by Nicole Ellis
As much as she wanted to enjoy daydreaming about the future, she found herself dwelling on the store. Darn it! She’d forgotten to move a new carton of books out of the storage area to the ‘to be shelved’ area. The books would be mixed in with the old books and not be available for customers to buy.
She tried to push the thought out of her mind, but the concern over the buried books ricocheted around her brain until she had to act. She sat up, brushed the sand off her body, and retrieved her sandals. Being responsible wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
When she arrived at the bookstore, she unlocked the front door and stepped inside. Two women’s voices drifted down the stairwell from the upstairs apartment. She tiptoed up the stairs and stopped at the top to listen. One of the voices was Wendy’s. The other was even more familiar. At the sound of the other voice, tension spiraled up through her muscles, super-charging her nerve endings. She pushed the apartment door open.
“What are you doing here?” Dahlia leaned against the doorframe and folded her arms against her chest.
The women sat at the kitchen table, her mother with her back to the door. At the sound of Dahlia’s voice, Vanessa turned around and smiled at her daughter.
“Dahlia,” she said. “I’m glad to see you.” She’d traded one of her many power suits for a matching turquoise yoga pants and jacket set. Her ensemble would allow her to blend in well with the tourist crowd.
Why was her mother in Candle Beach? Vanessa hadn’t set foot in town since Aunt Ruth died. She’d talked about taking some vacation time over the summer, but a big opportunity had come up at work and she couldn’t take the time off. Now she was suddenly in town?
Dahlia thought she knew why.
“Would you like a cup of tea?” Wendy gestured at the two teacups on the table. “I picked up some muffins from the Bluebonnet Café too. They look delicious.” She held out a blueberry muffin sprinkled with chunky sugar crystals.
Dahlia’s stomach rumbled. “No thank you,” she said to Wendy, and turned to face the other woman. “Mom, what are you doing here?” Her eyes drilled holes into her mother’s face as she fought to control her speech.
“I came to see you,” said Vanessa. “Let’s go downstairs.” She nodded at Wendy. “Thank you for the drink and chat. It was nice to meet you.”
Wendy smiled back at her and stood to clear the table.
Vanessa and Dahlia walked down the stairs in silence. At the foot of the stairs, Dahlia turned to her and asked again in a hushed whisper, “Mother, why are you here?”
“A little birdie told me you planned to leave Candle Beach and sell the bookstore.” Vanessa regarded her daughter shrewdly. “Is that true?”
Dahlia’s shoulders slumped. How had she heard about this already? She hadn’t planned to say anything until she was back in Seattle with another failure on the books. The long arms of the Candle Beach town gossip machine reached further than she had expected.
“Yes,” Dahlia said. “I’m leaving town.”
“But honey, you sounded so happy when we spoke on the phone yesterday. What happened?”
“Agnes happened.”
Her mother shot her a quizzical look. “Agnes Barnes? What does she have to do with it?”
“She won’t loan me the money to remodel the bookstore,” said Dahlia. She picked up a stray book off a box and put it in a pile with some others to be shelved. “I don’t have any savings to draw from and the monthly stipend from Aunt Ruth’s trust isn’t enough to cover everything I want to do. Without the trust money, I’m stuck. The way things are currently, the bookstore can’t compete with the big box and online stores. My only hope was to create an inviting space for the community and cross my fingers that doing so brought in sales.”
“Okay,” her mother said slowly. “So Agnes wouldn’t give you the money. Did you think of any other options? Maybe scale back plans?”
She took Vanessa’s hand and led her into the main bookstore. She pointed at the area where she had planned to build the espresso bar. “Look, that’s where the espresso bar would go. And over there—the children’s area. And a new seating area here.” Her enthusiasm built as she detailed her plans.
She flopped onto the new velvet couch and ran her hands over the softness of the material. “I bought this from Wendy. Didn’t she do a beautiful job reupholstering it?”
Her mother smiled and took a seat next to Dahlia. “She mentioned she worked on furniture, but she didn’t say anything about this piece. It does seem to brighten up the bookstore.”
“Not that it matters anymore.” Dahlia leaned against the side of the sofa. “Do you understand now? This place needs some major work. Without it, To Be Read is going to go under—sooner rather than later. I don’t see any way around it.”
“You could have asked your father or me for a loan.”
“I didn’t want to ask you for money. I’m an adult. I shouldn’t have to beg my parents for money.”
“So instead you’re running away from your responsibilities like a child.”
“That’s not what I’m doing.” Dahlia stood and paced the seating area. “You know it’s not.”
“Well, from my point of view, that’s exactly what you’re doing,” Vanessa said. “Things have gotten tough and you want to take the easy way out.”
“I want to take my half of the settlement from the bookstore and Aunt Ruth’s house and travel around the world. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do. I’m not running away from Candle Beach or my problems, I’m following my dreams.”
“You worked at a travel agency for years and you never took a vacation,” her mother said wryly. “That indicates that travel isn’t a huge priority of yours.”
“That’s not fair. I didn’t have money to travel.”
