As the Tide Comes In

by Cindy Woodsmall

  K.

  He ran through a cluster of gulls, making them scatter and squawk. What was Tara doing right now? Maybe she was running too. On some mornings when they had shared text messages, he’d noticed they had the same routine of jogging before the busyness of the day settled in. She was like his running buddy, except for the hundreds, sometimes thousands, of miles that separated them. He’d love to hop in his car and drive the six-plus hours to visit her, but she hadn’t asked that recently, and he wouldn’t suggest the idea. Besides, she wasn’t at the cabin right now. Was she still in Virginia?

  She was doing a fantastic job of working through everything her own way without anyone pulling or pushing on her. And the success of her nonprofit and the power of her yet-to-be-published nonfiction book were proof of it.

  His mamas had invited her to come to the island anytime, and he’d assured her it was an open invite. She’d declined without any hesitation.

  St. Simons was a perfect place for jogging most all year—flat, warm, with a nice breeze coming off the ocean and wide-open expanses of sand. Yeah. Come here to jog on the beach. Never mind that she was in the land of crisp mountain air, thousands of miles of trails, and rocks for climbing. He longed for her to see the new cottage. But if he told her about it, she might feel some obligation or guilt to use it, and he didn’t want that. No, she had to want to come to St. Simons again for her own sake. Then he’d show her the place and let her know it was hers to use whenever it suited her.

  He was coming up on Gould’s Inlet, where he’d started running on the beach. It was still early enough that the popular spot was almost empty. There were a few people casting their nets into the tidal stream for crabs. It looked like another runner was headed his way.

  What is that? He skidded to a stop in the sand so his vision wasn’t impaired. No way. He rubbed his eyes. The glaring light of the still-rising sun was making him see things.

  The vision came closer.

  Tara? His heart leaped, but his feet wouldn’t move.

  She ran until she melted into his embrace. The feeling was heaven. He wrapped his arms around her and held tight, breathing in the sweet scent of her hair and feeling the steady beat of her heart. Her ear was on his chest. His own heart had to be going a mile a minute. The mere sight of her was more exhilarating than any physical exercise.

  She pulled back enough to look at him. A dazzling grin spread across her face. “Hey, you.”

  She was here. Really here. “Hey.” Smooth one. He’d often rehearsed what he would say to her if she returned like this, but none of those words were coming to mind. How on earth could he tell her how she lived in his mind and heart every moment of the day, regardless of however many miles separated them?

  With her fingers splayed she combed her long hair from her face. “Maybe I should’ve told you I was coming, but I wanted to surprise you.” She chuckled. “Based on the look on your face, I can’t tell if you’re happy or uncomfortable or—”

  Her lips drew him in, a magnetism too strong to ignore, and he stopped her words with a kiss. He couldn’t help it. But she didn’t pull away. Was she caught up in the moment too? He put his hand on the back of her head and ran his fingers through her hair. Its softness reminded him of silk.

  She broke the kiss. “Wow.” Her breathing was fast. “That’s”—she touched her fingers to her lips—“quite the welcome.”

  Did she feel for him some of what he felt for her? If only they could have been rooted in the same town. They should’ve had a childhood together. She would’ve been his best friend. Maybe much more.

  He put his arms around her waist. “You know, just hoping you’ll feel welcome to visit again.” Would visits always have to be enough? How would she respond to the cottage? He was positive his mom didn’t tell her that place was hers. If Tara gave it only a quick glance, she’d think it was a home someone built on that third piece of property. Tara’s arrival had to be the reason his mom had texted him to head home.

  “Gavin, I was thinking we should date.”

  He grinned. “Me too.”

  “But here’s the problem with that. I’m going to be one of those women you hear about who talk of marriage on the first date.”

  “I’m happy to join in on that conversation.”

  Her beautiful brown eyes bore into him. “I don’t want to be anywhere else but with you. In your life. In your arms.”

  Was this for real? Of all the surprises he’d had in life, this was the best by far. Actually, nothing else compared. “You do?” He had to be grinning like an absolute fool.

  He leaned in and kissed her again. When he pulled back, he glanced down at her feet. “I see you wore your running shoes. Let’s run back to Mom’s house. I have something to show you.”

  Holding hands, they ran across the expanse of hard sand, jumped over the tidal stream that flowed along the dunes, and stepped onto the pavement of the East Beach neighborhood. They walked hand in hand.

  Tara pointed toward his mom’s house. “Your mom told me where to find you. I just pulled into her driveway less than twenty minutes ago.”

  He grinned. “So you drove and you just got to the island?”

  She shrugged and smiled. “I had to wrap up my appointments along the AT in Virginia yesterday. Headed this way twelve hours ago.”

  “You drove all night to see me?” No one had ever done something like that for him.

  “Yeah, and if my brothers can see me, I know they’re laughing. Me driving all night. Me running down the beach into your arms.” She giggled.

  They turned the corner off Bruce Drive, and about four hundred feet later, they were walking up his mom’s driveway. “This way.” He led her past the entrance to his mom’s house and to the separate shell-and-gravel driveway that went to the new white-clapboard-and-brick cottage.

