Page 122 of When Morning Comes Around

“It’s good to see you, too. Look, here’s Dom. Let’s say goodbye to Sadie, then we can have a chat.”

A few minutes later, Sadie smiled to herself as Dom drove her away.

“What’s going on?” he asked. “What’s your dad up to?”

She laughed. “He’s after my job. He wants to work with Jake.”

Dom chuckled. “He’s serious about shaking things up, then?”

“Apparently.”

“How do you feel about it – about being ousted?”

She laughed. “I don’t mind. In fact, I think it might be good for both of them.”

Dom nodded happily. “I think you might be right. I think he’s still trying to play matchmaker, too.”

“You do? How?”

“Has he asked you about the guesthouse yet?”

She laughed. “He has – has he already asked you?”

“Yep – well, in theory. He was concerned about leaving Savannah behind. Then, he was asking about Damon’s place.”

“What about it?”

“If Damon might be interested in renting out my room now that I’m no longer there.”

“To Savannah?” she asked incredulously.

“Yeah, apparently, she might be taking a job at the resort for the season. She’ll make more in tips there than at the diner.”

Sadie shook her head with a smile. “He pulls all our strings, and most of the time we don’t even know it.”

“He does a good job. Anyway, how are you?” He reached across the console, and she placed her hand in his. “I’m happy, Dom. And it’s all because of you. Not so long ago, I thought my life was stuck in a rut that would only lead me to my grave. I wasn’t even looking forward to retirement. Now, I get to retire early, and I’m looking forward to spending lots of wonderful years with you.”

He squeezed her hand. “I feel the same way. I thought that I wanted to live out the rest of my life alone. I didn’t know I could be this happy.”

She grinned at him. “I’ll make you even happier when we get home.”

He laughed. “I’ll look forward to that, but there’s somewhere I want to stop before we go home.”

“Yeah? Where?”

“Want to walk on the beach?”

She nodded eagerly. “I’d love to.” She looked out the window. “But aren’t we headed in the wrong direction for that?”

“Nope. We’re going to Damon and Jo’s. They’re not home. We’re not going to see them. But I’d like to get started on the building process. Before we do that, I want to make sure that you love the place.” He shot her a quick grin. “I know how much you love the beach, if we build over here, we’ll have our own.”

He turned off at Damon and Jo’s house and she stared out the window all the way up the long driveway.

“Would we be right here next to them?” she asked.

“No.” He pointed. “The lot is over there; we can put in our own driveway. For now, this is the only way down to the beach.”

When they got out, he handed her his spare jacket with a smile. She watched him put his on before he came to help with her zipper. He tugged it all the way up to her chin, and then planted a kiss on her lips.

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