Pawleys Island Paradise boxset, Books 1 - 3

by Laurie Larsen

  Marianne nodded. “Perfect.”

  “Did I ever tell you that The Music Man was the first live musical I ever went to? Yep, it was at the community theater in Myrtle Beach, and one of my classmates played Winthrop. We were probably in junior high. He was great, and from then on I always sort of regarded him as a celebrity. It was a magical experience. It’s when I got the bug for theater. I don’t act or sing, but I am one of the most enthralled observers in the whole audience.”

  “Magical,” Marianne mused. “I hope we can introduce a few people to the magic of live theater with our production.”

  Emma looked down at her lap and said softly, “It meant a lot to me that you asked me to adapt the script. That was nice of you.”

  “Nice of me! It was nice of you to use your talents and your time to help out.”

  Emma shook her head. “I’m happy to do it. But that’s not really what I meant. I’m talking about what happened to Stella and … my dad’s role in it.”

  “Emma,” Marianne said and reached over and gripped her hand.

  Emma went on. “I feel so awful that my dad did that. I still can’t imagine what he was thinking. I guess he had slipped beyond the realm of sane, and I never noticed it.”

  “It’s not your fault, sweetie.”

  “I agree it’s not my fault that he took her, but maybe if I weren’t so wrapped up in my own life, I would’ve noticed signs that he was in trouble. So that I could’ve discovered it before he did something so crazy and put Stella’s life in danger.”

  “You can’t blame yourself.”

  Emma turned in her seat so she was facing Marianne head-on. “I was falling in love, Marianne. With your brother. And because of that, I couldn’t see outside my own happiness. I missed the fact that my father was losing it.”

  Marianne smiled. It was the first time Emma had confided in her that she was falling in love with Jeremy. If life turned out this way, she’d be happy to have Emma for a sister-in-law. “Oh Emma, I’m so happy for you and Jeremy. But honestly, you did a lot to help your father. You tried to convince him to go to Alcoholics Anonymous. You encouraged him to control his drinking. You weren’t just in a cloud, in love. You were helping your family. And don’t forget, you helped find our little girl.”

  Emma gazed into Marianne’s eyes. “Thank you for saying that. But I know Tom doesn’t agree with you. I hope you don’t mind, Jeremy has shared with me a little bit about your disagreement.”

  Marianne let her eyes wander. “Yes, we’re having a hard time with this. He and I are so far apart on this particular topic, I don’t know how we’ll ever come to a compromise.”

  “He doesn’t want Jeremy around. He thinks Jeremy presents a danger to Stella.”

  Marianne nodded. “Of course, that’s ridiculous.”

  “He’s just being a protective daddy.”

  “But if he thinks I’ll agree to disowning my brother, I really don’t see how we can move forward in our marriage.”

  “I understand. I’m sorry for pushing into something so personal.”

  “Actually, I need to talk about it and don’t have a lot of prospects.”

  They finished their tea while looking out at the ocean, the cool breeze reaching them through the screen windows.

  Emma set her glass down. “I better get going. I’m helping Jeremy plan his store’s Grand Opening. He’s a talented wood worker, but awful at marketing.”

  “Don’t I know it! And how exciting. What do you have planned?”

  “Balloons, food, champagne, special discounts and giveaways. All the stuff he wishes he could ignore.”

  Marianne chuckled. “Keep on him. I think that store could be a real success for him.”

  Emma stood and Marianne followed her into the Inn. “Oh,” Emma said and turned, “I wanted to share with you a few ideas I had for promoting the dinner theater. Once it’s getting ready to go live, I could see if I could do a story for the magazine. We’d have to come up with an inspirational slant to the production, but I’m sure we’ll have no trouble with that. Also, I have contacts at the newspaper so I’m sure I can get us some free mentions there too.”

  Marianne gave her a hug and bid her farewell.

