“Isn’t this Sam’s shell? The one you found when you met her?”
His smile widened, and he shook his head. “This is the third I’ve found now.”
“You found this tonight?”
“It washed up on Hidden Beach right about sunset. And it’s yours.”
“No, I can’t take it. Finders, keepers.”
“Hope. It’s yours.”
She lifted her gaze from the shell and inhaled sharply. He held her gaze, and she understood in a way she would never be able to put into words that he indicated something far deeper than simple possession when he said it’s yours. It was hers in the same way that first shell he’d found was his wife’s. The same way the second was his.
“I don’t know if you can forgive me for considering your ex-husband’s needs before yours,” he said slowly, releasing her gaze and standing. He picked up the abalone shell he’d found the day he’d jumped off the point. “But if you can, I’ll never make that mistake again. That’s a promise.”
He stepped around the table with such quiet grace that she didn’t notice until he pressed a kiss to her cheek.
“As much time as you need to decide, take it. I’ll be waiting.”
And then he was gliding toward the open French doors and out into the deepening twilight before she’d recovered enough wits to call after him. He didn’t return, perhaps sensing that she needed time to think about everything he’d said.
Hope returned her gaze to the abalone shell. She wanted to forgive him. Compared to everything he’d survived and everything she’d endured in her marriage, his actions earlier tonight were only a minor offense. But even if she did, where did that leave them?
There was something else she’d been having too much fun to give much consideration to, but when he’d pushed her away, he’d forced her to address it.
She and Daphne were only here for the summer, and come mid-August—only a month and a half away now—they’d be on their way home to Montana to get ready for school.
“Mommy?”
Hope looked up and spied her daughter peeking around the corner. The wide-eyed expression made her wonder how much of her conversation with Owen Daphne had heard. Most of it, probably.
“Come here, baby girl.”
“Is Owen okay?”
“He is now.”
“But he wasn’t.”
“No, he wasn’t.”
“He is now ‘cause he found you.”
“I don’t know about that, my love.”
“I do. Are you going to forgive him for making you mad tonight?”
She started to explain that she hadn’t been mad but hurt, but she didn’t have the energy left to clarify. So instead, she said, “I think so.”
“Does that mean we can stay here in Sea Glass Cove with him and be a family like you and me and Daddy used to be?”
The question blindsided her, and for almost a minute, Hope couldn’t answer. Other than in those first few weeks after Dan had moved back to Colorado, Daphne hadn’t begged her to let him come back like a lot of kids did when their parents separated. And not more than an hour ago, she’d said she liked that Dan paid more attention to her now when it was just the two of them. Hope groaned. She’d also asked if Hope was going to marry Owen. How had she forgotten that?
Finally, she managed to choke out, “It’s not that simple, baby girl.”
“Why not? He makes you smile, and you make him smile. Big, bright smiles like the sun is shining inside you and you can’t keep it all inside.” She tilted her head and studied Hope with her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed. Then, hooking her arms around Hope’s neck, she asked, “That’s love, isn’t it? Do you love him?”
Hope opened her mouth to dismiss her daughter’s question, but she couldn’t say that no, she didn’t love Owen. She couldn’t even say she didn’t know because she did know.
She loved him.
But she’d also loved Dan—still did—and she was jaded enough to know that love wasn’t everything.
All she could offer her daughter was another vague non-answer. “I don’t have any answers tonight, baby girl. I have a lot to think about. And it’s your bedtime.”
“Mommy?”
“Hmm?”
“Can I sleep with you tonight? I don’t want you to be alone.”
Laughing softly, Hope stood and picked her daughter up, holding her close. “Yeah, you can sleep with me tonight.”
Eighteen
After a full day of waiting, Owen began to wonder what else he needed to do to convince Hope he was sorry and would never again devalue her needs. After the second day without seeing her and Daphne, his promise to give them space and time to consider his apology and decide if he deserved a second chance had crumbled. He’d walked by the cottage to see if they would like to join him for an evening stroll on the beach, but they hadn’t been home. By lunchtime on day three, he’d completely rearranged the wind chimes and other sea glass, shell, and driftwood items in the front windows of his store, dusted the entire gallery, restocked all the toys, and ordered more to replenish his stockpile in a mostly useless effort to distract himself, and he now sat at the counter beside his register. He tapped his fingers on the shell he’d found at the bottom of the cove and watched a couple in their early sixties browse the shelves.
The longer he went without talking to her, the harder it became to not think about her and the more certain he was that he couldn’t let her go.
“You coming over for lunch, or would you like me to bring it to you in here?”
Owen almost fell off his stool and swore under his breath as he turned toward his mother. “Uh, I’ll come get some in a minute. Soon as my customers leave.”
Andra’s brows rose. “You’re a tad distracted again today, I see.”
“That’s the understatement of the decade.”
“Still haven’t heard anything from Hope?”
He shook his head. “She wasn’t home last night.”
“I hope she didn’t up and head back to Montana early.”
“I don’t think so. The windows on the cottage were all open, and her laptop was sitting on the desk in the den. She probably took Daphne down for ice cream.”