  She pointed at it. “I saw this when I arrived. It’s so cute and looks great. Your land buyers haven’t wasted any time getting houses built.” She gestured across the three lots. “The one closest to your mom’s house is my fav. On stilts, elevated like your mom’s, but so inviting with lots of curb appeal. They have good taste.”

  The flying squirrel inside him jumped and flew about. “I’m glad you like it. I’ve been using my carpentry skills on this one, and I happen to have a key. Let’s go inside.”

  She paused, her fingertips gently lifting the leaves of the jasmine he’d uprooted from Sapphira’s and replanted. She inhaled it and smiled before they walked up the wooden steps and onto the front porch that was as wide as the small cottage.

  She touched the face of the brick cottage. “This looks like Sapphira’s brick.”

  “It is her brick.” He held the door open for her, and she walked inside.

  Her jaw dropped. He chuckled, put a finger under her chin, and closed her mouth.

  She pulled away. “It’s…part of Sapphira’s home, a piece of the living area, right?”

  He nodded.

  She meandered into the next room and gasped. “The art room. The easels, the paintings, everything. Even the lighting is right.”

  He found it hard to speak as he watched her excitement. “I tried to recreate everything as close as I could. I moved all the reclaimed materials that would still work. I called in that big favor from the squad and hired some professionals too. There’s a bathroom, a kitchenette, and a twin bed in the nook over there.”

  She went to the staircase and peered toward the ceiling. “And a roof.”

  He laughed. “I hired someone to do that—ceiling and roof. Up those stairs is space enough that you could build a nice large bedroom or two and a small full bathroom.”

  “Wait. And by ‘you could,’ you mean the owners could.”

  “I mean you.”

  Her eyes bore into his. “Me?” She turned a circle. “This is for me?”

  �
��It is. I wanted a place for you to stay anytime you wanted but with no obligations.”

  She squealed and stomped her feet as if running in place. Was there something wrong?

  “Are you okay?” Had he overstepped?

  She hurried back to him, stood on her toes, and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Yes. I love it. It’s home. I…I’m inside a room where someone loved me and prayed for me all my life. I’m home.”

  He embraced her. Love already permeated every space of the small house, and he knew it would for the rest of their lives and into the next generations.

  Epilogue

  The following spring…

  Tara slung her strappy, white lace heels over her shoulder as she walked through the soft, cool grass of the lighthouse lawn. Phew. The reception had been two hours of dancing, singing, and laughing—so much laughing—under the huge live oaks in the park.

  The wedding—Gavin’s and her wedding—had been perfection. She couldn’t believe it. She turned to look once more at the place she and Gavin had said their vows: on the boardwalk to the beach across from the lighthouse, near the spot where he’d first chased her.

  Dell and Sue Beth had decorated the plain wooden boards with a carpet of fresh flower petals, and had wrapped countless fragrant jasmine vines around the handrail and over the antique metal arch they’d set up for Gavin and Tara to stand under. They used the same white jasmine flowers that used to bloom around Sapphira’s trellis in her front yard and now grew up the rails of Tara’s house.

  She lifted the hem of her long, white satin dress and hurried around the keeper’s quarters at the bottom of the lighthouse, heading toward the Historical Society building they’d rented for the day. She’d danced and celebrated a little longer than she should have, and her traveling outfit waited in the changing room.

  All the firemen were here with the trucks. That way if a call came in during the wedding, they could take off, but no call came in. The firemen and their families were now her family too, and she’d bonded with them over the months, knowing it was the beginning of a lifetime of having family.

  A few stray rose petals stirred from the grass in the breeze. Tara smiled as she stepped on one with her bare toes. Hadley’s little girls had been the flower girls, and her little boy, along with Elliott’s, were the cutest ring bearers ever. Hadley, Elliott, and their families had arrived on the island a few days ago to help set up the wedding. They and the Glynn Girls had thrown Tara the most fun prewedding “girls party” at Tidal Creek Grill, complete with off-key karaoke.

  Thoughts of Gavin and her beginning their honeymoon journey to Oahu in an hour thrilled the deepest parts of her. First they’d fly to Atlanta and stay the night at the Renaissance near the airport, and tomorrow morning they’d board the long flight to Hawaii. They’d chosen Oahu because it had mountains and beach, and they would rock climb while there.

  “Wait for us!” Julep called.

  Tara turned to see all four “mamas” in their Sunday best hurrying across the lawn after her. Oh boy.

  Dell beamed at her. “You’ll definitely need our help getting out of that dress, sugar.”

  Sue Beth nodded in agreement.

  There was a long string of small buttons going down the back of her lace-and-chiffon bodice. That would be hard to undo by herself, but she’d wanted a breather from the uproar of the day’s festivities. Still, she hadn’t considered that she’d need their help.

  “Good thinking.”

  Luella shrugged. “Might as well accept it. Married or single, you’re not getting rid of any of us. I should know.”

  “Good.” Tara winked at Luella.

  She and Luella had something special, maybe because Luella didn’t have any children of her own and Tara had no mother. But all of them were close.

