Welcome to Moonlight Harbor

by Sheila Roberts

  After a while the temperature dropped and she ambled back to the house. She found her daughter seated at the kitchen table with her aunt, playing cards.

  “Where were you?” Sabrina greeted her. “Aunt Edie was worried.”

  “Oh no, I knew you were fine,” protested Aunt Edie.

  “You should tell people where you’re going,” Sabrina taunted.

  “I have hamburger casserole left in the oven,” said Aunt Edie, determined to stay neutral in a possible mother-daughter skirmish.

  “It’s really good,” Sabrina added. She laid down her cards and cried, “Gin! I got you, Aunt Edie.”

  “You surely did,” said Aunt Edie.

  “Call the cops!” suggested Roger from his kitchen perch.

  Jenna shook her head. There it was, a scene of domestic bliss. One would never guess that only a little while ago her daughter was having a hate affair with her new home. Yep, those moods were like the weather at the beach, highly changeable.

  Maybe, if Jenna was lucky, that good mood would last for a while. Maybe they were in for some sunny weather. A mom could hope.

  Chapter Nine

  To Do:

  Order business cards

  Set up spare bedroom for massage

  Put on makeup!

  Thursday morning was rainy, so Jenna opted to give her muscles a break and work on getting her business up and running, ordering business cards online and setting up her massage room in the spare downstairs bedroom that had been Uncle Ralph’s den.

  Of course, at breakfast Sabrina wanted to know what they were going to do that day. As in fun and games. She’d been itching to get out with her kite but not in the rain, and now she was frustrated and in need of a social director.

  “I thought it was supposed to be sunny at the beach,” she grumbled.

  “It should be nicer tomorrow,” predicted Jenna the weather girl.

  Sabrina wasn’t impressed with her weather forecast.

  Aunt Edie came to the rescue with plans for baking cookies that met with Sabrina’s approval. “And then maybe you can help me clean Roger’s cage.” Sabrina hadn’t looked quite so excited about that, but she politely agreed, and when Aunt Edie promised to teach her how to play canasta afterward, she perked up.

  “First, though, you can help me carry in my massage things from the garage,” Jenna said.

  “And then we’ll bake our cookies,” Aunt Edie added, sensing a mutiny.

  Sabrina heaved a long-suffering sigh and followed Jenna to the garage.

  “My, there is a lot,” Aunt Edie observed as Jenna set up her equipment. She pointed to Jenna’s old turkey roaster, which had been a garage sale find, and the ancient microwave sitting next to it on the repurposed bookcase. “Are you going to be cooking?”

  “No. I use the microwave to warm up my damp towels, and the turkey roaster serves as my stone warmer. The real deal costs a couple hundred bucks. And as for the towels, well, Mom’s old microwave was a lot cheaper than a towel cabi.”

  “You are so resourceful,” Aunt Edie said.

  “I don’t know if I’d go that far.”

  “I’m certainly impressed.”

  Jenna smiled at her. “You impress easily.”

  “Not really. You are a wonderful girl, darling one.”

  If only Damien had felt the same way. They could have all been down here at the beach, starting this new adventure together.

  Jenna shrugged off the moment of sadness. She was having enough adventure without him. She didn’t need the cheater.

  She stood back and admired her handiwork. In addition to her warming equipment, blankets and towels, she had her CD player for relaxing music, her aromatherapy oils and her massage oils. Her little desk looked cute in the corner with a vase of silk daisies sitting on it. Another small bookcase held her copies of Massage Therapy Journal along with a box of tissues for the inevitable runny nose clients would get while lying on their tummies.

  “Now I just need a sign to hang outside the house,” she said. “Maybe Seth can make me one.”

  “Seth?”

  “Our new resident handyman,” Jenna reminded her.

  “Oh, yes. I caught a glimpse of him this morning when I went out to get the paper. A very nice-looking young man,” Aunt Edie added, and watched for Jenna’s reaction. Yep, back in Cupid mode.

  “He’s okay,” Jenna said, keeping her expression neutral.

