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.”
Sothatwas 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.
