“I wanted to teach you guys a lesson. Only it backfired. I decided to take all the money and put it in a secret account. I’d give you time to take a good look at yourselves, to see how greedy you’d become. I thought it would humble you, and we could talk about it, what we all wanted. Then I’d give the money back and we’d get back on track. Nobody would be hurt. But it didn’t work out that way. You turned on each other immediately, you became so vicious in attacking each other that I was afraid to tell anyone what I’d done.”
The two men looked at one another in the silence that followed her admission. I wasn’t sure what would happen next. Elliott and I had a contingency plan to protect my mother if they became violent. But they didn’t. Both of the men opened their mouth at the same time to say something, and then snapped them closed.
Coral looked across the table at me. “It was my idea to leave New York. I didn’t know how to fix what I’d done. So we came to California, but I became more and more depressed. Suicidal. Your father thought it was because we’d lost all the money. But I was so consumed with guilt, I had to leave you both. I couldn’t face you or your father. I thought about giving myself up, but I was too much of a coward.”
She broke down at that point, and I knew she couldn’t go on, so I finished the story for her.
“Dad, she told me what happened. She lived off the money for a while and then began investing it. Time passed and she couldn’t admit it. Too much time had passed. She’s made enough money that she can repay both of you with interest. She doesn’t know how else to make up for what she’s done.”
My mother finally looked at my father with such sadness in her eyes. “I’m glad the truth has come out. I know I deserve to go to jail. And I don’t know how I can make all this up to you.”
“I don’t know, either,” he said. “I can’t believe you left me and our daughter because of your stupid, selfish ways.” He looked across the table at Elliott’s dad. “You and I have some serious talking to do. Without this traitor.”
“Yes, we do. But I think the first thing we do is make sure the grand opening is a raging success, what do you say?”
I got up from the table and walked around to my mother. I wasn’t sure what I felt for—or about—her. But I knew one thing; it took a lot of courage to come out with the truth, and to face the people she had hurt for so many years. For that I admired her. I was still pissed that she left me, and wasn’t ready to embrace her, but I put my hand on her shoulder.
I sucked in a deep breath. I wanted to be civil, even though it hurt. “I hope you’ll join us at the opening . . .” I didn’t know what to call her. Coral? Mom? Deserter? That didn’t seem right. And she didn’t feel quite like my mother. So I just left it.
She said, “If you’ll let me. I’m so, so sorry.” Her eyes welled up with tears and I didn’t know if I should hug her or just let her go.
Elliott must have noticed my apprehension, because he stood up and cleared his throat. “I don’t know about you all, but we need breakfast. Who’s up for pancakes?”
Elliott and I held hands as we walked toward the kitchen. As I walked around the table, I saw something close to understanding in my father’s eyes.
Dad looked over at me again, and something softened in his gaze. I knew he’d missed me, and as mad as I was, I’d missed him like hell since I’d come to Sand Dollar Beach. The thought of never seeing him, no matter how big of an asshole he was, had hurt me really deep. Without saying a word he acknowledged that all the old ugliness was behind us.
Elliott’s father patted his stomach and smiled. “Pancakes,” he said, “I thought you’d never ask.”
I took that as a peace offering, a means of getting through the day, of making sure the grand opening went smoothly. Not for a moment did I believe that the three of them had said their last words on the tragedy of their pasts. But this was a start.
Elliott put his arm around me and hugged me for a long, long time. It was the first time he’d done it in the presence of our families. As a beginning of our new relationships, I’d take it.
Epilogue
Elliott
Later that evening
As I drove back to the beach house, Aria’s dad’s words swam around in my head. I felt antsy and nervous and excited, all at once. I couldn’t wait, and yet, part of me wanted to put what I was about to do off a little longer, while I still could.
“You know what she’s like,” her father had said to me as I sat on the other side of the bar at the hotel he was staying at.
“I do.” I nodded. “But I still thought I’d ask you first.”
“Well, I appreciate it, even if she wouldn’t,” he said, flashing me a conspiratorial grin. “You know, when she was a kid, she used to ask me about this, about why the man had to get permission from the father in those romantic movies she liked.”
“And what did you tell her?”
“I told her it was a matter of respect for the father.” He shook his head and chuckled to himself. “And she told me the man should respect her enough to ask her first.”
I laughed. “All right, so we keep this little thing to ourselves, then,” I joked. “But you’re okay with it?”
He rolled his eyes at me fondly. “Yes, I give you my blessing to propose to my daughter.”
“That’s all I need to hear.” I held my hands up.
And that was how I found myself driving back to the beach house we’d lived in for the last six months with Betsy and our new dog, Scoop. I’d moved in officially a few weeks after we were properly together, and it had been our little haven, a home for the two of us to build together, somewhere we could call our own. It was where we’d built our dream together.
And now, Neptune Coast would be opening tomorrow morning. But I needed to take care of this one little thing before we cut the ribbon on the business.
The last six or eight months had been the most perfect time of my life. I settled into Sand Dollar Beach life quickly, and every day I spent with Aria, I seemed to uncover a new side to her I adored as much as the last. She was the only thing I needed, and I intended to make that permanent.
I drove down to the restaurant slash store, where I knew she’d be putting the last touches on everything. She was as invested in this dream as I was, picking up work from up-and-coming designers to feature on her side of the business. But we’d already done as much as we could, and overthinking things would end badly.
I paused outside the store for a few minutes. From where she was, she couldn’t see me watching her. She was so gorgeous. She still had her hair pinned out of the way and in jeans and a T-shirt. She turned and caught sight of me through the plate glass windows. Grinning broadly, she met me outside.
She cocked an eyebrow. “Come to chase me away to get some rest?”
“Everything’s taken care of,” I reminded her. “You don’t need to worry.”
“Whatever you say.” She sighed, leaning in to kiss me on the cheek. “Did you get your errands sorted out?”
“Yeah, all good.” I grinned. I’d told her I had to meet with a food critic to give them a few personal details for the restaurant, and she believed me.