“I didn’t think she was the kind to leave without telling you. She’s considerate, no matter how mad she might be. She’s got a kind heart, that woman.”
“She does,” Owen agreed, tracing random patterns over the shell’s smooth interior.
Andra studied him with eyes narrowed, watching his hand hover over the shell.
Telling Hope about the day he’d found it had let loose a flood and given him the courage to finally tell his mother and sister about it and to decide that he wouldn’t keep the shell and what it represented hidden away anymore. After they’d hugged him and cried, a weight Owen hadn’t been aware of had lifted, and when Andra threatened to rip Red a new one for not telling her, he’d had to fight not to laugh at her indignation. It had taken him longer to talk her down than it had to tell her he’d jumped off a cliff, but by the end of the evening, they had regained the closeness they’d lost as a family when Sam and Sean died. He’d sat on the couch with Erin on one side of him and their mother on the other and talked far into the dark hours of the morning about moving to Sea Glass Cove, about his wedding, about Andra meeting Red, and about a thousand other happy memories including several more recent ones involving Hope and her sweet daughter.
“She’s done a lot for you in a short time,” Andra said, following the direction of his thoughts. Or maybe she’d been thinking the same ones.
“Yes, she has. She’s a remarkable woman. And the more I think about it, the less I can empathize with her ex-husband.”
“You know what they say about things like this, don’t you?” she asked. “If you can’t stop thinking about it, don’t stop fighting for it.”
“I don’t plan to, Mom,” he replied. “I’m just not sure how long I should wait before I make another attempt. And what do I do if
she’s decided I’m not worth the hassle?”
“You show her you are.” Andra joined him behind his counter and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.
“And if that’s not enough?”
“Then she’s not as remarkable as she seems to be. You’re a good man, Owen, and a good woman will see that.”
“You’re my mother. Your opinion is biased.”
“Maybe so, but Sam knew it. And you know even better than I do that she was a good woman.”
“She was the best.”
“And you think Hope is in her class, or you wouldn’t have fallen for her like you have.”
He nodded in agreement, and let out a sigh that was half chuckle. “Surprisingly, this conversation is not making the wait any easier. I’ll be over for lunch in a few, Mom. Thanks.”
Giving him another squeeze, Andra left him to tend to his customers. The woman had fallen in love with his latest wind chime, the one he’d made the first day after his talk with Hope—the one with the wind catcher he’d made from the large round abalone shell fragment he’d found before he’d opened his mouth and shoved his foot in it.
“Do you find all the items you use right here in Sea Glass Cove?” she asked.
“I do sometimes stray south to Angel Beach for the glass—it doesn’t get picked over as much—but yes, most of the pieces I use come from Sea Glass Cove’s beach. All the pieces for this particular wind chime did and just the other day.”
“Oh, how fun. Honey?”
Her husband pulled out his wallet with an indulgent smile. “How much?”
Owen quoted him a price, rang up the sale, and stepped into his office for a box and tissue paper. While he was wrapping it, he watched them from the corner of his vision. Those private smiles gave the impression of new love, but the way they held each other and moved in an effortless dance—at one with each other—spoke of a much older, stronger love.
“How long have you been married?” he asked as he finished wrapping the wind chimes.
“Forty wonderful years tomorrow,” the man replied. “We’re here for a second honeymoon. Thought I’d take the old girl out to the lighthouse.”
“That’s where he proposed,” she added, beaming at him. “So long ago, but it feels like yesterday.”
The love that glowed in their eyes made Owen’s heart ache. “Congratulations on your longevity, and I wish you a very happy anniversary.”
He walked them to the door and watched them drive off. Then he headed into the Salty Dog for lunch, sitting at the counter on the stool nearest his store like he always did so he could keep an eye out for any customers who wandered in. Andra spotted him and brought him a plate of fish and chips, and he turned his back to the restaurant to enjoy it, trying and failing to discourage thoughts of Hope. The love emanating from his customers just now had brought her forcefully but pleasantly back to the forefront of his mind.
He’d waited long enough. Tonight, after work, he’d go over to her place and talk to her, and if she wasn’t home again, he’d wait on the deck until she returned.
“Hey, big brother.”
Owen closed his mouth with a sigh and set his fork on his plate. Erin propped her hip on the stool beside him as she often did, and he regarded her with a brow raised. “I’m beginning to think you take some kind of perverse pleasure in interrupting my lunch. Maybe I should start eating in my office.”
“Whine, whine, whine,” she quipped.
She’d made the exact same retort the day he’d met Hope, but if he thought that reminded him of it, what she said next really did.
“See that pretty woman at the table by the window?”
“Which window?” he heard himself ask.
Erin’s face split in a wide grin. “Like you need to ask.”
He didn’t. Without seeing her, he sensed who the gaze he felt on him belonged to. Slowly, he turned on his stool, drawn instinctively and helplessly to her. She and her daughter sat at the same table they had the day he’d met them, and when his eyes met Hope’s across the room, his lips curved with a will of their own. Yeah, he’d never be able to let her go now. Not even if she wanted him to.
“Go get her, Owen,” Erin whispered, giving his shoulder a squeeze.
