Lighthouse Cove (South Carolina Sunsets Book 7)

by Rachel Hanna

  Julie watched as they disappeared down the sidewalk. She leaned against the front counter and closed her eyes for a moment, taking a few deep breaths. There had been so many people in the store that it had almost become claustrophobic at times, and she wondered what it would be like to buy the space next door if it ever became available. Maybe they could expand and have even more to offer their customers. She’d even thought about having a whole cafe with trivia and karaoke nights, but she hadn’t told Dixie her ideas just yet. None of it mattered if there wasn’t a space to expand into anyway.

  She turned and started wiping down the countertop. A germophobe, she constantly sanitized everything. She was cleaning out the coffee pot and refilling the water when she heard someone walk in the door behind her.

  “Hey, Mom,” Meg said.

  “Oh, hey, honey! I didn’t know you were coming by today.”

  Her daughter looked a little nervous, and that was never a good thing. As a mother, Julie never wanted to have difficult conversations with her daughters. She wanted everything to be all rainbows and unicorns, but life was rarely like that.

  “I just dropped Vivi off with Christian. They’re going to go down to the marsh to look at the birds.”

  “He’s a good dad.”

  Meg smiled. “Yes, he is.”

  “And, he’s going to be a wonderful husband. Which brings me to something I forgot to ask you yesterday. About the centerpieces…”

  Meg held up her hand. “Mom, stop.”

  Julie was taken aback. “What do you mean?”

  “Can we sit down?”

  “Sure,” Julie said, walking over and sitting down at the bistro table. Meg slowly joined her, not making eye contact. She placed both the palms of her hands on the table like she was trying to stabilize herself.

  “I want to say that I am so thankful for all of the work that you’ve done on this wedding. I know it hasn’t been easy, and you’ve been exhausted. I want to say that I’m sorry for putting so much responsibility on you.”

  “Oh, sweetie, I’ve enjoyed every minute of it! My daughter is getting married!”

  “That’s the thing…”

  “What? You’re not getting married?”

  “No, I am getting married. But we’ve made a decision about something.”

  “What is it?”

  “Mom, I’ve decided that I don’t want a big wedding. All of this planning and trying to make this into some grand event just isn’t me or Christian. We just want something really small with our family out by the ocean. That’s it.”

  Julie stared at her for a long moment. When the shock finally wore off, she spoke. “Oh, thank God!”

  Meg laughed. “What? I thought you’d be disappointed?”

  “Are you kidding me? I felt like I was trying to plan a royal wedding. I’m so glad we’re not doing that because it felt like it was way too much.”

  “Right? It started to feel like somebody else’s event and not mine. I don’t care about flowers and music and seating charts. I just want to marry Christian and get on with our lives.”

  Julie reached across the table and held her hands. “I am so glad that you’re mature enough to know what’s right for you and Christian. So we will do whatever you need us to do, but you make your wedding your own.”

  Meg smiled broadly and jumped up to hug her mother. “Thanks for understanding! All we need is to have our family there and maybe for grandma to make us a cake. Oh, and Lucy to make us some of her shrimp and grits!”

  “You want shrimp and grits for your wedding meal?” Julie asked, laughing.

  “Absolutely!”

  “Then shrimp and grits you shall have!”

  Janine stumbled, hanging onto William’s arm for dear life. “At what point are you going to explain to me why I’m blindfolded?”

  “We’re almost there,” he said, guiding her. She could tell that they were on the beach, although she wasn’t sure which one. The sand beneath her feet was thick, and she could feel her calves starting to burn.

  When William had showed up at the yoga studio and asked her to go to lunch with him, this wasn’t at all what she was expecting. He’d ushered her to his truck, put a blindfold on her and started driving. Wasn’t this how a lot of scary movies started?

  “How much further?”

  He stopped. “We’re here.” He reached up and removed her blindfold, revealing a beautiful picnic lunch right by the water. They were at a little cove just down from Janine’s cottage. She loved this area because it was quiet, although with the new lighthouse tours, there would probably be more people on that stretch of the beach very soon.

  “You did this for me?”

  “I just thought maybe you could use a little lunch away from all the craziness in the square right now.” She had to admit, it was nice to get away from everything. With the Spring Festival starting tomorrow, there was a lot of activity going on around her studio.

  “Thank you, William. This is a beautiful gesture.”

  He pointed to the red and white checkered blanket on the ground. She sat down cross legged, as any good Yogi would do.

  “I picked up some of your favorites from the café. Chicken salad, potato soup, peach cobbler…”

  Janine laughed. “Are you trying to make me fat?”

  He smiled. “I’m just trying to make you happy, whatever that takes.”

  She reached over and held his hand. “I’m happy because I’m with you. I mean, I won’t say no to the peach cobbler…”

  “Janine, I’m really sorry for how things went the other night at the restaurant. I just had some things on my mind, and I pretty much ruined our romantic evening.”

  “Let’s just forget about it and enjoy this amazing lunch, okay?”

  “Yeah, and we better hurry up because I know you have a class in an hour or so.”

  “Yes, and I also have something else important I need to do after class this evening, so I might be a little late coming over to your house.”

