Beach Blanket Santa

pocket. She’d debated about giving it to him at all but then had decided she needed to let him know that she’d thought of him.
    She handed it over, apologizing. “I considered giving this to you yesterday but decided to wait. I hope you don’t mind.”
    “Of course I don’t mind.” He appeared genuinely touched by the gesture.
    He unfolded the page and looked down at the carefully crafted lines. “This is wonderful,” he said, meeting her gaze. “I’ve never had anyone do anything like this for me before.”
    “I’ve never had anyone make me a Christmas tree out of driftwood.”
    He smiled at her warmly, then lowered his head and began to read.

    Between the earth and sky,
    You and I
    Are caught up
    In this moment,
    Where waves crash,
    And lightning strikes
    The shore.
    You’re deep
    In my soul,
    Warming
    The cold
    Of my heart.

    After a lingering moment, he looked up. “It’s beautiful,” he said, the words catching in his throat. “But also a little sad, don’t you think?”
    “I thought it was hopeful.”
    “Then I’ll take it as that way too.” He stared through the plate glass door, studying the horizon. “Looks like the storm has lifted. How about you and I take a stroll?”

    Matt led her onto the beach, where soft winds blew and gulls called. The sky was cloudy yet calm, the ocean roiling peacefully below it. They walked a long way down the shore, neither one talking. There was an unspoken melancholy between them, as if each sensed their time together was drawing to a close.
    “I want to thank you for the poem,” he said finally. “It means a lot to me that you’d write it.”
    “It was nothing.”
    He stopped walking to look at her. “No, it was something. Something really beautiful that came from your heart.”
    Sarah felt herself flush. Oh, how she wished she could give him that heart, wholly and unconditionally. But there’d been conditions imposed on her she couldn’t help or change.
    Matt took her gently by the shoulders and gazed in her eyes. “But Sarah, I want… Need you to understand. This is more than a brief moment for me. I mean, I want it to be more than that for both of us.”
    Emotion swirled within her. “Just what are you saying?”
    “That I don’t believe we both wound up here by accident. That maybe there was something else at play. Something bigger than the two of us, and maybe even more magical than…Santa.”
    “It’s been really wonderful, but—”
    “I’m not talking about anything drastic. Rather that we take this incredible serendipity as some sort of sign. A sign that maybe we weren’t meant to walk away from each other three years ago. Then again, maybe we were, because things can be that much better between us now.
    “All I’m asking is that when the ferry reopens, things between us won’t end. Let me take you out to dinner back in Bethesda. Maybe even a movie. We don’t have to rush things. There’s nothing wrong with taking our time.”
    She pressed her lips together for a beat, studying him. When she finally spoke, her chin trembled. “I can’t give you what you want.”
    “You don’t even know what I want,” he said, his voice etched with pain.
    Sarah dropped her eyes to hide the fact that they were watering.
    “I’m not the girl for you. Not long-term.”
    “Is it…” he began tentatively, appearing stung by the thought. “Is it that you don’t feel the same way?”
    “It doesn’t matter how I feel.”
    “Sarah, please. Talk to me.”
    She gathered her resolve and met his eyes, knowing this was for the best. Sometimes when you really cared for someone, you had to do what was right for that person. Not selfishly only consider yourself. Matt deserved to have the sort of life he was destined to lead. And that life couldn’t include her.
    “I’m not interested. Not interested in any more than we’ve had here.”
    Matt sucked in a breath and stared at her in disbelief.
    “I guess that’s all I needed to hear,” he said hoarsely.

    The telephone rang loudly as they reentered the house from their walk. Matt walked in a daze to answer it. So she didn’t feel the same. Had no interest in continuing things further. He’d done nothing more than make one big fool of himself his whole time here. He lifted the receiver with a heavy heart as gulls sailed beyond the kitchen window. “Hello?”
    It was the ferryman, advising all residents on the island that the boat docks were nearly repaired. With the bad weather