Andie wasn’t sure what Mary had up her sleeve to convince Damien to let Emily’s inspection pass, but she meant to find out.
After she’d left Emily’s, there was still some daylight left, so Andie decided to stop by Tides on the way home to update Jane on the day’s events and to pick some flowers to drop off at the hair salon.
“I saw Mom after dinner, and she was tuckered out but happy,” Jane said as soon as Andie got out of her car. “She and Sadie were getting along like best friends. Mom was reading to her. Can you believe that?”
Andie smiled as she swung the car door closed then looked up at Jane. “Let me guess, The Mystery at Lilac Inn?”
“Yes!” Jane’s eyes went wide. “How did you know?”
“I’ll tell you when we get to the garden,” Andie said, tugging her sister forward.
While Andie selected flowers out of the backyard garden, carefully cutting the stems with a pair of shears Jane kept handy, she recounted for her sister what had happened at the inn with Addie and Sadie.
Jane walked beside her and listened, occasionally holding out the basket to collect the cut stems. “Finding that hidden stairway must have been exciting.”
Taking the flowers to a potting bench near the spigot, Jane absently arranged the Shasta daisies, black-eyed Susans, and monarda in a Mason jar filled with water. “I’ve heard Mom talk about it, but I thought it was just her faulty memory.”
“Me too. It’s pretty cool.” Andie laughed. “I think Emily was pretty shocked to realize she’d lived there her whole childhood and never found it.”
Jane handed the bouquet to Andie. “Those secret stairs will add a lot of interest to the rentals.”
Andie nodded. “It’s a great hook for us to use. Thanks for your advice on that, for the ad.”
“I’m happy to help.”
Following her sister inside, Andie set the jar of flowers on the counter and went to the sink to wash her hands.
“So, when is she going to be able to rent them?”
“Sally and Shane will be done in three weeks.” Andie dried her hands on a printed dish towel and frowned. “But we still have to pass the inspection.”
Jane made a face. “Is Damien the inspector?”
“Probably. I’m not sure. How many does the town have?”
“A couple, I think. Maybe you can request someone other than him?” Jane suggested.
“Maybe I’m worrying for nothing. Sally and Shane do top-notch work. Everything looks great so far, and by the time they are done, the inn will look amazing. There should be no reason for it not to pass.”
“I know that, and you know that,” Jane assured her. “But Damien seems sneaky, judging by what you told me he pulled at the inspection for the auction.”
“Sally said not to worry. She seemed to think Mary was going to persuade him to be nice.”
“Mary at Curlz? Hmm…” Chuckling, Jane shook her head. “Well, you know those hairdressers. They always seem to know everyone’s secrets. Maybe she has something on Damien we don’t know about?”
“That’s what I was thinking. Hoping, actually.” Andie picked up the jar of flowers and held out her free hand, motioning for a goodbye hug from Jane. “I’ve gotta get going. I want to drop in at Curlz before they close for the night.”
Mary was just finishing up with her last client when Andie arrived bearing the arrangement of flowers. Jules was waiting behind the checkout desk in the reception area, and her face perked up instantly at the sight of them.
“These are so pretty!” Jules took the vase from her and placed it on a table in the corner of their small but cozy waiting area.
“Thank you. I just picked them from the garden at Tides.” Andie smiled. “I thought you two might enjoy having another bright spot in your day.”
“Did you say the Tides?” Mary’s client, an older woman in her eighties with unnaturally dark hair, had followed Mary from the back and come to stand in front of the checkout desk with her purse open so Mary could cash her out.
She looked at Andie, her gaze curious. “My daughter is staying there next week on her visit. Do you own it?”
“Sort of. It’s been in our family for generations, but my sister, Jane, runs it.”
“Lovely place.” The woman nodded as she fiddled with her purse, pulling a few bills from it for Mary, then she looked at Andie again, her expression sympathetic. “I knew your mother back in the day… how is she?”
Andie knew she was asking about her mother’s memory issues. “She is doing pretty good.”
Mary finished cashing the woman out, and she waved goodbye to Andie and Jules while calling her thanks to Mary as she left.
The shop door closed behind her client, and Mary turned to Andie, a friendly smile on her lips. “How have you been? I haven’t seen your shop open in a few days, so I figured you must be busy up at the Thompsons’. How is that going?”
Andie settled into one of the chairs in the waiting area. “It’s going pretty good. We’ve got a lot done already, and there’s still a few things to do, but it feels good to be accomplishing things.”
“You seem to have a zip in your step, or I should say a renewed sparkle in your eyes? Is that because of the project? Or maybe it’s because of Shane?” Mary asked slyly.
Andie felt her face heat. She really wished people would stop making suggestions about her and Shane. Especially since nothing was going on between them. “The project. There’s nothing going on with Shane.”
Jules looked over from her task of rearranging the flowers. “No? I heard about the little date you had with him at the beach.”
Andie blushed. “It wasn’t a date.”
Was it? Their walk along the beach had felt so similar to those of days past, and yet so different. Shane was there. She was there. She’d felt drawn to him exactly as she had before. But there was still a distance between them—about thirty years of distance—that a single walk down the beach for hot dogs couldn’t quite bridge.
“It wasn’t?” Mary asked. “You look a little disappointed.”
Shaking herself out of the memories, Andie blinked. “No. I mean, I don’t know. It’s complicated.”
Mary tsked. “Nothing complicated about it. You like him. He likes you. So you have history. Get over it.”
Andie laughed. “You make it sound so simple.”
