Jane had a momentary surge of panic when she got to Tall Pines only to find that Addie wasn’t in her room.
One of the nurses, Gloria, noticed her standing at Addie’s door. “She’s up in the art room.”
“Art room?” Jane remembered taking the tour when she’d first looked at Tall Pines. They had several recreation rooms. She hadn’t pictured her mother using any of them and hadn’t paid much attention. She’d been more concerned about the rooms themselves, the meals, and, most importantly, the price.
Gloria nodded. “She’s painting with another resident, Stella Ambrose.”
“Really?” Her mother had made friends this quickly?
Gloria smiled. “Go see for yourself. It’s on the second floor, end of the hall to the right.”
The art room was large, with long tables and easels at the front. Light spilled in from a large palladium window. Addie was standing at one of the easels, her concentration focused on the work in front of her. A short woman with colorful glasses and short, spiked white hair dabbed large blobs of paint on the canvas at the easel next to her.
Neither woman had seen Jane come in, and she paused to watch her mother. Addie looked happy, serene. Other than keeping the gardens up, Addie had never had time for hobbies while running Tides. At least maybe her mother could get a chance to unleash her creativity during this stage of her life.
Jane entered the room and stood behind Addie. “That’s beautiful, Mom.”
The other woman turned to address her. “Thank you, dear!”
“Umm… you’re welcome.” Jane hadn’t been talking to the woman or even looking at her work.
Addie laughed. “Now don’t be silly, Stella. Jane is my daughter.”
Jane was encouraged that her mother remembered her.
“Oh, sorry.” Stella laughed. “You look a lot like my daughter.”
At least Stella was taking it on the chin.
Addie dipped her paintbrush in a cup of white paint and motioned Jane closer. “Come over here, and I’ll show you a little trick I learned.”
The painting was really just a bunch of colorful splashes, sort of modernistic in a way. Jane wondered what Chandler Vanbeck would think of it.
Addie’s demeanor was serious as she focused on the painting, placing the brush very carefully in the middle of the blue splotch and making a perfect white dot. “See? If you put a little white spot here, it makes it look like a reflection.”
“I see. That’s a great tip,” Jane said.
“Yes, well.” Addie stepped back, putting the paintbrush in a mason jar filled with water. “I think that’s enough for today. I smell lunch, and I don’t want to miss it because it’s grilled cheese. Would you like to stay, Jane?”
Jane would’ve loved to have stayed now that it was one of her mother’s lucid times, but she couldn’t. She had to meet Maxi at Tides. She longed to tell her mother about the wedding and ask for her advice, but she was afraid it might confuse her, so instead she simply smiled and patted her mother’s arm. “I have to run, but you have a good time at lunch. Do you need anything?”
Addie laughed and gestured around the room. “What would I possibly need? I have everything I could ever want right here.”
Jane left tall Pines feeling like at least part of the weight on her shoulders had been lifted.
Maxi power walked along the beach, her footsteps leaving deep prints in the wet sand. She’d chosen to walk to Tides for her meeting with Jane, even though it was almost two miles from her house. She needed to clear her head after the disturbing discovery she’d made while cleaning out the pockets of James’s suit before taking it to the dry cleaner.
Maybe it wasn’t such a great idea to bring a heavy bag of sketching stuff, though, she thought as she hitched her blue-striped tote bag up onto her shoulder. But bringing along a sketch pad, pencils, and watercolor pens was necessary if she wanted to paint after she left Tides.
The tide was out, so the shoreline where she was walking was almost the length of a football field away from the buildings. Glancing over, she could see the big white structure of Tides. Jane was standing on the porch.
Maxi took a deep breath of calming ocean air, let it out slowly, then headed up on the dry sand to meet Jane. Plastering on a smile, she waved as she approached the inn.
“You walked?” Jane asked.
“Yep. Need my exercise.” Maxi made power-walking motions. A golden retriever trotted over from where he’d been sniffing the rosebushes. Maxi’s spirits lifted. Animals always made her feel better. “Is this Cooper, the dog you’ve been talking about?”
Jane smiled. The dog plastered himself against her leg, and she reached down to pet the top of his head. “Yep. Mike ran into a problem with his landlady, and he couldn’t keep him. So I offered to have him at Tides.”
“Awesome. How do you like having a dog?”
“It’s just temporary, but it is kind of nice having him around.”
Maxi looked at the dog wistfully, but a pet wasn’t in the cards for her right now. Her future suddenly felt uncertain. But this meeting was about Jane, not her. “So, tell me about this wedding. It’s so exciting.”
Jane took a deep breath. “I don’t know if exciting is the word. Terrifying might be more like it. Someone emailed from that ad I took out in Coastal Living. Their wedding venue was canceled at the last minute, so they wanted to see if we were available. But the thing is the wedding is in less than five weeks.”
“Five weeks? Can you pull a wedding together in that time?”
Jane shrugged. “I have no idea, but I’m going to try. They wanted a proposal and pictures of how it would be set up. I was hoping you could help me dress the place up a bit like it might be for a wedding.”
Maxi surveyed the area, looking at the porch, the beach, the gardens. Her artistic eye immediately homed in on some things to highlight. “I think you can take an angle of the garden to show the new plants. Maybe use that bench and put some decorative pillows on it.” Maxi turned to look at the porch. “And we can set up some tables on the porch here and put up those sheers and add some pillows.” She turned again to face the ocean, framing a little picture in her hands with her thumb and forefinger. “And then take a picture of where you would set up the arbor. It’s too bad we don’t have that now.”
