Torchlight by Lisa T. Bergren

wave.
    Julia stopped and watched him go.
    “Julia?” Miles questioned, closely watching her.
    “Trevor didn’t say he was going anywhere.”
    “Does he tell you everything?” Miles asked.
    “Not everything. But my goodness, Miles, we’re working close together. We talk.”
    “Is that all you do?”
    She turned to confront him. “Are we going out for our date, or are you going to grill me about Trevor?”
    Miles looked from Julia to Trevor’s departing figure, then opened the car door. “Shall we?”
    Julia got in without a word. Why was she concerned about where Trevor was going? It was certainly none of her business. What was her business was Miles. Her dear, sweet Miles. The man with whom she had won sailboat races and danced until dawn at countless parties. He was the man she needed. Stable, strong. Hadn’t he been with her for four years? If that didn’t prove his devotion, she didn’t know what would.

    Mike, watching Julia and Miles pass through town, entered the restaurant with a puzzled look on his face. The speed was only twenty miles per hour down Main Street, making every passerby gawking material. “Why does Julia hang out with that dweeb?” he asked Tara, nodding his head toward the door.
    “Dweeb?”
    “The rich guy who cruises through town in those fancy rented cars.”
    “She thinks he’s the one for her.”
    “Why? I mean, I like Jessica, but if she acted as hoity-toity as Julia’s boyfriend does, I wouldn’t spend time with her.”
    Tara dished up a bowl of chowder for the always-hungry boy. “Sometimes adult relationships can get complicated.”
    “Like you and my dad?”
    Tara wondered if she looked as stunned as she felt. “What do you mean?”
    “Come on, Tara. You know. I’m not blind.”
    “Obviously. Have you asked your father this question?”
    “Yeah. He gets around it every time.”
    “He’s pretty good at that.”
    Mike spooned chowder into his mouth as fast as he could, then smiled at Tara across the counter. He was the only one in the restaurant, as usual for this time of day. In the last two weeks, he had shown up for a bowl of soup after school almost every day and had then returned several evenings with his dad for dinner.
    “You’d be a great mom, Tara,” Mike said.
    “Thanks, Mike. Maybe with some practice I could be even better.”
    “You can practice on me anytime.”

    That evening Miles took Julia all the way to Portland—nearly two hours distant—to show her “the town.”
    “I thought you were going to take me out in Oak Harbor. Can’t you even try to understand my new home? To see the good in my life here?” Julia was hungry and becoming more irritable by the moment.
    “Listen, Julia. I just wanted a quiet, romantic dinner with you. I wanted to do something special, not take you to Tara’s. Was I wrong?”
    Julia sighed. “No. I just wish you’d try.”
    “If I wasn’t trying, I wouldn’t be here at all. Let me get used to all this in my own time.”
    Julia looked at him sadly. She had the sinking feeling he would never “get used to all this.” But she had to admit, the restaurant—a restored captain’s home that overlooked the water—was wonderful. They dined on pot roast, potatoes, cabbage, and carrots.
    “Takes you back to Anna and Shane’s era, doesn’t it?” Miles asked, pausing over his last bite to grin at her. “Come on. Admit it. You like this more than you thought you would.”
    “I admit it. I wasn’t eager to leave Oak Harbor, but now that I’m here, it feels good. I haven’t explored much of Maine yet. And Portland isn’t really that far.”
    “Let’s explore some of it together, darling. Come. I’ll pay the bill, and we can take a walk down by the harbor, stare up at the old clippers. I’m told they have them all lit up. You can dream of Shane Donnovan and tell me what’s transpired in Anna’s journals.”
    “Not a whole lot,” Julia said, wiping her mouth with the clothnapkin. “She’s still