He rose and caught his sister’s wink as he started toward the woman and her daughter who’d dragged his heart out of the cold, lonely sea. Hope was the beach, and an invisible current propelled him toward her, his smile widening as her face brightened the closer he came. Then he saw the shell he’d found and given to her sitting on the table, and his heart plummeted.
“Hi,” she said shyly when he reached her.
“Hi,” he echoed, uncertain.
In contrast, Daphne could barely contain her excitement at seeing him again, and she launched herself into his arms without waiting to see if he was ready to catch her.
“Missed you,” she whispered.
“Missed you, too, sweet pea,” he replied, hugging her tightly. “More than you know.”
“Baby girl, would you go ask Erin to bring Owen’s lunch over? And take your time please.”
“Sure!”
The little girl dropped out of his arms and trotted across the restaurant to Erin. Hope gestured for Owen to sit across from her, and his invitation for her and Daphne to join him in his usual spot at the counter died on his lips. They couldn’t face each other at the counter.
“It’s good to see you again,” Hope began. “At last. My daughter isn’t the only one who’s missed you these last few days.”
That was promising. “Well, that’s good, because she’s not the only one I’ve missed.”
“Thank you for giving me the time and space to think about everything I needed to consider.” She lowered her gaze to the shell. “Daph and I have done a lot of driving and a lot of talking, and I’ve done a lot more thinking.”
“And?”
“And… you’re right to be afraid for Dan and to make me aware of how he felt.”
There was no spark of vindication, only regret and worry. If he was right about that, had she decided he was also right that she needed to give her ex-husband another chance? Half an hour ago when he’d told his mother he would fight for Hope, he’d been so sure he’d try no matter what, but already a crack had formed in that resolve. He wanted to fight for her, but if she didn’t want him to, how could he hurt her like that?
“That’s part of why I stayed as long as I did,” she continued. “I was terrified that he’d kill himself if I left, but I don’t think I ever thought about it quite like you made me see it.”
“How did I make you see it?”
“As something that isn’t mine to own. And once I realized that, I saw that that fear was another way he was controlling me even after our divorce. Admitting that makes it easier to set and keep my boundaries with him. I called him yesterday and told him that he needs to make prior arrangements when he wants to come see Daphne, just like I’ll make my own when I take her to see him. And I set a few other boundaries with him while I was at it and told him what Daphne and I planned over the last few days for our future.”
“That’s great, Hope,” he replied. “You need that.”
“Yes, I do. And about this shell….” She picked it up and skimmed her fingers over it almost lovingly. “It’s not mine to keep.”
“Yes, it is.” He searched her eyes, hoping to see something—anything—in them to contradict her words, to tell him she hadn’t decided to reject him. There was only a faint contemplative frown. Feeling more fractures forming in his heart, he dropped his gaze to the shell. Suddenly, he understood that if she wanted to close the door on their relationship, it wasn’t his right to try to keep it open. He cared about her enough—loved her enough—that her happiness was more important than his… and that he would do anything to make her happy, even if that meant walking away. “Give it back to the ocean if you don’t want it.”
“The ocean can’t have it, either. Owen, look at me.”
&nb
sp; He did, prepared to see sadness in her eyes. Instead, a grin brighter than the clear day outside lit up her face and hummed throughout the rest of her like she couldn’t contain it. He tilted his head with eyes narrowed, confused.
“It’s not mine to keep,” she repeated, “because it’s ours.”
Half a second. That’s all it took for her meaning to sink in, and when it did, he shot off his stool and reached for her even before he slipped around the table. Clasping her face in his hands, he drew her off her stool and against his body and kissed her firmly in front of a restaurant of people who cheered and clapped. His mother and sister watched from behind the counter with Daphne, and all three grinned like Cheshire cats.
“Ours,” he breathed against her lips. Then he grinned. “That’s something I can’t wait to get used to.”
She hooked her arms around his neck and leaning back to beam at him. “Um, there’s one more thing I need to tell you, but I told Daphne she could do it.”
Hope waved Daphne over, and the little girl eagerly complied. “Can I tell him now, Mom?”
“Hold on just one more second. So, one of the things Daphne and I have talked about at length and investigated these last few days was when we need to go back to Montana. And the answer is….” Hope gestured to Daphne.
“We don’t!” Daphne cheered. “Well, not to stay.”
“You’re staying in Sea Glass Cove?” Owen asked, certain he must be dreaming.
“We’re staying in Sea Glass Cove. In the cottage for now,” Hope confirmed. “We’ll make a trip back to Montana to put the house up for sale and sell what things we don’t want to bring, and…. Um, we have a favor to ask.”
“Anything.”
“Gideon called this morning. He’s going to be out for most of August, and Daph and I thought—if you’re willing—we should give him the cottage. Give him a chance to feel like he’s home, if only for a few weeks. He broke the news to Hannah that he plans to seek full custody of Liam, and as you can imagine, she’s not taking it too well.”
“I’m sure she’s not, but Liam will have far more stability with Gideon. As to you two staying with me while he’s here, I am willing and eager,” Owen replied. He laughed and glanced over his shoulder at his mother and sister. “You owe me, Erin!”
The Abalone Shell Page 13