Stranger on the Shore (Mirabelle Harbor, Book 4)

by Marilyn Brant

  There was a long pause as she took in everything I’d been telling her. Then she said, “For purely selfish reasons, I’m really looking forward to you coming back to Mirabelle Harbor. But I know how rare love is. How hard it can be to find. Do you think your relationship with Gil could be special like that? Or is this just an exciting, life-affirming summer fling that you’ll always cherish? Because that’s a good thing, too. It’s just—” She paused.

  “It’s just what?”

  “Well, with a fling, you take a bunch of pictures and make a lot of memories, but then you pack them up, go home, and get on with things. With love, Marianna, you move heaven and earth to keep it in your life.”

  I closed my eyes and felt tears forming behind my lids, but I didn’t try to fight them. Olivia was asking me something both valuable and wise, and I needed to let myself feel my real emotions when thinking about this. She was being a true friend and forcing me to look honestly at my relationship with Gil. At who we both were, where we belonged, and what we truly wanted from our lives.

  Nothing he’d ever said in all of our conversations—or even in the heat of our lovemaking—indicated that a long-term love story was part of our future. We’d both gone into this relationship insisting that commitment wasn’t going to be a factor. Knowing that our connection was intended to be, at most, for a passionate few weeks. Maybe a month. I fully expected us to go our separate ways after I left Sarasota at the end of July.

  Sure, we’d probably call each other a handful of times after I was back in Mirabelle Harbor. Exchange Christmas cards for a year or two. “Like” some random posts on the other person’s Facebook page. Or catch up on each other’s lives through emails Joy would send us.

  But even if I extended my stay by a few weeks so Gil and I could be together for a bit longer, once I left Florida for good, he and I would drift apart. It was inevitable.

  “Thanks, Olivia,” I whispered. “You’re right. There is a distinction between the two, and I appreciate that you reminded me of it. This thing with Gil... it’s a fling. It’s gotta be. But it’s a really fabulous one. It’s going to be hard to let him go.”

  “All right,” she said. “That’s important to know. But, don’t forget, I’m here for you. I might be a thousand miles away at the moment, but I’ve always got your back. And if you need to talk any of this out—at any time—please call me.”

  “I will.”

  There was another knock at the front door, but I was in the bedroom, so I couldn’t see who was outside.

  “Hey, I’ve got to go,” I told her. “We’ll talk soon, okay?”

  “We’d better,” she said, before she rang off.

  I went back into the living room and—Ohhh!

  “Gil?” I said, my heart fluttering at the mere sight of him standing in the doorway, dressed in a brightly patterned Hawaiian shirt and cargo shorts.

  Joy had let him in, and he was holding a bouquet of flowers in one hand and a CD in the other.

  “Marianna.” He grinned at me with a look that left me utterly breathless. We both just stood there for a second and stared at each other.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my sister grimace and narrow her eyes at Gil. And then I saw his sister glance between Gil, Ellen, and me with her mouth agape. Joy’s face was so expressive, she couldn’t hide her surprise.

  “Ellen, I see you’ve met my big brother.” She turned toward Gil. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked him, incredulous.

  He cleared his throat and quickly thrust the floral arrangement at my sister. “Uh, it was a very brief meeting.” Then, to Ellen, “These are for you. Glad to see you’re doing better.”

  The expression on my sister’s face was less than welcoming, but she managed to reply, “Thanks. So, you’re Joy’s brother, huh?”

  “Yep,” he said.

  “I’m starting to understand all of this now,” I heard her murmur.

  But Gil had returned his focus to me. “And this is for you,” he said, handing me the CD.

  Seashore Instrumental was the title. I skimmed both covers and read the insert. Relaxing island music. The soothing sounds of waterfalls and rippling waves. The flow of the tide on swirling sands.

  I laughed. “This looks very calming.”

  “That’s the idea,” he said. “It’s for deep-breathing practice.”

  It was all I could do not to kiss him. “Thank you, Gil.”