  “I’d like to meet him. Maybe we could invite him over for dinner,” Aunt Edie added slyly.

  “I’ll make sure you meet him,” Jenna promised. “But we’re already feeding Pete all the time. We don’t need any more mouths to feed.” Although the idea of spending more time getting to know the mysterious Seth Waters was tempting.

  The mention of Pete’s mooching made Aunt Edie frown. “I’d better get Sabrina started on those cookies,” she said, and disappeared before the topic of Pete could be further discussed.

  Jenna shook her head and got to work designing some flyers on her computer. Like rust and mold, Pete was an inescapable irritation here at the beach.

  Soon the aroma of baking chocolate drifted in to her. Stay put, she commanded herself. Don’t go into Temptation Land. If she even set a toe in the kitchen she’d wind up inhaling chocolate chip cookies.

  She was about to cave right when Sabrina entered her office bearing a dessert plate with one lone cookie on it. “I brought you a sample,” she said, setting it on the desk.

  “Aww, that was sweet,” Jenna said. Yes, those moments when she wasn’t the hated, meanest mom in the world were worth more than sunken treasure.

  “Aunt Edie wanted me to put more on the plate but I knew you’d only want one,” Sabrina added.

  “You did good,” Jenna said. Then, as her daughter was standing there, waiting for her verdict, she took a bite. “Yum.”

  Sabrina beamed and went back to the kitchen, and Jenna went back to work smiling. Yes, life was getting better.

  The morning slipped by on that nice, even keel as Jenna worked on odds and ends of paperwork. She was posting her new location on her business Facebook page when a shriek from her daughter had her racing into the kitchen. Roger’s cage sat on the kitchen table and Roger was on his perch, walking back and forth, feathers ruffled. Sabrina was holding her bleeding hand and howling and Aunt Edie was trying to attend to it with a wet paper towel.

  “What happened?” Jenna asked, hurrying over.

  “He bit me!” Sabrina cried, tears in her eyes. “I just wanted to pet him and he bit me.”

  “I’m so sorry,” fretted Aunt Edie. “I should have warned her about fast movements. She startled him.”

  “My finger’s bleeding,” wailed Sabrina.

  “It’ll be okay,” Jenna said, putting an arm around her.

  “I hate that bird!”

  “He was only protecting himself,” Jenna said as Aunt Edie rushed off in search of hydrogen peroxide, her cure-all for every wound.

  “He’s mean.”

  “He’s really not. Aunt Edie will show you how to work with him.”

  “I don’t want to know how to work with him. I hate him! And I hate it here!”

  She began to cry in earnest. Jenna pulled her into a hug and assured her everything would be okay. She realized she meant those words as much for herself as for Sabrina.

  Aunt Edie dressed the wound and Jenna found aspirin. Then Sabrina was seated at the kitchen table with ice and a plate of the cookies she and Aunt Edie had baked while Aunt Edie hurried to fetch the canasta deck. Another crisis survived.

  With her daughter settled down, Jenna went to check on how the motel was surviving the rain. Some damp drizzles on the walls of several rooms told her she was going to have to invest in tarp for the roof sooner than later, and she drove to Beach Lumber and Hardware to stock up
and pick up paint.

  She was on her way to her car when her mom called to check in. “Thought I’d give you a quick call while I’m on my lunch break,” Mel said. “How’s it going down there?”

  “Well, let’s see. Jolly Roger bit Sabrina and she hates it here. And the motel roof is leaking like a sieve. I’m on my way to the hardware store to buy tarp.”

  “Adventures in Paradise,” Mel murmured.

  “Something like that.”

  “How are you holding up?”

  “Okay. The place really does have potential. I just have to figure out where I’m going to get the money to do all the work.”

  “How much do you need?”

  “We’re probably going to need fifty thousand dollars.”

  There was a moment of silence on the other end of the call. Then, “Oh.”

  “Yeah. Oh. But don’t worry. I’ll work something out. It’s summer. I won’t have to deal with the roof until September.” And of course, by then, money would have magically fallen from heaven.

