by Rachel Hanna
“Are you serious?” she called back.
He grabbed the rope on the side of the boat and threw it as hard as he could so that Dawson could pull him closer to the dock. Thank goodness his friend was standing so close and was able to catch it. Dawson pulled and pulled until the boat banged into the side of the dock, shaking everyone who was standing there.
It wasn’t the most seamless proposal, but it sure would be memorable. As the boat came to a stop, he looked up at her. She was covering her face, except for her eyes, tears welling in them.
“Yes, I’m serious. Janine, will you please do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
She screamed yes and started jumping up and down, shaking the dock again. All of the people standing on it were probably worried they were going to fall straight into the water at any moment.
William jumped off the boat, swept her up in his arms and twirled her around. When he finally put her down, he slipped the ring on her finger and the crowd went wild. There were very few dry eyes standing on that dock, but there were plenty of applause and cheers to go around.
He took Janine’s hand and helped her into the boat. “I think my future wife should finish the boat parade with me,” he said, smiling.
“Your future wife will go anywhere you want to go,” she said, putting her arm around him as he turned on the motor and started back through the waters of the marsh.
As they pulled away from the crowd of people, William took the boat out into more open water and stopped it again. “Well, were you surprised?”
Janine smiled as she looked down at her ring. “Absolutely!”
“Come on now. You had to know I was trying to propose over and over lately.”
She bit her lip. “Okay, maybe I thought you were going to propose, but I wasn’t sure.”
He pulled her into a tight hug. “Thank you for saying yes.”
She looked up at him. “Seriously? Why wouldn’t I say yes?”
“Because you’re beautiful Janine, and I’m just regular old William. I’m marrying up. You know that, right?”
Janine giggled. “Let’s see if you say that after five years of living with me!”
“I will cherish being married to you until the end of my days, Janine. And I’m so grateful this whole proposal thing is finally over!”
“Me too! No more competing couples and wet dogs!”
“So, when should we get hitched?”
She thought for a moment, putting her finger on her chin. “I’ve always wanted a fall wedding.”
“Then we’ll get married this fall!”
She grinned broader than he’d ever seen her grin. “I can’t wait to marry you.”
“Ditto,” he said before dipping her downward to give her a kiss.
Chapter 11
Emma was very nervous. She was second-guessing herself over and over again, wondering why she had made such a rash decision. But, in an effort to start healing her trauma, she had reached out to the woman whose life she had saved that night.
The woman and her family had tried getting in touch with Emma several times, but each time she ignored them. She just couldn’t face seeing the woman again. She hadn’t wanted to hear words about being a hero, but she was ready now to face her.
Of course, it would be done through video chat since the woman lived in Nashville and Emma was in Seagrove, but it was still nerve-racking just the same.
Janine had offered to come to her house and sit with her, but it was something that she thought she really should do alone. She didn’t know how she would react to seeing Ellen again. She often saw her fearful face in her dreams, and she was a little worried that she would have a PTSD moment as soon as the camera switched on.
The last time she saw Ellen was in that dark building, the light on her gun shining on her face. When the whole thing was over, Emma was rushed to the station for debriefing, and everything after that was a complete blur to her. Much of that time in her life had been blocked out by her brain in an effort to protect her mental health.
She rubbed her hands together and then rubbed them on the front of her shorts. It was a nervous habit she used to do before tests back in her school days. She hadn’t exactly been the best student, often wanting to do something more artistic than math. She had barely made it out of school by the skin of her teeth, but when she walked at graduation she had been so proud of herself for getting it done.
College had never been in the cards for her, and that was another reason that she ended up going through the police academy instead. No math required. Just a willingness to be full of adrenaline for hours each day and put her life on the line regularly. Still better than math was her opinion back then. Turned out, running a lighthouse also didn’t require a lot of math skills. Sometimes she had the urge to call her old algebra teacher and brag about how she was right that she’d never need to know that stuff.
When she heard her phone start to ring, she almost wanted to run straight out the door of the cottage. Why was she doing this? She wasn’t ready. She should text the woman and tell her she changed her mind. So many things were bouncing around inside of her head. But right now, she just had to be brave. Just in this moment. Just for the next few minutes. She had certainly been through worse.
She pressed the green button on the front of her phone and a second later, there was Ellen on the other side, smiling. She wasn’t fearful, she wasn’t crying. She was smiling, and that immediately calmed some of Emma’s nerves.
“Hi, Emma! I’m so glad you agreed to talk to me!”
Emma forced a smile so that she didn’t look like some kind of crazy person sitting there with a deer in the headlights look. “Hi, Ellen. It’s so nice to see you under such different circumstances.”
Ellen nodded. “Very true. The last time you saw me must’ve been very traumatizing for you. I just remember being terrified, and then I saw you and I wasn’t so scared anymore because I could tell you were going to handle the situation. And you did.”
Emma swallowed hard. “So, how are you now?”
