Page 1 of Hometown Harbor 4

1

The previous night, Mel went from having more hope than she’d had in weeks to the lowest of lows. She was considering what type of lingerie to buy to surprise her husband with a seduction. It was something she hadn’t done in years, and he was always pleasantly surprised. Mel was willing to chalk up his recent distance to a busy work schedule. She thought it would be tough for someone in the middle of a busy period at work to truly relax. Dale had acted like that only once before while studying for the bar exam. That, she thought, was why Dale hadn’t come to Melbourne Beach much. He came for the Fourth but quickly left the following morning. She and Tabitha believed they had it all figured out, but then the phone call came.

Just as her mood was being buoyed by Tabitha, Dale called. It wasn’t a joyful call. His voice was emotionless, and he said he was coming to Melbourne Beach. He solemnly told her that he had something to say that had to be in person.

She was inconsolable and slept in Tabitha’s bed as she used to do when they were kids. They had epic sleepovers back in the day, and talking through the night was sure to solve Mel’s problems. This, however, was too much to solve in one night.

Mel held her mug while she was on the deck watching the sunrise.

“I woke, and you were gone. Did you sleep at all?” Tabitha asked.

“No, not really.”

Mel was in the house’s library, which wasn’t used by anyone except her. She was sitting at the desk with her laptop open, not looking at the screen from two to four-thirty. She spent those hours scrolling through family pictures on her phone.

“I hear a car pulling into the driveway. April and I will be in the kitchen so you and Dale can have your privacy out here,” Tabitha said.

“Good, I’ll need a friend nearby. I don’t expect Dale to stay long if he says what I think he will say.”

“Your support system is immense, and if this goes sideways, signal me, and I’ll come running.” Tabitha slipped inside after giving her friend a reassuring hug.

Mel heard footsteps climbing the stairs and then saw Dale, who was carrying an armload of lilies and sunflowers, which were two of her favorites. He wore a blue T-shirt and a radiant smile. It was not the subdued look she expected after their phone conversation the previous night.

Mel turned back to see the reaction of Tabitha and April, but they had pulled the vertical blinds. They were making a lot of noise, and she wondered about the cause.

“You brought me flowers and my favorites,” Mel said. She was at a loss for words.

"Did you think I would show up empty-handed?” Dale asked jokingly. He rushed Mel, threw his arms around her torso, and kissed her tenderly.

Mel felt a rush, and at that moment, she knew Dale hadn’t come up to Melbourne Beach to end or put a pause on their marriage. She had no idea what was so important that he felt compelled to tell her in person, but she was happy about it regardless of what it was.

“I’m just confused because you’ve been acting out of character, and I thought you were having a mid-life crisis. You’re the right age for it. The women in this house are going through a mid-life renaissance, and I was comparing myself to them, I guess.”

“That’s what I’m having – it’s more of an awakening than a crisis, and I hope you’ll join me. I have a meditation coach coming to the house because I want to meet your level of relaxation when you come home from the beach.”

If only he knew how stressed and unhappy she had been recently. Mel missed Dale and thought he was going down a different path than the one she was on. When she called him, the person she heard in the background was probably his meditation couch. She pictured him having a lazy morning in bed with a woman when he was more likely practicing meditation. Mel felt monumentally stupid, and she had to change gears. She’d tell Dale all about her suspicions another time. Dale had a smile on his face that she didn’t want to fade.

“My first surprise is that I didn’t come alone.” Dale went over and banged on the sliding glass door. Out walked her twenty-year-old daughter Quinnie. April and Tabitha were silently cheering from behind the glass. It looked like they weren’t going to intrude on family time.

"Sweetheart. What are you doing here?" Mel asked. She bounded across the deck and threw her arms around her daughter.

“The restaurant where I worked for the summer had a grease fire, and they’ve shut down for three weeks. I was going to try and pick something else up, but Daddy suggested I come home – surprise! We kept it a secret from you since he said you love surprises, and it connects to the big surprise,” Quinnie said.

"Like anyone, I love a good surprise but not a bad one," Mel clarified.

Mel was facing Quinnie, and by the time she whipped around to ask Dale what the big surprise was, he was gone. On a second glance, she realized he didn’t go anywhere. Dale was down on one knee with an open black velvet box pointed towards her. An exquisite sapphire ring set in white gold was nestled inside the box.

“I love you more than the day I first married you. So much so that I want to marry you all over again. Will you do me the great honor of marrying me a second time? I want to make sure you haven’t changed your mind,” he joked.

The waterworks began and Mel pulled her husband up from standing. His other knee was replaced, and it wasn’t a good idea to risk the good one. “I never guessed what you were up to. I will marry you again, and it will be my greatest pleasure. Not for one second did I change my mind. I really meant the ‘till death do us part’ section of our vows.”

Dale put the ring on her finger, and the girls came out of the kitchen to congratulate them.

Dale and Mel held each other for a long time before pulling back and remembering they weren’t alone. They went back to holding each other, not really caring that they weren’t alone. As far as Mel and Dale were concerned, they were the only two people on the planet.

“Is this why you didn’t come up and visit much?” Mel asked.

“I didn’t think you noticed because you didn’t say anything. I took the time to work on myself and make wedding arrangements. It will be a small ceremony with family and friends, but a lot of work went into that. As I was doing it, I thought of you and how you do this sort of thing all the time and run an entire department at NASA. I realized that all those holiday dinners with twenty people at the house, graduation, and birthday parties took an immense amount of time and effort.”

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