  “I hope nothing too upsetting or dramatic?”

  “I don’t know. We’ll see. I can’t talk about it right now, but hopefully I can tell you when I see you tonight.”

  She didn’t want to tell him about the situation with Emma without her permission first. She understood how important it was for a person who had suffered trauma to be able to control who knew about it.

  “So, I wanted to talk to you about something…”

  Her heart started to flutter. Maybe this was it. Maybe this was the moment that he was going to propose. Of course, she didn’t know if that had been the plan at the restaurant, but maybe it was the plan now.

  “Okay…”

  “You and I have been together for a while now, and you know how much I love you and enjoy your company…”

  “Excuse me! Excuse me!” A frantic woman came running from seemingly nowhere, waving her hands in the air.

  “Oh good Lord…” William muttered under his breath.

  “Is something wrong?” Janine said, standing up.

  “Did you see a golden retriever run past here?”

  “A golden retriever?” William said, irritation in his voice. Janine elbowed him.

  “We’re here visiting, and we saw this beautiful little stretch of beach. Thought we would come down here and check it out but my dog got off the leash. She doesn’t know the area, and I’m scared to death she’ll get eaten by an alligator or something worse!”

  “What’s worse than an alligator?” William muttered. This time, Janine pinched his arm.

  The woman was obviously very upset, and Janine felt like they had to help her. “We haven’t seen a dog, but we just got here. Maybe we can help you look for him.”

  William stared at her, surprise on his face. “Right. Of course we’ll help. We weren’t doing anything else,” he said, dryly.

  “We have to help her. She doesn’t know the area,” Janine whispered in his ear.

  For the next thirty minutes, they scoured the bea
ch, the trees nearby and even the backyards of the few cottages that were in that area. No sign of a dog. Finally, as they were all walking back to their cars, a very wet golden retriever came running up, barking, holding marsh grass in his mouth. Evidently, he had run far enough to end up in the marshlands, and he was probably pretty lucky that he didn’t get eaten by an alligator.

  “Elvis, are you crazy?” the woman yelled at her dog, as if he understood. Janine almost wanted to ask the backstory on naming her dog Elvis, but she was truly afraid the woman would spend the next half hour telling her, and she didn’t have that kind of time. She had to get back to the studio and get ready for class. “Thank you so much for helping me look. I’m so sorry I interrupted your picnic.”

  “It’s no problem, really. We’re just glad you found your beloved Elvis,” Janine said.

  As they watched the woman walk off with her dog, William cleaned up the “picnic that never was”. Janine grabbed a few bites of food, shoving them into her mouth quickly before they had to head back to town so she could teach class. She could tell that William was upset, but she wasn’t totally sure why. Even though she was assuming that he was yet again going to try to propose, she was starting to feel like something was always going to get in their way.

  Being the woo-woo type of person that she was, that was starting to concern her. Maybe the universe was putting obstacles in their path so that they didn’t end up married. And maybe he wasn’t going to ask her at all. Maybe she was just pie-in-the-sky dreaming things up in her head. At this point, she didn’t know what to think.

  “Well, thanks for the picnic,” she said, forcing a smile.

  “There was no picnic. Instead, there was a search for an idiot dog named Elvis who likes to eat marsh grass.”

  She smiled. “It’s okay, William. We have plenty of time for picnics. At least we did a good deed today.”

  “I guess so. Good luck with your class. I’ll see you tonight.”

  She hopped out of the truck and watched him drive away wondering whether they would ever get married or if she was destined to just be his girlfriend for the rest of her life.

  Emma locked the door to the lighthouse after the last guest left. Today had been a long one with two school groups, a church group and a screaming baby that seemed to echo through the entire building.

  All she wanted to do was run herself a bubble bath in the old clawfoot tub that was in the cottage and soak until her skin turned into a prune-like texture.

  This morning, she had gotten a call from Caroline who had, of course, talked to Steve. Again, she tried to talk some sense into Emma, but Emma couldn’t seem to make her understand that she wasn’t coming home. This was her new home, and she was starting to find some semblance of happiness here.

  The ocean soothed her. The marshes still scared her a little bit, but she was starting to grow accustomed to the smells and the sounds that happened at night in the South Carolina lowcountry.

  She was looking forward to manning her own table at the Spring Festival tomorrow. She had worked up the flyers which the city council had approved, and she was hoping to bring even more business to the lighthouse. As long as she did a good job with the tours, she got to keep her job. She got to keep her free housing. She got to continue living her new life.

  “Hey!”

  She turned around to see Janine standing near her front door. She wasn’t expecting company, and normally she wouldn’t have minded if she wasn’t so incredibly tired.

  “Hey, Janine. I didn’t know you were coming by this evening.”

  “I know, and it’s really rude of me to just show up here but I need to talk to you.”

  “Did something else happen with William?”

  “Well… Yes.”

  “Then by all means, come on in. I was about to heat up some spaghetti I made last night. Hungry?”

  “Actually, yes I am hungry. I didn’t exactly get to eat lunch today.”

  “No? Why is that?”

