by Lee McKenzie
This was always a slow day for business, particularly in the morning and especially now that tourist season was winding down and the back-to-school rush had ebbed to a trickle. This morning she would reorganize the storage room, including the corner that served as her office. And since today was Casey’s first day back at school and she’d be having lunch in the cafeteria, Sarah was off the hook for having to come up with a meal at home. Instead, after Juliet started her shift at one o’clock, Sarah would dash across the street and grab something from the deli, and then she’d work right through the afternoon until it was time to go home. By then her Tuesday to-do list would be no more and she’d be ready to start Wednesday with a clean slate.
She’d been encouraged to see Casey leave for school with Kate and Jonathan that morning. Her daughter was the only girl she knew whose best friend was a boy, and until recently it hadn’t concerned her. But one of these days, and Sarah suspected that day might be sooner rather than later, either Henry would fall for some other girl, or Casey would develop a romantic interest in another boy. Then what? Henry was a great kid but when the inevitable happened, Sarah secretly hoped her daughter wouldn’t be the one left on the sidelines.
Sarah’s cell phone trilled and she answered it as she opened her email program.
“Sarah, it’s Juliet.” A child wailed in the background and her efficient young shop assistant sounded uncharacteristically harried.
“Hi. Is everything okay?”
“No, yes, I mean, I hope so. Alexander was up and down all night, and now he’s running a fever.”
“Aw, the poor little guy. He sure doesn’t sound happy.” Sarah adored Juliet’s three-year-old son, and Casey was his favorite babysitter. “Did you call the clinic?”
“As soon as they opened, but they can’t squeeze us in until later this morning. Brian offered to stay home and help out, but we can’t afford for him to take the day off.”
Juliet’s husband worked at the marina, doing odd jobs and helping with boat maintenance and repairs with the hope of becoming an apprentice mechanic. Between that and Juliet’s part-time job here at the store, they struggled to make ends meet. Juliet’s Tuesday shift normally started after lunch and her mother looked after her son for the afternoon. But in Sarah’s book, family came first, always. And yes, she kept a careful eye on finances, but she didn’t scrimp on payroll. Juliet was worth her weight in gold, and her next paycheck wouldn’t be short the few hours she would miss today.
“I don’t want you to worry about a thing. Take that darling boy of yours to the doctor, and then let’s hope he has a nice long nap this afternoon so you can get some rest, too. I can manage on my own.”
“What about your lunch break?”
“I’ll call the deli and order something. If they can’t deliver, I’ll lock up for a few minutes and run across the street to pick it up.”
“But what if—”
There was more crying, followed by a muffled, “Mommy, my froat hurts.”
“No more buts,” Sarah said. “You need to stay home and take care of your son. Give him a hug for me, okay? Everything will be fine here. Call me after you’ve seen the doctor and let me know how he’s feeling.”
“Okay. Thanks, Sarah. I really appreciate your being so understanding.”
“I’m a mom, too, remember? Been there, done that. Many times.”
She said goodbye, thinking how lucky Juliet was, in spite of having a sick kid. When Casey was little, Sarah’s mother lived two ferry rides and a four-hour drive away, and even before her husband’s accident, he hadn’t been any help in the child care department. Juliet and Brian were a cute couple, crazy about each other, doting parents. Sarah considered herself lucky to have them and their young son in her and Casey’s lives.
Not that your life is lacking, she reminded herself. She slipped off her suit jacket and hung it on the back of her desk chair, squaring the shoulders neatly as she consulted her list. After spending Saturday evening with her new neighbors, the push-pull of her annoyance with and unexpected attraction to Jonathan had left her feeling that maybe, just maybe, her life wasn’t as full as she believed. After her guests left that night, she assured herself the feeling would be fleeting. Now, Tuesday morning, she was dismayed to discover it wasn’t.
Years ago she had publicly grieved the loss of her husband, even though he’d all but become a stranger, but even before that she had privately mourned the loss of a marriage that had never lived up to its promise. “To love, honor and cherish” hadn’t lasted much longer than the honeymoon. Then it was only the “till death do we part” part that made any real sense. And she had known then that marriage wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. It might work for other people, but it didn’t work for her. What she’d had while she was married wasn’t a life. What she had now, what she and Casey had, the security, the serenity, those were the things that mattered. No way would she jeopardize them, not for anything.
Sure, Jonathan Marshall was easy on the eyes. It had been hard not to fixate on those abs until she’d seen him leaving for school that morning, dressed in casual khaki pants, a navy short-sleeved polo shirt and dark blue cross-trainers. His height gave him an air of authority and his shoulders looked athletic, and she knew, based on what she’d seen earlier that morning, that he was even fitter than he looked. But she didn’t do casual, and if she was any judge of character, he wasn’t in a place to do commitment. What he did do was struggle with parenting, and he had a ton of baggage when it came to his ex-wife, both of which excluded him as relationship material.
She shouldn’t be thinking along those lines anyway. She certainly didn’t want to be. He would be a good neighbor, possibly a good friend once they became better acquainted, and she hoped he’d be a good teacher. For now, for herself and for Casey, those things were important. Letting herself fall into the trap of believing a committed relationship was the way to go? No way. As she’d just said to Juliet, been there, done that.