  * * *

  Late that night, after she’d put Stella to bed, Marianne pulled out her laptop and settled on the couch in the apartment. On a whim, she went to Google and typed in, “websites for actors and actresses.” To her amazement, a long list of links were presented to her. Although, on second thought, she didn’t know why she was amazed. You could Google anything.

  She researched the sites and discovered that there were many that offered exactly what she was looking for — a way to connect with actors and actresses looking for work. Some listed performers looking for work. Marianne could scan their headshots, resumes and compensation requirements. Others listed the show that needed talent, so performers could express their interest. After scanning both types of sites for a half hour, Marianne decided it couldn’t hurt to try both in order to cast her Marian and Harold Hill.

  Many of the sites required a payment to either list the show, or to review the actors looking for work. Marianne decided to go ahead and invest a nominal amount in order to get in touch with the right people.

  “What are you doing?”

  Tom had wandered in and Marianne hadn’t even noticed. Her first impulse was to draw back, keep him from seeing what she was up to. But that was wrong. He may not be an active partner with her in this production, or even support what she was doing. But she wasn’t doing anything behind his back. In fact, it was probably time for one of those periodic progress updates.

  “Have a seat, Tom.”

  He gave her an inquisitive look but did as she asked.

  “I want to give you an update on the dinner theater.” She paused, waiting for a roll of his eyes or some other sign of disapproval, but to his credit, he didn’t do it. “Things are going really well. In an effort to keep you informed, I’ll run through the progress made, as well as the challenge we’re facing.”

  Tom nodded.

  “I’ve secured a number of volunteers who are working on the dinner theater project for no pay.”

  Tom’s eyebrows shut up. “Well, that’s good.”

  Marianne smirked. “We’ve cast about 90% of the parts with local talent, and we’ve adapted the script to shorten it. We have a director and a music director. We have costumes and our stage has been built. We have props available to us. Rehearsals will start any day now.”

  As she spoke, his mouth dropped. “Oh, my gosh.”

  Ignoring him, she continued, “My dad is ready to start building the sets, and I’ll help him with painting. We have committed free advertising in Seminal magazine and the Myrtle Beach newspaper. I’m going to work on enhancing our Inn’s website with information about the dinner theater and add a link to purchase tickets.”

  He shook his head in wonder. “Unbelievable. You’ve made so much progress in less than a month.”

  Marianne nodded. “When I put my mind to something, there’s little that can stop me.”

  He scoffed. “Don’t I know it.” He ran a hand over his eyes, suddenly looking tired. “So you mentioned a challenge.”

  “Yes.” She turned the laptop screen toward him. “Everything we’ve done so far has been low budget. We’re lucky that I have very supportive friends and family, and lots of community folks who love performing. But we can’t be cheap when it comes to the leading lady and man. We need to invest in musical theater professionals to really pull this off and make it a successful show.”

  Tom sighed. “That sounds expensive.”

  “Like I said, we’ve gotten off easy so far. We’ve barely spent anything. This is where we need to make our investment. Spend money to make money.”

  He laid his head back on the couch. “How much?”

  “I was just researching that. I found these websites where you can advertise your show and the roles that are open. I searched on di
nner theaters in vacation towns to get an idea of the going rate. What’s really great is we can offer them free room and board, then bring down the weekly pay rate. Not all dinner theaters have that going for them.”

  “How many rooms?”

  “No more than two.”

  Tom shrugged. “Seems doable. Then how much in paycheck?”

  Marianne turned back to the laptop. “Let me find at least four or five in similar locations as ours and I’ll come up with a price range. To draw top talent, I think we need to offer pay at the top of the range. Make our job stand out in the crowd.”

  Tom stared at her for a silent moment. “You’re impressive, you know that?”

  Marianne frowned.

  “You have no experience with this whatsoever, other than what you’ve dove into over the last month. And look at you — you’re a pro now. You know exactly what you’re doing, you’ve gotten tons of people involved, you’ve gotten almost your whole list of tasks done. You’re good, baby.”

