Free Cozy Mystery: Life's a Beach by S. Y. Robins

1
    “ M elanie ! It’s probably the last year we can do anything like this! One last blowout during Spring Break! We’ll be 30 next year!” My best friend Tina all but shouted through the phone.
    I’d tried to call off our annual trip to Daytona this year but Tina and Amber weren’t having it.
    “It’s just been a really tough year, Tina. I thought you’d be more focused on planning your wedding anyway.” Tina had only just gotten engaged and I knew what that was like.
    Unfortunately, I now also knew what it is like to go through a divorce. After four years of marriage I’d finally kicked my unemployed, soul-sucking husband out and divorced him. It had been a long brutal battle that included fights over everything from our house and dog, both of which I’d paid for, to even the lawnmower. Jace, my now ex, lived in an apartment, which begged the question of where he was even going to store the huge ride-on lawnmower he’d insisted we buy a couple of years ago? He hadn’t even used the thing, preferring to hire a local teenager to keep the lawn mowed.
    Pushing the memories, and the anger, to the back of my mind I went back to my phone conversation. Tina was going on about having time for one more blowout with her girls before settling down.
    I sighed, listening to her go on about hot days in the sun and warm nights drinking and clubbing. I thought I’d outgrown that kind of night but the more she described it the more I realized nights like that might just be what I needed.
    “It’s time to get our buzz on, Melanie, come on! Please?” Tina drew the last word out so long it made me laugh. Then I gave in.
    “Alright, Tina. Alright! We’ll go. Same house?” I asked, starting up my laptop to find the house’s website so I could book it for us.
    “Well yeah, girl, where else would we stay? A hotel? I don’t think so!” Tina was already yammering on about buying drinks and food, and getting new bathing suits. The house was right on the beach and we usually spent a lot of time on loungers in the surf, developing a nice golden tan before we headed home to finally get over a week’s worth of hangovers.
    I saw the house was available on our dates and used my debit card to book it. The other ladies would pay me back. I let Tina ramble on, nothing unusual for her, and started writing out a list of things we’d need to take with us or buy once we got there. We’d been doing this since our first year of college, when we’d all shared a dorm and become instantly inseparable.
    I would have to arrange for time off from work but it wouldn’t be difficult. As a junior lawyer at a large firm in Atlanta I was vital to my employer but I wasn’t indispensable. It was a lucrative, if sometimes exhausting, career that I loved. It wasn’t the path I thought I’d be on when I graduated from the university but it’s where I’d ended up.
    I eventually hung up the phone when Tina ran out of things to talk about and called Amber. She was just as excited as Tina was about the trip but it was kind of hard to build up the same enthusiasm. My marriage had been rough, filled with things that bordered on emotional abuse and I still felt bruised.
    Since the divorce I’d started going to the gym, bought a new wardrobe, and changed my appearance from the frumpy housewife look Jace had demanded I look like. I’d also become certified in Spanish so that I could take on translation work freelance as well. I was growing and developing my skills, but deep down, I still felt like that miserable woman he’d turned me into, afraid of her own shadow without much in the way of self-confidence. That feeling was changing but it was taking a long time.
    The days passed and before I knew it I was driving down the highway, some sexy male country singer crooning to me about burning the night away with his passion. I belted out the song as I drove down the highway, not caring who saw me happily singing along with the radio. I wasn’t a bad