CHAPTER ONE
You have a great life, Jenna Jones told herself as she took the
glass of champagne her sister had given her. She was living proof that if you
waited long enough and worked hard enough, you could turn a shipwreck into a
new life.
She looked around the crowded living room of her great aunt’s beach house.
It was filled with friends and family, all celebrating the fact that Jenna was
now a member of Moonlight Harbor’s city council, thanks to a special election
in March to replace a councilman who’d resigned due to health problems. It had
been a hard-fought battle, but she’d won and she had high hopes of
accomplishing great things for the town, including getting support for building
a convention center.
A town with a city council, it was a little odd. Moonlight Harbor didn’t
really have the population to qualify as a city, but the powers that be thought
they were close enough, so why split hairs?
“We’re all so proud of you,” said Jenna’s mother, Melody Jones, putting an
arm around Jenna’s shoulders.
“Yes, we are,” put in Aunt Edie, the woman who had made Jenna’s new life
possible.
“Yes, we are,” echoed Jolly Roger the parrot from his cage. “Give me
whiskey.”
“We’re not serving whiskey, Roger,” said Jenna’s sister, Celeste. “You have
to ask for champagne. Say, it Roger. Give me champagne, give me champagne.”
“Say it, Roger. Give me champagne,” said the bird, bobbing his head and
stepping back and forth on his perch.
“Poor Roger. Nobody ever gives him anything to drink,” said Celeste.
“Poor Roger,” said Jolly Roger, making several of the guests chuckle. “Give
me champagne.”
Celeste and Brody Green, Jenna’s ardent admirer and campaign manager,
circulated about the room, refilling glasses with champagne or sparkling cider.
Daughter Sabrina pouted when Brody poured more sparkling cider in her glass,
and muttered, “I’m eighteen now.”
“Which is a long way from twenty-one,” Jenna reminded her, and she rolled
her eyes.
Once everyone’s glass had been filled, Celeste performed the toast. “To
Jenna Jones, the most successful woman I know. Moonlight Harbor is lucky to
have you.”
“Hear, hear,” echoed Brody.
Ellis West, friend and fellow businessman, said, “I’ll drink to that.” Ellis
owned The Seafood Shack, the popular fast food restaurant next to the Driftwood
Inn.
“So will I,” Jenna said and smiled.
Successful. A few years ago she would have never used that word to describe
herself. She’d come to Moonlight Harbor, newly divorced, with a wounded heart
and an angry daughter, towing their worldly goods in a rented trailer. She
hadn’t been sure how she was going to pay the spousal support the court had
allotted her cheating ex, the starving artist, and keep a roof over her and her
daughter’s head until she’d gotten Aunt Edie’s invitation.
Aunt Edie had offered Jenna a home and a job running the Driftwood Inn along
with the future security of knowing someday the vintage motel would be hers. It
had been a rundown dump when she arrived, but she’d turned it into a charming
bit of nostalgia and the motel was actually doing well.
So was her daughter. Sabrina had been anything but cooperative when the
unwanted change had been dumped on her, but she’d eventually found her feet
(along with the love of her life) and, like her mother, had put down roots in
the beachside town. There’d been plenty of room for them in Aunt Edie’s beach
house, and the older woman enjoyed having them with her.
Jenna looked at the trio of women who were the pillars of her life. Her
mother Melody (Mel to her friends), in her early sixties and still slender and
beautiful, was standing next to Ellis, whose eyes had lit up the moment he saw
her. She was happily holding her two-month old second grandchild. Next to her
stood Jenna’s younger sister, Celeste, sneaking an appetizer to her dog, Nemo.
She was curvy and cute, the life of the party, now married and responsible for
that second grandchild. Then there was sweet Aunt Edie, still perky at almost
eighty-six. She was proudly wearing an orange Elect Jenna Jones t-shirt that clashed
horribly with her hair. It was a shade of bright cherry red that made her head
look like a lost Christmas light, but she’d sported that shade for years and
refused to be budged from it, in spite of the best efforts of her friend Pearl
at Waves Salon to switch her to something slightly more subdued. Her coral
lipstick added yet another interesting palette to the colors that were Edie
Patterson. In short, she was adorable.
Yes, Jenna thought, looking at them and all the people who had come to mean
so much to her, what more could a girl ask for?
Sex. Getting a sex life sometime before she died would be great. She’d been
divorced for almost four years. Surely she was ready to take a chance on love
again.
And who better to take it on with than tall, blond, blue-eyed Mr. Gorgeous,
Brody Green? Successful, charming, well-off, he was Moonlight Harbor’s catch of
the day, and Jenna had caught him the first time they met. Most people already
considered them a couple, friends with benefits.