  Despite the fact that if he’d had his way, he would’ve halted the entire production, it was good to hear the compliment. “Thanks.” She shrugged. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

  “That won’t surprise me at all.”

  She turned back to her laptop with a smile. As she concentrated on her research, she realized he hadn’t moved away. In fact, just the opposite. He was getting closer.

  He leaned in and placed his lips on her neck. He knew kissing her neck was one of her favorite things in the world. He always made her shiver, which made her yearn for his heat and closeness.

  How easy it would be to sink back into familiar intimacy with her husband. Part of her didn’t see any reason not to. They were married, committed to each other, drawn together by God to serve each other’s needs.

  She pulled back. “Tom, no.”

  He said in a husky tone, “Sorry, am I distracting you from your work?”

  She took a deep breath and let it out. “It’s not that. I can do this anytime.”

  He looked at her and grinned, his white teeth sparkling in the darkened room. He reached for her laptop and started to move it to the coffee table in front of her.

  “I love you, Tom, but I can’t be intimate with you until we come to an agreement about your Jeremy ultimatum. It wouldn’t feel true. I can’t make love to you while inside, I’m furious with you.”

  Tom sighed and leaned back on the couch, creating a little distance from her. “We seemed to be getting along a little better and I thought …”

  “You thought … I would just forget the fact that you want to cut my brother out of our lives? Just because you gave me a compliment about how well the show preparations are going? Which, by the way, you were against, as well? No. We’ve got a long ways to go before we can move from pleasantries to intimacy.”

  Tom stood and walked to the other side of the room, leaning against the wall so he could look at her. “Honey, I mentioned in our therapy session about my dad and my brother, Rod.”

  She nodded.

  “I’m just trying to avoid making the same mistakes in my family that my dad made in his. You realize that, right? My dad let my brother get away with too much harm and destruction and we all paid the price with grieving and sadness. I want our family to flourish. I want us to be happy. Sort of like tearing off a bandage, it may hurt to cut ties with Jeremy at first. But in the long run, we’ll get over it faster, heal, and live a happy life, free from drama. I guess you can’t see that right now, you’re so close to it. But that’s all I’m trying to do, learn from my own parents.”

  Marianne picked up her laptop again. “Your motives are pure, but your methods are just plain wrong. There are other ways that don’t involve ripping my heart out.”

  He flinched at her choice of words.

  “But until you start exploring some of those options, you and I have a problem.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  The next few days, Marianne stayed busy with her cyber-duties. She narrowed down her actor/actress search sites to three. She posted the details on all three: The Music Man Dinner Theater at the Seaside Inn in Pawleys Island, South Carolina. She had no idea if she’d get any takers. The sites offered four options for location: LA, Broadway, off-Broadway and regional. Probably couldn’t get away with listing their production as off-Broadway. How far off was off? She listed it as regional and was as open and honest as possible so she would only get interested applicants.

  She consulted with Leslie, who had now started rehearsals with the support cast. Two hours a night, one day with the kids, the next with adults. She’d mapped out a whole schedule with the total rehearsal timeframe lasting six weeks. Based on that tentative timeline, Marianne could work on the Dinner Theater pages for the Inn website. She researched a dozen other dinner theater sites and designed some pages that she thought were attractive and fun. Once she was satisfied that they looked professional and inviting, she published them to the web, along with the ticket sales page. She could always adjust the show dates later if they weren’t quite right.

  Their hard work was paying off and it was getting closer. Her heart pounded just thinking about it. Despite the conflict this decision had caused with Tom, she was glad she had moved forward with the idea. She loved stretching her wings and trying something new. She couldn’t imagine God would want her living her life stuck in what was tried and true and safe.

  Later, she took a shopping list from Leslie, and headed out to the store. As if on its own accord, the car rerouted and headed to Jeremy’s furniture store. She assumed he’d be in there working, even though it wasn’t open yet, still working and building inventory for his Grand Opening.

