24. Lovely

The breeze floated through the screened patio, stronger now that it was springtime. Strong enough to flutter Lovely’s growing bangs, tickling her forehead and blocking the phone screen angled at the bottom of her easel so she could see it while she painted.

Her two-month painting binge continued as she attempted to recreate yet another picture she had saved on her cell phone. She was usually a landscape and abstract kind of painter, but this new calendar year brought a different kind of inspiration: portraits. And memories.

She turned and looked at the new addition to her wall—a painting she’d just completed of Vesper the dolphin leaping in the air. Lovely had snapped the photo the day she and Eddie had gone swimming with the dolphins, then painted it in February. Last week, she’d finished a nightscape of fireworks and footsteps in the sand, and hung it in her bedroom.

Was Eddie writing songs about his interlude in Coconut Key, the way she was painting pictures? She didn’t know. Their calls and texts had dwindled to next to nothing—it was too painful to try and love each other three thousand miles apart.

It was better, they both knew, to just let this end naturally.

Although, that wasn’t easy, and she’d thrown herself into painting.

Today, she was tackling faces—something she didn’t do too frequently. But this picture, of Beck with her arms draped over Jazz and Mel’s shoulders, captured such a happy moment. An instant of sisterhood, she thought. And that would be a great title for this painting, which she planned to give to Beck.

She’d never completed the seascape she’d been working on when Eddie was here. She’d promised to mail it to him when she did, but now, it leaned against the wall out here on the patio, just the unfinished sky visible over the back of the sofa

She turned to look at it, to consider working on it today, but all she could see was the misty memory of a man who sat on those flowered cushions, strumming and singing.

He’d held that used guitar that now resided in her front closet, his fingers pausing mid-chord as he grabbed a pen and jotted something in a notebook. Then he’d warble new lyrics, testing them out for her…

It’s the whisper of truth

Between you and me…

The quiet words

That set us free…

But had the truth really set Lovely free? Had knowing Beck’s biological father and then falling in love with him given her freedom? Or had it transformed her precious, cozy cottage into a lonely prison?

She turned away, determined to finish that painting someday and send it to him. In fact, maybe she’d redecorate this whole screened patio so it no longer?—

Pepper barked, jogging to the door. Over and over, she let out the steady bark that warned of an intruder.

On a Tuesday afternoon?

She waited for a knock or the bell but didn’t hear a thing, and Pepper wouldn’t stop. She dabbed the tip of her brush before laying it on her paint plate. Pushing those annoying bangs out of her eyes, she stood.

“Hush, Pepper! No one’s out there.”

She wouldn’t stop. And Basil had joined in now. Sugar was on a chair in the sun, caring about nothing except that she had a view of Lovely.

She unlatched the door and inched it open so the dogs didn’t shoot out, looking left and right, closing her eyes as disappointment punched.

What did she think? That one of these days she’d open her door…and Eddie would be standing there with roses and promises and a changed heart?

Yes, in her deepest, darkest dreams. That’s exactly what she’d hoped. Surely those girlish fantasies would fade with time.

Looking down so she didn’t catch a dog’s nose in the door, she did a double-take at a brown box leaning against the door jamb. She hadn’t heard UPS roll in, and that delivery man always knocked.

Bending over, she lifted the package, which was shaped like a pizza box but was sealed shut. She squinted at the label, handwritten and addressed to her, with no return address. What had she ordered?

Paint supplies? Wouldn’t she remember that?

Taking it to the kitchen, she snagged her utility knife and sliced the box along the side, slowly lifting the lid to reveal a bed of teal tissue.

The paper rustled as she moved it to the side, surprised her hands were trembling. What was she expecting?

Oh. Oh . Certainly not this.

She stared at the flat, square image, instantly recognizing it as the yellow vinyl album cover, one she’d held in her hands a million times. Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark . But then she gasped at the scratch of black sharpie on the lower right corner.

For Lovely ? —

A forever fan!

Love, Joni

“Well, what do you know? A signed album from Joni Mitchell. What an incredible gift.”

But instead of gratitude, guilt squeezed her chest. Eddie had the class and style to put the perfect ribbon on their romance, and she couldn’t even bring herself to finish the painting she’d promised him.

Today, she swore. She’d put the portrait of the girls away and pull out the seascape and finish it. She had to. It would be closure, which surely was what this record represented.

She smiled at the autograph, and only then noticed a small, folded card attached to the top corner of the jacket. She picked it up, studying the embossed Sly Records logo, wondering for a moment if Mel had sent this for him.

