“Have you looked at these?” she asked, tucking the folders into her briefcase.
“Nah,” he said. “I can’t be at tomorrow’s meeting. You’ll have to do the report again.”
His sister frowned at him. “You’re not even trying to be sneaky about this anymore, are you?”
“What’s the point? You know what I’m up to. Dad knows it. So does Raymond, for that matter. Since everything’s out in the open anyway, why should I bother with pretense?”
Laila sat down in the chair opposite him. “Do you really think this is going to work?”
He shrugged. “Eventually. Dad’s stubborn. He’s not stupid. You’re the future of this bank, not me.”
“And you have absolutely no regrets or second thoughts about that?” she asked.
“None. This spot is rightfully yours, Laila. I have a career.”
“One that will allow you to go back to New York to be with Abby,” she guessed.
“That’s one possibility,” he admitted.
Laila frowned. “Trace, she doesn’t want to live here. You know that.”
“Things change,” he said, hoping he was right about that. If it came down to it, he would return to New York, but he hoped Abby could be convinced that their future was right here in the town her father had built, where her family had roots going back a couple of generations. To him that meant something. He hoped it did to her, too.
In fact, he was suddenly hit by exactly the thing that might convince her. “I’ve got to go somewhere,” he said, jumping up and snatching his jacket off the back of the chair. “Hold the fort. Look over those folders here, if you want to.” He grinned. “Get the feel of what’s going to be your office one of these days.”
Laila shook her head and followed him out the door. “I think I’ll hold off on getting too far ahead of myself. Dad has to be the one to tell me that office is mine.”
Outside, Trace gave his sister a quick kiss on the cheek. “He’ll come around,” he promised. “Just do the job the way I know you can. He won’t be able to deny what’s right in front of his face.”
Laila didn’t look convinced. “We’re talking about Dad. He wasn’t entirely willing to believe I’d graduated with honors from the master’s program at the Wharton School of Business until he held the diploma in his hand.”
“Like I said, he’s stubborn as a mule, but all he really wants is for the bank to be in good hands once he retires. Those are your hands, sis. No question about it.”
She blinked back tears. “Do you have any idea how much your faith in me means?”
He winked at her. “Some.” They’d spent a lifetime being there for each other. He’d gotten his share of support and motivation from her, especially after Abby had taken off. “Go, get to work. Prove Dad wrong and me right.” He grinned. “For once.”
“And where are you going?”
“Secret mission,” he told her.
And, if he handled this just right, it would ensure the future he wanted for himself.
21
W ith Gram teaching the girls the basics of gardening, Abby arrived at the inn just in time to see another delivery truck pulling out of the driveway, this one from a carpet company. Her temper shot into the stratosphere.
She and Jess had had a discussion about new carpet. It, like the stove, was an expense they couldn’t handle right now. She thought she’d made that clear. That meant that Jess was deliberately defying her, probably in retaliation for not being allowed to keep the stove.
As tempted as she was to bolt straight inside and have yet another knock-down, drag-out fight with Jess, she simply couldn’t do it. She couldn’t face her right now when she was so furious she wanted to shake some sense into her. She turned on her heel and headed to the beach. Maybe a brisk walk would be enough to calm her down so they could have a rational discussion about this latest unauthorized purchase.
Or not.
The day had dawned sunny and clear with the June temperature already hovering in the midseventies. It was heading for the high eighties by afternoon. The air was already thick with humidity, as well, but there was a breeze along the shore.
With the wind blowing in her face and the smell of salt and seaweed in the air, Abby felt her sense of peace returning. When she came to a sun-kissed boulder that had been smoothed over by the waves at high tide, she climbed up and sat down, drawing her knees up to her chest in the position she’d always favored for thinking when she was a girl. She rubbed her fingers over the boulder, letting its warmth seep into her.
One of the things the sea had always done for her—whether river, ocean or her beloved Chesapeake Bay—was to put things in perspective. The reminder that this huge rock, the beach, the waters of the bay had all been here for far longer than she or anyone she knew had been alive gave her a sense of the continuity of this place. It would be here, just like this, long after she was gone, assuming careless or greedy people didn’t plunder it with treatment that killed the sea life, destroyed the habitat of so many birds and shifted the delicate ecological balance beyond repair. Just the thought of that made her feel physically ill. It was one reason she was so grateful to her uncle for the fight he waged on a daily basis to preserve it.
Since there was only so much she could do herself about the unwitting destruction of such a unique setting, she focused on the other problem that was paramount in her life: Jess. How could she make her sister see with total clarity that she was creating a precarious financial mess for herself? She’d seen it in black and white. She was on notice from the bank. Abby had told her the situation she was facing.
And yet Jess continued to make these impetuous purchases, blindly determined to have what she wanted when she wanted it. Was Abby really doing her any favors by fighting her on any of it? Would it be better to let her flounder, destroying the inn’s chances of succeeding, ruining her dream?