She took in a breath and blew it out. “I have good days and bad days. Some days I just survive, but it’s getting better each day. I’ve been seeing a therapist since right after the incident, and that has helped me a lot.”
“That’s good. I’m glad that you are getting better.”
“They tell me I have PTSD, and for the first few weeks after the shooting, I was having nearly constant panic attacks and nightmares when I would go to sleep. Even a car backfiring would set me off.”
“I understand, trust me.”
“That was another reason why I wanted to talk to you. I feel like you have to be so affected by this whole thing too, and I wanted to make sure that you’re okay. Are you getting some help?”
“Honestly, I was very resistant to that idea until recently. But I have moved to a different town, and I’m out of the police force so I think I’m ready now to start seeing someone. Like you, I get the nightmares.”
“Just know that it does get better. You have to work at it, but it will progressively improve. At least that’s how it has worked for me.“
“Well, thank you for talking to me. I can’t explain it, but I just needed to know that you were okay.”
“My brother is a firefighter, and he has saved some people over the years. I know that he doesn’t like being called a hero. It makes him feel uncomfortable. And I feel like maybe you’re uncomfortable with being called a hero because of the situation. I just want you to know that saving my life wasn’t in vain. Not only did you keep me from being attacked by that vicious creature, but you’ve allowed me to have extra time with my husband and kids. And I’m going back to school to become a nurse!”
“Wow! That’s fantastic! I’m so glad you’re moving forward.”
“It’s all thanks to you. But if you don’t want to be called a hero, I just want you to know that what you did mattered. And while a life was lost in that process, just remember that he chose that. You did
n’t.”
As they said their goodbyes, Emma thought about her last statement over and over. That the guy - whose name happened to be Ricky - chose what happened to him. She had never thought about it that way. This whole time she’d been putting the blame on herself, but maybe that was wrong. Maybe his actions foretold his destiny. She just happened to be the conduit that connected his actions to his outcome.
He chose to attack women. He chose to take one hostage. He chose to point a gun at a police officer. His choices led her to have to make the most difficult one of her life. She didn’t choose to kill another human being. She was forced to make a choice between his life and the life of an innocent woman, and she made the only decision.
Julie and Charlotte laid on their chaise lounges on the beach, the wind blowing toward them as they each drank a cup of coffee. The spring festival had been exhausting, and Julie was glad it was over even though she had enjoyed it immensely.
Seeing her sister and William get engaged in such a romantic and spontaneous way made her giddy with delight. She couldn’t wait to see them finally get married and start their lives together. Janine had talked a lot about adoption, and she was thrilled at the idea of finally getting a niece or nephew.
“Lucy makes a dang good cup of coffee,” Charlotte said.
“She certainly does. And those pancakes this morning? The woman knows her way around the kitchen, doesn’t she?”
“Yes, she does,” Charlotte said, setting her book on the table between them and sighing. “I almost hate to leave here. You live in heaven on earth, Julie.”
“Well, don’t tell anybody. We certainly don’t want thousands of extra people moving here and messing up our balance.”
Charlotte laughed. “My lips are sealed. Listen, I wanted to talk to you about your book.”
Julie cringed. How she wished she hadn’t handed Charlotte those few pages of her work in progress last night. But she was feeling excited after the festival and the proposal, and she just wasn’t thinking straight. It was in no way her best work, and it hadn’t even been edited yet.
“Listen, I know it isn’t good. I’ve never written anything like that before…”
“No, it’s fabulous!”
Julie looked at her. “Charlotte, you don’t have to try to be nice. I understand that writing is a lot harder than it looks.”
“Not if you have natural talent, and I think you do. So, I wanted to ask your permission to send this over to my publisher. Just let some of my contacts take a look and see if they think there’s marketability there.”
Julie was in shock. “What? Are you serious? You want to send that to your publisher?”
“I think it’s worth a shot. There aren’t a lot of great books for women in this age group, and I don’t mind a little extra competition.”
“I don’t think I’m going to be any competition for you,” Julie said, laughing. “But feel free to give it to your publisher. They might need a good laugh.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. I didn’t think I would have the success that I have, but here I am!”
“So when do you have to leave?”
“Tomorrow morning. I have a book signing tomorrow evening in Savannah. So I need to make the drive and go to my hotel.”
“I’m really going to miss you around here. It was nice having somebody to talk to.”
“Oh, I’ll be in touch. I’m sure my publishers are probably going to want to talk to you.”
Julie crossed her fingers. “We can only hope!”
“And, truth be told, I’d like to have a second home here in Seagrove someday. I feel at home here.”
“We’d love to have you! Although, I’d lock your doors because I’m afraid Dixie might try to break in and have dinner with you,” Julie said with a laugh.
Dixie locked up the bookstore and turned to walk down the sidewalk to her car. She was exhausted after the festival, but she’d had to come back to the store to retrieve her tote bag and empty the coffee pot.