Except there weren’t any benefits, hadn’t been anything beyond a couple of
hot kisses, one of them fueled by alcohol and moonlight when she first came to
town. Brody was more than willing to offer benefits, and waiting patiently for
her to say the word. So far she hadn’t been able to.
Her eyes strayed to Seth Waters, who’d been renting a room at the motel ever
since he hit town and started his mold removal business. Dark, swarthy, pirate
Seth Waters, who knew how to make the sparks fly. She’d tried his lips on for
size, too, but that relationship was stalled out permanently.
Aunt Edie was a big fan of both men, but Brody had been her buddy for years
and he was her favorite. “I don’t know what you’re waiting for,” she’d said to
Jenna when another Valentine’s Day came and went and her left-hand ring finger
was still bare.
“You’re waiting because the time isn’t right yet,” her mother said when
Jenna had repeated Aunt Edie’s words. “When it strikes the hour for love,
you’ll know.”
Jenna was beginning to wonder if her love clock was broken.
Nothing wrong with her appetite though. She popped another one of Annie
Albright’s bacon-wrapped dates in her mouth.
Annie had her own catering business and a food truck. She’d come a
long way from the days of waitressing at Sandy’s.
“What’s going to be your first order of business now that you’re on the
council?” Ellis asked Jenna, catching her in mid-chew.
The others all looked at her expectantly.
After revamping the Driftwood, she’d felt ready to change the world. At
least the world of Moonlight Harbor. Not that her town needed much changing,
but she did have ideas.
“I’m sure going to be pushing for looking into building a convention center.
It would be great for our local businesses if we could bring tourists to town
all year long, and a convention center would help us do that. Then we could
hold our winter festival indoors.”
The first Seaside with Santa festival had been a disaster, and even though
the chamber of commerce had tried again, moving it to earlier in December,
luring people to the beach when the weather was iffy was still a challenge.
Tourists could be such wimps.
“A good idea,” Ellis approved, “I’m not sure you’ll get everyone in town on
board with it though. It costs money to build convention centers and people
might not want to make that big of an investment.”
“Yes, but if we all make more and benefit in the long run it will be worth
the pinch in the short run,” Jenna argued.
“Good luck with even getting to that,” said her friend Nora Singleton, who
owned Good Times Ice Cream Parlor. “People are more concerned with having more
sidewalks in town and solving the deer problem.”
“They’re only a problem for our local gardeners,” said Jenna’s pal Courtney.
“The tourists love ‘em.”
“I love them, too,” said Tyrella Lamb, who owned the hardware store. “In
venison stew. I hope you’re listening, Councilwoman.”
“I won’t be able to get a law passed that you can run around town with a
rifle, shooting deer,” Jenna said to her.
“Who needs a rifle? They walk right up to you, the stupid things. I could club
one to death.”
Sabrina gasped. “That’s terrible.”
And out of character for a woman who was normally so kind-hearted.
“No, terrible is what they did to my rhodies last spring,” Tyrella said.
“They aren’t even supposed to like rhododendrons and the stupid things ate
every bud.”
“But they’re so cute,” protested Sabrina.
“And they were here first,” Courtney added.
“First come first served… on a platter,” Tyrella retorted, unrepentant. “The
population is out of control. You all just wait. If something isn’t done pretty
soon we’re going to start seeing cases of Lyme disease down here. You’ve got
power now, girl,” she said to Jenna. “You need to use it.”
“Yeah, to save the deer,” said Courtney. “They’re God’s creatures, Tyrella.
Don’t they teach you to have love for God’s creatures at church?”
“I love God’s creatures,” Tyrella insisted. “But I eat hamburgers. Don’t
you?”
“See what I mean?” Nora said to Jenna. “I think we’d better take up a
collection and buy you a suit of armor. Now that you’re on the city council
you’re going to need it.”
Good grief. What had she gotten herself into?
She said as much later when it was just her and her family, seated around
the living room, finishing up the leftover appetizers from the party.
“Nothing you can’t handle,” Celeste assured her. She burped baby Edie and
handed her over to her daddy.
“Pretty thankless job,” said Celeste’s husband, Henry, as he took the baby.
“Some jobs need to be done, whether we get thanked or not,” Mel said. “I’m
proud of you for taking this on.”
“I’m looking forward to it,” Jenna said. “Moonlight Harbor is my forever
home and I want to do my best for it.”
“It does my heart good to hear you say that, dear,” Aunt Edie said. “I can
rest easy knowing the Driftwood will be in capable hands after I’m gone.”