  He nodded sweetly at me but kept his physical distance. For my part, I longed to fold myself up in his strong arms, slip my fingers beneath the Hawaiian fabric, and be warmed by his embrace. But there were four pairs of very curious eyes watching our every move. Not that we were fooling anyone with our restraint. I had no doubt Joy had already magically intuited everything that’d happened between her brother and me and was busy processing it all in her active little brain. Ellen had guessed as much last night. And, from the matching grins worn by Lorelei and Abby, they more than suspected Gil and I had moved beyond a platonic friendship. Into what, however, was the question I could almost hear them both asking themselves.

  But friends don’t push each other into revealing things they’re not ready to reveal and, so, Gil and I were able to get through the next hour without any overt teasing.

  And it was fun. Even Ellen soon started laughing again, relaxing into the company of my friends with an ease I found gratifying. I was proud to know these wonderful people and show them off to my sister. Pleased to see that she appreciated them, too.

  Only one thing—aside from my growing closeness to Gil—seemed to nag at Ellen. Four p.m. came and went with no phone call from Jared, and my sister was getting antsy waiting for him to reach her. She texted him twice. No answer.

  “That’s not like him,” she whispered to me in worry.

  “Did you know what kind of meeting he had going on this morning? Maybe it was something that took longer than most,” I said.

  “It’s possible,” Ellen replied, but she sounded skeptical.

  Not more than ten minutes later, though, there was yet another knock on the door.

  I glanced at my friends. “Is anyone else coming over? Carter or Nick, maybe?”

  They shook their heads.

  “Hmm.” I got up to check to see who was out there.

  Jared.

  “Oh, my goodness!” I swung open the door and welcomed him with a hug. “Come inside.”

  When my sister saw him, she covered her cheeks with her palms and let out a small squeak. “You came in person?” she asked him with astonishment. “From Connecticut? Are you crazy?”

  He wearily dropped his carry-on bag and walked over to where she was sitting on the sofa. He threw his arms around his wife and kissed her. “Well, you left out a few important details, honey. When you said you wanted ‘to talk’ this morning, you didn’t mention you were asking from a hospital bed. I just came from Sarasota Memorial, but they said you’d been released.”

  “I didn’t want to worry you,” Ellen told him. Then, “Hey, how did you know I was there?” She shot an annoyed glance at me. “Did Marianna call you and—”

  He shook his head and thumbed behind him.

  Ellen and I exchanged a look in confusion.

  There was yet another knock on the door. I opened it and almost keeled over in shock.

  “Kathryn?” I stared at her. “What are you doing here?”

  “Hi, Mom,” she said, breezing into the bungalow without bothering to answer my question. She gave me a quick side squeeze that was supposed to pass for a hug, scanned the faces of my friends, and broke into a smile. “Whoa, it’s a party.”

  She, too, walked over to my sister, kissed her on the cheek, and said, “Glad you’re feeling better, Aunt Ellen.” Then, to the room at large, she turned to introduce herself. “I’m Kathryn Gregory, Marianne’s daughter,” she said. “And this is Sid O’Connor—” She pointed to a lanky, dark-haired guy who’d slipped through the door amidst all of the confusion.

  I st
udied him with immediate interest. I’d never met her college boyfriend before. Hadn’t even spoken with him on the phone. I’d only heard stories about the guy from my daughter’s point of view. Seen a few social-media pictures. That was it.

  “He’s my fiancé,” she announced.

  Chapter Sixteen

  One Thing Leads to Another

  Ellen watched her sister’s face turn an interesting shade of pale at Kathryn’s pronouncement. She’d spoken with her niece only that morning, and there had been nothing in the conversation indicating that her sister’s nineteen-year-old daughter was contemplating marriage.

  But, for a dozen reasons at least, Marianna didn’t seem inclined to think near-future nuptials were a good idea. Hell if Ellen did either.

  She, however, had her own surprise visitor to deal with. Jared.

  Oh, damn. Now she’d have to have this baby discussion with him face to face.

  “Are you saying that Kathryn called you this morning?” Ellen asked her husband. “She was the one who told you I was in the ER?”