No, she thought at once. She simply couldn’t let that happen. It was out of the question. Tough love might make sense in some situations, but not this one. The stakes were too high. Which meant somehow getting through to Jess. She sighed. Was that even possible anymore? Jess was beyond listening to anything she said. Maybe it would be smarter to let Trace put Laila or almost anyone else in charge.
Abby let that thought simmer as she absorbed the sun’s heat and let the soft splash of the waves soothe her. In the end, though, she knew she couldn’t let anyone else step in, not without making one more attempt to get this right herself. She owed that not to the grown-up Jess, but to the little girl who’d spent way too many years blaming herself because their mother was gone.
Maybe it wasn’t Abby’s obligation to make that up to her, but she’d taken it on years ago. She had to follow through now, acting on those same maternal instincts that were a thousand times stronger now that she had Carrie and Caitlyn in her life. It had been pure instinct years ago with Jess, but now it was a way of life.
Rising slowly, her mind made up, she brushed the sand from the top of the boulder off her legs, then started back toward the inn. Despite the heat, the sand at the edge of the water was still cool between her toes, the water cooler still. She felt refreshed and at ease with her decision by the time she made her way back to the inn across the wide expanse of lawn.
And maybe it would have stayed that way if she hadn’t walked in and practically stumbled over a half dozen or so rolls of carpet still sitting in the foyer. With that reminder of Jess’s latest folly, most of her good intentions shot right out the windo
w.
Jess had seen Abby walking toward the inn earlier, then making the sharp turn toward the beach. She’d known without question in that moment that her sister had seen the carpet delivery van leaving. Despite her conviction that the purchase had been a good one, her stomach had knotted as she tried to view it from Abby’s perspective. She knew with absolute certainty that Abby would see the new rugs as yet another betrayal of what should have been their mutual goal: to get the inn open and make it profitable.
“I am such a screwup,” she muttered, taking a seat on one of the steps leading upstairs to wait for her sister’s return. All of her stubborn determination to insist on this one victory faded. She took her cell phone from her pocket, removed the carpet invoice from her other pocket and reluctantly dialed the carpet company’s number.
Sucking in a deep breath of resolve, she said, “I just had six rugs delivered to The Inn at Eagle Point. I need them to be picked up, today if possible.”
“Are they defective?” the woman on the other end of the line asked.
“I haven’t even looked,” she admitted.
“Then I don’t understand.”
“The purchase was a mistake. I need to return them and have the amount of the sale credited to my account.”
It took her fifteen minutes of cajoling and a conversation with a supervisor to get the commitment that the carpets would be picked up later in the afternoon. There would be a restocking fee, but it was minor compared to what she was saving by returning the rugs.
“Thank you so much,” she said. “I really appreciate it. And I’m very sorry for the inconvenience.”
She clicked off the phone with a sigh. It had been the right thing to do, but she couldn’t pretend to be happy about it.
That was the precise moment Abby picked to return, almost stumbling over the largest of the rolled-up rugs that blocked the door. Jess watched the color flame in her cheeks, saw that there was more than likely an expletive on the tip of her sister’s tongue. She held up a hand to forestall it.
“They’re going back,” she said before Abby could say a word. “I’ve already called. They’ll be picked up later this afternoon.”
She could tell she’d caught Abby by surprise. She’d probably been spoiling for a fight and now Jess had stolen her thunder. She forced a faint smile. “Sometimes I am capable of recognizing and doing the right thing.”
Abby picked her way over the rolls and sat down on the steps beside her, shoulder to shoulder as they’d done so often through the years. “What made you decide to send these back?”
“It finally sank in that you and I are on the same team here. I’d turned us into adversaries.”
Abby nodded, not denying it. She slanted a look toward Jess. “Don’t you understand that saying no to you just about kills me?”
“When I’m being rational, I do,” Jess told her. “Other times, not so much.”
Abby nodded in understanding. “I know how badly you want everything in here to be perfect from day one, but the place is already amazing with all the changes you’ve made. It’s warm and cozy and inviting.” Nudging Jess in the side, she grinned. “And what fun would it be if you had absolutely nothing left to fix or change or decorate after the opening?”
At the suggestion that she might be easily bored by the inn so quickly if there weren’t more projects to do, Jess bristled, then let it go. She knew Abby hadn’t intended the comment to be a dig. Relaxing finally, Jess grinned back at her. “I never looked at it that way. As soon as we’re in the black, I can think about ordering these rugs again.” At Abby’s dismayed look, she added, “I swear they weren’t that expensive.” She gave Abby a sly look. “Want to peek at them?”
“I don’t think you should unwrap them,” Abby cautioned.