  “Maybe we can all chip in,” said her mother.

  After their conversation the previous month, Jenna wasn’t holding her breath. “It’ll work out.” She believed that. Yes, she did. If you build it they will come...all good things come to she who waits... Somewhere over the rainbow... Jenna frowned, told her mom she had to go and ended the call.

  She detoured by city hall on her way and forked out fifty bucks for a business license. She hated to spend even fifty dollars of her hard-saved funds, but this was seed money. She’d make it back with one massage. Heaven knew they needed to make money somewhere.

  “How’s it going over there?” Tyrella asked her when she finally entered the hardware store. Today Tyrella had her hair up in a colorful headscarf and had accented her jeans and carpenter’s apron with a chunky bead necklace and beachy charm bracelet dangling little seashells and coral-colored beads.

  “All the old carpet is gone. Painting is next. But first I have to cover our leaky roof. Please tell me you’ve got enough tarp to do the job.”

  “I do. I’ll give you a twenty percent discount.”

  Jenna smiled at her. “You’re the best.”

  “No, if I was the best I’d be giving it to you for free. Come on, let’s get you set up.”

  Half an hour later Jenna was ready to roll, her charge card maxed out and every corner of her car filled with tarp and five-gallon buckets of paint. There went Aunt Edie’s money and hers and then some. She encouraged herself as she drove back to the motel by envisioning it all prettied up and decorated and filled with lodgers.

  She saw Seth’s truck parked in the parking lot when she pulled in. Now was as good a time as any to see if he could make her some sort of sign. She knocked on his door.

  It opened to reveal a mussed sleeping bag on the floor, his cooler and a small pile of books. He had one in hand.

  “Were you busy?” she asked, feeling guilty for bothering him. Except why was she feeling guilty? They had a deal. He worked in exchange for...a bare floor.

  “Just killing time till you came back. I went over to the house and met your aunt. She said you were out getting paint. Need some help unloading?”

  “That would be great.”

  “So, what have you got for me today?” he asked as they walked to her car.

  “Well, actually, I was hoping you could make me a sign. For my business.”

  His brows dipped. “I thought this place was your business.”

  “It is, but I’m also a licensed massage therapist. We need an income flow while I’m getting the inn renovated and I’ve gotten set up in my aunt’s spare room.”

  He nodded thoughtfully. “A massage therapist, huh? I’ll have to keep that in mind for the future.”

  That comment produced an image of Seth Waters all oiled up, her running her hands over his back. No, no, no. Don’t go there.

  “What’s the name of your business and what do you want the sign to look like?”

  “It’s Healing Hands Massage. I just need a simple plaque with that on it. Can you help me out?”

  “Sure. I’ll have it for you tomorrow.”

  “Great.” The sooner, the better. “Then tomorrow we should be ready to paint.”

  “You’d better let me pressure wash the outside and treat the mold before you paint the outside,” he said.

  “I thought I’d start with the inside and do the outside later when the weather’s a little more dependable.”

  “Good idea. Let me know when you’re ready.”

  “I will. And, about the sign, I’ll pay for the cost of your materials.”

  “It’s not that much. Don’t worry about it,” he said.

  With that, the topic of the to-do list was exhausted. But she was curious about the book he was holding. She pointed to it. “What are you reading?” He held it up for her inspection. “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare? I never figured you for a Shakespeare kind of guy.”

  He shrugged. “Just furthering my education. Never finished college.”

  “I never started,” Jenna confessed. Did that make her sound stupid? “I like to read, though,” she said. Not Shakespeare, but she decided not to share that. “Once I discovered massage it was all I wanted to do, so I went to massage therapy school instead.”

  “At least you went to school for something.”

  He sounded wistful. She was about to ask why he didn’t finish when he said, “Well, see you tomorrow, then.”

  “Yeah, tomorrow.” And that signaled the end of the chitchat for the day.