She flipped open the card and read the handwritten words.

A little Joni in case you don’t like the one underneath!

—E

In case… What was he talking about?

She lifted the album jacket and stared, speechless, as the blood drained from her face.

Another album jacket, totally unfamiliar. Well, not totally . The art was certainly familiar.

Setting Joni aside, she stared at the white background that somehow melted into a half-painted canvas. Her half-painted canvas. It was a replica of the unfinished version of the very seascape she’d just been staring at.

He’d used a picture of her work-in-progress as the cover of an album?

Gingerly, she lifted the jacket from the tissue, letting out a whimper when she read the words Sea Change embossed in classy capital letters across the middle. And at the bottom…Eddie Sly.

Tears blurred her vision as she pressed the vinyl jacket to her chest, dizzy for a moment. He’d recorded an album! And used her art for the cover!

She turned it over slowly, taking in the turquoise colors of water she knew so well, squinting at the song list on the back.

Whisper of Truth

Yet

Walk in the Moonlight

Sea Change (Title track)

Too Short

Seafoam Green

A Trip to Heaven

Was that one about his visit here, or hers to heaven, she wondered, blinking at tears as she read the rest.

Our Interlude

Her Name Was Lovely (Remix)

Vesper and Gilligan, A Love Story

“Oh! He made music about the dolphins, too!” For some reason, that sent her over the edge, making her fight a sob she’d stifled for two months.

Grazing her fingertips over the embossed words, she carried the album to her record player.

With shaky hands and total reverence, she slid the disc from the jacket and saw the Sly Records logo on the label in the middle.

Not a CD, not a digital stream—a vinyl record. He’d told her that they were popular again and Sly Records pressed them all the time, but she never imagined this .

Oh, she’d never imagined him , let alone feeling this way about a man three thousand miles away. At her age. It was ridiculous…but it was real.

Swallowing and swiping a tear, she set the record down on the turntable, switched it on, and stepped back, not sure what this would do to her heart other than wreck it.

A rise of strings opened the first song, then a simple piano, then the guitar chords she recognized.

Hear the tremble in my voice,

I’m changing life with a choice…

But she didn’t hear a tremble in his voice. The vocals were clear and crisp, bold and rich. The voice she’d heard sing “her” song for most of her life, and the voice she’d heard playing with lyrics over and over again.

The night is still, the stars align,

I tell the truth and your eyes shine.

His voice filled the room, backed up by a mix of instruments that melded together like the angels themselves played them.

She closed her eyes and just let the emotions and music wash over her, the beauty of hearing what had started as a single phrase turn into a glorious song that evoked emotion and dreams and memories.

It’s the truth that sets us free,

Quiet words between you and me.

The chorus was familiar to her, even though she’d never heard it mixed and drenched in that haunting piano.

I never thought I’d let it show,

Never thought that you would know.

Of course he didn’t. He came here thinking “Lovely” was “Olivia,” who was long dead. But she’d surprised him, she thought with a wistful smile. And, wow. He sure had surprised her.

She listened to the last verse, to her favorite lines…

But love can live where shadows lie,

Tonight I’ll let the silence die.

And whisper truth about our past,

And hope it brings love at last.

“But it didn’t, Eddie,” she sighed as the guitar and piano grew to a crescendo. “In the end, it didn’t bring love. Not lasting love, anyway.”

She pressed the album to her chest and closed her eyes, not surprised the tears flowed as she let his voice carry her through the final chorus.

It’s the whisper of truth that sets us free…

But it hadn’t set her free. It made her a prisoner!

The gentle breath that lets love be…

But there was no love!

She sang the last two lines, the words bubbling up from her memory.

“I thought I’d…” She stopped mid-word—because they didn’t match the song she heard and Pepper barked. What was Eddie singing?

It changed my heart and cleared the way,

And now, my love, I’m here to stay.

What? That wasn’t the right line. He said?—

“I changed the ending.”

She gasped at the sound of Eddie’s voice on the patio, close enough to make her heart soar, shock and disbelief freezing her in place.

“I didn’t like it,” he continued, the sound a little closer. “I don’t like sad endings to a masterpiece of…anything. Music, painting, stories…romance. So I decided on a different ending.”

Very, very slowly she turned to find him standing in the living room with three dogs in his arms, licking whatever they could get to in an effort to express their unspeakable joy at the sight of him.

And if Lovely could, she’d do just about the same thing.

