Andie picked up a roast beef sub and went back to the antiques shop. She didn’t have any appointments, so she flipped the sign to Open in order to pick up some foot traffic. She was crouched down rummaging through the contents of an old oak display case when the bell over the door chimed.
She popped up to see Jules standing at one of the curio cabinets.
“Hi, Jules. I was just gathering the Frozen Charlottes for you.”
Jules turned, and Andie was struck by how pretty the girl was. She was medium height and not too thin, but not fat either. She still had the flawless skin of someone under forty. Long chocolate ringlets of hair fell below her shoulders. Her eyes, the same color as her hair, were bright. But even with all that, there was an air of sadness about her.
“Check these out.” Andie reached under the counter she used as a checkout desk and grabbed the little dolls she’d collected to show Jules. She unrolled a piece of dark-purple velvet fabric and laid the dolls carefully on top of it. They ranged in size from one to four inches and were made from old china bisque. Their golden painted hair, sky-blue eyes, and rosy cheeks were still vibrant despite being over a hundred and fifty years old. Andie had inspected each one thoroughly to insure there were no chips or cracks that would decrease their value.
“Those are adorable!” Jules reached out to one then hesitated. “Can I pick them up?”
“Of course.”
Jules picked the smallest one, holding it up to her face and smiling. “These are just like the ones I remember Gram having.”
“It’s thoughtful of you to buy these up for her.”
Jules’s smile fell. “I wish I could do more. Truth is we had a little falling-out, and I don’t have much time to make up for it.”
“Oh, I know how that is.”
“You do?”
“Sort of… I mean I guess I didn’t have a falling-out with my family, but I left home after high school and didn’t come back much to visit. I regret that now,” Andie said. She hadn’t had a falling-out with her family. They still called and were on good terms. Shane, on the other hand, had been a different story. But that was water under the bridge. He didn’t seem bothered by it, so why should she?
“But you’re here now,” Jules pointed out.
“Yep.” Andie looked around the shop. Coming home had been a good idea. It was what she wanted. She just hadn’t expected it to feel like something was missing. “I hope you can make amends and get back to a good relationship with your grandmother.”
Jules’s eyes misted. “I don’t know if I can. She’s pretty sick.”
“All the more reason then.” Andie was grateful that even though her mother’s memory was failing she was still in good health and still aware enough to be happy and active at Tall Pines. Another reason to stay in Lobster Bay. If she left, she could never get that time with her mother back.
“We used to be close. Gram owned the Surfstone Motel. She and Gramps had a few of them on the Maine coast.” Jules smiled at the memories.
“Oh, that motel was so cute.” Andie remembered it from her childhood. A typical L-shaped one-story motel right on the beach with a pool in the middle and colorful turquoise shutters. There was a duplex there now. “What happened to that?”
“I ruined it.”
“Oh.” Andie wasn’t quite sure what to say to that. Apparently that was what had caused the rift in their relationship.
“Yeah, well, not just me. I had some help. I always loved the family motels. My cousins and I grew up spending a lot of time there. Gram let me and my cousins run the Surfstone one year so she could focus on a new motel she was building in Kittery. Unfortunately things didn’t go very well.”
“Sorry to hear that.” Andie didn’t want to pry. She knew it wasn’t easy to run a hotel, and she’d seen her family struggle sometimes with Tides.
Julie shrugged it off. “That’s all in the past. I know Gram was disappointed. Even worse, I was disappointed in myself.” She glanced at the hair salon. “That’s how I ended up cutting hair. Luckily Aunt Mary had an opening when I needed a job.”
Andie touched the ends of her hair. The trim Jules had given her looked good, perfectly blunt with a little angle. “You’re good at it.”
Jules smiled. “Thanks. I don’t think it’s my dream like Aunt Mary, but I’m grateful to be able to work there.”
“You’re young. Still plenty of time for a dream job.” Andie thought about her job as an appraiser at Christie’s in New York. It had been her dream, but now for the first time she wondered if it had really been satisfying. “Maybe dream jobs aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.”
“Maybe.” Jules picked out three of the dolls. “I’ll take these.”
Andie wrapped them carefully and took her money.
She felt bad that Jules didn’t seem as fulfilled as a hair stylist as Mary was. Maybe she’d grow into it. It was good to work at something that you had a passion for, and Andie realized that working at the Thompson house had given her a renewed passion for antiques. Maybe all she needed was a few good estates. The painting they’d found was a nice surprise, if not an “important” discovery, but maybe she didn’t really need to set the antiques world on fire with anything important like she’d always thought. For the first time in years she felt excited about her work.
Her eyes fell on the brass porthole that she’d envisioned on the wall in the hallway in the apartment upstairs. Maxi’s suggestions on furniture and drapes had been good ones. She could picture her apartment outfitted like that. Why had she waited to get furniture and decorate? Was it because she doubted that she would really stay? She needed to have some furniture, but maybe she’d hold off on any expensive purchases, just in case the excitement wore off and little finds like the one at the Thompsons’ weren’t enough to keep her rooted in Lobster Bay.