“Really?”
“Michael, I want to spend the rest of my life with you in the Tea & Scones, making up for how much I hurt you. I want to make you happy. I…want you. I love you.”
He excitedly reached out for her hand and knocked over the glass of icy lemonade into her lap. She yelped and leapt up. He grabbed his napkin and blotted her pants. “Oh, Joanna, I’m sorry!”
She shivered out, “I deserve this.”
“No. You deserve nothing but happiness,” he said, grabbing napkins from the set table behind him, and wiping her wet hands.
“Well, that’s in your hands, now. And I think, think that I might finally be good enough for you.”
“You always were good enough. More than good enough. You’re perfect for me.”
“Don’t make me cry.”
“And was it wishful hearing or did you say you love me?”
“Only more than anyone I’ve ever known. Only for the rest of my life.”
He beamed. “I love you, too.” They held each other, so tightly that he realized first-hand that “Oh, that really is cold. How can I help?”
“Walk me back to the Tea & Scones, so I can get out of these pants?”
“I’ll walk you back to the Tea & Scones, I’ll help you off with your pants, I’ll go into the shower with you, and I’ll never leave your side again…if that’s what you want.”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I want,” she said.
“Then let’s go home.” Michael threw a $20 bill on the table, took Joanna’s hand and they walked out of Henry’s into the Cape May sunshine.
THE END
© DARRYL FOSSA
HOLLY CASTER writes an entertainment column for The Nyack Villager, has written dozens of articles for employee assistance websites, and is the Editor of two journals devoted to pain management education. She is hard at work on her next novel Anne/Island/Whales. Ms. Caster lives in the lower Hudson Valley Region with her playwright husband Tom Dudzick and their two cats Alfie and Bill.
Dedication
I’d like to thank, in order of appearance: my sister Wendy, who, among so many other things (enough to fill another book), gave me her front row seat for the final performance of The Light in the Piazza; Tom, my husband of 26 years—we were engaged after knowing each other three months and I don’t know why we waited so long; and my children Charles and Emma, without whom my life, and the entire world, would be far inferior.
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