Being busy was the only way she knew to dispel these unwelcome ponderings, and if she hoped to get through today’s list on her own, she needed to get started. She dragged the vacuum cleaner out of the storage room, plugged it in and spent ten minutes working her way from one side of the store to the other. Once that was done, she unlocked the front door and hauled the folding sign onto the sidewalk so passersby would know she was open for business.
For the next hour she sorted through a week’s worth of accumulated clutter in the drawers of the sales counter, refolded and stacked cashmere sweaters on a table near the entrance, and straightened and untangled a rack of belts. With the store neat and tidy, she turned her attention to the two window displays. She usually redid them every other Tuesday, and today she had planned to swap out the back-to-school displays for some activewear in new fall colors. Should she tackle this while she was here on her own or wait till Juliet was back to help with customers?
Probably best to wait. Then again, she hated having her weekly work plan thrown off schedule.
Do the displays. If she couldn’t finish by the time she closed up shop, she would call Casey and ask her to come to the store after school. No, make that after soccer practice, she corrected herself, because Jonathan wanted to get the team together this afternoon for their first practice. To his credit, the man didn’t waste time. Casey could work on homework, if she had any, and they could go for burgers after Sarah finished the windows.
By eleven o’clock she had the mannequins stripped down and the back-to-school clothing put away, and had just started to select items for the new display when the back-door buzzer sounded. A delivery?
“What could it be?” She did a mental inventory of recent orders and couldn’t think of anything likely to arrive this week. She unlatched the back door and swung it open.
“Hi, Tom. What do you have for me?”
“A shipment of...” He
gave the waybill a quick once-over. “I have no idea.”
She spotted the logo on the large cardboard carton. “Oooh, the DKNY handbags,” she said as she signed for it. “This order was delayed and I wasn’t expecting it for a couple of weeks.”
He feigned interest with a nod and a smile, separated her copy from the rest of the paperwork, and handed it to her. “Can I bring this inside for you?”
“That would be great.” She stepped aside and held the door so he could wheel the large box on the dolly into her storage room.
“There you go.”
“Thanks, Tom. How is your dad doing?” Tom’s mother had recently passed away after battling breast cancer. Three weeks later his father suffered a minor stroke, so the elderly man had moved in with Tom and his wife, Angela.
“Better. It was a big adjustment, but he’s settling in. Eating better, too, now that he doesn’t have to cook for himself.”
“I’ll bet he loves Angela’s cooking. Everyone does.”
Tom’s wife worked at the deli across the street, and her daily soups and stews were a Serenity Bay staple for many townsfolk.
Tom beamed as he hitched the waistband of his pants and patted his belly. “Best cook in the world, that gal of mine. In fact I’m going to swing by the deli right now, seeing as how I’m already in the neighborhood, and grab a coffee and one of her cinnamon buns for the road.”
“Good plan.” Tom’s arteries would probably thank him if he skipped the pastry, but the man loved to eat as much as his wife loved to cook. “Tell Angela I’ll see her at lunchtime.”
“Will do.”
After he left, she flipped the dead bolt on the back door, took a knife from her desk drawer and slit the tape on the box. Every shipment felt a little like Christmas, but handbags were her favorite. She had unpacked and inventoried half the order when the fluorescent light above the cash desk started to flicker.
“Seriously?” It was almost lunchtime and so far this day had yet to go as planned.
* * *
BY LUNCHTIME, CASEY had decided she loved everything about high school. So far they’d been assigned to homerooms, and both Kate and Henry were in hers. After getting their timetables and a rundown of the student handbook, the Grade Nines had been given a tour of the school and wrapped up the morning with an assembly in the gym. This afternoon they would attend each of their classes for an abbreviated session to meet their teachers and pick up textbooks and course outlines. Everything felt fresh and new and very grown-up.
Now she was making her way to the cafeteria with Kate and Alycia, a girl from the soccer team. The three girls hit it off right away, which was a good thing because in homeroom Alycia had whispered that over the summer she’d started hanging out with Brody, and Brody’s best friend was Dexter.
The packed cafeteria was abuzz with first-day-of-class excitement by the time they arrived, but they managed to nab an empty table for six. Casey took a corner seat, Alycia sat next to her, and Kate took a chair across the table.
“So, Kate,” Alycia said. “Do you think SBH is as good as your school in the city?”
Kate shrugged, lifting the top layer of her sandwich to examine the filling. “It’s okay. I didn’t see my dad, not even once, so that’s a good thing.”
“That’d be weird, all right,” Alycia said. “I’m glad my parents aren’t teachers.”
Casey didn’t think having her mom around would be the end of the world, but she kept that to herself.
Alycia jumped up abruptly and waved an arm in the air. “Brody! Over here. I told him I’d save seats for them,” she said after she sat down again.
Them? Casey scanned the room and felt her heart soar and then sink. Dexter was with Brody and the two boys were heading for their table. Brody plunked down next to Alycia and Dexter sat across the table beside Kate.
Alycia took on the introductions, which was just as well because Casey was suddenly tongue-tied.
