Tommy
WITHIN TWO WEEKS our rings finally arrived, replacing the worn-down rope stand-ins we exchanged on our wedding day. Jade and I unanimously agreed to wait to go on our honeymoon until the holidays. With Summertime Sweets doing tremendously well this fall season, and our decision to keep the beach house, expanding on its size by building an extension which would connect to Jade’s home, made it far too difficult to go on the honeymoon we wanted right then.
As for our friends and family, Jade and I were surprised by some of the plans and changes they had been making in their personal lives since they left Long Beach Island.
Rain, Dominick, and their twins headed back to Capri for the winter. Mainly for Dominick to continue his work at the law firm in Italy, but also for Rain to be closer to her twin, Raven, who was opening up a new office for the firm in France.
Blaze and Reece went back to Manhattan, and as Jade predicted, they broke off their relationship just weeks after Blaze moved into Reece’s beachfront property in The Hamptons.
Look out world, Blaze and Reece are available…again.
Daniel’s surprise blew us completely and excitedly out of the water. He and Kim seemed to be building quite a strong friendship…one he hoped would become more, and one which seemed to be going in that direction. He decided to follow suit and move here to LBI and not just to any available space, but to an old chapel that fell in disrepair, but one with a fully renovated cottage he could stay in until the chapel was complete. Daniel’s plans would not only include living in the space, but he intended on turning the grounds into an art and community center, similar to the one he lived and worked at near Philadelphia. He felt the move would be a positive one for him, and Jade and I were glad he would be nearby.
My brother Mike and I were spending more time together. Thanks to my beautiful wife, he was going to make a major change in his life, as well. He would keep the brownstone but took a sabbatical from the law firm Rain’s family owned to help me with the expansion of the beach house.
Mike had always been a true craftsman at heart when he was younger. He made many of the furniture pieces displayed in his home. He said he needed a break from corporate law and, being he had the financial means to do something he loved, he would split his time between working down the shore with me and working on a new business making custom furniture and surfboards with materials found around the world. Law—he could always go back to, but for Mike, this was a once in a lifetime chance. I understood completely. It was not unlike the chance I took moving here in the spring.
It was getting dark. I wondered where Jade was. Walking out on the deck, I spied her running with Lucky in the cool surf opposite our home. Her body bundled up in sweats and an oversized hoodie. Her long dark hair escaping its confines of the heavy cotton material as she chased our dog through the brisk salty air and low tide.
A low chuckle hit my throat. Watching them—my life before me, made me realize how far my life had come in such a short time. My life and my heart couldn’t be fuller.
A year ago, loneliness crushed my very existence. I had friends and family, sure, but a crowded room for me no longer held comfort; it held emptiness…a disconnect that drove me to find something better, something for me…someone for me.
Yet, if anyone had told me I would have met Jade and married her over this past summer— me the man with the plan, I would have told them they were crazy. Yet, I did meet her, and I did marry her, and I did get everything I wanted, everything I was searching for…now no longer struggling to find that which was missing. I found my life. I found my girl—the one I dreamed of but could’ve lost forever.
I found a home. A beach house with a tragic story— a life which scarred my beautiful wife’s past, scars which still linger today, and reappeared now and then. Scars I intended to erase so Jade could heal for her future…for our future.
None of this happened in a day, it didn't happen in a week.
But, it did happen…
Within six months