Excerpt:
Before dusk, she left the house and slowly meandered down the beach. Alice texted that they were going to dinner after the movie and asked if she wanted to join them. She declined, saying she wasn’t feeling social—which was true. As she walked, Lia watched the lighthouse about a mile away. The landmark soon became her point of focus and a beacon of possibility. Before long, she’d walked the mile and was standing beside the structure.
The chain link fence had been replaced by a wooden privacy fence. She followed it around until the fence stopped at the edge of the rocky beach, where it was obvious the surf had battered the wood. A few boards were loose, some gone. Lia looked out over the beach, the tide was out, and to her left at the rocks piled up against the base of the lighthouse.
She could probably get through the broken boards if she wanted.
Holding onto a post, she carefully maneuvered her way inside the fence. She spied the large flat rock she was aiming for—still there after twenty years. Glad she wore her sneakers, she made her way to the rock and sat, leaning back, and exhaling long. Like she did years ago, she tilted her head to look up at the monstrosity and was instantly dizzy.
***
“Marry me, Lia.” Zach searched her eyes. The depth of his plea pierced her heart. “Stay with me. You can run the Inn. I’ll work on my business and help with the maintenance. We can build a happy life here.”
Lia swallowed, “Zach, I love you. But marriage… Not yet. You know Daddy is expecting me back in Chicago.”
“Lia. If you leave, I’ll never see you again.”
Panic gripped her heart. “That’s not true! I’ll come back. I love you!”
“I love you, too. And I need you, Lia. I need you here with me.”
“Zach don’t pressure me. Don’t make me choose between my father’s wishes and you.”
He shook his head. “Whose life are you going to live, Lia. Yours or your father’s?”
“Mine!”
“Really? Then stay. Your father will understand.”
“No, he won’t. He has pulled a lot of strings…”
Zach lowered his gaze and looked off across the horizon. “The tide is coming in. We need to go.” He started to stand.
Lia grabbed his arm. “Wait, Zach. You understand, don’t you?”
He stared. “No, I don’t. If you loved me, you would know what to do.”
“I do love you.”
“Then choose me, Lia. Choose us.”
“Zach, please. I need to go back. Just for a year. Then we….”
“Then we’ll be over.”
She couldn’t believe he was forcing her hand on this. “Then maybe we just need to be over now.”
***
“I hoped I would find you here.”
Lia opened her eyes and saw Zach. “You came.”
“I took a chance. Got your message from Grace.”
Lia smiled. Often that summer when they’d say, “I’ll see you later,” that meant at the lighthouse. “Come here often?”
“Oh, about once every twenty years.”
Smiling, she patted the rock beside her. “Me, too. Come sit.”
He joined her there and they sat in silence for a few minutes. Lia stared at the rolling surf, and sensed Zach’s stare on her face.
He breathed deep and exhaled. “You’ve been crying.”
“We were so young. I was so stupid.”
Zach reached for her hand and pulled it onto his lap. He wrapped both his palms around her fingers. “You were trying to be the good girl. Do what your father wanted.”
“I’ve been doing what my father, and what everyone else wanted, for years.”
“What do you want, Lia?”
She turned to him. “I don’t want to hurt you again. I know that. I’m sorry I hurt you so badly.”
He shook his head. “Lia… Like you said, we were young and inexperienced. We knew nothing about relationships. I was just as much at fault for pushing you. We were not as worldly as we thought.”
She laughed. “True.”
Zach peered into her eyes as he brushed a wayward tear from her cheek with his thumb.
“I never intended to hurt you,” she whispered.
His gaze played with hers. “I know that.” With an exhale, he leaned in and brushed a kiss across her mouth.
About the Author
