Changing Tides

by Meredith Summers

  Andie gazed out at the ocean. “I know. I guess it never came up.”

  Chandler had wandered over to the east wall and was eyeing the collage of gilt-framed paintings. The paintings dated back to Jane’s great-grandparents’ time. Old landscapes, vibrant ocean scenes.

  “You have quite the collection here. Some of these paintings are quite valuable.” Chandler turned to look at them. “You wouldn’t be interested in selling any of them, would you?”

  Jane was startled by the thought. The paintings had been there since before she was born.

  “These paintings have been in our family forever. We would never sell them.” She turned to her sister. “Would we?”

  Andie shook her head. “No, they’re like family heirlooms. We couldn’t part with them.”

  Chandler smiled sheepishly. “Oh well. I hope I didn’t offend you. It’s just that one can’t help but be interested when you run into something exquisite in my line of work. You know how it is, Andrea.”

  Andie nodded. “We’re not offended, are we, Jane?”

  Jane shook her head. “Of course not.”

  The inn was filled with antiques, paintings, furniture, and knickknacks. The thought of selling them had never crossed Jane’s mind. She could practically feel her ancestors looking down and shaking their heads. She couldn’t possibly part with anything in the inn… not unless she was absolutely desperate. Thankfully, she hadn’t gotten to that point yet. All she needed was to ramp up the bookings, book a wedding, or come up with an idea for some other type of event.

  Chandler headed to his room, and Jane and Andie chatted for a bit longer before taking Cooper out to do his business and then heading to bed. Jane was surprised at how Cooper took to living at the inn. He simply followed her up to her room and lay down.

  Jane fell asleep, feeling more hopeful than she had been in weeks.

  Chapter 17

  Jane’s bedroom faced east, and she was used to the rising sun peeking in at an early hour. What she wasn’t used to was the warm body in bed beside her. She startled awake when a wet nose against her hand reminded her about Cooper. He’d started off on the floor but must have made his way into the bed during the night. Jane didn’t mind.

  “Come on, boy. You probably have to go out, right?” Jane wasn’t used to having another being to consider, but she was happy to make the adjustment. She took Cooper outside to do his business and then fed him before even getting a cup of coffee for herself.

  Settled at the kitchen table with an English muffin on her plate and Brenda cooking in the background, Jane checked her email and practically fell off her chair.

  Brenda turned around, concerned. “Is something wrong, Jane?”

  “Someone wants to book a wedding.”

  “Really? That’s good isn’t it?” Brenda asked.

  “Of course. It’s just a surprise. I wasn’t expecting something this quick, and they want it in less than five weeks.” Jane started to panic. How was she going to pull together a wedding in a month? She didn’t know anything about weddings. Why had she signed up for this?

  Brenda, unflappable as usual, forked the bacon out of the pan, laying it on paper towels. “Nothing wrong with getting more money sooner.”

  Brenda had a point. She’d just taken money allotted for the food service to pay the electric bill. If she could pull this wedding off, she’d get a deposit and should be able to replace that money without having to be overdue on the bill to the food supplier.

  She read the comments on the form application carefully. “It’s a rush job because the place they had booked closed down without notice. It’s for fifty people, and they’re excited about a beach wedding and lobster bake. Do you think we can handle that?”

  “Of course we can. And just think, maybe they’ll book all the rooms.” Brenda seemed happy at the prospect of being able to cook breakfast for a full house.

  The applicant wanted pictures of the actual outdoor area where the wedding would be and a description of Jane’s plan. Plan? Was she supposed to have a plan? She’d be filling the role of wedding planner, but how hard could a small beach wedding be to plan?

  The comments on the form specified that they wanted something classy, not a venue with picnic tables and porta potties. If they liked what Jane sent and her quote was reasonable, they would send a twenty-five percent deposit right away.

  Jane’s mind whirled as she thought about what she should send them for a plan. She wanted more pictures. Maybe some close-ups of the work Andie was doing on the garden and one of the ocean framed by the arbor. She already had basics of the rooms and interior of Tides up on the website, but she didn’t have any of how it would look at an actual wedding. Maybe Maxi could help with that.

  Mike was due any minute to go over the website, and Jane wanted to visit her Mom at Tall Pines, so she asked Maxi to come later that afternoon.

  There! She’d put the plans in motion. This could really work.

  Cooper let out a sudden woof and rushed to the screen door. Jane looked up to see Mike, his laptop bag slung over his shoulder.

  Cooper’s exuberant greeting lightened Mike’s heart. The night in the cottage without the dog had been lonely. Cooper wagged his tail and wiggled as Mike crouched down and hugged him.

  “I missed you, big guy.” He was getting attached. Not only to Cooper but to the ocean, to the town, to the people.

  “I think he might’ve missed you, too, at least for a little bit, until Brenda made him chicken and rice,” Jane teased.

  “Ha ha. Seriously, how did he do? I hope he was no trouble.” Mike wrestled the laptop out of his bag and put it on the table.

  “Not at all. He adjusted quite well, and I love having him,” Jane said.

  “He’s a good boy.” Brenda tossed Cooper a small piece of bacon and slid a plate in front of Mike. It was overflowing with scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, and toasted English muffins.

  Mike dug in, looking up at Jane every few seconds. She had a spark in her eye today, and her face was flushed. He suspected something exciting had happened but felt awkward asking. “I feel rude eating in front of you.”

