Page 46 of Call Off the Dark

“Helen,” her mom said. “Just let Tyler go get him.”

“It’s my wedding, Mom. This is what I’m doing.”

Gracie burst into tears and opened the back door. She practically tumbled onto the pavement and into her mother’s arms, who was rushing up to meet the SUV.

Gary, who hadn’t yet moved from the luggage area, spoke up. “Son, there’s no way I’m letting you go back. You and Helen stay here. I’ll get Leo.”

Tyler spun around in his seat and looked at his own dad as Helen’s dad chimed in, “We’ll go too.”

“There’s no reason for everyone to go back down there,” Tyler said.

Suddenly, they all froze as a loud sound exploded outside: a drawn-out, brassy screech.

“What is that?” Helen gasped. “Is that the sirens?”

As she looked at Tyler, she pressed a shocked hand over her mouth. If the tsunami sirens were going off, did that mean it was already too late?

Tyler threw open his door and stepped out, listening. His face changed as he realized what he was hearing. Helen craned her ear and recognized it for what it was too. An approaching car was laying on its horn, and it didn’t sound like a regular car horn. It sounded like a vintage muscle car. Tyler and Helen locked eyes, hopeful.

A moment later, Leo’s Mustang peeled around the corner and screeched into the parking lot, stopping several feet from Tyler.

“Thank God!” Tyler said.

Helen jumped out of the passenger seat and reached the Mustang in time to see Tyler give Leo a little shove, then pull him in for a hug.

“Where were you?!” Tyler said.

Leo was in his best man suit, and the sight of the two brothers fiercely embracing in their formal wear made Helen’s heart trip. As Tyler released the hug, Leo gestured to the passenger side. Through the windshield, Helen saw a cute blond woman sitting inside the Mustang.

“I saw this girl down on the beach.” Leo grinned. “I felt it was my duty to inform her of tsunami protocol and whisk her away to safety.”

Leo threw his arm over Helen’s shoulder and apologized for scaring her. “Did you think you lost me?”

“We did lose you!” Helen said. “No one could find you!”

“Only for a minute. And it was for a good cause.”

After Leo let go of Helen, she wrapped her arms around Tyler’s neck. “Your brother kills me!” she murmured in Tyler’s ear, and he put his head on her shoulder and laughed.

Gracie punched Leo in the arm, then hugged the blond woman from the beach as she climbed out of the Mustang. The rest of the family and the wedding guests began to gather around Helen and Tyler. Everyone was still flushed and worried about a tsunami, but now that they were all together and safe, there was a special aliveness among the group.

As they moved to the edge of the bluff and stared out at the water expectantly, Tyler stood behind Helen and pulled her against him. His body, the sturdy frame. Hers, the perfect painting. With the others, they watched and they waited.

In the end, the earthquake was farther inland, not out in the ocean. There was no tsunami. There was just a bunch of their loved ones gathered at the lighthouse. The wedding photographer was there as well, and the photographs from the lighthouse ended up being some of Helen’s and Tyler’s favorites of the day. Every shot was full of so much love and laughter and relief.

When Helen later sent out the thank you cards, the front of them read: We survived a tsunami that didn’t happen.

She planned to do something funny with a tsunami theme for their tenth wedding anniversary.

Sadly, Helen and Tyler weren’t destined to make it to their tenth anniversary, but together, they shared eight and a half years of inside jokes. And when they hit a rocky patch in the middle of their marriage, when Helen felt lonely and adrift for the better part of a year, in many ways it was their inside jokes that saved them.

Laughter was the lighthouse that always led Helen home.

She never anticipated the lighthouse would one day burn out.

Chapter Seventeen

Present day