The Summer Retreat

by Sheila Roberts

  “He’s so right,” Tyrella said as they walked out of the sanctuary to an upbeat song the musicians were playing. “I have no idea why it is, but the times we seem to grow the most are when we’re under pressure. Like diamonds,” she added.

  Celeste sighed. “I think I’d rather stay a lump of coal.”

  “Too late for that,” Jenna said, linking arms with her. “You’re already a diamond in the rough.”

  “Okay, then, let’s settle for that. I don’t want to be under pressure anymore.”

  “As if you have a choice,” Tyrella scoffed. “Life’s gonna squeeze you whether you want it to or not. May as well work on learning to sparkle.”

  Celeste had plenty of sparkle. She just needed to find a man who appreciated it.

  Paul was at the door, shaking hands and visiting with people as they left. “A very good sermon, Pastor,” Susan Frank was telling him as they approached. She saw Jenna and managed her usual sour smile. “Good morning, Jenna. Say hi to your aunt for me.”

  “I will,” Jenna said.

  Not that it would make any difference. Aunt Edie hadn’t been in Susan’s clothing shop since Susan had dissed Jenna and her brain baby, the Seaside with Santa festival. That had been the end of a beautiful retail relationship.

  “Thanks for coming,” Paul said and smiled at Celeste.

  Oh, yeah. He’d be stopping by the house for a visit before the week was out.

  “Can I drive home?” Sabrina asked as they crossed the parking lot.

  Her baby was now fifteen and going to driving school every afternoon. Jenna didn’t know which was scarier—seeing her daughter growing up so fast or having to ride with her behind the wheel. But Sabrina had to log in a certain number of hours, and it was a short drive from church to home, so she handed over the keys.

  And then turned into Nag Mom. “Don’t forget to adjust your mirrors,” she said as Sabrina buckled her seat belt.

  “I know, Mom.”

  “Are we gonna die?” Celeste joked from the backseat.

  “Mom will probably have a heart attack,” said Sabrina.

  It was a possibility. Jenna had sprouted two new gray hairs since Sabrina started driver’s ed. Of course, she’d pulled them. She hoped she didn’t wind up bald by the time Sabrina got her license. At least sixteen was still several months away.

  “Make sure there’s nobody behind you,” Jenna cautioned. “Look out for Willie Jorgenson.”

  “I see him, Mom,” Sabrina said, her tone of voice adding, “Stop already.”

  “Okay, good,” Jenna said.

  Just then the boyfriend walked past and Sabrina had to wave at him as she backed up. A yelp behind them made her slam on the brakes, pitching Jenna forward. Thank God for seat belts!

  Susan Frank walked past with a scowl. “Watch where you’re going, young lady,” she called, and Sabrina’s cheeks flamed. Jenna’s cheeks were feeling a little hot, too. That would’ve been all they needed, to clobber her nemesis with the Toyota.

  “You have to watch where you’re going,” she scolded.

  “I am,” Sabrina said, her voice filled with teen umbrage.

  Yes, how dare Susan Frank have the nerve to try and get them to hit her?

  They made it out of the church parking lot without taking anyone down, and Jenna released the breath she’d been holding. No toddlers had been squashed and Susan had been allowed to live another day.

  Sabrina drove down the street, then turned the corner. “Well done,” Celeste said from the backseat, and Jenna echoed the praise. Yes, positive reinforcement. Don’t forget that.

  “Hey, Hudson’s driving, too,” Sabrina said, looking in the rearview mirror and waving.

  “Never mind her,” said Jenna. “Watch the road.”

  “I am.”

  “The part of the road that’s in front of us.”

  They turned onto Sand Dune Drive. “Watch out for the deer,” Jenna warned, praying the doe and fawn she’d just seen wouldn’t decide to cross the street until they’d driven by. Deer could be unpredictable.

  “I see them, Mom.”

  “She sees them, Mom,” Celeste teased from the backseat.