“You guys both know Casey. This is Kate. She just moved up here from West Van. This is Brody. We’re...” She giggled. “We’re sort of going out. And this is his friend Dexter.”
Dex nodded at Casey. “Hey.”
“Hey.”
She should say something else, but what? Ask him how his summer was.
But he had already turned to Kate. “Good to meet you. When did you get here?”
“A couple of days ago.” She was smiling at him, just as Anne Hathaway had smiled at that boy in The Princess Diaries, and Casey’s heart settled in the pit of her stomach.
“Cool.” Dex leaned back in his chair and unwrapped his sandwich while he gave Kate a head-to-stiletto once-over.
Rats. She’d known this would happen.
But then his gaze swung back to her. “I haven’t seen Henry around. Do you know if he’s back yet?”
“Oh. Um, no, he’s still in Montreal. He’ll be back on Friday.”
“Cool. We’ll have to hang out after he gets home.”
We? What did that mean? Just the guys? The girls, too? Did Dex assume that because she and Henry were friends, the two of them were going out? That he and Kate would make another twosome?
She didn’t know how to ask without sounding lame, and then the conversation meandered in other directions as they compared timetables and talked about class assignments, about which teachers were cool and which were not so much. She’d like to share her excitement about the science classroom, but they’d think she was a total geek to be so enthusiastic about the lab benches and stools instead of desks, the hookups for Bunsen burners, the shelf of microscopes under plastic covers. She would tell her mom about them tonight.
For now she couldn’t think of a single thing to say, so she sat and listened to Alycia’s stories about her and Brody’s summer exploits, watched Kate chatting easily with Dex. To her surprise, Dex seemed to be the only one who noticed she was there, glancing at her from time to time, giving her a weird little smile.
Did she have something stuck in her teeth? Ink on her face? Gunk in the corner of her eye? Ugh. She finished her sandwich and was ready to excuse herself when he gave her his full attention.
“What’d you do this summer, Casey?”
“Oh, um, not much.” She’d looked up the novels they’d be reading in Grade Nine English and borrowed them from the library. Found out what the science curriculum covered and read everything she could get her hands on. She was so not confessing that to anyone.
“Casey’s been working at the animal shelter this summer,” Kate said.
Don’t tell him that! Casey shot her a warning look. But Dex leaned on the table, looking at her with genuine interest.
“Wow. That sounds pretty interesting. Did you get paid?”
“Oh, no. I’m just a volunteer. I’ll still be helping out on Saturdays now that school’s started.”
“Cool. I’ve always liked being around animals. If they need more volunteers, could you let me know?”
“Oh. Sure.” Was he serious or making fun of her? She had no idea, and before she could figure it out the warning bell sounded, giving everyone five minutes to get to their first class of the afternoon.
“See you at soccer practice,” Alycia said to her before strolling off with Brody. Kate and Dex were in the same French class, so they were going in search of their classroom, leaving Casey on her own to find her English class.
Kate slung her designer bag over her shoulder and whispered in Casey’s ear on their way out of the cafeteria. “He’s very cute, don’t you think?”
Yes, as a matter of fact she did! But she only smiled and gave a casual nod in response. Only three more days, she reminded herself. Henry would be home and life would get back to normal. Unless he decided to go gaga over Kate, too, leaving Casey the odd one out. No way, she decided. She’d rather be alone in the
library than be the fifth wheel with her friends.
* * *
SARAH HAULED A replacement fluorescent tube and the stepladder out of the storage room, snagging her pantyhose and gashing her calf in the process.
“Ow! Seriously?” She surveyed the damage. “Seriously!”
After she stanched the bleeding, changed the lighting tube and put the ladder away, she dug out the spare pair of hose she kept in her desk drawer. She was wriggling into those when the door chime sounded. A customer.
She smoothed her hair, straightened her skirt and put a smile on her face before she returned to the front of the store, in time to greet three silver-haired women she’d never seen before.
“Good morn—” She checked her watch. One o’clock? How had that happened? “Make that good afternoon. Can I help you find something or would you like to browse for a bit?”
“We’re only in town for a couple of hours,” one of the women said. She was wearing an expensive-looking tan leather jacket over tailored black slacks and had a Kate Spade bag on her arm.
“We’re on a bus tour from West Vancouver,” another added. “We spotted this place from the restaurant across the street and thought we’d check it out.” This woman wore a cream-colored blazer and sweater of the same color with navy pants. Her only accessories were the Coach handbag hung from her shoulder and the strand of pearls looped around her neck.
“Welcome to Serenity Bay,” Sarah said. “And thank you for stopping by To the Nines. If you see anything you like, feel free to try it on, and please let me know if you have any questions.”
The third shopper was already skimming the rack of fall dresses that Juliet had unpacked on Saturday. Sarah had recently seen this woman’s wide-lapelled tweed jacket in a magazine. Chanel.
“Margaret,” the woman said, holding up a Marc Jacobs dress. “You have to look at this teal-blue dress. Didn’t you say this is one of your granddaughter’s wedding colors? You always look stunning in it and the style is perfect for the grandmother of the bride.”