  He nodded. “She’d left a message on my cell asking about when you were planning to return home. She’d assumed I knew you were in the hospital.” His lips curved upward, but there was a shadow of hurt behind his smile.

  “I’m sorry for not telling you, Jared. I hadn’t wanted to worry you.”

  He shrugged off her apology. “Anyway, I called Kathryn back right away and she told me about your conversation. She sounded concerned, so I asked if she wanted to fly down to see you, too. I’d made the decision at once to come myself, but I didn’t want her to travel alone from Michigan, so I offered to buy a ticket for her boyfriend as well.” He lowered his voice. “The fiancé bit is a new one on me, though.”

  “It was new to all of us,” she replied.

  Both she and Jared turned to look at Marianna, who was bolstered on either side by the Canton siblings. Joy was on her left, Gil on her right, and both were supporting her by their presence. They both looked ready to physically hold her up, too, if necessary.

  As it was, it didn’t look as though Marianna was having an easy time staying upright, not with the one-two punch of the surprise visit and the engagement details Kathryn was relaying to her mom in that blasé manner only teenagers can effectively pull off. Plus, unless Marianna had been elusive about sharing, Ellen suspected this was the first time she was meeting this Sid guy.

  “The kids are actually staying for a whole week,” Jared told her, nodding toward Kathryn and Sid. “Although I’m afraid that might be news to your sister, too. I’d wrongly assumed Kathryn would have told Marianna earlier today. Both kids managed to score some vacation time from their summer jobs. I, unfortunately, was only able to take off the next couple of days, but I figured we could offer for them to stay here at the bungalow with Marianna, and you and I could check into a nice hotel and have some time together—just the two of us.” He looked at her tenderly. “I was insanely worried about you, Ellen. We need to talk, as you’d suggested, and we’ll have to do whatever we can to get to the bottom of these attacks.”

  She nodded at him, her heart filled with love for this man and, simultaneously, with fear that her newfound needs might push him away. But she had to trust that he would be fair about it. That he would at least listen. Just because they’d both sworn off the notion of becoming parents years ago didn’t mean that revisiting the idea now was definitely a dead end.

  “Thanks, Jared,” she whispered. She reached out and grasped his hand. The two of them worked so well together as a team. They always had. A baby would throw every relationship pattern they’d shared out of whack. Neither of them were especially good with change, and what she was about to suggest to him tonight was one helluva change...

  She glanced around the living room. Pure chaos. Although, given the hurricane of emotions that had been raging inside of her for the past few weeks, especially these last several days, all the loud talking and gesturing and general ruckus inside the bungalow—which wasn’t designed to hold a party of nine—wasn’t quite as jarring as it might have been.

  Poor Marianna, though. She looked like she needed a sedative. Or some more wine and fudge at the very least.

  As soon as Ellen could spirit her away from the group for a few minutes, she pulled her sister into the second bedroom and closed the door. “First of all, I’m so sorry Jared came down here without a word of notice to you—or to me, for that matter—and that he flew down Kathryn and Sid without telling you either. Thinking back, I’m not sure why I thought it was such a great idea to just show up unannounced either, but I got a taste of my own medicine today. And, honestly, I wouldn’t blame you for wanting to beat up both of us for orchestrating so many surprise visits since you’ve been here in Florida.”

  Marianna winced but she still managed to laugh a little. “You’ve both certainly made things interesting.”

  Ellen hugged her sister close and could feel Marianna’s body trembling. “Hey, it’s gonna be okay. We’ll make sure of it. Just hang in there and let’s tackle one issue at a time.” She stepped away from her sister and began gathering up her clothing to toss in her carry-on bag.”

  “What are you doing?” Marianna asked. “You’re not leaving, are you? You shouldn’t be traveling so soon after—”

  “Relax. I’m not going far. Jared’s making a reservation for us right now at a hotel near the hospital. His idea. He wanted us to be close by if I should need any other medical attention.” Although, he’s probably going to be the one who’ll needed to be revived by doctors after we have our little chat. “He figured you were already going to have your hands full with your daughter and her... erm... guy, so it would be better if we left the bungalow all to you three.”