  She pulled into the strip mall lot and parked. She tapped on the glass of his front door. He was inside, just as she suspected, working on a wooden piece. He looked up, waved, and grabbed a cloth to wipe his hands. He headed over to the door and opened it.

  She stepped in beside him and pulled him into a hug. He tensed at first, and then his shoulders relaxed and he abided the display of affection from his little sister. When she pulled away, she wiped a few tears from her eyes.

  “Oh, sis,” he said with a chuckle.

  “I can’t help it! I haven’t seen you in ages. It’s bad enough we had to go so long without seeing you regularly. I can’t stand the thought that we’re right in the same town and I never see you.”

  He nodded and gestured to the bookshelf he’d been working on. She followed him back over to it, where he resumed his work. “You’re really not supposed to be here.”

  “Says who?”

  He glanced up with eyebrows raised. “Your husband.”

  “He’s not the boss of me,” she said with laughter in her voice.

  Jeremy chuckled, applying stain on the bookcase with even strokes of his brush. “But seriously. I don’t want you guys fighting over me. Relationships are hard enough. Save your fights for something more important.”

  She got closer to him and smacked his shoulder with her fist.

  “Hey!” She’d thrown him off-balance and he almost dropped his paintbrush.

  “You deserved that. You are important.”

  He smirked and kept working. Marianne looked around and found a wooden chair close by, and pulled it over. She sat. “I have to admit this argument is the worst we’ve ever had. I just can’t believe we’re so far apart on this one.”

  Jeremy’s face tightened. “Don’t fight because of me, sis. He’s a good man and he loves you.”

  “But he’s dead-wrong about this. You’re my brother and my family is very important to me. I can’t accept this ultimatum just because he’s a good man. He has to see the error of his ways.”

  Jeremy let out a deep breath and kept staining.

  “Let’s change the subject. Let’s talk about you. And Emma.”

  As he stained the bookcase, his whole body got into it. Long strokes of his arms, his torso moving in rhythm, his hair, a little long now, dropping over his eyes,
bobbing in time. She detected a slight upturn of his lips.

  “Things going well?” she asked nonchalantly.

  “Yes.”

  “Good to hear.” An unbidden grin popped on her face. She was thrilled to hear her brother was in a relationship with a woman, someone he could eventually love and settle down with. But she knew better than to pry. Push him too hard and he’d back down and not tell her anything.

  “How’s she feeling about her dad and all?”

  “She’s heartbroken. She can’t believe he did what he did, and especially that she didn’t detect the start of his breakdown. And she regrets her role in this whole mess.”

  “Her role?”

  “Yeah. If she hadn’t met me, and we hadn’t started dating, her dad wouldn’t have been pushed over the edge, emotionally.”

  Marianne shrugged. “Yeah but, from what I understand, her family’s life wasn’t a party before she met you. Her dad was unemployed, unmotivated and drank too much. Her mom worked too hard to support them the best she could. Not exactly a Norman Rockwell moment.” Marianne quieted and studied Jeremy, mesmerized by his talent with the wood and the beautiful result. “This is gorgeous, by the way.”

  “Thanks. I’ll either sell it as a standalone or I did make other pieces to sell as a set. This stand-up book case, a desk and a wooden chair.” He stopped his staining to gesture vaguely to another grouping of wooden pieces a ways away.

  “Hard to believe you have so much inventory now. You’ve been working your butt off, haven’t you?”

  He smiled and nodded.

  “And to think that after Emma’s dad set the storage shed on fire, you only had a handful of pieces left.”

  “I’m hoping for a solid Grand Opening. The key is having plenty of pieces people can put their hands and eyes on.”

  “I’m proud of you,” she said simply.

  Jeremy scoffed. He was never good at taking praise, but lately more than ever.

  “Making your dreams come true.” She made an effort to control the emotion in her voice, but he’d heard the catch, and rolled his eyes at her.