Page 107 of Ebbing Tides

Laura. The girls. The sunrises and the house on the water.

Those three beautiful, incredible boys inside this house.

We would've missed out on so much life and experience.

We would've missedthis. This undeniable certainty that all we'd ever gone through was all meant to lead us back to each other, to a time when there was nothing left to do than simplybe.

With one last sigh, Melanie took a step back to bring her gaze back to mine. She didn't smile, just stared, and I stared back, wondering what she was thinking about, wondering where she went in those moments, as the lighthouse played its brassy tune and the odd, abrupt scent of cigarettes mingled with the cinnamon drifting out from the confines of her home. Her bottom lip wriggled, and she clamped it between her teeth, regaining control as she took a deep breath.

Then she seemed to nod as she took one, two steps backward, never taking her eyes from mine as a smile spread across her lips. She pressed her back against the door, opening it wider and wider until the path inside was clear. And she tipped her head, nudging in a silent request I heard loud and clear.

With only one thing left to do, I raised my fingers to my mouth and whistled until I heard my four-legged best friend jump from the open window of my truck. He ran across the street, up the driveway, and straight into the house like he owned the place. I guessed it was because he knew exactly what I already knew myself to be true.

There wasn't any room left for reluctance. Not when we were invited in.

Not when we were finally,finallyhome.

EPILOGUE

TWO YEARS LATER

It was funny how your perception changed as you grew older.

For example, as a kid, I’d thought being fifty was akin to being a decade away from being old. I’d thought fifty years was a long time.

Turned out, I’d been sorely mistaken.

“What are you thinking about?” Melanie asked, coming up from behind me and sliding her hands over my shoulders and down my chest.

She leaned in to kiss my neck as I captured one of her hands in mine.

“Time,” I said, looking out over the water toward the lighthouse in the distance.

Everything had changed, but that lighthouse stayed the same.

Much like my love for Laura, my first wife … despite how much I loved the one who came after.

Some things never changed, no matter how much time passed. Others … it didn’t take much time at all.

Take Melanie and me, for example.

That night, a little over two years ago, she had invited me into her home, and that was where I stayed for two whole weeks. And there was nothing overly special about those weeks. No wild excursions or out-of-the-norm adventures. We simply lived.

She introduced me to her parents, who I instantly loved and felt a connection with—and the feeling, much to my surprise, was mutual.

Melanie was astounded and told me how much her parents hadn’t liked Luke, how they’d simply resigned themselves to the fact that there was nothing they could do to deter their daughter’s affections for the orphaned rebel. And I thought about Laura and how much her family had never liked me. For them,Iwas that rebel. The kid who had broken her heart time and time again, only to return and, five years later, break all of theirs.

I was convinced that, once Melanie’s parents knew about my past, they’d also hate me. I was sure they would see me as nothing but a Grim Reaper in civilian clothing, and I’d braced myself once again for the impact of losing someone else … and it never came.

Guessed I was worth something after all.

“Time,” Melanie repeated, resting her chin on my shoulder to follow my gaze. “God, what a view.”

I nodded slowly. “Isn’t it?”

Then I pointed toward the bridge. “That right there is where I almost jumped off.”

Her hands stilled on my chest, and her body stiffened against mine.