“It is.”
Andie wasn’t so sure. If it were, Shane would have said something, right? If he were okay with moving forward despite their past, he would at least have tried to see her again. Wouldn’t he?
“We’ll see. Right now, I’m concentrating on the Thompson project. Which reminds me, that’s one of the reasons I came over.”
“You didn’t just come to spread cheer with your flowers?” Mary asked.
“That too. But we’re nearing the part of the project where we need an inspection.” She waited.
It didn’t take long for Mary’s face to acknowledge the significance of her inflection. “Damien. Right.”
“Sally mentioned something about you taking care of it…?”
Mary waved her hand dismissively. “Oh, yeah, don’t worry about that.”
Andie’s face scrunched up. “Seriously? I mean, I can’t imagine how you could influence him.”
“I have my ways, but I can’t tell you what they are. Hairdresser-client privilege, you know.” Mary’s hand fluttered to her heart protectively, and she grimaced as she reached for the bottle of Tums she kept on the checkout desk.
Andie slid a quick glance at Jules and decided not to press Mary more. She changed the topic to something more positive. “The best part of the project so far is that we took Addie and Sadie to the house, and they uncovered a secret passage.”
Jules’s eyes widened. “Really? I’ll bet it was used for the Underground Railroad.”
“We think so.”
“Oh, that’s a perfect draw for a boutique rental! There are a few out there already, and from what I hear, guests love them.”
“I saw them in that online magazine you told me about. Thanks for that, by the way,” she said, turning back to Mary. “But even better than the passage’s discovery is that it seems to have healed the feud between Addie and Sadie.”
“Oh, that’s great news! Those two have been at odds for a while now.” Mary’s attention drifted for a second, and she became thoughtful. “Good things can happen when people forget about the past and move forward.”
“That’s true.” Andie caught a look in Mary’s eye and was now doing a little thinking herself. Had Mary been talking about her and Shane, or had her thoughts drifted to her own ongoing feud with her daughter?
Rubbing her suddenly fidgety hands against her thighs, she stood up. “Guess I’d better get home. I need to turn in early. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.”
After Andie left Curlz, Mary and Jules stood watching as she watered her plants in the window boxes across the street.
“I don’t know about you,” Jules said, her tone low, as if she half suspected Andie could hear her from across the street, “but I think Andie really likes Shane. Did you notice? She blushed when you mentioned him earlier.”
"Mm-hmm," Mary murmured, her mood still thoughtful. “I know he really likes her. That boy always did wear his heart on his sleeve.”
Not everyone would have noticed, but it was clear to Mary that Andie’s leaving town all those years ago had hurt him pretty badly.
“They made a cute couple back in their high school days. Sally says they are still cute when they’re together. A little awkward, given the circumstances and their past, but cute.”
Jules chuckled.
“I hope we get to see them together again soon, and I don’t know how or why,” Mary continued, “but I get the feeling we will.”
“It’s hard to keep hearts once joined apart,” Jules said, her voice a little wistful. She walked over to the flowers Andie had brought and bent to breathe in their sweetness.
Mary turned away from the window to look at her. “Interesting, isn’t it, how Addie and Sadie made up by going back to their roots? The Thompson house was where they always hung out as little girls.”
“Kind of like Andie and Shane are going back to their roots, too—the beaches? Seems like everyone is managing to get over whatever their past issues were and move on with their lives.” Jules took a black-eyed Susan out of the center of the vase and tucked it back in along the edge then cast a glance at Mary out of the corner of her eye. “Maybe it’s time you went back to your roots, Aunt Mary, and healed your feud.”
Mary glanced at the phone. Her lips tightened. She hadn’t mentioned it to Jules, but she’d texted Carolyn over a week ago.
Her grandest hope was to see her daughter this Thanksgiving, which was still months away. She had chosen the Thanksgiving holiday because it would give her daughter plenty of time to prepare.
Plus, Mary knew the values she’d instilled in her children, and she felt sure Carolyn would understand the significance—no matter the trials or grievances of the year gone before, Thanksgiving is a time to acknowledge and embrace what is truly important in one’s life.
Mary wanted so much to be able to hug her daughter once more, to let Carolyn know just how proud she was of her. To tell her how very much she loved her still. And she had hoped…
But she never got a response. “Maybe trying to go back and fix things doesn’t work for everyone.”
“I don’t believe that.” Jules’s quiet words soothed. Turning back to her aunt, she said, “I think they all can. Maybe you just need to try harder.”
Mary fisted her hands on her hips, her eyes narrowing as she glared at her niece. “You’re one to talk. Have you spoken to your cousins lately?”
Jules could feel the censure in her aunt’s gaze. Her cheeks flushed, and she looked down. “No, I haven’t heard from either of them.”
“Well then, maybe it’s time you took the initiative yourself. Have you reached out to them?”
“No.”
Jules hadn’t spoken to either of her cousins during the past five years. She couldn’t. They’d ruined her one chance to do something, to prove herself, to be happy.
Quickly, she blocked the thoughts before her mind could drop into the vortex of what could have been. Instead, she forced herself to focus on what did happen. It was life. Life had happened.
Turning back to the window because life outside was easier to watch than the images playing out in her head, Jules gazed out at Andie, who had just finished watering.
She turned and waved, then went into the shop, leaving the ladies of Curlz to the pain of their past and the clamor of unwanted thoughts.
Mary took one last glance at her phone.
Jules looked thoughtful as she fiddled with the flowers.
Maybe not everyone’s feuds could be healed.