She retreated back downstairs to the lobby, where she’d taken out the ledger. A family was due to check out of the inn today, and an older woman, Mrs. Weatherlee, who used to live in town ages ago, wanted a reservation in a few weeks. At least they had a few reservations. Bookings had dropped off that summer, and Jane had no idea why. Perhaps word had gotten out that the innkeeper’s daughter didn’t know what she was doing.
Jane went to the foyer, where she’d put the ledger books to work on while she watched the inn. At least her accounting background helped with the financial aspect of running Tides. Numbers were what she knew best. Numbers were soothing. Numbers always made sense.
Unless they were scratched in her mother’s handwriting.
As a headache built behind her eyes, Jane scrunched up her nose and saught the exact sum on the chart that had turned the numbers so awry.
The door opened, letting in a burst of salty air and a broad-shouldered male form. Jane glanced up, smiling despite her weariness. It deepened when she saw that the newcomer was not a customer but Rob Bradford.
“Good morning.”
He smiled and held up a sheaf of papers. “Good morning. I brought the information I have on memory care facilities. I visited a lot of these in person before, to look around. Would you like to go through them together?”
Jane’s shoulders rounded inward. She didn’t want to have to face this alone. Maybe sheshouldwait for her sister. But no, Andie probably wouldn’t stay long enough to sort any of it out, and besides, Jane wasn’t sure she even wanted her sister’s input with something that important.
Rob couldn’t help her make her decision, but he could give her the information she needed. She nodded and slipped off the stool behind the rustic counter they used as a check-in desk. She slid the ledger out of sight and beckoned him toward the kitchen. “That would be nice. Come, I’ll make you a cup of coffee.”
Once they were ensconced at the table, steaming mugs between their hands and the papers spread out before them, Rob looked around. “No muffins today?”
“I haven’t gone down to Claire’s bakery in a few days. I take it she’s very busy preparing for the sale tomorrow. How are your preparations going for your grand opening?”
“Very well,” he said with a smile. “I think—Ihope—Claire and I will be working together to cross-promote. I spoke with her yesterday about setting up a table in each other’s stores, and I think she might be coming around.”
Jane was surprised. So, Claire had finally come to her senses. Good. “That’s great to hear. I hope all three of our businesses can work together in the near future.”
He raised his mug to her. “That is my plan, as long as Claire is amenable to it as well.” He sipped, pausing. “Unless she said something different to you?” He asked casually, but there was something about the way he didn’t meet her gaze that hinted the question was weighing on his mind.
“I’m sorry, I haven’t spoken to her recently. Is something worrying you?”
He took another sip to cover his reaction, but Jane noticed the color tinging his cheeks. “No, it’s just—well, we didn’t actually make the final plans. I’m hoping she’ll come to me.”
Jane could tell that he liked Claire, not only liked her as a person but was attracted to her. And from the way Jane had witnessed her friend behave around the mere mention of Rob, she was almost certain that the attraction went both ways. There was something familiar, comforting, about Rob that Jane couldn’t put her finger on. It wasn’t only the kind way he’d treated her mother or how he’d rescued Addie from the storm. It was him. After the way Peter had treated Claire, Rob would be a refreshing change.
He was a good man with a good heart. He’d gone to all this trouble to help Jane with Addie. She looked down at the myriad pamphlets and notes strewn between them. Immediately, she felt out of her depth, like a fish out of water. She was far more comfortable thinking about Claire’s love life.
Taking a deep breath, she squared her shoulders and looked Rob in the eye. “Okay. Tell me what you know about these facilities.”
More than an hour later, Rob left, and Jane was still conflicted. Her head swam with all the new information. If she put Addie in a memory care facility, she had three top contenders to choose from. All had professional, caring, patient staffs and were close by.
But as clear-cut as all that data was, Jane was still struggling. In more lucid days, Addie had mentioned she never wanted to go to a facility. But she’d been referring to a nursing home, one where the patients were lined up in beds and neglected.
These places that Rob had shown her were more like residences. Rob assured her it was like having a room in her own home. The staff was lovely, the food good. Jane didn’t want to betray her mother, but she felt like a ghost of herself trying to look after Addie and run the inn at the same time. She didn’t know what to do. She needed advice. Luckily tonight was the night she’d promised to help Claire frost the cupcakes for her sale. She would get all the advice she needed from Claire and Maxi.
Chapter Twenty
The shop Rob had leased in Lobster Bay was small. In any other location, he would have set up aisles to stock as much bread on the shelves as possible. However, he didn’t want Claire to think he was ungrateful for her advice or that he’d only concocted it as an excuse to spend time with her.
So instead of baking more bread for his shelves, he pulled down the window blinds so no one could see what he was doing and spent the day rearranging the store to accommodate a cozy cluster of tables near the door.
Across from those, in the most prominent spot in the store, he arranged a table with paper wrappers ready to be filled with cupcake samples. He even made a sign with her bakery name to pin to the front of the table with the location of those delicious cupcakes. All that was left was for her to add the product and any promotional materials she had about the cupcake sale. Since Claire couldn’t see inside with the shades drawn, he hoped it would be a pleasant surprise.
All day, he waited for her to march over and agree to his bargain, but she never came. When her store was about to close and she still hadn’t made her way across the street, despite seeing her look his way several times in the distance, he decided to bite the bullet. He’d gone through all that trouble to accommodate her store. Surely it wouldn’t betoountoward of him to ask her to take a look.
Yes, she would probably want to see it. And besides, they should talk about any strategy they might want to use to draw in more customers and send them to each other’s stores.
Decided, Rob locked up his store and crossed the street, empty of tourists at this hour. Claire was clearly getting ready to close. She’d already pulled her sandwich board inside the shop and was wiping down the tables. He reached for the door latch, hoping that he wouldn’t find it locked.
A bell tinkled overhead as he stepped into her bakery. It smelled sweet, chocolate and vanilla scenting the air and making his mouth water.