“Hey, old lady!” She turned around to see SuAnn doing the same thing. She was locking the door to her bakery.
“Old lady? You’re one to talk!” Dixie replied, laughing.
They met in the middle between their two stores. Over the last few months, they had managed to forge a strange friendship that mainly consisted of sarcastic comments and the occasional sit down coffee date to gossip about everyone they knew.
“So how did the festival go for you?” SuAnn asked.
“Pretty good. Julie handled most of it so I could walk around with Harry. He’s still having some back trouble, so we couldn’t do a whole lot.”
“We sold out of all of our cakes. I think I will have a bunch of new customers on Monday morning!”
“That’s great! Where is Nick?”
“Oh, he had to go out of town to visit his niece. She just had a baby.”
“How nice. He seems like a lovely man.”
“He is. The love of my life,” SuAnn said, smiling. It wasn’t often that a person could get SuAnn to open up and act like a normal human being, but Nick seemed to have a special touch.
“So where are you headed?”
“I guess I’m going to go home and rest these old feet. Maybe take a bubble bath and drink several glasses of wine.”
“Well, I don’t drink the wine because I can’t mix it with my medication, but I think a nice bath sounds like a wonderful idea.”
“Say, Dixie, do you ever feel like we are the luckiest women in the world?”
Dixie tilted her head to the side. “What do you mean?”
“I mean we’re still vital at our ages, still building successful businesses. We have wonderful men in our lives, great kids. I even have a great-granddaughter now. And William and Janine just got engaged. We live in this fantastic little town. Sometimes it just seems like we have been given way more blessings than we might deserve.” It wasn’t often that SuAnn spoke so poetically.
Dixie thought for a moment. “We are blessed beyond measure.”
“We sure are. Well, I guess I better get home. Nick is supposed to be calling me in a little bit.”
“Have a good night, SuAnn. I’ll see you back here on Monday.”
“Enjoy your bath,” SuAnn said, laughing as she turned around and walked towards her car.
Epilogue
The Fourth of July had always been one of Julie’s favorite holidays. Aside from the patriotism of it all, she loved the fireworks, a cookout and the gathering of family and friends. And this Fourth of July, they had so many different things to celebrate.
Having a party at the inn had become one of her favorite traditions. Lucy and Dawson had spent the whole afternoon cooking up all kinds of food, with Lucy in the kitchen and Dawson on the grill. They had invited several people from town including their family and friends.
Meg and Christian had gotten married in May, and it had been a small affair right there on the beach like Meg had wanted. It turned out to be the perfect little wedding, and Vivi looked adorable as the flower girl being pulled in a wagon by Dylan.
And then there was Emma, the new resident in town. She had become a constant fixture in their social scene. She and Janine were very good friends, and she was settling in to Seagrove like she had always been there.
Emma had confided in Julie about her past, and she had talked to Colleen as well since she was the one who had figured out who Emma was. Nobody thought any less of her, and they all understood the situation she found herself in as a police officer. Eventually, Emma started to forgive herself.
She had been going to support group meetings with Janine for a long time and recently had started to see a trauma counselor. It was helping her so much, and she was smiling more and more. She seemed at peace, like she had forgiven herself for taking someone’s life. There was some level of PTSD she was still dealing with, but she was determined to fight it with everything she had through counseling and the support of others.
Seagrove was a place
where a lot of people came to recover from whatever life had thrown at them, including Julie. It was like a hospital for hearts. The ocean, the people and just the sense of community did a lot to soothe people who had gone through sometimes horrible things.
“How did you like those ribs?” Dawson asked, walking up behind her and sliding his arms around her waist. She loved when he did that. It made her feel safe and secure.
“Fabulous, as always,” she said, looking up at him. He gave her a quick peck on the lips.
“I feel like our get togethers are getting larger and larger with each holiday.”
She smiled. “Isn’t that great? I just love that we have so many family and friends, and I also love that we have this great big property to host them.”
“I do too. It’s a dream come true. You know, I lived a very lonely life here for a long time before I met you.”
She turned around and looked up at him, rubbing her thumb across his five o’clock shadow. “So, are you saying you were lost before you met me, Dawson Lancaster?”
“I would say that’s pretty true.”
“I was being sarcastic.”
“And I was being serious,” he said, pinching her cheek.
“Can you believe that William and Janine are engaged?” she said, as she turned back around and noticed them standing over by the picnic table.
“I think we all knew it would happen eventually. William is just a slow poke.”
“Still, it was a pretty romantic proposal.”
“That it was.”
They stood there quietly watching all of their friends and family, and Julie smiled the whole time. She saw Dixie slow dancing with her husband. She saw her own mother playing with Julie’s new son. She saw Colleen and Tucker running while holding hands with Vivi and swinging her up into the air.
There were so many things to be thankful for in her life, and she couldn’t wait to see what the future would bring. If it was anything like the present, it was going to be a perfectly wild ride.
