A Witch's Tale (26 page)

Sarge
nipped playfully at his heels as he walked down the weathered wooden pier to her side.
Mac barely paid attention to the puppy’s antics.
The two of them had bonded so tightly that they were now inseparable and Mac took the dog’s playfulness for granted.

And at the moment, Mac was not thinking of dogs or cats or birds.
His only thought was of the beautiful woman at the end of the pier.

His gaze locked on her.
He felt hypnotized by the sight of her hair as the wind took it and played with it.
The sun bounced sparks of light from it.

As he approached
,
she turned to him, the expression in her eyes one of loving, tinged with sadness.

“I’ve been waiting,” she said
as if they had agreed earlier to meet there, which they had not.

“I know,” he responded.
They had reached that place in their relationship where verbal communication had become almost superfluous, their thoughts so often co-mingled.

She smiled up at him.
It was the saddest smile he had ever seen.
She looked at him through the glimmer of unshed tears.
She knew without him telling her that it was time for
him to be moving on, but oh, how she would miss him.
His work here was done, h
is story filed.

“Why the sad smile?” he asked, reaching with one hand to lift her chin with his finger tip.
“The story had a happy ending, didn’t it?”

“Yes, of course.”
And
it had ended happily, hadn’t it,
she
told
herself.
Her mother
had been cleared of all charges,
Port Belmont was free
of the horror of Alan’s madness, and e
veryone could go back to the nice comfortable lives they had once known.

Only her life would never be the same.
Before Mac had come into it she had believed she was happy, but she realized now that there had alwa
ys been something missing,
something important yet e
lusive.
Now she knew that that ‘something’
had been love.
             

She ha
d found that love in Mac’s arms
and now he was leaving.
And having once known such love, her life would never be the same.

“Thank you for coming to say good-bye,” she said, turning away from him so that he would not see the pain his leaving
was causing
.

“Why would I want to say good-bye?
I’m not going anywhere.”
She felt his hands on her shoulders, turning her to face him once again.

“But I thought
...”

“That I could leave you now?
Surely you know I couldn’t do that.”

“But your job.
I thought
... that is, I
...
How can you stay?”

“How can I not?
That is, unless you want to leave with me.
Don’t you know, my sweetheart, that you are my home, my life,
my everything
?
I could no more leave you than I could stop breathing.”
Her smile was radiant, shaming the sun in all its brilliance.
“After all this time of being in my thoughts, I can’t believe you didn’t know how I felt about you.”

“I was afraid to even wish it,” she said softly.
“Too afraid to allow myself to get close to your thoughts.”

“The
n you don’t know that I’ve bought
The Sentinel
?”

She gave
a silent, negative shake of her head.

“And that I fully expect you to marry me at the earliest possible moment?”

Again she shook her head no.

“Well, will you?”

This time the answer was a nod
as she broke into the happiest smile he had ever seen.
“Yes, my love, I will,” she finally answered, just before he took her into his arms and kissed
her
.

Father Sullivan stood at the far end of the pier, unabashedly watching the two young people embracing.
Their obvious love warmed him.
He smiled as he contemplated the lives they would share together.

He thanked God there was still love left in the world.