“Maybe I can get Sally and Shane to work on that first. Andie is working on the garden. I could have her concentrate on one area so it will look nice for the picture.”
“That sounds like a good plan. I can get some pillows, and we can have Sally tack up one sheer curtain, just so we can get it in the corner of one of the pictures.
Jane hugged her. “Thanks so much. I don’t know what I would do without you and Claire.”
“Same.” At least Maxi could count on her friends. Even if things went wrong with James, she knew she’d have their support. She put her hand in her pocket, and her fingertips brushed the sharp edge of the business card she’d found in James’s suit. It was Sandee Harris’s card, and it had a phone number written in pen. Her business number was printed on the card, so Maxi assumed that must be a personal number. Why would James need that?
“Hey, remember when you asked if James and I were buying a cottage? Was that because you saw James with Sandee?”
Jane looked uneasy, her gaze drifting out to the ocean. “Well, I thought I did, but it was from far away. I was walking the beach and only saw them for a second. I think it was just someone who looked like James. Why do you ask?”
Images of James and Sandee and some illicit tryst in one of the cottages bubbled up. Maxi bent to pet Cooper so Jane couldn’t see her face. “Oh, no reason, I was just curious.”
She didn’t want to voice her concerns, even to her best friend. It was a big accusation to call someone a cheater, and she really had no proof other than the business card. If she was going to accuse James of cheating, she owed it to him to discuss it with him first.
A movement over at the garden caught her eye, and she turned to see Andie straightening up from the flower bed. She wiped her brow, smudging dirt on her face as she turned in their direction and waved.
Jane waved her over. “Perfect timing. Now we can ask her to concentrate on one area of the garden for the pictures.”
Andie tugged off the hot, sweaty gardening gloves as she made her way toward Jane. She had to admit gardening was cathartic. It was satisfying to see the area come back to life with the colorful impatiens and lush, green hostas that she’d been planting.
“It’s hot out here.” Andie swiped at the sweat on her brow.
“The garden is looking great.” Jane’s kind words warmed her heart. “Maxi and I were just talking about taking pictures for the wedding client, and we were hoping you could concentrate on the area near the bench first.”
“Wedding client?” Andie looked from Jane to Maxi. Had Jane gotten a bite on her ad?
“I didn’t tell you?” Jane said. “Sorry, I just found out this morning. Someone emailed about having a wedding here. And they want pictures.”
“That’s great!” Andie was genuinely glad but a little worried about the amount of work. “It’s a bit different from what we are used to, though.”
“It is, but it will be good for Tides,” Jane said. “It’s just a small wedding, so I think we can pull it off.”
“It will bring in good money. What can I do to help?” A look of surprise crossed Jane’s face at Andie’s offer. She supposed she couldn’t blame her. Andie had never offered to get involved in the family business before, as she never stayed long enough. But for some reason, Andie felt this time was different. It wasn’t just that Doug had apparently forgotten about her—it was something more. Her mother’s words about the city not giving her what she really needed ran through her head.
“Thanks, I think the gardening will be a big help. I can handle everything else.”
Andie nodded, a little disappointed that Jane hadn’t called upon her for more, but why would she? She had Maxi and Claire, who were here to help all the time, and if the past was any indication, she probably thought that Andie was just passing through.
The French doors opened, and Chandler Vanbeck came out onto the porch. He stretched, inhaling deeply. “The sea air. Always so refreshing.”
Maxi looked at him curiously, and Andie introduced them. As Maxi leaned forward to shake hands, the tote bag slipped off her arm and fell onto the deck, spilling its contents. Pencils rolled, sketchbooks flopped open, erasers bounced. Chandler bent down to help her pick them up. He hesitated when he saw one of her sketches. It was just a pencil sketch of a seagull, and Andie was no art expert, but even she could see that the details were exquisite, the shading so precise you almost expected the bird to fly off the page.
“This is wonderful.” Chandler looked up at Maxi. “Are you the artist?”
“It’s just a little sketch. It’s nothing.” Maxi snatched it from him and stuffed it in her bag, clearly embarrassed by the attention.
“Don’t sell yourself short. You have talent.” Chandler turned to Andie. “I was sorry to hear about the Richhaven job.”
Andie frowned. “What about it?”
“You didn’t hear? It came through, and Elise was named as the lead appraiser. She called me this morning to see if I could come out and appraise some of the artwork.”
Andie felt as if she’d been punched in the gut. Elise had gotten the Richhaven job? That couldn’t be possible. Doug had never even called her.
Chandler must’ve seen her look of disbelief because he continued, “I thought for sure you’d get it because you have so much more experience, but I guess I just assumed you’re needed here and couldn’t accept the job.”
Jane and Maxi were looking at her. Could everyone sense how hurt she was?
“Right. It’s more important for me to be here. My mom needs me right now.” Andie started backing away. She had to get out of there before the tears that were threatening came. “Speaking of which, I better get going on the garden so you can get your pictures.” She turned and hurried down the path to the garden.
In a daze, she sat on the stone bench and pulled out her phone. Maybe Doug had tried to message her about it. She’d been having so much fun focusing on the garden that she’d actually forgotten about him. She hadn’t checked her messages in a while. But there was no message. No email. No text. No phone call. Doug had given the job to Elise without even consulting her.
Had they forgotten all about her at Christie’s in the few days that she’d been out here? Maybe she should get back there right away to secure her job and make sure she didn’t lose out on anything else. She could finish the section of the garden near the bench quickly, and Jane had made it perfectly clear that she didn’t need any help here at Tides.
She scrolled to the airline site and started looking for flights.