aunt Edie’s freshly baked peanut butter cookies. Tristan was present, too, along with Sabrina’s girlfriend Hudson. Tristan was having a hard time looking Jenna in the eye until she said hello to him and gave him a welcoming pat on the shoulder as she walked past. You’re welcome to come hang out, but behave yourself. At the moment, all three kids were busy texting and posting cookie pictures on Instagram. So much better than kissing. Text away, kids.

  “The poster’s done,” she announced, handing it to Aunt Edie.

  “This is adorable,” Aunt Edie gushed. “As soon as the posters are printed, we need to get one framed to hang in the living room. What do you think?” she asked, turning to show Sabrina and company.

  “It’s really cute, Mom,” said Sabrina, and Jenna felt ridiculously pleased. She’d known she had something good, but to get the approval of her daughter, who had her daddy’s artistic eye, was a big bonus.

  “If you send it to me, I’ll put it up on the Facebook page,” Tristan said.

  “Thanks,” she said. Kiki was right. Her grandson was a good kid. He just needed to learn to control those hormone surges. To be fair, so did her daughter.

  “Nobody’s sent me anything to put up yet, and I’ve kinda been waiting for the poster graphic,” Tristan continued.

  “I’ll get it off to you now. Thanks, Tristan. Having you do our Facebook page is a big help,” she added, making him smile.

  Aunt Edie invited Tristan and Hudson to stay for dinner, and there was talk of a game of Farkle after, which left Jenna free to go enjoy dinner out.

  On her way to the Porthole, she stopped by Seth’s room to drop off her design for the Driftwood Inn’s float. It was simple, a miniature motel surrounded by driftwood. She’d wedge a chair in there for Celeste to sit on. Maybe Sabrina would want to be on it, too.

  “Looks pretty straightforward,” he said when she showed it to him. “You want some blue tinsel hanging from the bottom?”

  “That would be great.”

  “Easy enough. Find me a chassis to build it over.”

  “A chassis?”

  “You know, like from an old car?”

  “A car,” she repeated. Where was she going to find a car?

  “Something has to drive the float,” he pointed out.

  Oh, yeah. Duh. But... “I don’t have extra money to buy a car, even an old one.” She could see her plan for a float floating away.

  “Tell you what. I’ll go over to Dino’s tomorrow.”

  “Dino?”

  “Lives outside town. Fixes cars, sells spare parts. He’s got a couple of beaters sitting around. One of them might actually run.”

  Jenna had visions of their float stalling out halfway down the street. “Oh, boy,” she said faintly.

  “Don’t worry. I worked on cars when I was in high school. Between the two of us, Dino and I can get something running for you.”

  “Do you think he’ll want to donate to a good cause?”

  “Probably. If not, he’ll give us something dirt cheap.”

  “Until we get more people staying here, I can’t even afford dirt.”

  “Don’t worry,” Seth told her. “I’m on it.”

  Then for sure she didn’t need to worry. Seth Waters was hardworking and dependable. “Thanks!”

  He took in her leggings and boots and once-stylish faux fur-trimmed jacket, her gold earrings and lipstick. “Going out?”

  She blushed. Why did she always do that when the topic of her social life came up? Correction. She only blushed when her social life involved Brody.

  But she didn’t need to blush. If she wanted to have dinner with Brody, she darn well could. And she did want to have dinner with him. He was gorgeous, fun and good-hearted. Her mother had told her love hadn’t given up on her, so why not give Cupid a chance to prove it? She was ready to go out with a man, and she didn’t see Seth asking her.

  Of course, he wouldn’t, since he’d obviously decided he wasn’t right for her.

  Still, having him live on the premises was the equivalent of keeping chocolate bars hidden in the freezer. They were supposedly out of reach there, but you always knew where they were and you always wound up drifting to the freezer.

  “With Brody?” Seth continued.

  “Committee business.” They would, of course, talk about the poster.

  “Yeah, right,” Seth said, and frowned.

  Jealous but gutless. “I don’t see you asking me out.”

  He gave her a lazy smile, and his eyelids dropped to half-mast. Whenever Jenna got caught with her eyes half closed in pictures, she looked drunk and idiotic. Seth Waters looked sexy.

  “Don’t want to tempt you,” he said in his deep pirate voice.

  Too late. He did. “What a feeble excuse.” />
  “Don’t want to tempt myself, either,” he added. “Go on, gorge yourself on crab with the house-peddler. Try not to get too overheated.”

  “He is pretty hot,” Jenna taunted.

  “I meant from all the hot air he’ll be blowing around.”

  “Admit it, you’re jealous.”

  “You know I am. Now, get out of here before I turn into some sort of nineteenth-century rake and subject you to a fate worse than death.”

  Sex with Seth Waters. She’d die with a smile on her face. Ah, yes, the kids weren’t the only ones with hormones on overload.

  But in spite of the attraction, she didn’t see anything happening with Seth. Maybe, in the end, nothing would happen with Brody, either. Who knew? One thing she did know for sure, if she took the plunge into the turbulent waters of true love, she wanted someone who was willing to stay in them with her and swim the distance.

  Thinking about how hurt she’d been when her marriage crumbled, she couldn’t help wondering if she’d ever find someone like that. Maybe she was meant to go through life alone.

  You’re not alone, she reminded herself. You have Aunt Edie and Mom and Celeste and Sabrina.

  But Sabrina would be gone in four short years, either off to college somewhere or to learn a vocation. Aunt Edie and Mom would eventually leave Jenna, too, although not of their own volition. As for Celeste, she was too cute, and liked men way too much to settle into living forever single with her sister. No, someday it would be Jenna, all by herself.

  Except she’d always have friends here at Moonlight Harbor. You were never alone when you lived in a tight-knit community like this one. She’d found the perfect place to land, the perfect safety net to fall into.

  She bought a few things for Aunt Edie at the grocery store, and by the time she got to the restaurant, Brody was waiting for her in the lobby. “I could have come and picked you up, you know,” he greeted her.

  “I know, but I had an errand to run.”

  “I don’t mind running errands.”

  He didn’t mind much of anything. Nothing seemed to ruffle Brody Green. Patient and easy to be with, he was a nice change from her ex, who was high-strung and high-maintenance.