“If it was important enough, you would have found a way to make it happen.” Vanessa’s eyes met hers. “Look, you’ve been following this pattern for your whole life. When things get difficult, you run away and leave your problems behind. You changed your college major four times because you didn’t like what you had to do to graduate. You’ve worked countless jobs since you finally received your diploma.” She paused, then said in a low voice, “When your marriage got too difficult, you didn’t go to counseling or work on your relationship. You left at the first chance you had.”
“You should talk. Your relationship with Dad during the divorce made me miserable,” Dahlia said. “Why do you think I run? You were always fighting. Coming to Candle Beach for the summer was the only chance I had to get away from it.”
“I admit your father and I didn’t handle our divorce as well as possible. We were too focused on ourselves and not on you and how our fighting affected you. We thought sending you to Aunt Ruth in Candle Beach was the best thing for you.” Vanessa stared at the floor for a moment and then gazed up at Dahlia. Tears glistened in her eyes. “I’m truly sorry we hurt you.”
Dahlia was quiet for a moment. She knew her parents’ divorce had been difficult for her, but until this moment, she hadn’t realized how much it had affected her in childhood and into adulthood. “I know you didn’t mean to hurt me,” she acknowledged softly and offered a small smile.
Vanessa wrapped her arms around her. “I’m so sorry.” She repeated and patted her back, just as she had when she’d been a child.
Dahlia relaxed against her and sighed. It had been a long time since they’d had a close mother–daughter moment.
After a minute, Vanessa pulled away and held her at arm’s length. “So what do we do about the bookstore?” she asked. “Aunt Ruth wanted you to have it. We had many long conversations about you and to be honest, she was worried about the trajectory of your life. She thought this was the best thing for you—a chance to be a business owner and have a life of your own here in Candle Beach.”
“Aunt Ruth was worried about me? I wasn’t a last resort for her?”
Dahlia knew her mom had spent quite a bit of time with Aunt Ruth before her death, but she�
��d never really considered that they may have conspired together to leave her the bookstore.
“No honey, she wanted you to have it.” Vanessa hugged Dahlia again. “So what do you think? Do you want to be a small-town bookstore owner?”
Did she? She wasn’t sure. Her mother had been correct in her assessment of her tendency to run when things grew tough. Was her dream to travel another excuse? Or was it her true passion?
She looked around the bookstore and something bubbled up inside of her. Owning the bookstore had incited a feeling inside of her that she had never experienced before. Maybe a sense of pride, but definitely excitement for the future.
“So what do you suggest I do?”
“How much money do you think you need?”
She showed her mother the financials and her plans for the bookstore.
“You’ve put a lot of effort into this,” she said, with a hint of surprise.
Dahlia shrugged. “I didn’t want to be unprepared when I asked Agnes for the money.”
Vanessa pulled out her checkbook and scribbled on a check. “Here you go,” she said, handing it to Dahlia.
Dahlia hesitated for a moment. “This is more than I need.”
“Remodeling costs have a way of exceeding the best of estimates. Remember my weekend patio project that turned into a full backyard remodel?”
She grinned. Her mother’s projects had a tendency to explode in scope. “When do I need to pay it back?”
“You can pay it back if you’d like, but consider it a gift. I want to see the bookstore and you succeed just as much as you do.” Vanessa smiled. “Remember, I grew up with Aunt Ruth and Uncle Ed. I know how important this place was to them. It was part of my childhood after my parents died and I came to live with them in Candle Beach, the same as it was a refuge for you when your father and I divorced.”
Dahlia took the check and put it in her pants pocket. “Thank you, Mom. You have no idea how much this means to me.”
Vanessa put her arm around her waist and pulled her close. “I’m hungry. That was a long drive and I haven’t had anything today except Wendy’s tea and a blueberry muffin. The Bluebonnet Café?”
“Sounds great. I’m famished too,” she said. “Ooh, and you’ve got to try the new shrimp risotto special. Maggie’s been trying out new recipes to attract the summer tourists.”
“Sold. I’m a sucker for anything with shrimp.” Vanessa followed her out the door.
As Dahlia navigated the few blocks to the Bluebonnet Café on autopilot, she mentally assessed her to-do list. If she wasn’t going to leave town, she needed to make the bookstore profitable. Contacting Garrett occupied the top spot on her list. She planned to take him up on his offer to help promote the bookstore. Their last encounter had been awkward, but he was her best chance at success.
Making a go of To Be Read wouldn’t be easy, but she knew she could do it. Now that she didn’t need Agnes’s money, things would run smoother. With that thought in mind, she pushed open the door of the Bluebonnet Café and held it open for Vanessa, determined to not let thoughts of Agnes interfere with a rare dinner alone with her mother.
14
The next morning, she retrieved her car from the mechanic and obtained her food and beverage permit from the county offices as soon as they opened. On the way home, she stopped by Garrett’s cottage. She knocked on the front door and a thrill shot through her while she waited for him to answer. Now that she was staying in Candle Beach, the possibility of a relationship with him was suddenly very real. Butterflies rolled and dived, and she put a hand on her stomach hoping to quell them. Taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders, she knocked again, but nobody came. She pushed on the unlatched door.