  “Good.” Deep breath. A quick stop at the grocery store, where they survived getting in and out of the parking lot, and they made it safely onto Harbor Boulevard. Sabrina was doing fine and the Driftwood Inn was in sight. “Don’t forget to turn on your—” Jenna began, then shut up as her daughter flipped on the turn signal. “All right. Good,” she said again as they pulled into the motel parking lot.

  “You did great,” Celeste complimented Sabrina and she smiled.

  “See, Mom? I did great.”

  Jenna nodded, her heart rate coming back down to normal. “Yes, you did.” Do I have any new gray hairs?

  “I’m going to have a nervous breakdown before she gets her license,” she predicted as she and Celeste followed Sabrina, who was already running up the steps of the half-painted house.

  “I don’t know why you’re so nervous,” Celeste said. “She did fine.”

  “She’s improving. But before you got here, she backed into the front of Tristan’s car and took out one of Nora’s rhododendrons.”

  “Oh, well, that’s part of the process, and rhodies are replaceable.”

  “Yes, but Sabrina’s not. I worry about her getting hurt.”

  “You just plain worry.”

  “I do,” Jenna admitted. Parenthood was the most stressful job in the world.

  “If you want, I can go out with her,” Celeste offered. “I can probably stay a little more mellow.”

  “I don’t know,” Jenna said. The thought of her daughter driving was nerve-racking. Her daughter off driving with Celeste or anyone else for that matter, with her nowhere around, was terrifying.

  “I’ve never even had a speeding ticket,” Celeste reminded her. Which, considering how her sister drove, was a miracle.

  “We’ll see,” she said, making no commitments.

  Courtney worked the office on Sunday mornings and Jenna had an hour before she was scheduled to relieve her, so the sisters grabbed sandwiches and hit the beach, Sabrina joining them to demonstrate her kite-flying abilities. Celeste found a small agate and proclaimed it a sign that sunny skies were around the corner.

  “Actually, they’re already here,” she said as they walked back to the house. “This is the best place in the world to be.”

  “It sure is,” Jenna agreed, looking to where Seth stood on a ladder, turning Aunt Edie’s house back to the pretty shade of blue it had once been.

  “Does Brody know he still has competition?” Celeste asked.

  Jenna’s gaze zipped away from the hottie on the ladder. “He doesn’t have any.”

  “Right. And my eyes have been pecked out by buzzards.”

  “He doesn’t want to get involved with anyone,” Jenna said. No need to specify which he. Her sister knew.

  “Except you. Don’t forget I caught you together on New Year’s Eve.”

  “He was wishing me a happy New Year.”

  “Right,” scoffed Celeste.

  But she left it at that, and Jenna was glad she did. There was no point in talking about Seth. The two of them had stalled out and that was that.

  “A smooth morning,” Courtney informed her as she walked into the motel’s office later. “Everyone checked out on time and our one check-in is safely installed in room twelve. And now I’m off to go home and play with fabric for a couple of hours. I’ve got some dresses to deliver to Patricia’s boutique tomorrow.”

  And Jenna had some new pictures to post on the Driftwood’s Facebook page and paperwork to do, which kept her busy for the afternoon. As she walked back to the house later, she caught sight of a Jeep parked outside room twelve and couldn’t help wondering about the person occupying
the room. A Henry Gilbert had made the reservation, and he’d taken the room clear until the end of August.

  Guests usually booked for a weekend or at most a week. What was his story? Did he have a wife with him? Maybe he was a teacher and had summers off; that would explain why he was staying so long. It was about the only explanation Jenna could come up with, except for the guy being a dot-com millionaire. But that wasn’t likely. Cute as the Driftwood Inn was, no millionaire would bother renting a room there.

  Oh, well. She was sure she’d meet him eventually. Who knew? Maybe she’d even make a new friend to add to the growing list of previous guests who were fast becoming regulars.

  By evening it was time to close the office and have a life. Tristan swept Sabrina off to hang out with their friends, and Aunt Edie and Pete settled in with cheese and crackers to watch reruns of Murder, She Wrote.

  Jenna decided to expose her sister to more Moonlight Harbor men. “The Drunken Sailor has line dancing on Sunday nights,” she said to Celeste.

