“She’s made me watch her try on ten different outfits. I’ve had to listen to her sing.Watched her dance and helped her adjust her bra straps. I’m never coming on vacation with you again. I need a vacation from my vacation.” She dropped into the chair beside me.
I laughed. Duke came from his water bowl and shook his head right between us. Water flew in our faces.“This is when you must admit he really is a dog,” I said, wiping the water from my face.“So what’s on your agenda today?”
“Peace and quiet.”
“How’s that?”
“Well, your dad paid me twenty bucks to get lost for the afternoon.”
I stuck my fingers in my ears. “La, la, la . . .”
“I know. It’s disgusting. So Thomas and I are going to the movies while you and Amber go to the wedding.”
My eyes furrowed.“What do you mean while me and Amber go to the wedding?”
“I don’t know. You’ll have to ask her. But she says she’s going to that same wedding you’re going to this afternoon.”
I leaned back in the rocking chair.“She makes me crazy.”
“No, you were already crazy.”
“Okay, crazier.”
“That’ll do.”
She got up to leave.“And why are you and Thomas going out together again anyway?!” I hollered. She never turned around. Well, she couldn’t get far.
“Somebody get the door!” I hollered. No one answered. I tottered down the stairs in two-inch heels, trying to put on my earrings, catch my breath, and not break my neck all at the same time. When I opened the door, Johnny Deal, Joshua’s college friend, was standing at the door in a seersucker suit, crisp white shirt, and navy blue bow tie with pink stripes. He held a bouquet of white daisies tied together with raffia.
“I’m here for the reigning Miss Georgia United States of America.”
I stared at him, befuddled.“You’re what?”
“Are you going to invite me in?” he asked.
“Sure, sure . . .” I said, stepping aside and motioning him in. “I’m sorry. But how in the world did you meet Amber?”
“We met yesterday at Dawson’s Yogurt. She was getting a lemonade. I was getting a yogurt, and I fell in love with her pink lipstick.” He winked.
“You’re a mess.”
“I know. Ooh, how beautiful,” he said as his attention turned toward the staircase. Beautiful was an understatement. Amber glowed like I had never seen. She descended like royalty. Well, technically she was a queen. Her flowing silk scarf dress encased her in rich blue tones and made her eyes sparkle exceptionally.
“Amber, you do look beautiful,” I said as she reached the bottom of the staircase.
“Did you meet Johnny?” she asked, not even looking at me. She actually had to peer up into a man’s eyes. Her tall frame matched his nicely.
“I did.”
“These are for you,” he said, extending his bouquet.
“They’re beautiful. For me?” Her hand went to her chest.
No, for me.
“Yes, they’re for you.”
“Savannah, would you put these in water?” she said, passing them into my chest, still not looking at me. She took his arm and he opened the screen door to the front porch, and they descended the stairs.
I headed back to the kitchen to put the princess’s flowers in a vase. I laughed to myself as I watched the water fill up the vase. “Psst. Hey, Savannah,” came the noise behind me.
I turned around to see Amber in the doorway.
“I told Johnny I needed just one minute. I tried to find you this morning.”
“Find me for what?” I asked, still holding her flowers.
“To apologize. I’ve been brutal. I’ve been selfish and stupid and have acted totally inappropriately.” Her face registered complete sincerity.
“I owe you just as much an apology, for not being honest with you and telling you what was going on with me and Joshua. You deserved to know. I just honestly . . .” I laughed at the idiocy of the statement.“I just didn’t want you to hurt anymore.”
She walked over to me. I was glad I was wearing heels. “I know you were trying to protect me.You let me invade your vacation. You’ve let your mother fall in love with me. And your dad.” She huffed. “Oh my goodness, you would think I came from that man’s loins.”
I raised my hand. “I get the picture, really.”
“It’s just I’ve never had people care for me like this. Honestly, never.”
Something different about her caught my eye.“You look different.”
“What do you mean? I don’t look nice today?” She examined her dress.
“No, you look breathtaking, but something’s different . . .Oh my stars, you’re not wearing your contacts.”
She smiled sheepishly. “I know. I wouldn’t have believed it myself if I hadn’t seen it. ‘Johnny likes my real color.”
“I like your real color too.”
“Honest?”
“Completely honest.”
“So you forgive me?”
“If you forgive me.”
“Awwww.” She shuffled over in her heels with her arms extended like a wind-up doll.“Come here, you.” She pulled me into a bear hug. I hoped my hair survived. I finally extricated myself.“You and Paige are my best friends in the whole world.”
“Well, as your friends, no more eating happy fruit.”
She laughed.“I promise. But it was doggone good.”
She turned to go; then she paused.“And Savannah, I really do hate that a divorce is what got me here.”
She really could amaze me. I smiled in agreement. Then I walked her back to the door, and felt almost like a proud mother watching her daughter go to the prom as I watched her leave.
Joshua rounded the corner, eyeing the departure himself. “Johnny’s been beside himself,” he said as he reached the screen door.
I stared at him through the mesh.The tan linen suit and crisp white shirt made the sun that had saturated him this past week radiate. His pale blue tie was the perfect complement.
“You look wonderful,” I said, too transfixed to open the door.
“May I come in?” He chuckled.
