Chapter Thirty-Seven
Sally heard her first and barked. It began as a low grumble and grew to a distinct warning that someone or something was there.
“What is it, girl?” Ben asked, swinging his feet off the side of the bed. He was relieved to have a reason to stop tossing and turning.
He switched on the porch light and looked out, expecting to see a raccoon or a fox. His eyes focused in the dark and settled on the image of Addison. It took his breath away. He leaned both hands on the glass door between them. She did the same.
Ben slid the door open, and they held each other for what felt like an eternity, with Sally jumping and nudging her nose between them, desperate to be a part of it. When they gave in to her request, breaking away to allow her in, they both had tears in their eyes.
They asked each other the same question, “Where did you go?”
And laughed as they both tried to answer.
Addison took a breath and said, “I went to the city, for a job interview.”
“Did you get it?”
“I did. But I don’t think I want it. At least not right now.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Ben said. “As long as you’re back.”
“And you?”
“I ran away.”
He held her face in his hands and looked straight into her eyes.
“I’m so sorry I left. I was afraid,” Ben admitted.
“And you’re not afraid anymore?”
“Oh, I’m still afraid.”
“Afraid I’ll leave you?”
“Yeah.”
“I can say the same thing, you know?” Addison pointed out.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Ben assured her.
“Well, if you do, I’m telling you right now, I’m coming with you.”
They both laughed and wrapped their arms around each other.
Ben whispered in her ear.
“I love you.”
“I love you too,” she whispered back.
Ben took a step back to look into her eyes and spilled his heart out.
“I think I’ve loved you since I saw you sitting on the sidewalk with your tossed salad. But I’m broken. And you’re not. And I’m not sure it’s fair of me—to love you.”
“It’s not fair not to,” Addison barely whispered, before taking his hands in hers and kissing him gently on the lips.
“I thought my world had to be big in order to be fulfilled. And then I came to this tiny beach town, and met you, and suddenly a hundred feet holds more happiness for me than the entire universe.”
The next kiss was more passionate and ignited a hunger in them that had to be quenched immediately. They quickly made it to the bedroom—a trail of shoes and shirts, pants and sweats in their wake. All the tossing and turning that Ben had been doing before Addison’s arrival felt like a distant memory. As soon as they were done making love, he drifted off to a peaceful sleep, as if he hadn’t slept in days. The truth was, it had been years.
As the morning light filled the room, Addison woke first. She sat up and stretched her arms overhead before patting Sally on her belly. Ben woke too and pulled her toward him, kissing her gently all over her face.
“I owe you an apology, Ben. I really do.”
He shot her a quizzical look.
“I never should have pushed you to clean out Julia’s things. I’m so sorry.”
“You didn’t really push me; you brought boxes. It’s just, when I woke up that morning and saw Julia’s sun hat in that box—I don’t know how to explain it, but seeing that hat on the hook, especially when I’ve been away from here for months, makes me feel like she’s still here, waiting for me. Sometimes I even say, ‘Hi, Jules,’ when I walk in the house. I know it sounds crazy—it is crazy.”
“It’s not at all crazy.”
“I packed everything up—look.”
There were boxes lined up between the bed and the wall. Addison rolled over to look at them.
“I know the sale is over, but I’m going to tape them up and send them back to the city for her mom and sister to go through. That’s where her stuff belongs, anyway.”
“Never apologize for loving Julia. I love that you still love your wife. I love that you want to keep her alive. I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Addison and Ben took Sally for her morning walk on the beach, holding hands for anyone and everyone to see. By lunch, the news of their pairing traveled to the checkout girls at the market, where Les stood at the grill, making Shep a bacon, egg, and cheese on a roll. He eyed Shep over the griddle and said, “You kept a good secret, my friend. I’m impressed.”
“What you talking ’bout, son?”
“Ben and the new girl, the neighbor?”
“That gal is long gone. I was hoping, so was Gicky. She had it all planned out, you know. She set the whole thing up from the grave. But Ben blew it.”
“That’s not what I heard.” Les called over one of the register girls. “Ginger, come here—tell Shep the gossip?”
“You mean about him and Mrs.Ingram?”
Shep turned bright red and Les laughed.
“Didn’t know you could embarrass, Shep. Wow!”
Les redirected, “Not about him, about Ben.”
“Oh, sorry. Ben and Gicky’s niece walked down the beach this morning holding hands and sometimes kissing.”