“But you do want to see them, don’t you?” Jess taunted. “I know your curiosity must be killing you to see what I thought was so special about them that I was willing to risk your wrath. How about just one? We can roll it right back up again.”
“Okay, yes, I’m curious,” Abby admitted. “But just unroll one.”
Jess already knew from the size and invoice number which one had been intended for right here in the foyer. She carefully slit the paper with the utility knife she kept in her pocket for a dozen different uses that came up during the day. When she unrolled it, she heard Abby’s gasp.
“Oh, my, it’s beautiful,” her sister said. “The colors are so rich, the design is amazing with the flowers in the middle and the border of seashells. It’s perfect for right here under this table. It really brightens up the area and the beige carpet actually provides a nice backdrop for it. It’ll look even more spectacular when there’s money to rip out the carpet and refinish the wood floors.”
Jess chuckled at her enthusiasm. It was the same reaction she’d had when she’d first seen it. “I know,” she said, experiencing a moment of triumph.
“Are the others the same?”
“No, I chose each one to go with the color scheme in the room it was intended for. The biggest one is for the sitting room. Some are mostly flowers, like this one. Others are very beachy. All of them are bright. I wanted the vibrancy they’d add to the decor. I figured they would make up for not pulling up the carpet and getting the floors refinished.” She regarded Abby with an earnest expression. “I swear I only bought them for the rooms where the carpet seemed particularly boring.”
Abby couldn’t seem to tear her gaze away from the one they’d unrolled. “Open another one,” she said unexpectedly.
“But—”
“Just do it before I change my mind.”
Jess slit the paper on a second rug, this one with a vivid teal background and larger seashells that added cream and hints of pink and coral to the design.
“For the room at the end of the hall on the left,” Abby guessed at once, nodding her approval. “It’s perfect.” She pointed to the largest. “That’s for the sitting room?”
Jess nodded.
Abby sighed, then said, “Go ahead, open it.”
There was barely room to spread this one out, so they carried it into the sitting room with its deep green walls, furniture upholstered in a lighter shade of celadon green edged with the same dark shade as the walls. Large pots of artificial flowers that she hoped to replace with real ones during the summer season gave the room its additional color. The new rug, also a deep green, had a single huge bouquet of splashy summer flowers in the middle, bordered by a thin band of light green. It couldn’t have been more perfect if they’d had it woven themselves.
Abby knelt down at once, her fingers sinking into the deep pile, her eyes alight just as Jess’s had been when she’d spotted it in the store. She leaned back on her heels and looked up.
“I know I’m going to hate myself for doing this, but call them back. We’re keeping the rugs.”
Jess stared at her in astonishment, hardly daring to believe her ears. “Really?”
“They’re too perfect. How can we let them go, knowing they might not be available when the budget frees up some cash? Let me see the invoice.”
Jess handed it over, still not quite believing that her sister was giving in. “Look, it really is okay if we can’t afford them,” she said, trying not to let hope seep into her voice.
Abby smiled at her. “The fact that you’d already made the call to have them picked up means a lot. It’s true that the inn can’t afford them right now, but I can. They’re my gift to you.”
“No,” Jess protested. “You’ve alread
y invested in the inn, to say nothing of coming down here to help me. I can’t accept this, too. It’s too much.”
This time it was Abby who dug in her heels. “They’re staying, Jess. They’re the perfect finishing touches and I want to do this for you. I want you to see how much I believe in you and in the inn.”
Jess wanted the carpets to stay so badly, but she still didn’t feel right accepting them. “You shouldn’t make it easy on me. I screwed up.”
“But with all the right instincts,” Abby said, standing up and giving her a fierce hug. “Just look at how this rug sets off everything in this room. It pulls everything together.”
Jess frowned at the comment. “Is that why you gave in, because you like my taste?”
“Partly, maybe. Would that be so bad? But the real reason is because you actually got the point about why they should go back. It gives me high hopes that what I’ve been telling you really is starting to sink in. I’m not rewarding the bad behavior, I’m rewarding what you did before I got here.” She shrugged. “Besides, they’re just too gorgeous to send back.”
“I felt the same way about the stove,” Jess blurted, ruining the moment. Abby immediately scowled.
“That’s in a whole other league, Jess,” she said tightly. “And you know it. That stove cost a fortune. It was an extravagance, especially when the one we have works just fine. These rugs cost less than half as much and they’re part of the decor. They’ll add to the ambience for the guests.”
Jess winced. “I get what you’re saying. I’m sorry I spoiled this rare moment of total rapport between us. No more whining about the stove. I promise.”
Abby nodded, but Jess thought she caught a little glimmer of something in her eyes. At first she thought maybe it was approval, but then she decided it was something else entirely, as if she knew something that Jess didn’t. It was there and gone so quickly, though, that she couldn’t be sure she hadn’t imagined it.
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