  Seth Waters sure wasn’t much of a talker. Sometimes, the way he looked at her with those dark pirate eyes, she could swear he was interested, but unlike Brody, he hadn’t put the moves on her, so maybe she’d imagined that interest.

  Oh, well. Her first love was now the Driftwood Inn. It really was going to be cute once it was all done.

  “Yes, it is,” Aunt Edie agreed as they sat around the dinner table that evening downing hot dogs and Aunt Edie’s potato salad.

  She’d also made one of her standbys, a salad with strawberry gelatin, cream cheese, frozen strawberries and a crust made with pretzel crumbs. If you asked Jenna, it was more dessert than salad. Not that she was complaining. Sabrina, who was on her second helping, sure wasn’t.

  “The first thing we have to do tomorrow is get that roof covered,” Jenna said.

  “Don’t look at me,” Pete told her, dishing himself up more potato salad. “At my age, I could fall and break a hip.”

  “I can help,” Sabrina offered, making her mother immensely proud of her.

  “That’s sweet of you, but no, I don’t want you up on the roof. I’ll do it.” She wouldn’t cry buckets if Pete fell. Her daughter, however, was another matter.

  “But you’re afraid of heights,” Sabrina reminded her. “Even the little-kid roller coaster at Enchanted Village used to scare you.”

  On the other hand, Sabrina was afraid of nothing. All the more reason why Jenna wasn’t letting her up on the roof.

  “This roof’s not that high.” She could do it.

  “Okay,” Sabrina said doubtfully, giving Jenna doubts, as well.

  “I hate to think of you up on that roof,” Aunt Edie fretted. “Why don’t you let that nice young man help you?”

  Jenna already had more than enough for Seth to do to earn his stay at the fabulous Driftwood Inn. She’d planned on getting Pete to help her. But really, it probably wasn’t a good idea to send the old guy up on the roof with his brittle bones. So, this would be a job for Super Jenna.

  “I’ll be fine,” she assured both her aunt and herself.

  And she was. The next day, wearing the tool belt Tyrella had loaned her, which was stocked with nails and Uncle Ralph’s old hammer, she managed to get a roll of tarp up on the edge
of the roof and herself, as well. After several deep breaths.

  Oh, man, it was high up here. And in bad condition. Some of the shingles were missing, probably blown away by high winter winds. She could get blown away!

  “Don’t be stupid,” she scolded herself. The sun was out and there was no wind.

  Yet.

  She took another deep breath, and inched farther up the roof. What if she dropped her tarp?

  Never mind the tarp. What if she dropped herself?

  More deep breaths. The roof wasn’t steeply pitched and she managed to make it to the peak where, gripping tightly with one hand, she squeezed her eyes shut and unfurled the tarp with the other. There. Good for her.

  But now she had blue tarp in one hand and was holding onto the cap of the roof with the other. How was she going to get to her hammer?

  With a whimper, she stretched out over the peak like a giant taco shell in the making and then reached out a foot to hold down the tarp. Getting out her hammer had her breathing hard but she managed. Now, a nail. Oh, Lord, she was going to die. She kept herself spread-eagle over the roof and managed to dig out a nail. Then scooted around so she could hammer while lying down, scraping her elbow in the process. Boy, was this fun.

  But with her first corner nailed down she felt like she’d won gold in the Olympic Games. She could do this!

  Once she got busy rolling out and nailing down tarp she was almost able to forget where she was. Until it came time to go down the ladder for more.

  Her eye began to twitch. Don’t be such a sissy, she told herself. You can do this. Just turn around, put your foot on the ladder. She reached out a foot...into empty space. Eeek. She pulled it back in, looked over the edge of the roof. It wasn’t that long of a way down.

  Oh, yes, it was. She edged away from the ladder, digging her hands into the crumbly shingles. Helicopter rescue, that was what she needed. “Help!” she hollered, hoping Pete was somewhere around to hear.

  He wasn’t. And while there were customers at the Seafood Shack across the parking lot, they were coming and going, talking and playing their car radios so loud no one would have heard her even if she’d had a bullhorn.