editing and critiquing a romance novella.

My manuscript is a 60-page romance novella, describing the development of a loving relationship between ordinary middle-aged people, Anthony and Marilyn who explore extraordinary truths about life. It begins with a flashback. Anthony scours the beach to find the runoff pipe he inscribed years before. He found the pipe, sat down beside it, and cried bitterly, "I never told her I loved her." is a pizza shop owner at the Jersey Shore; Marilyn is an ER nurse. Unexpected love the second time around is a delicate proposal. Both have had losses and missteps in relationships. Marilyn is estranged from her husband, Joe, whom she has not seen in many years. Anthony is divorced due to his gambling addiction and neglect. As their relationship develops, old stereotypes of what mature love is comes to the surface. Anthony gambles to increase his self esteem; Marilyn overworks at the hospital to hide her fear of intimacy. They learn to come to terms with anger and desolation in their lives by hard won forgiveness for the ones they have loved in their pasts. After enduring challenges from the pull of gambling addiction, and the habit of avoiding intimacy with work, the couple, at last, has a chance of fulfilling a commitment to each other. By breaking out of the box their mundane lives supported, Marilyn and Anthony learned from each other to challenge each other to live in a new way--to live in the now. Tension from the arrival of Marilyn's estranged husband, Joe upsets the peaceful life they inhabited, when he contacts her after years of abandonment. Joe is dying of AIDS. This stressor in Marilyn's life triggers a deep sense of desolation. Marilyn contemplates taking her own life. She grapples with a "dark night of the soul," eventually deciding, with a peaceful heart, her faith leads her to surrender all to the Presence, that defines her. Visiting Joe, dying and remorseful, she admits her failures in the marriage. She forgives herself and forgives Joe. Informing her adult children, Jason and Sarah, elicits mixed reactions. Marilyn had hoped for a reconciliation, that did not happen. Accepting that her children were adults now, she decided not to intervene in their decisions. The final hurdle was to tell Anthony about Joe's condition, and her decision to care for him. Unexpectedly, Anthony has an intense, explosive reaction, demanding, "it is either him or me!" They separate; Anthony to nurse his ego, Marilyn to go about her mission to care for Joe through his final days. Marilyn gives cursory attention to her health and ignores pain in her left arm. She tries to go to the clinic where she works, but does not complete the appointment. The twist in this story happens when Anthony gets a phone call from the hospital in the middle of the night from the ER at the hospital. He expects that the call has to do with Joe's demise. Clearly, Joe's death would solve his problem with Marilyn. Instead, he is stunned to find the Marilyn had a massive heart attack during her break at the hospital. She died despite the staff's efforts to save her life. In deep shock, Anthony grieved he had abandoned the person he had loved the most. He didn't tell her he loved her. He fell into bitter mourning. Later, he resolved himself to see Joe and do what Marilyn would have done. He would take care of him until death. The setting of the beach serves to soothe the mood of the story. Anthony goes down to the beach and finds the runoff pipe that was the halfway point of their walks along the surf. He inscribed the words, "Anthony Loves Marilyn Forever."