  She sank to the mattress. “Oh, my God, Ellen. Can you believe her? Getting engaged? What am I going to do with that child? She’s only nineteen.”

  “You were married at eighteen.”

  “Yeah, and look how well that turned out.”

  “It’s going to be all right, Sis. You’re a good mom. A wonderful one. Incredibly supportive of her and very strong. You really listen to her—in a way our mom never did for us. Kathryn doesn’t realize what a gift that is, and she probably doesn’t come close to fully appreciating all the things you’ve done for her. But someday she will. Sooner rather than later, I hope. You brought up a beautiful daughter—” Ellen paused as tears sprung to her eyes and her sister looked over at her in concern. “I don’t think I’ve ever told you this, but I’m a bit envious, actually, of what you and Kathryn share. You two are so lucky to have each other.”

  Marianna stood up and hugged her. “Seriously, Ellen, are you really going to be okay? Is everything with Jared—”

  She nodded. “Yes. I mean... maybe. At least I’m hopeful.” She bit her lip and shook her head. “I have no idea. There’s been a lot on my mind lately, and I need to discuss it all with him. But I love him and I trust him and I think we’ll be able to get through it. I’ll tell you more tomorrow, after Jared and I have a chance to talk things over.”

  “Okay.”

  “Now, help me strip this bed,” Ellen said, tugging at the top sheet. “My niece is welcome to stay in this room. It’s your call, though, if you’re going to let the fiancé stay in here with her. My vote is for Sid on the sofa.”

  Marianna laughed aloud at that. Good.

  “Yeah, we’ll have to see about that. But thanks, Ellen. Please let me know if you need to talk later tonight about any of the things that have been going on. You can call me anytime, you know.”

  “Thanks. I know. And, by the way, your new friends are pretty awesome. Joy is a hoot. Abby and Lorelei are both so sweet and fun. I can totally see why you love hanging out with them. As for Gil—” She paused.

  “What?” Marianna’s brow creased with her usual worry. “You don’t like him, do you?”

  “I like that he cares about you. A lot. His feelings toward you seem genuine.” Ellen squeezed her si
ster’s hand. “So, I guess the guy is growing on me. And if Joy has her way, she’s going to make you an honorary member of the Canton clan before the summer’s out.”

  Marianna smiled a little. “Maybe I could be their Midwestern cousin or something. Not sure there’d be a point in anything more since I’ll be back in Illinois soon, but they’ve both been very good to me here.”

  “They’d better be.” Ellen winked at her and grabbed her things before heading out into the living room again. “We’ll talk,” she whispered to Marianna. “Tomorrow for sure. But don’t worry about me, okay? Jared can take over that task—at least for tonight.”

  Then, after saying goodbye to her sister, her sister’s friends, her sister’s lover, her niece, and her niece’s new fiancé (oh, dear God), Ellen and her husband slipped out of the bungalow, into the car Jared had rented, and drove away from the chaos that had buffered her so effectively from her thoughts for the past few hours.

  Couldn’t stay that way forever, though, could it?

  “So,” Jared said, once they’d settled into the luxury hotel suite he’d reserved for them. “What was it you wanted to talk with me about, Ellen?”

  ~*~

  In Gil’s opinion, Marianna’s sister had departed the bungalow with a well-honed sense of the dramatic. The parting stink eye she’d leveled his way didn’t go unnoticed by either him or his perceptive sister, although Ellen paired her latest warning gaze with a mischievous half smile that left him wondering at the mixed signals. Did she approve of him for Marianna, however reluctantly? Or was she letting him know that she had every intention of trying to separate him from her kid sister?

  As for Marianna herself, once Kathryn arrived on the scene, her whole demeanor had changed. The lightness and the laughter he’d gotten used to seeing in her expression, particularly when they were walking hand in hand along the shore, had been muted. It was as if a brightly painted canvas had been treated with a dull brown wash, as if to purposely age it or dull its luminosity. The effect was unsettling.