Shep took off without his sammie and pedaled home as fast as his old legs would take him.
He entered Ben’s house a few minutes later to find Ben and Addison lying on the living room couch. They peeled themselves off each other and sat up, but not in an oh no, we’re busted kind of way. They sat up as if their coupling were the most natural thing in the world.
“We didn’t hear you,” Ben said.
“What a shock,” Shep said, raising his hands to his chest in jest.
They gave him a laugh.
“I have something for you two. It’s a gift from Gicky,” Shep announced, handing the rewrapped painting to Ben.
Addison turned to him and whispered, “Say no thank you. I think it’s a nude. I think he and Gicky were—you know—an item.”
Ben laughed. “They were most definitely not an item.”
Still, Addison covered her eyes and giggled, peeking out between her fingers as Ben unveiled the painting.
They both gasped at the image. It was a painting of the two of them together, sitting on the beach staring out at the ocean, with Sally sitting similarly at their side.
Neither of them spoke for at least a minute. Shep was miraculously patient, letting them take in the image before speaking himself.
“I don’t understand, Shep, what’s going on here?”
“Well, it’s subjective, but I think she was trying to capture…”
“Shep!” It was obvious from Ben’s tone and clenched jaw he was not amused. Addison’s jaw, on the other hand, remained agape. She was amazed at her dead aunt’s ability to turn her life on its head.
“Gicky came up with an entire plan the night she promised you the house on the clamshell. She already knew she was dying, had already thought through her estate and put everything in place. Before I knew she was sick, she and I got to talking about a far-off time when I’d be gone, and she’d be gone, and it would be up to Ben to stand up for the integrity of our block. But when I visited her in the city, when we’d all gotten word of the leukemia, she joked that I should push Ben to meet her beautiful niece. She even showed me pictures of you. She followed your whole life on that Instaface thing.”
Addison couldn’t believe her ears. She felt a bit duped, like a pawn in a chess game.
“You think she left me the house as some grand scheme to fix up Ben and me?”
“No, not really. She always wanted to leave you the house. It’s a thing we would talk about—you know, ’cause my daughters are estranged from each other. So, when she would say, ‘Who am I going to leave this place to? I should have had a kid,’ I would say, ‘Look what good that did me.’?” He grimaced, adding, “My two are definitely going to fight over my house for eternity.”
“I can’t believe this,” Ben said, clearly not loving being manipulated. Addison wasn’t feeling as annoyed, though in all fairness, annoyance seemed to come easier to Ben. Shep stuck up for himself as best he could.
“What did you want me to do? Gicky was torn between leaving each of you the house. She thought you two young Turks had what it takes to save our block from ruin—got it in her head that if you two were a couple, she could leave it to both of you. I went along with it, humoring her, given that she was dying and all—but wouldn’t you know it? She was right!”
“I feel like a damn puppet,” Ben groaned.
“Yeah. I can see why you’re mad, seeing as how you were doing so well on your own.”
Shep took a purposeful step back. “I’m gonna go—leave you two to admire your original Gicky Irwin.”
“That’s a good idea, Shep,” Ben grunted.
He left, and the two of them gazed at the painting for a long while. Ben eventually calmed down and even smiled.
“Unbelievable,” he said.
“Truly unbelievable,” Addison agreed.
“Where should we hang it, your place or mine?” Ben asked.
“About that.” Addison inquired, “Can we discuss your offer, to buy half of my place? I am thinking of taking some time off to sculpt. And that money would allow me the freedom.”
“Yes! And you can rent out your half—minus the studio—and stay here next summer.”
What he said was not crazy. She had never felt like this before—as if it were written that they would still be together next summer. Either way, she didn’t need all of that house and property. The house and studio were more than enough.
“We’ll see,” she said, in contrast to what she was feeling. She had zero intention of going anywhere.
Ben dug out his tool kit, and they hung the painting over the fireplace to the usual picture-hanging banter of “a little to the left, to the right, a little lower.” They stood back and stared at it. In the end, it was just right.
“I want to hang one more thing,” Addison said, “if you don’t mind.”
She went into the bedroom and took Julia’s sun hat from the open box and out to the porch, with Ben and Sally following her. She carefully placed the hat back on the mermaid hook, where it belonged.
“Hi, Julia,” she said, and smiled.
Ben laughed, wrapping his arms around her and whispering, “Thank you,” in her ear.
And while it may have been the corniest rom-com ending ever—it felt very much like a beautiful beginning.