Page 111 of Happy Harbor
She sat down on a bench and stared out over the moonlit water. The time they had sat here together before was so romantic, but now she felt lonelier than she had ever felt in her whole life.
How could she have let this man get away? She didn’t deserve him, that much was sure. Maybe she deserved somebody like Craig who would leave her when the chips were down. Maybe that was her karma for living her life the way she had.
Even though her childhood had definitely done a number on her, Josie knew she’d had every ability to change when she became an adult. She just wouldn’t do it. Every time things got hard, she lashed out at the people around her.
Coming back to Happy Harbor had been something she never thought she’d do, but it had turned out to be one of the biggest blessings of her life. She felt safe here. Peaceful. Loved.
Her relationship with her mother was something she intended to work on, just like Diane worked on her sobriety every day.
She couldn’t wait to watch her daughter go to college and live out her own dreams.
These were things she couldn’t even imagine just a few weeks ago. But the one big blessing that was missing right now was the man she never expected to find in her hometown. Right in her own backyard. The universe was funny.
She listened to the water as it lapped against the dock, and she wanted to cry. She wanted to break down. Thankfully, she held it together, not wanting somebody to find her sobbing and think she’d had some sort of psychotic break.
“Are you okay, ma’am?”
She looked up to see Leonard standing there.
“I’m fine. What are you doing down here at this hour?”
“Mind if I sit?”
She pointed next to her. “Sure.”
“Sometimes I come here in the evenings when the grief gets too big.”
“The grief?”
“My wife passed away last year. I miss her most at dinnertime. We would sit together and watch the nightly news with our TV trays in front of us. I suppose we should’ve sat at the kitchen table like proper folks, but we enjoyed it.”
“I’m so sorry. How long were you married?”
“Fifty-two years. We met in high school.”
“That’s amazing that you had such a long marriage. I wish I would’ve had that.”
“Oh, dear, you’re still young enough.”
“I’m not so sure anymore. The person I think would be a great match has kind of given up on me, I think.”
“What makes you think that?”
“I sort of said some things I shouldn’t have. I ran away when things got hard. I had a lot of hard childhood stuff come back to haunt me.”
He smiled. “I know your mom and your grandma. I understand about your childhood. But you can’t let that ruin the rest of your life.”
“I’m starting to understand that. I made a mistake and said some things last night that might have ruined any chance at a relationship.”
“Oh, I don’t think you’ve ruined anything. We all make mistakes. I was married for fifty-two years, but it doesn’t mean they were all perfect. We fought like cats and dogs sometimes, but in the end we were always best friends. We always came back together. That’s the way true love works.”
“I don’t know if it’s love. I don’t know what to think anymore.”
“Well, I can give you this piece of advice, even though you didn’t ask. Communication is the most important thing in a marriage or any relationship. Without it, there’s always going to be hurt feelings, and that’s never good. But you can’t run away. You’ve got to be in it for the long haul. No escape routes.”
Josie nodded. “Wise advice. What do I do if the person has left town? I don’t even know where he is.”
Leonard stood up, letting out a grunt as he did. “When somebody loves you, they’re never too far away.”
