“No way.”
“I can’t believe it either, but she wants people to know how sweet he was.” Roz rolled her eyes. “And we’ll quote her saying so. Along with reporting just how much he stole from her and everyone else.”
He shook his head. “Some people really like to be famous.”
“For all the wrong reasons,” Roz replied. “For which I’m very grateful.”
They treated themselves to hamburgers at the Doppler Diner for dinner, since they’d had salads for lunch, but they turned down pie for dessert.
“You know what I’m thinking?” Roz asked as she paid the bill.
“Butter pecan at the Milky Way?” he asked. “My treat.”
“Done.” She smiled, remembering the last time he’d bought her ice cream there. When he’d changed her life.
They strolled down the boardwalk and stood in a short line under a blue awning outside the squat white building. A few minutes later, they had their ice cream and grabbed one of the metal tables on the half-full patio, rearranging the chairs so they both faced Star Inlet. She liked the feel of Alden’s arm brushing against hers.
They dug into their cardboard cups (hers filled with butter pecan, his salted chocolate fudge) and soaked up the last orange-Creamsicle rays of the setting sun as it shot its beams down the length of the waterway and toward the ocean. A few small boats slid west, motoring under the bridge toward the lagoon. But one sailboat, its white sail alight with the golden glow, headed toward the sea for a sunset cruise.
The lighthouse on Stargazer Point across the inlet came to life, its bright light winking.
“That’s you, you know,” Alden said, looking out over the water.
“What?”
“The lighthouse. My beacon. My guiding light. That’s as cheesy as my writing gets, by the way.”
Her heart skipped a beat. “You should put that in your novel.”
“Aw, come on.” But he shot her a sidelong grin. “What am I writing, romance?”
“Maybe.” She swallowed a buttery spoonful of the ice cream. “All great stories have some romance in them.”
“Ours does, for sure.” He eyed her with more hesitance this time. Perhaps a little worry. A little doubt?
Life was full of doubt. But she didn’t want him to have one second’s doubt about them. She set the ice cream cup on the table, dug into her bag for a pen, wrote on her napkin, folded it and handed it to him.
“I wanted you to have this in writing,” she said.
He set down his cup and opened the napkin.
I love you, it said.
He looked at her, his eyes twinkling. A corner of his mouth turned up. “I’m not sure this will hold up in court.”
“It’s iron-clad.” Roz placed a hand on his cheek and kissed him, tasting all the sugar and wit and silliness and courage and strength of him as he kissed her back.
When they finished, the sun had slipped below the horizon. But the light was still magical, and the night was still young.
-30-