“You’re not going anywhere for a long time,” Jenna said firmly. “You’re
going to live to be a hundred.”
“I plan on it,” Aunt Edie said, just as Pete Long, the motel’s not so handy
handyman walked into the dining room, resplendent in dirty jeans and a shirt in
need of patching at the elbows. As usual, the old coot needed a shave and his
chin was a bristly white mess.
He stopped at the little dining room table to help himself to a cupcake.
“You’ve got lots of good years left in you, Edie, old girl,” he said.
“Pete, you missed the party,” Aunt Edie scolded.
Which meant that there had been enough food for all the guests. Pete was a
two-legged locust and about as useful.
“Yeah, I hear congrats are in order,” he said to Jenna.
“She won by a landslide,” Celeste told him.
“Fourteen votes is hardly a landslide,” Jenna said.
“It is if there’s not that much land to slide down,” Celeste argued.
“Moonlight Harbor isn’t exactly Seattle, and it’s not like everyone gets out
and votes.”
“True, but the ones who really care did,” said Aunt Edie.
“I voted,” Pete said, leaning against the archway. He stuffed half the
cupcake in his mouth.
“Who did you vote for?” Celeste asked him.
“Jenna, of course,” he said around a mouth full of cake.
“Did you, really?” Jenna asked, surprised.
He half-frowned. “Sure. Why not? You whipped the Driftwood into shape. I
guess you can do the same for this town. Anyway, keeping you busy with
Moonlight Harbor business will keep you off my back.”
“The real reason,” she said with a knowing nod. Pete needed constant
nagging.
“A win-win,” he said, then gobbled up the last of the cupcake and returned
to the refreshment table to forage for more goodies.
He stayed long enough to finish off the last of the appetizers plus two more
cupcakes. Then he left to go hang out at The Drunken Sailor, the town’s
favorite watering hole.
Baby Edie was soon fussy and tired, and Henry took her over to the motel
room where he and Celeste were staying to put her down for the night and work
on the final edits for his latest thriller novel.
“Take the dog with you,” Aunt Edie said.
Nemo, not feeling the love, whined, but he followed his master out of the
house. Then it was just the women and time for girl talk.
“What did you think of Ellis West?” Aunt Edie asked Mel.
Mel’s cheeks turned seashell pink. “He’s very nice.”
“And he’s very successful,” said Aunt Edie. “Plus he’s good looking.
“Looks like he’s interested in you, Mom,” Celeste said.
The pink got darker. “He was just being friendly.”
“I think he’d like to get a lot friendlier,” Celeste insisted.
Mel blew it off. “Oh, nonsense.”
“Melody, I think you’ve forgotten how to read the signs when a man is
interested,” said Aunt Edie.
“Interested and friendly are two different things,” Mel told her.
“Yeah, friendly, says, ‘Hi, nice to meet you. You from around here?’ then
wanders off to talk to someone else. Interested wants to hear the story of your
life, never leaves your side and hurries off to fetch food for you,” Celeste
said. “How many times did Ellis get you more canapes?”
Now the pink was sunset vivid. “Oh, honestly,” Mel said in disgust.
“He’s a really nice man, Mom,” said Jenna.
“He is, but I’m not interested. There will never be another man for me but
your father.”
“Now don’t go getting all sentimental and silly,” Aunt Edie scolded. “You
can love more than one man in a lifetime.”
“I doubt it,” Mel said. “Anyway, I’m too old for him. He’s still in his
fifties.”
“Not for much longer,” Jenna said. “I think he’s fifty-eight.”
“Age doesn’t matter at this point in life,” Aunt Edie argued.
“I read somewhere that since men die younger than women a woman should marry
a man seven years younger than her,” Jenna said. “And what are you always
saying to me? Don’t give up on love.”
“You girls,” Mel said, her face still red. “You obviously don’t have enough
to do.”
“We’ve got plenty to do, trust us,” Celeste said. “But we’re never too busy
for you, Mom.”
“That’s sweet,” Mel said, smiling at her. “You just work on helping your
sister get her love life sorted out. Let’s see her find her happy ever after.
That’s what I want.”
“Me, too,” said Celeste. “When are you going to figure out what you’re
doing?” she asked Jenna. “I’m ready to start planning your wedding.”
“You’ll be the first to know,” Jenna said.
“After me,” put in Mel.
“And me,” said Aunt Edie.
“And me,” said Jolly Roger. “Give me champagne.”
“A good idea,” said Jenna, and went in search of the last bottle. Her love
life was enough to drive her to drink.