  “Don’t they have normal dancing anywhere?”

  “Not on Sunday night. Come on,” Jenna coaxed. “You’ll love this. I promise. Anyway, it’s either that or TV with Aunt Edie and Pete.”

  “When do we leave?”

  Half an hour later the sisters entered the popular pub. The place was busy and Jenna saw plenty of people she knew, including Seth. He was playing pool with a couple of guys, leaning on his cue stick, waiting for his turn to clear the table. He looked gorgeous as usual in jeans and a fitted shirt that showed off his pecs and broad shoulders. He sent her a casual wave. She waved back, ignoring the flash of heat in her chest as she and Celeste walked to the bar.

  The bar was a long one that offered plenty of seating and gave drinkers a ringside seat to watch the dancers on the large, wooden dance floor. Several male patrons were already parked there for the night, including Brody.

  “You made it,” he said, flashing his gorgeous Brody smile. “Want your usual?” Jenna nodded and he turned to Celeste. “How about you, Celeste?”

  “Beer,” she said, and he ordered one for her and a giant Coke for Jenna.

  Victor King, who was one of the Sunday-night regulars, had seen them come in and he hurried over to say hi. “I think you two might have met,” Jenna said when she introduced him to Celeste.

  His face flushed and he nodded. “Did you get your taillight fixed?” he asked.

  “Not yet, but I’m going to. So don’t even think about giving me a ticket,” she said with a frown.

  The flush got redder but he tried for suave anyway. “Don’t worry, I’m off duty. Are you here for the dancing?”

  “Looks like it.”

  Celeste wasn’t exactly being her usual cute, flirty self. What was her problem? Jenna wanted to kick her.

  “Well, uh, guess I’ll see you on the dance floor,” he said, and boot-scooted away.

  “What is wrong with you?” she demanded after they’d gotten their drinks and were making their way to the dance floor where the dancers were gathering.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know what I mean. Victor’s a nice guy.”

  “He’s a cop. I am so done with cops.”

  “They aren’t all like Emerson. In fact, I bet hardly any are like Emerson. Victor certainly isn’t.”

  “I don’t care. Not interested, so he can keep his nightstick to himself.”

  Jenna shook her head. This was why her sister had man trouble. She couldn’t tell the good ones from the bad. “You know what your problem is?”

  “Right now? You.”

  Jenna gave up.

  The rest of the dancers drifted in. Jenna waved to two of her favorite dance-floor buddies, Patricia Cho and her friend Barb, two pretty fifty-something dancers who were new to town. They had the moves and could out-dance all the younger women.

  Many of the dancers wore boots and almost all of them wore jeans with T-shirts or sleeveless tops. Celeste in her ballet slippers and short black-and-white polka-dot skirt stood out like the diamond in the rough that she was, and Jenna caught more than one man checking her out.

  Courtney made it, looking stylish in jeans and a frayed top that looked like a Courtney creation. “Got everything done and now I can play,” she announced.

  Victor joined them on the dance floor, offering to help Celeste with her steps, to which she replied, “You just watch yours, Mr. CSI Moonlight Harbor.”

  If that was meant to discourage him, it had the opposite effect. He did his usual Victor King blush but he also smiled. “You’re pretty funny.”

  Celeste just rolled her eyes.

  “You can help me anytime,” Courtney said, and it seemed that between her and Celeste they were going to keep poor Victor’s face looking sunburned all night long.

  Tyrella arrived next. “Good, I made it. I got talking on the phone and lost track of time. Thought I was gonna be late.”

  “You cut it close,” Jenna said as Austin Banks, their fearless leader, greeted everyone.

  Austin was a transplanted Texan, and tonight she was dressed in tight jeans and a Western shirt, with gold hoop earrings dangling from her ears. Her husband, Roy, sat by a computer and speaker setup, happy to run the music and watch the others work up a sweat.

  “Are y’all ready to shake your booty?” she asked.

  “Ready,” called Tyrella, who had plenty of booty to shake, and several other dancers gave Austin an enthusiastic yes, as well.

