“Karaoke is not a verb, Madison,” Dorie said sweetly. “Anyway, we’ll see about that.”

*   *   *

Ellis was climbing into Dorie’s van for the ride back to Ebbtide when she heard her cell phone ding. She dug through the contents of her purse, eager to see if the text was from Ty.

“Oh Lord, y’all,” Julia announced. “Ellis has gone boy crazy on us. She and Ty are texting each other day and night. He’s probably wanting to know when she’s due back at the love nest.”

“Shut up, Julia,” Ellis said, laughing. “We’re not that bad.”

“Yeah, you are,” Dorie said, turning around from the driver’s seat. “But I think it’s cute.”

Ellis finally found her phone and touched the message icon. She had to squint to read in the faint light.

“What’s he say?” Julia asked, peering over her shoulder. “Oooh, is he sexting you?”

“Noooo,” Ellis said, blinking, and rereading the message to be sure she hadn’t misunderstood. “This isn’t from Ty. It’s from a woman I used to work with at the bank.” Ellis looked up. “You guys, she’s offering me a job!”

47

“It’s my last night in the apartment,” Ty told Ellis when she got back from dinner with the girls. “They’re going to start tearing it down tomorrow, putting up the barn.”

“Kind of sad, huh?” Ellis said.

He shrugged. “It’s just a crappy garage apartment, I know. My grandfather built it with lumber from another house up the road that was blown down in a big storm. And later, my grandmother’s maid used to live here with her kids. And the garage is literally so eaten up with termites, it could fall down before they tear it down. But I’ve kinda gotten used to living here.”

They were sitting in the Adirondack chairs, out on the deck, staring out at the stars. The construction crews had finally packed up for the night and gone off to their motels, but they could hear the hum of the gas-powered generators set up to run the work lights.

“I think your place is adorable,” Ellis said. “I love everything about it, except maybe the outdoor shower, and even that I wouldn’t mind so much if it weren’t so, uh, exposed.”

That gave them both a laugh.

“I’d love to have seen the look on Kendra’s face when she found out she wasn’t going to get the chance to kick your white-trash ass to the curb,” Ellis said.

“She’s still trying to figure out where I got the money to stop the foreclosure proceedings,” Ty said. “I’ve seen her drive past half a dozen times in the past two days, craning her neck, trying to see what’s going on here.”

“Ty,” Ellis said, after a while. “What’s going to happen when the movie people are gone and the money runs out? Do you think you’ll still be able to hang on to Ebbtide?”

“Good question,” Ty said, crossing and uncrossing his legs. “The movie money will buy me some time. And now that I’m paid up with the bank again, I’m going to see about getting the mortgage refinanced. Interest rates have dropped nearly three hundred basic points since my uncle sold it to me, so I’ll save a bundle that way. After that, I honestly don’t know.”

Ellis was quiet. Suddenly, the generators shut down. Now they could hear the waves rolling in on the beach below. Fireflies blinked amongst the tall strands of beach grass, and a few yards down the beach, a group of college kids huddled around a bonfire. Ty and Ellis heard drifts of music from their iPods, saw two of the kids wandering away from the others, into the dunes, hand in hand.

“School starts back up pretty soon,” Ellis said, watching them go. “I’ll bet this is their last big party before everybody heads back to their real lives.”

Ty’s fingertips brushed against Ellis’s.

“I don’t want you to go,” he said, staring straight ahead.

She smiled to herself. “I was hoping you’d ask me to stay tonight. The last night of the old crib. Maybe we’ll even have one last shower out here for old time’s sake—as long as it’s before daylight.”

“Not just tonight,” Ty said. “I don’t want you to go. Period. I don’t want to stand here and watch you drive away on Saturday.”

“Ty…” Ellis started.

He caught her hand in his. “Stay. Please?”

She sighed. “I wish I could. I’ve thought about it all week. Before that, even. Who wouldn’t want to live at the beach year round and play house? With you?”

Ty kissed the back of her hand. “Good. Then it’s settled.”

“Ty, I’ve had a job offer.” She blurted it out.

He dropped her hand. “What? When did this happen?”

“Just a little while ago. It was totally out of the blue. Dana, this woman I used to work with at the bank, texted me the offer, like, fifteen minutes ago. The thing is, it’s my dream job. Dana’s been hired to head up this new project at Pacific Trust, and she wants me to come with her. The money is fabulous, great benefits, they’ve even got a relocation package. They’ll sell my town house! Nobody does that anymore.”

“Pacific Bank? What? You’d be in their East Coast office?”

“No. The job’s in Seattle.”

He turned to look at her. “You’re not seriously considering taking it, right?”

“I’d be an idiot not to. In this economy? Nobody’s hiring. I haven’t had a single response to any of the résumés I sent out last month. Not one! But this—this is amazing. Dana says I’d come onboard as an assistant veep. And I’d report direct to her. It’d be a huge promotion for me.”

Ty hunched forward, his head in his hands.

“Say something, please?” Ellis whispered.

“Like what? Congratulations?”

“That would be a nice start.”

He turned and stared at Ellis. “Have you heard anything I’ve been telling you tonight? I want you to stay. Right here, with me. In Nags Head.”

“And do what?” the old, practical Ellis asked. “How would I make a living?”

“We could live on love,” Ty said, trying to sound like he meant to be funny, but she could tell he was serious.

“And do what when it comes time to pay the bills?” Ellis asked. She swung her legs around and pressed her knees up against Ty’s. “Your life here is a beautiful dream. You know how to make it work. You live by your wits, day trading, picking up shifts as a bartender, renting out the house in the season. And that works great for you. But it’s not me, Ty. I’ve always had a nine-to-five job. Not the most exciting or glamorous life, but it works for me. I’m a list-maker, a rule-follower.”

“You could find a job here,” Ty said, but he knew as soon as the words were out of his mouth that it was a lie. “Maybe not making as much money, but you could find one.”

“Or you could move to Seattle with me and find a job.” Ellis gave him a crooked smile. “It’s a different ocean, but it’s still the coast. Kinda.”

“I could give it a try,” Ty said. “If you wanted me to.”

“What was that you told me on that first awful dinner date? About never having another job in an office?”

“Yeah, well, I was just blowing off steam. I could do it, Ellis, if I had to.”

“That’s the point, Ty. I don’t want you to think you have to. You’d be miserable in an office job. And then I’d be miserable. Did you ever see any of those old Tarzan movies when you were a kid?”

“Huh? How many drinks did you guys have at dinner?”

“No, listen. When I was a little girl, my brother Baylor was obsessed with Tarzan. He read all the Edgar Rice Burroughs books, got my dad to go buy him the videos of the movies—these old black-and-white films from the early forties. We’d watch them Friday nights, which was my parent’s date night. Baylor’s favorite Tarzan was Buster Crabbe, he was a silent movie star. But I loved Johnny Weissmuller. Oh my God, he had a body, running around in that loincloth. I think he’d been an Olympic swimmer. And Jane was Maureen O’Sullivan, so glamorous. My favorite one of those movies was called Tarzan’s New York Adventure. I don’t remember all the details, but Boy gets kidnapped and taken to New York, and Tarzan and Jane get on a plane and go after him. And Jane has to civilize Tarzan, you know, to get him prepared for the big city. They go to a tailor and have him fitted for a suit, and he has to ride in a cab, and all this other stuff. And Tarzan, who is this action hero, is just so sad, so out of place in the city.…”