Мэри Эндрюс: The Newcomer

“Sorry,” Joe said. “I was getting kind of drowsy and needed some fresh air.”

“It’s okay. We’re almost there, right?”

“Another twenty minutes. I’ve been thinking about your idea.”

“And?”

He nodded his head. “I like it. Okay, I love it. But only if it’s what you really want.”

“It is.”

Joe reached over, took her hand, and kissed the back of it.

Lights clicked on in the Murmuring Surf office and the front door opened.

“Looks like the welcoming committee knows we’re here,” Joe said.

Ava looked down at the file folder Letty had presented to her. “I’m speechless. Are you seriously saying you want to buy the Murmuring Surf? And keep on running it?”

“No,” Letty said firmly. “I want to help you run it. Unless and until you decide you want to retire. Or take up knitting or crosswords or whatever it is people do when they don’t have to work anymore.”

“Did you know about this?” she asked her son, who had been uncharacteristically quiet throughout Letty’s presentation.

“Not until today. Or was that last night? It was definitely after we crossed that long damn bridge in Maryland. And I swear, it was all Letty’s idea.”

“And you’re on board? I thought you hated living in a motel.”

“I was a kid, what did I know? Anyway, the idea is, we wouldn’t live here. You would, until you don’t want to, that is. But you still haven’t told us what you think.”

“Be honest,” Letty urged. She glanced over at Joe. “We’ll understand if you don’t want to sell. And there won’t be any hard feelings, I swear.”

Joe grinned. “I made her promise to marry me, no matter what your answer is.”

Ava’s eyes widened and she jumped to her feet. “Really? You’re getting married?”

“Yeah,” Joe said. He held out his left hand and wiggled his ring finger, which sported a band of silver foil from braided chewing gum wrappers. “How do you like my engagement ring?”

Ava blinked back tears, then swept Joe and Letty into a group hug. “I can’t believe it. When? Where? Oh my God, I can’t believe you’re finally getting married.”

“Me neither,” Joe said, wriggling out of her embrace. “We’ll get to the wedding details in a minute. But in the meantime, you still haven’t answered the question. Do you want to sell the Murmuring Surf to Letty?”

“Actually, she’d be selling it to Maya,” Letty said. “It’ll be held in trust for her until she’s twenty-one. I’ve run the numbers and it seems like buying the Surf would be a sound investment for her future. But only if the deal seems fair to you, Ava.”

“And you wouldn’t tear it down? And build condos or a hotel?” Ava asked, looking from Letty to Joe.

“No. That’s not my intention at all. I have been thinking of ways we could improve and expand the property, like putting a second story on both the north and south wings,” Letty said. “But that’s for the long-range.”

Ava ran her fingers down the column of numbers Letty and her lawyer had presented.

“This is even more money than those developers have been offering me,” she said, looking up. “Letty, are you sure y’all can afford to do this?”

“Positive,” Letty said, nodding. “We’ve already liquidated most of the real estate Tanya owned in New York. That and the money from her life insurance have been invested very conservatively on Maya’s behalf. And the real estate broker texted me last night that we have a solid, all-cash offer for Tanya’s town house.”

“Then, yes,” Ava said, nodding vigorously. “I’ll sell. This is the best possible outcome, and one I never dreamed would happen. When do you want to do it?” She picked up a pen and hovered it over the contract. “Now?”

“We can go ahead and sign the papers now,” Letty said, laughing. “But I thought you might want to hold off on the closing until after the wedding.”

“When will that be?” Ava asked.

“As soon as possible. Before she has time to change her mind,” Joe said.

“I was thinking, since this is what you call our slow, shoulder season, we should do it soon,” Letty said. “How’s next week?”

“That soon?” Joe looked taken aback.

“Are you getting cold feet?” Letty countered.

“Never.” His kiss proved his point. “Where shall we do it?”

“On the beach,” Letty said, pointing out the window of Ava’s apartment. The sky was a brilliant blue. It was, she thought, the perfect omen.

“Anything you say,” he agreed.

The bridal party emerged from the motel just at sunrise, and walked quietly through the early-morning darkness toward an arch at the water’s edge that was wound with ivy and twinkling white fairy lights.

The groom stood, waiting, under the arch, dressed in a white linen shirt and navy blue board shorts and a lei of white orchids.

A ukulele player recruited for the event took a deep breath, and began strumming “Hawaiian Wedding Song.”

The ring bearer and flower girl, Maya, led off the procession wearing her favorite blue tulle princess dress, now altered to fit, a rhinestone tiara, and an irrepressible smile that revealed two missing top teeth as she marched slowly toward her new, adoptive father.

Following close behind was Isabelle DeCurtis, in a blue silk sarong in the same shade as Maya’s dress, with a white orchid tucked behind one ear.

Finally, Ava DeCurtis and the bride stepped onto the sand, with Letty’s hand tucked into Ava’s arm. Ava wore her flowered Aloha Bingo muumuu and a lei of orchids.

“Ready?” Ava whispered.

Letty nodded. “More than you’ll ever know.”

“Hey, Papa Joe.” Maya called out the new name she’d picked out for him as she approached the arch, her arms opened wide. “We’re getting married!”

“We sure are,” he agreed, bending down to pick her up. Isabelle stepped to her brother’s right, before kissing his cheek, and then the three waited while Ava and Letty approached.

Joe’s smile broadened and his breath caught at the sight of his bride, walking toward him just as the sun peeked through the cloud cover. He thought of that first dawn, when he’d discovered Letty sleeping in her Kia in the Murmuring Surf parking lot. As exhausted and terrified as she’d looked, he’d seen something in that girl— something pure was the closest he could come to describing it to himself.

He could hardly believe the same woman was standing right in front of him, dressed in a slender bias-cut white silk dress that brushed her ankles. She wore a woven crown of white jasmine and tiny white orchids, and a circlet of imitation white pearls was pinned to the narrow spaghetti strap of her gown. He held out his hands.

Letty handed her bouquet of white orchids to Isabelle and took Joe’s hands in hers. His were strong and warm, the thumbs and palms callused, and they dwarfed hers, making her feel safe. He was still wearing the “engagement ring” she’d woven after a convenience-store stop in Virginia a week earlier.

Her own engagement ring was a simple white-gold band with a modest solitaire-cut diamond that had been Joe’s grandmother’s.

“I love you,” he mouthed.

“I love you too,” she whispered.

“I love you three,” Maya said, loud enough for the officiant and the rest of the family to hear it and chuckle.

The rest of the beach was deserted. All of the Murmuring Surf snowbirds had flown back north in the spring. The sole witness to the ceremony was a lone elderly female birdwatcher, who stood along the shoreline nearby, hands reverently folded over her binoculars as she watched the morning’s event unfold with deepening curiosity.