  The Glynn Girls, Gavin, and Tara would return to the cabin in North Carolina from time to time. They were planning to spend a long weekend there in two months on the second anniversary of Sean’s and Darryl’s deaths, hiking and rappelling, although only Tara, Gavin, and Luella would rock climb. They’d hold a vigil around a campfire at the cabin. Tara was both looking forward to and bracing herself for the anniversary. The weekend was sure to be filled with sharing memories that would make her cry and laugh and cry some more. Would she need that time each year?

  The Glynn Girls and Tara entered the Historical Society building, went down the hall to the room they’d designated the “bridal changing room,” and closed the door behind them.

  “Before we undo all this perfection, I want to look at you one more time.” Sue Beth clasped her hands together, looking at Tara up and down.

  Julep rolled her eyes, looking at Sue Beth. “You know that Dell took like ten thousand pictures of both of them, right?”

  “That I did.” Dell put the tripod in the corner and set up the camera. “I’m not finished yet either.”

  “A picture is different than experiencing it firsthand.” Sue Beth punctuated her statement with a huff. “And you promised to be nicer to me, Julep Burnside.”

  “And how many times over the past two years have you reminded me of that? I was simply making a statement, and, Dell, you can’t take pictures of her undressing.”

  “Sure I can. She’s not stripping naked, only changing into traveling clothes.” Dell took Tara by the shoulders and eased her to standing in front of the full-length mirror. “I’ve set up the camera to snap a shot automatically every ten seconds, and I’ll keep them very private.”

  Tara rubbed a temple. “Mamas, please. I’m supposed to be at the airport in an hour.”

  They all laughed, chortling and giggling.

  Dell clapped her hands. “She already sounds like Gavin!”

  Tara turned, looking over her shoulder at Luella. “Can you help me out?”

  Luella moved behind Tara. “You know, it’s really Dell’s fault that you’re in this predicament. The vintage dress is stunning, but there are two feet of tiny buttons. She tried to get me to choose a complicated dress like that, and when I refused, she said that she would soon have another wedding to help plan and someone would wear such a dress.”

  “And who was right?” Dell grinned at Tara. “You look divine in that dress.”

  “Thank you.” Tara loved this dress, or she wouldn’t be wearing it, but how could changing out of it be such a complicated ordeal? “Now help me out of it.”

  Luella brushed Tara’s hair to the side and unbuttoned the top button on the nape of her neck. “Did you remember to grab the silk scarf off the dresser?”

  “Yeah, thanks.”

  “Here’s a good question. Do you and Gavin have…uh…protection?” Sue Beth asked.

  “Hush up,” Julep said. “That’s too personal a question.”

  “Oh, you’re not fooling us, Julep Burnside.” Dell adjusted the mirror, apparently still thinking of what would work best for pictures. “You just want grandchildren as soon as possible.”

  Julep plunked a chair near Tara. “You might as well sit down. This is going to take a while.”

  It’d been so fun and exciting getting into the dress with the Glynn Girls fussing about, but now Tara needed a minute. Just one tiny minute without all four of them.

  Dell touched her shoulder. “Don’t slouch or the dress’s beading could catch on the chair’s fabric.”

  Sue Beth laughed. “Don’t be so fussy. It’s not like you’d let anyone else wear this dress!”

  Luella undid another button. “You never know. In twenty-something years Tara and Gavin’s daughter may want to wear it or maybe in forty-something years a granddaughter.”

  Good grief. Gavin was right. Their personalities really were too big for one small island to hold. “Could someone pass me my phone?” She wasn’t sure where it was, but one of the girls had slid it into her purse to keep for Tara until after the wedd
ing.

  “Sure thing.” Sue Beth pulled it out and gave it to her. It was time to text for backup.

  Dear husband, I’m being smothered by YOUR mamas. Couldn’t you call at least one of them to help you for a little bit?

  She watched the bubbles dance on the small screen. His reply came a few seconds later.

  My dear, sweet, beautiful wife, the love of my life, I certainly could…

  She read it and waited for one of the mamas’ phones to ring. But then the bubbles danced again.

  I’m not going to, but I do possess the ability.

  Ugh. Really? She tapped her finger on the side of the device, plotting how to get what she wanted. An idea struck, and she had to bite her lips to keep from laughing.

  Dear husband, you do know, YOU could’ve chosen to be the one, the only one, helping me out of this wedding dress. We are married now.

  Bubbles again. Then they disappeared. She waited a few more seconds.

  A knock at the door caused Julep to unlock it and open it a crack. “Tara, it’s your husband.”

  Gavin eased the door open and pushed past his mom. “Out mamas. Out now.” He winked at Tara. She covered her mouth to keep from bursting out in laughter. He held the door as all four women exited, each griping a bit under her breath.

  Tara stood, her heart quickening at the sight of him, now changed out of his tuxedo and in a lightweight button-up shirt and jeans. “You sure were quick on that rescue.”

  He closed the door, locked it, and smiled as he slowly crossed the room. “Anything for my wife.”

  “I like how that sounds.”

  “Me too.” He tilted her chin up and pressed his lips to hers. A delicious feeling of fire ran the length of her body. He deepened the kiss, and after several moments they were both left breathless.