  She put the key in the door and allowed Janine inside. She pointed at the breakfast bar for Janine to sit down as she went to the refrigerator to retrieve the spaghetti and the now too soggy garlic bread. Maybe if she threw it in the toaster, she could get it to crisp up again.

  “So, William took me for a romantic picnic by the ocean today.”

  “Wow. He’s Mr. Romance lately. So why didn’t you eat lunch then? Too much romance going on?” Emma said, winking.

  “No. A tourist came running through saying that her dog was missing, so I felt like we needed to spend the time to help her. Ended up barely making it back in time to teach my class and only having a few bites of food for lunch.”

  “I imagine William was not happy about that?”

  “You imagine right. I got the feeling that he might be popping the question again. But I could be totally wrong and overthinking this. Maybe he’s just trying to do something romantic, but he’s not actually going to ask me.”

  “Have you ever thought about flipping the tables and asking him instead?”

  Janine pondered that for a moment. “I’ve thought about it, but I guess I’m too traditionally southern. I just feel like the man should ask.”

  “I have to agree with you there. Some things are just set in stone for me.”

  “Listen, I didn’t actually come here to talk to you about William and me.”

  Emma finished doling the spaghetti out onto plates and put them into the microwave to heat up. Then, she popped the garlic bread into the toaster.

  “Oh yeah? What’s up?”

  “I don’t know how to say this exactly… I’ve been trying to figure it out the whole time I was waiting for you to come out of the lighthouse.”

  “Now you’re starting to scare me a little bit.”

  “Emma, I know.”

  “You know what?”

  “I know what happened.”

  “Janine, you’re gonna have to be a little more specific. You know what happened? What does that mean?”

  Janine blew out a long breath. “I know that you were a police officer and that you were in an officer involved shooting.”

  Emma was holding the dirty serving spoon in her hand, covered with tomato sauce. She immediately dropped it, causing a loud clanging sound on the tile floor in the kitchen. It felt like all of the blood had drained from her face, and there was a really distinct possibility that she might just pass out. She had only done that once in her life, so she knew exactly what it felt like. So she braced herself against the counter, her hands gripping the granite. She could see the blood leaving her fingers as they looked white from holding onto the countertop so hard.

  “Are you okay?” Janine said, immediately realizing something was wrong. She jumped up and put her arm around Emma’s waist. “Why don’t we sit down?”

  They walked over to the dining table and Emma slowly slid down into one of the chairs. She had figured at some point someone would know who she was, but this wasn’t the reaction she expected from herself. She had been in so many adrenaline inducing situations in her career that she should’ve been able to handle any kind of stress, but right now she felt like she could be knocked over with a feather.

  “How did you find out?” she asked, softly.

  “Colleen saw it on a true crime documentary last night. She came and told me, but she hasn’t told anyone else and she won’t. We are the only two people who know.”

  “Oh my gosh. I can’t get away from it! It’s on a documentary? Why can’t I get away from this?”

  She stood up and started pacing back-and-forth in the kitchen like a wild animal.

  “Why don’t you sit back down? I don’t think you should be…”

  “Do you know what it was like? How hard it was to stay in that town after it happened? Everybody looked at me differently. Everybody judged me.”

  “I’m sure that wasn’t true, Emma. You did the right thing. It sounds like he would’ve killed you or someone else if you hadn’t done what you did.”<
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  “I could’ve shot him in the leg or tackled him or done literally anything else…”

  “You can’t second-guess yourself! I know police officers, and I know what kind of training you go through. You have to make split-second decisions that the rest of us can’t even imagine. And it’s just the luck of the draw who ends up having to make those decisions in the field. You did the right thing. Otherwise you would’ve been in trouble or lost your job, but everybody knows that you protected yourself and your community.”

  She sat down and put her head in her hands. “I thought I could start over here, but this is going to follow me forever. I’ll always be known as the cop who killed somebody.”

  “A lot of cops are in that club, unfortunately. It’s part of the job.”

  “You know, I never really wanted to be a police officer. I was running from something then and I ran straight into that. And if I hadn’t made the decision to become an officer, I wouldn’t be feeling like this right now.”

  “Emma, I can’t pretend to understand what you’re going through, but have you gotten any counseling?”

  She laughed under her breath. “What counselor is going to understand what I’m going through?”

  “I don’t think it’s about someone understanding what you’re going through. I think it’s about helping you learn how to accept what you’ve gone through and forgive yourself.”

  She sat there for a moment quietly thinking about what Janine had said. She couldn’t keep going on like this, that much was for sure. It was exhausting trying to hide who she was all the time. She felt like she was living a double life, constantly trying to pretend she was okay. She’d been involved in a case where a person was put into witness protection, and she often wondered what that life was like. Now, she had at least a small taste of it.

  “When I was a kid, I used to save bugs. I drove my mother crazy because I was constantly bringing them into the house in Mason jars or her good Tupperware. But I didn’t want them to die. And if I stepped on one accidentally, I would cry. I couldn’t imagine hurting another living creature.”

  “I was kind of that way too,” Janine said, smiling. “We’re tender hearted people, I guess.”