For a moment, neither spoke. They just looked at each other as the last few notes faded out. Lovely could feel her heart hammering her ribs, the blood rushing in her head, and the echo of his words.

So I decided on a different ending.

“Eddie,” she breathed his name.

Wordlessly, he lowered the dogs to the floor, giving them a chance to bark and circle him and run to Lovely as if to say, “Look who’s here!”

He took a few steps closer, his sky-blue eyes leveled on her with nothing but love and humor and hope shining through.

“Do you like the new ending?”

“Eddie…” She pressed her hands to her lips, blinking at him.

“I mean, we could still change it. That’s first-press vinyl and I own the studio, so change isn’t an issue.” He fought a smile as he came closer. “I could go back to the old ending, which, if you ask me, was sad and kind of…meaningless.”

He was one foot in front of her—real and beautiful and close and perfect.

“That’s the cool thing about art. And life and love. We have the power to change the notes, the words, and…the meaning. So I dropped that old line about knowing what has to be and now it’s… ‘It changed my heart and cleared the way, and now, my love, I’m here… to stay .’ Did you get that or were the dogs barking? I tried to time it right, but Pepper, you know. She’s a barker.”

“I heard it.”

“And do you like that better? Do you like this new ending to our song and story?”

She closed her eyes as he wrapped his arms around her and she slid her hands around his neck, looking up at this man who surprised and delighted and, oh, yes, loved her.

“I think I love this ending,” she whispered. “I’m having a hard time believing it’s real, but I love it.”

“Oh, it’s real.” He cupped his hand on her cheek. “I’m here and I have no plans to leave.”

She angled her head into his touch. His soft, sweet, loving touch. “How is that possible?”

“Anything is possible, Lovely. We were all touched by the magic of Coconut Key, so Jazz has decided to buy a house here.”

“She has?”

“It’s not big, but it’s on that same beach as The Haven, and there’s room for my California Contingent to visit frequently. She wants a permanent tenant, and you’re looking at him.”

“I am?”

He laughed softly at her incredulity. “Yes, I am. There’s room for a small recording studio—because now that the bug has bitten, I can’t stop—and lots and lots of outdoor space to paint and cook and listen to music and laugh and spend the rest of whatever time we have left…together.”

She swayed in his arms. “You’ll do that? For me?”

“For you, for me, and for my family. My grandson, Kai, is going to come out here for the summer, and who knows? We might start Sly Records East. Or we might just go kayaking and count stars at night. I don’t really care, as long as I’m with you. They all agree.”

“Eddie…” She wanted to cry, but had to laugh. “You’re…too much.”

“What I am,” he said, adding pressure to his embrace, “is in love. And without you, I’m nothing. With you, I’m alive. Lovely, I don’t know how many years we have left, but I do know that I want to spend every one of them with you.”

“Oh, are you sure?” Because this really felt too good to be true. At least for Lovely, who’d never known that love could feel like this. “Your family and your ranch and the winery?”

“My family wants me to be happy again, and really encouraged me to make the move. Lark’s moving into my ranch, and I have a manager who handles things. The winery is really my ex-wife’s baby. I don’t make wine. I make music.” He kissed her on the forehead. “You need a trim, gorgeous.”

She smiled. “Good thing my hairdresser is back.”

“I am.” He kissed her cheek and hugged her against him. “I can’t do it, Lovely,” he murmured into her ear. “I can’t live on the other side of the country while the woman I love is here. I can’t pretend to be happy without you. I can’t spend the rest of my life anywhere but with you. So I changed the ending…to the song and to my life. And, hopefully, yours, if you’ll let me.”

“Yes,” she whispered, then dropped her head back and let out a laugh. “I’ve never been so happy!”

“There’s the minor chord I love.” He drew her right back in and kissed her as the next song on the album started.

Without missing a beat, he wrapped his arm around her and took her right hand, dancing with her like the lover she once could only dream she would someday have.

“Is this real?” she whispered, dropping her head on his shoulder. “Is this happening to me?”

He gave a soft laugh as the lyrics to Yet filled the room.

And though the sea would pull her near,

The salt and sand erased her fear.

He added a soft kiss and Lovely hummed the last line with him.

She thought she’d drift with no regret,

But could love be waiting yet?

Held in his arms, they swayed in the afternoon sun. She lost herself in the tender words, the glorious future, and this dear, dear man who’d brought a sea change to her life.

Finally, it all made sense.

After seventy-five years of waiting, Lovely Ames had found her one true love.