  “I already ate. But I am eager to see the website. I got a booking for a wedding, so things are starting to come together.”

  So that was why she looked so excited. His assumption about Tides doing poorly financially must have been true. A wedding would bring in a lot of money. “That’s great! Tell me more.”

  “It’s in a month, so I’m going to have to hustle. Apparently, the venue they had booked closed down suddenly.” Jane blew out a breath. “I’m a little nervous about taking it on, but I think it will be good for Tides.”

  “What can I do to help?” Mike asked.

  Jane looked surprised, like she hadn’t been expecting him to offer to help. “I guess just putting the website up would be a big help.”

  Mike set his plate aside. “Then I guess we should get started, and I’ll show you what I’ve got.”

  He proceeded to show her several pages of the website that were similar to the examples she’d shown him but with pictures and text specific to Tides. The navigation still wasn’t set up, since he wasn’t sure if she’d want changes. Of course, he had the contact page, and he’d installed a form where one could book online and generate an email to Jane.

  “You might want to consider integrating a calendar that will block off dates. Right now you’d have to go back and forth with email to confirm the booking,” Mike said. “There might be a plug-in or program you can buy. I can look into that for you.”

  “That would be great. I love what you have so far,” Jane said.

  “Then I should go ahead and finish it up?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay. It won’t take me long to get everything hooked up and working properly.” Mike slung the laptop bag over his shoulder then hesitated. “I want to take Cooper to visit Gramps at Tall Pines today. Can I swing by later and get him?”

  “Of course. Come by any
time. No need to ask permission. We have people coming and going from here all the time. I was actually going to Tall Pines myself to visit my mom right after this.” Jane looked at her watch, and Mike got the impression she might be in a hurry. He almost collided with Andie on his way to the door. She was holding the hummingbird feeder.

  “Those birds sure drink a lot of nectar,” Mike said.

  Andie laughed. “They do, but this is actually a second feeder. Hummingbirds are territorial and will fight, so we put feeders at either end of the garden.”

  “Who knew?” Mike said goodbye to Cooper while Andie filled the feeder in record time.

  When she was done, she sidestepped the dog on her way to the pantry.

  “Why are you going out that way?” Jane asked, looking confused. “Wouldn’t it be shorter to go through the lobby?”

  Andie stopped and looked at her sister. “Probably, but I don’t want to spill nectar in there.”

  Jane glanced at Mike, her expression indicating she thought Andie wasn’t making much sense. “Okay, whatever suits you.”

  But Andie had already headed off through the pantry, which, from what Mike knew of the layout, seemed to be a roundabout route.

  Mike gave Cooper another pat on the head and set off down the beach. Maybe he would extend his stay in Lobster Bay. Gramps had perked up a lot since Mike had come to visit, and the scenery didn’t hurt. Plus, he was making new friends… like Jane. Besides, he liked it here. Things were more laid-back, and he was getting attached to Cooper.

  His phone dinged, and he pulled it out to see a text from Tiffany.

  Wondering when you’re coming back?

  Mike rolled his eyes. Apparently, he’d need to have another talk with her. She certainly wasn’t getting the hint. How could he possibly make it clearer that he didn’t want to date her anymore? He’d told her so in no uncertain terms. She just wasn’t getting the message. Maybe it was time he blocked her number.

  Andie rushed through the pantry, away from Jane and her darn questions. The truth was that she was avoiding the lobby because she’d seen Shane in there earlier fixing the spindle on the staircase. It was silly because it had been decades since she’d broken up with him, but she just didn’t want to talk to him. Why add more stress to her life? There was no point in reconnecting since she would be leaving Lobster Bay soon enough.

  She turned left, intending to cut through the dining room and then go out the side door, except—

  “Watch out! That paint is wet!”

  Over thirty years had passed, but Andie recognized Shane Flannery in an instant. They stood staring at each other, and the years peeled away. It was as if they were both awkward high school seniors again. Except Shane looked way better than he had back then. How unfair was that?

  “Andie. Hi.” Shane smiled, revealing the dimple on his right cheek.

  “Hi.” Andie’s tongue appeared to be stuck to the roof of her mouth.

  “How are you?”

  “Good. You?” Andie tried to add something clever, but nothing came out.

  “Pretty good. Got out of the navy, and now I do carpentry work.” He gestured toward the room, where there was clearly a big project going on. “You’re standing on Sally’s brush.”

  “What?” Andie’s gaze jerked down, and she lifted her right foot to reveal a squashed brush. The bottom of her flip-flop was smeared with red paint. “Crap!”

  “Yeah, Sally’s not going to be happy you ruined her brush.”

  Shane looked amused as Andie tried to balance removing the flip-flop with one hand while trying not to spill the nectar she was holding in her other. He could have offered to help!

  “Well, nice seeing you.” Shane turned back to his work, and Andie hobbled off.

  Seriously, was that it? She didn’t know what she had expected, but the interaction with Shane felt like a slight. She was probably being overly sensitive. It had been decades since they’d seen each other, so there was no reason to act like they were buddies. Even though they’d dated, that was so long ago. He’d been married since then, and of course he was over her. Probably barely even remembered they’d dated. And what did it matter? She’d gotten over him long ago. Hadn’t she?

  Chapter 18

  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.”