  “Good,” she drawled. “I see we got a couple of newcomers tonight. We’re glad to have y’all with us. We’re gonna start out with ‘Deep South,’ which we learned last week. It’s a four-wall dance, and you newcomers don’t worry. You’ll catch on. We start with a rolling grapevine.”

  “A what?” Celeste whispered.

  “You’ll pick it up,” Jenna said.

  Austin demonstrated the steps, then they all did them together.

  “Now with count,” she said, and they started in again.

  Celeste kept up fine.

  Until about three-quarters of the way through. Then she began to get lost. And once the music began and they started the dance in earnest, she looked exactly the same as Jenna had on her first night, losing track of the steps and turning in the wrong direction.

  But Victor was on hand to help her and she was embarrassed enough to let him.

  “Your sister seems to be finding her feet,” Brody observed as Jenna joined him at the bar when the dancers took a drink break.

  She looked to where Celeste and Victor stood talking. Celeste wasn’t exactly in flirt mode, but she wasn’t frowning anymore. “I hope she gives him a chance.”

  “I feel sorry for the poor guy if she’s anything like her sister.”

  “Now, what’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You Jones women are hard to win over.”

  “We Jones women haven’t always made the best choices. That’s why we’re cautious.”

  “When are you going to stop being so cautious?” he asked softly.

  “Do we have a deadline?” Brody was everything a woman could want. He was fun to be with and handsome and honest. A loyal friend. A great kisser. What was her problem?

  Seth Waters.

  But Seth was never going to commit. He’d said as much. In some ways he was even more bound by his past than Jenna. Even though he’d gone to prison for something he hadn’t done, she suspected he still carried the stigma.

  She cared about Brody. A lot. But it was hardly fair to commit to him when she still felt the crazy pull of attraction to Seth. He, too, was handsome and honest and loyal.

  And she was...a mess. It had been a year since she’d come to Moonlight Harbor. Surely, it was time to start getting un-messed.

  Well, her sister first. Then she’d worry about her own love life.

>   Still, poor Brody. “Are you getting tired of waiting for me to get myself together?”

  He smiled his killer smile. “What do you think?”

  She felt guilty about not being able to make up her mind. “I think maybe you should give up.” It wasn’t fair to keep him in limbo.

  “Give up on the prettiest woman in Moonlight Harbor? How stupid do I look?” He turned serious. “I know you’re waiting for that wound to heal, Jenna. And I know there are lots of men who’d like to help you with that. I happen to think I’m the best man for the job.”

  He was working on proving it as he ran a finger along her bare arm, making her nerve endings do a little line dance of their own.

  “You are more tempting than chocolate cake,” she informed him.

  It was true. Brody was practically irresistible.

  “That’s what I like to hear. So how about it? Give in to temptation.” He leaned in close to her, their shoulders touching. She could feel his breath warm on her neck and that started a line dance in a whole new region.

  She should give in to temptation, as he’d said. Make the logical choice. Have her chocolate cake and eat it, too.

  “Here’s your Coke,” said Misty, the bartender. “Hope I’m not interrupting anything,” she added with a smirk.

  “You are. Go away,” Brody told her.

  Austin was starting to teach a new dance. “Speaking of going away,” Jenna said and stood up to leave.

  He caught her hand. “As long as you come back.”

  Good Lord, Brody Green really was something else. Only an idiot wouldn’t grab him by his besotted heart and hold on for dear love.

  Obviously, she was an idiot. How was she ever going to be able to help her sister with her love life when she couldn’t even sort out her own?

  * * *

  Celeste hadn’t realized how much fun line dancing could be. “That was great,” she said later as Jenna drove them home. “And the best thing about it is you don’t need a partner.”

  “Although it looks like you could have one if you want,” said Jenna.

  Celeste heaved a sigh. “I have to admit, Victor is nice. But I don’t know if I can get over the fact that he’s a cop.” Anyway, he was almost too nice. He didn’t give her that same live-wire sizzle Emerson had.