“Hello? Anybody home?” She poked her head in. He was sitting at his computer desk with headphones on, unaware of her presence.
“Hello?” she called again, louder this time. Should she leave? She didn’t want to go, after working up the nerve to come back. He continued to tap away at the keyboard. She turned to leave, but stopped before closing the door. He had offered to help her develop a marketing plan for the bookstore. And this wouldn’t be the first time she’d barged into his house uninvited.
She approached him and tapped on his back. He jolted and whipped his swivel chair around, almost knocking her over in the process. Then he pulled his headphones off.
“Dahlia. What are you doing here?” he asked. “I thought you’d be well on your way to Seattle by now.”
“My plans have changed.” She took a deep breath. “And I’m hoping you meant it when you offered to help me promote the bookstore.”
He raised his eyebrows. “You’re staying in Candle Beach?”
“Yes, at least for the time being. I’m trying to make a go of it.”
A slow smile spread across his face. “Did Agnes give you the money you needed?”
“No, I was able to borrow it from someone else,” she said. “So, do you think you can help me? I need to make the best effort I can to have the bookstore succeed.”
“Sure. Let me finish up with what I was doing and we can make a plan of attack.”
He gestured for her to sit on the couch, and she picked up a copy of People magazine and flipped through it while he wrapped up his work on the computer. She wouldn’t have guessed him to be a People magazine reader. The man never failed to surprise her.
She was deep into an article about the newest singing sensation when she felt Garrett’s hand on her left shoulder. His touch zinged through her and her spine straightened. She turned sideways to gaze up at him.
“Are you ready?” he asked. His brown eyes sparkled and his easy smile melted her heart.
“Uuuuh, yes. I am,” she stuttered. What was it about his touch? Get it together, Dahlia, she told herself.
He sat down in the armchair across from her and leaned forward to grab a notepad off the table. “Let’s see. The terms of the will state you need to make the bookstore profitable by the end of twelve months if you decide to sell, correct?”
“Yes,” she said. “So I have about nine months left on the clock. But with the Book Warehouse in Haven Shores now, sales have worsened.”
“So nine months. That’s quite a bit of time to try out some different tactics.” He scribbled on the paper. “I think the first thing you need to do is to increase your presence in the community. From what I’ve noticed about Candle Beach, most of the business owners are involved in town events or local government.”
“So I need to run for mayor?” She laughed at the thought.
“No, no, nothing like that. But you do need to get involved. Have you thought about joining the summer market?”
“Everyone keeps telling me that. Do you really think it would help?”
“It’s very popular with both locals and tourists. It’s an opportunity to get both your name and the bookstore to the front of everyone’s minds.”
“How do you know so much about the town?” she asked. “I’ve been here three months and I know barely anything.”
“I’m a writer.” He shrugged. “I spend a large part of my day observing people and how they react to different situations.”
“So you’re saying I’m going to end up in your next romance novel?”
His face reddened. “I only use characteristics from people I meet. I don’t base full characters on anyone I know in real life.” He cocked his head at her. “Are you going to tell anyone about my nom de plume?”
“Well, I’d considered telling the Ladies of Candle Beach. I’m sure they’d be delighted to spread the news around town that we have a bestselling romance author in residence.” She fought against a smile that threatened to ruin her poker face
His eyes widened. “You wouldn’t.”
She laughed. He was fun to mess with. “No, I won’t tell anyone.” She traced an imaginary zipper across her lips. “Your secret is safe with me.”
The rigid line of his shoulders relaxed and he leaned back in the chai
r, kicking his feet up on the table. “Okay, then. So where were we?” He checked his notes. “Have you considered an online presence for To Be Read? You’re not going to be able to compete on price or inventory with the big box stores, but many people like to support local businesses. You just have to make it easy on them. I think an option to order books online and pick them up in-store would be popular. As a bonus, you won’t need to maintain a large inventory without a guarantee of sales.”
“I could do that.” Her mind chugged through her ever growing to-do list. Now she needed to create a website as well as improve the bookstore itself. “Anything else?”
“How about a promotion for vacationers? I’ve seen the gift baskets they give the tourists who stay in the nightly rentals. You could put a discount coupon in their basket for them to redeem during their stay.”
“I like it.” She took out her phone and typed notes on it. “If I can get the tourists into the store, they’ll be much more likely to buy something.” She sat back on the couch and dropped her phone to the other cushion. “Whew. This is a lot.” She glanced at her watch. “Hey, it’s almost noon. Do you want to have lunch with me? My treat.”
She peeked at him from underneath lowered eyelids. If he rejected her offer, she didn’t want him to see her reaction.
Garrett considered her offer, but before he could respond, his phone rang. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, frowning when he saw who was calling.
“Hello?” he said.
“Hi, honey. I’m in town and I thought maybe we could get together for lunch.” His mother’s voice sounded tentative.
“You’re here? In Candle Beach?” He cast a glance at Dahlia. He badly wanted to go out with her to lunch, but he hadn’t seen his mother in ages. She tended to drift in and out of his life on a whim. He mouthed “sorry” to Dahlia. She nodded.
“Yes, I’m here. Are you free today? I hear the Bluebonnet Café is wonderful.”