“Oh, yes,” I said, opening the door. “I’m sorry, I’ve had trouble with that today.”
“Where’d you get the flowers?”
I forgot I had been given flower duty. “Oh.” I laughed and walked back to the kitchen. “Johnny brought these for Amber. I do think they’re a perfect twosome.”
I set the flowers down on the kitchen counter and felt Joshua’s warm breath come up behind me. His arms encircled my waist. His lips brushed my ear, and every hair on my legs grew an inch. “We are the perfect twosome,” he said, kissing me on the cheek. “Now let me go introduce you to the world as the woman I love.”
I turned to look at that face. That beautiful face.The lone curl loose over his left eye.“I’d love that.And then can I tell them how I feel about you.”
We headed to the front porch. “You look beautiful, Miss Phillips. Brown suits you,” he said.
The knit V-neck halter felt soft against my sunburned skin. Amber assured me the V-neck would give the illusion of breasts. I looked down to check. It was an illusion all right.The teal and brown floral silk skirt swished against my legs as we walked up the brick street, hand in hand.
“Do you think I should go change? Maybe put on my khaki sundress? We’d match, you know. Just in case people wondered if we were really together. It really would only take me a minute.” I started to turn around to head back into the house.
“I think they’ll know we’re together,” he said, pulling me back around.
“You think? Because you know, since we’re an item and all, we really need to let people know. And coordinating outfits really have a way of doing that. You know, Donny and Marie.”
“They were brother and sister.”
“Oh, yeah, okay. Bad example.” I chewed my lower lip. “Sonny and Cher.”
“T
hey divorced.”
“The Captain and Tennille. I know they’re still together. They were just on Fox and Friends the other morning.”
“Who?”
“Okay, so maybe brown is good on me.” I ran my hands down my sweater for good measure.
“Brown is fine. Perfectly fine.”
My feet began forward motion again. We were going to a wedding. Me and my man. I liked weddings. Come to think of it, I liked the color white too. Come to think of it, I looked fabulous in white. The love bugs flitted past us, and in the distance I heard the church bell ring. Come to think of it, love bugs weren’t so bad after all. And I’ve always liked the sound of bells. Yeah, there is definitely something about the sound of bells.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As with all books, they come about by far more people than just us rather lone individuals who sit behind a computer screen and type away for endless hours. Okay, maybe only two hours a day, but there are times it feels like an eternity.
But I couldn’t do this without the ceaseless and immense talents of:
Ami McConnell: who continues to challenge me to go places I don’t even want to go, yet when I get there, I realize it really is actually better than where I was. And who refuses to allow me my “implausible” moments.
To Erin Healy: once again your talents took Savannah to new and better places, and me too, even if I bucked a time or two!
To Allen Arnold: thank you for creating an enviornment where we can truly explore those facets of life that no one would believe unless we called them “fiction.”You allow our imaginations to explode.
And to the entire Thomas Nelson team: Caroline, Jennifer, Lisa, Natalie, Mark, Elizabeth, and Heather, thank you for helping what I do actually make it onto the shelves and into the hands of the readers.
To my faithful friends: who hear me rant, who listen to me send up urgent prayer requests, and then so graciously pray me through my crisis moments: Deneen, Beth, Lawana, Paige, April, Joan, Theresa, Jackie, and Janey. I wouldn’t make it through if I didn’t have you there to watch my back.
To my precious family: I count it a privilege to tell your stories and change your names and spend the rest of the time listening as people ask, “Is Victoria really like your mama?!”
To my beautiful and endlessly giving husband: In a year with more twists and turns, your faithfulness to allow me the time to do what I’ve been called to do still humbles and touches the deepest places in me. And even though you let me read to you over and over again, you still smile, even though you’ve heard it a thousand times. So, on the days when you wonder if I notice how hard you work and how tirelessly you give, let the record show that I do, and that I am ever so grateful. Thank you for warming my feet and letting me eat Parmesan and garlic seasoned popcorn at the movies even though I stink for two days. What more could a woman ask for in the man that she loves?
And to the Creator of my life: once again, I’m an inadequate vessel. I get weary and sometimes irritable. I get scared and often remind you of how I can’t come up with another story to save my life. And yet everyday you meet me so graciously, giving and giving and giving again.The words on this page aren’t because I’m a writer. No, they rest on these pages because you are so kind to give such wonderful dreams. Thank you for giving me a dream. And thank you even more for showing up in my life each day to make sure it actually comes to pass. You give good gifts. And thank you for your best gift. The one that changed my life: Jesus Christ.
And to those of you who will pick up this book. I thank you once again for giving me your most gracious treasure, that of your time. (You thought I was going to say your money didn’t you?!) Truth be told, I am continually amazed that people actually buy what I write. So, to each of you I say a special thank you. And even if you pick up these pages and don’t agree with all that I say, please know the heart with which it all comes from is, at the end of the day, a heart that desires to share the things life has taught me.We all travel different roads. And these are the lessons I’ve learned on my journey. May your journey teach you many valuable lessons as well. And may we all be changed for what we’ve learned.
Blessings,
Denise
Reading Group Guide for
Savannah by the Sea available at
www.thomasnelson.com/readingguides
Savannah by the Sea Page 29