Page 69 of The Beachgoers
“You really baked this cake yourself, Mitch?” Jason asks as he reaches for a second helping.
Mitch nods. “I did.”
“You definitely know your way around the kitchen,” Elsa says after finishing her own chocolate mouthful. Suddenly then, she sets down her fork and dabs a napkin on her lips. “Look, Kyle,” she calls across the table. She nods to the dark horizon, too. “The lighting is perfect. Shall we do the sparklers?” she asks, starting to stand.
“You sit, Elsa.” Cliff clasps her hand ashestands. “I’ll help Kyle.”
“Well thank you, Cliff,” Elsa tells him as she sits again and reaches for that dessert fork.
“AndI’llhelp Cliff,” Celia says, quickly standing. “Kyle, you’re the guest of honor. Please relax here and enjoy the night with your bride.”
“You sure?” Kyle asks.
But Celia’s already on her way out, past the sheer curtain canopy. She gives a light finger-wave and walks across the sand.
* * *
By the time Cliff catches up, Celia’s already at a portable table. There, she grabs a couple of butane lighters and handful of thirty-six-inch sparklers. Cliff takes the rest and they walk to the water’s edge.
“Not too close to the waves breaking,” Celia says. “They can’t get wet. And Kyle wants them set up in a nice straight line across the beach.”
“Got it.” Cliff starts to space out the sparklers. After pressing the first one into the sand, he looks over at Celia. “Mind if I ask you something?” he asks.
“Of course not. What is it?” Barefoot, she stands there in her fitted black sheath and inserts a sparkler in the firm sand, too.
“Well.” Cliff sets up another three-foot-tall sparkler, then looks over his shoulder at Celia. “Something I miss between Elsa and Mitch? They seem very…familiarwith each other.”
“Oh, Cliff.” Celia glances back toward the dessert table. “That’s just Mitch’s southern way. You know, he’s open.Friendly.”
“After just a few business meetings?” Cliff looks back again. And yes, there it is—just what’s got him worried. Why, Elsa’s laughing. She’s showing that beautiful smile. But this time, it’s for Mitch. He can just tell.
Celia bends over to straighten a leaning sparkler. “No, Cliff. You have to put the sparklers further back, in that hard-packed sand.” She pulls out and reinserts another sparkler. “So they don’t tip. Push them in nice and straight.”
Cliff resets a sparkler. “To me, it looks like Mitch Fenwick maybe has a thing for Elsa.” As he talks, gentle waves lap close by. “And I can’t tell. Maybe the feeling’s mutual?”
Celia waves him off and moves along with her sparklers. “It’s just that kind of night,” she assures him while pressing a few more sparklers into the sand. “Everybody’s having a good time.” After a quiet moment, she asks, “Aren’t you?”
“Well, sure. The food’s amazing. I danced with my lady in the back room. And then she danced with Mitch. Everywhere Iturn, there’s Mitch. For heaven’s sake, he even baked her a cake!”
“Andyou’reoverreacting! The cake was just a neighborly gesture.” Celia arranges the last of her sparklers, then steps back and eyes the line of them. “Let’s get these lit now. You start on that end,” she says, handing Cliff one of the butane lighters.
Cliff gives the lighter a flick, then glances over at the dessert table. Behind the sheer curtains, lanterns glimmer. Wine is poured. Forks are raised. Conversations are spirited. “See? I’m telling you, that’s the look of love in Mitch’s gaze.”
“What?” Celia turns toward the distant dessert table. “Cliff! You’re being ridiculous.”
“Am I?”
Celia tucks a wisp of hair into her topknot. “Well…Everybodylooks like that tonight. It’s… It’s thecandlelight. Yes. The candles flickering, well, they give that effect. You know… thatglow.”
Cliff walks away and starts lighting more of the two dozen sparklers spread across the beach. All the while, he’s whispering, “I don’t know.” Then on to the next sparkler. “I just don’t know.”
* * *
The sparklers do it as they flicker in the dark night.
They quiet everyone. That hush gets Maris to look around right as Celia and Cliff return to the canopied table.
And it’s nice. The excitement lulls. A contented peace settles in now.
