The next morning Mary looked out the front window of Curlz to see Andie watering petunias in the window boxes in front of her shop. The flowers in the boxes were coming along nicely, with trailing ivy and a rainbow of purple, pink, and white flowers crammed in. Such a nice difference from the abandoned look it had before.
She caught Andie’s eye and waved her over. She wanted to see how things were going with the Thompson job and find out if Andie was realizing what her purpose was. Maybe if she was lucky Andie would tell her if Shane had ever made good on his invitation to get together.
“How are things at the Thompsons’? I expected to read about you making an astonishing discovery in the paper,” Mary said.
“Nothing like that has happened, though they do have some nice things.” Andie accepted the mug of coffee that Jules handed her, and the three of them stood around the reception desk.
“Sounds promising. Emily must be happy. I know she was worried about keeping Sadie at Tall Pines the last time she came in for a color.” Mary blew on the top of her coffee then took a sip.
“The auction will help bring in a lot of money. I can’t wait to see what you have there.” Jules gave Andie a knowing look. Mary wondered why. She’d never heard Jules express an interest in antiques before. Perhaps she was finding a new purpose. Good for her, Mary thought.
Andie grimaced. “Yeah, that’s a problem. The auction is off, unfortunately.”
“What? Why?” Jules asked.
“Damien Carruthers flunked us on the inspection, so we can’t hold the auction.”
“That Damien Carruthers is bad news. I used to cut his wife’s hair.” Mary made a face then patted her chest, burped, and reached for the Tums. “Sorry, indigestion again.”
Andie’s and Jules’s looks of concern gave her pause. It was just indigestion, right? Of course it was. They were just being silly, but it was nice to have people care about you. Unlike her own daughter. Mary glanced at her phone again. The hurtful brush-off message from Carolyn was still on the screen. She picked it up and wiped that screen away. No need to be thinking about that all day.
“Poor Emily. I bet that’s why she looked so sad when I saw her at Tall Pines yesterday after I ran into you, Andie,” Jules said. “She must be bummed out.”
“Well, don’t worry,” Andie said brightly. “I have a new idea for Emily.”
“Oh?” Mary quirked her brow as she crunched on the Tums. The burn was going away. But it felt funny, not really like any indigestion she’d had before.
“Maxi Stevens mentioned that the bank has some new historical preservation loans with very good rates now. I’m hoping she can get one of those. Then maybe she could turn it into an inn like Tides but maybe even with a historical hook like a boutique motel.” Andie nodded at Jules.
Jules must have told Andie about her grandmother’s motels. That was good that Jules was thinking about motels again. If she was talking about it, she was thinking about it. Mary knew it was Jules’s passion. Jules just needed to come to grips with her failure and all the horrible fallout that had caused and muster up the courage to try again.
“That sounds like a good idea,” Mary said.
“Yeah, but I’m not sure what it takes to qualify for the loan.” Andie sipped her tea and looked out the window.
“Easy enough to find out.” Jules opened the laptop, her red nails clacking on the keyboard.
After a few minutes she turned the screen toward them. “Looks like you need specific historical provenance.”
Mary squinted at the screen, where there was a listing of acceptable historical provenance for the loan. “Hmm… so it has to have ties to someone famous or some famous event. The house is pretty old, so that seems possible if you dig enough.”
“We could look up the Underground Railroad, maybe?” Jules swung the computer back in her direction and typed. “Hmm… there isn’t much on it. I guess they didn’t actually advertise where the stops were for that.”
Mary noticed Andie’s disheartened look. “I’m sure you can come up with something. Maybe the Thompsons had an important guest. You know, like a ‘George Washington slept here’ sort of thing.”
“I’m sure if they did, they would have talked about it. Emily will know,” Jules said.
“I’ll definitely ask her.” Andie craned her neck to look at the screen, worry creasing her face.
Mary worried as she would for her own daughter. In fact, she was probably closer to Andie than her own daughter. She wanted to reassure her. “I’m sure it will work out fine.”
“Of course it will.” Andie smiled. “Thanks for looking that up, Jules.”
“No problem.”
“I saw Shane drive by here a few times last night.” Mary pretended like she was just casually mentioning it.
Andie’s eyes narrowed. “Well, it is the main street. He’d have to drive by if he were going to a lot of places.”
“Uh-huh,” Mary said. “Did you guys ever get together and talk about old times?”
Andie blushed and sipped the last of her tea. “In fact, we did have a nice lunch. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get with Emily and figure out how we can tap into this loan.” She handed the mug to Jules. “Thanks for the tea.”
Mary and Jules watched her leave.
“Did you see how she blushed when you mentioned Shane?” Jules asked.
Mary nodded. “Yep, I have a good feeling about those two.” Mary turned from watching Andie out the window to look at Jules. “Now, about you.”
“Me? I’m not in the market for a boyfriend.”
“Not that. You were talking to Andie about motels, I think, right? Does that mean you’re considering going back into that business?”
Jules sighed. “I doubt it. I just mentioned it to Andie because it came up in conversation. I don’t have the money or the ambition right now. Not after I messed things up… and what happened with Steve.”
“You didn’t mess things up. Things happen. And it’s harder when you have to consult with other people to make the decisions.” Mary felt sympathy for Jules. “You girls were young. You have more experience now. And the thing with Steve, well… I think that was more on him than on you.”
Jules picked up the broom and started to sweep. “Yeah, well, it’s not in the cards for me financially right now. I have bills. And since my first hair client is coming in five minutes, I better get my station set up.”
Mary glanced at her phone again before she started on her own station. She hated logging in, so there was no password. All she had to do was nudge it for the screen to light up and show that there was no further message from Carolyn. Only the short text she’d left yesterday with yet another excuse as to why she couldn’t come visit Mary. But Mary would put on her smile and pretend it didn’t bother her like she always did. Sooner or later after so much pretending, it would actually become reality.