“That’s great. Glad I could help.”
“I’m kind of glad I ran into you. I have a question.”
“Fire away.”
Jules sighed. “You had a big career in the city, right? I heard you telling Aunt Mary that your purpose and passion were to find an important antique. But now you’re here. Did you give up?”
The question gave Andie pause. Had she given up, or had her priorities changed? And was that good or bad? Earlier in the week she’d been questioning her decision to move to Lobster Bay until she’d gotten busy with the Thompson house. Would she start to question herself again once that project was over, or would she be content to stay here? But Andie was already fifty. Jules was much younger. She should encourage the girl to go for her dreams.
“I wouldn’t say I gave up. More like my priorities changed.”
“Right. So what you thought you wanted when you were younger isn’t as important now?”
She could already see Jules getting ready to shift priorities. That would be a big mistake. “Maybe, but I think if you really know what you want, you shouldn’t let anything stop you. Not at your age. Time goes by fast, and you don’t want to look back and have regrets because by then it could be too late.”
Jules squinted up at her, shading her eyes from the sun that filtered through the Japanese maple across from them. “So you don’t have any regrets?”
Did Andie have regrets? The past few days working at the Thompson house, she hadn’t thought about how “important” any of the antiques were. She’d been more focused on how she could help Emily. Maybe her important “thing” wasn’t about the antiques after all.
“Well, I did go for my dreams. And I did find some great antiques. Never anything that would get worldwide attention, but maybe that’s overrated.”
Now that she thought back, her most satisfying finds hadn’t been the ones with the most monetary value. They’d been the ones that had brought tears to the eyes of the families because of their sentimental value. Like the old diary she’d found from a client’s great-grandmother and the Civil War discharge papers rolled up in a trunk in the back of an attic. “But I think if you feel really drawn to something and you really want it, you owe it to yourself to try,” Andie said.
“I’m not sure what I want. I love Aunt Mary, and cutting hair is fine, but when I was helping to run one of Gram’s motels, that’s when I really felt like I was doing what I was supposed to do.” Jules sighed. “Of course, that didn’t work out very well. Besides, I couldn’t afford a motel anyway.”
“Maybe you could get hired on to manage one? You have experience, and then once you get some money saved up you could probably get a loan to buy your own.”
Jules’s eyes brightened at Andie’s suggestion. “Do you think so? I want to expand on Gram’s idea of boutique motels.”
“Boutique motels?” Andie was curious. Maybe this was something they could use for Tides.
“All of her motels have a theme. You know, like tropical, or lighthouses, or zoo themed. All the rooms are decorated for the theme. Like the zoo one had a room with a zebra-striped bedspread and zebra accents. That was the zebra room. Then we had a leopard room and so on.” Jules became more animated as she described the motels. She leaned toward Andie. “I want to do a vintage one with all cool yard sale finds.”
Jules’s excitement was contagious, and Andie found herself wondering if she could help the girl. Visions of them attending yard sales and antiques auctions together as she scouted out finds for her motel came to mind. But she was getting ahead of herself. Maybe right now the best way was with some friendly encouragement. “I think you should do it.”
Jules’s excitement faltered. “But I wasn’t very good at it before.”
Andie waved her hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about that. Think of that as a learning experience. Now you know what to do.”
Jules looked up at her, the smile slowly growing back. “Yeah, you know you could be right.”
Andie said goodbye and left with the elevated feeling one gets when they’ve really helped someone. Now if she could just figure out how to help the Thompsons. Hopefully Jane, Claire, and Maxi could help her figure that out when they got together at Splash.
Chapter Fifteen
Splash was set directly on the beach. Its concrete patio sat about a foot above the sand and offered expansive views of the ocean. Andie was meeting Claire, Jane, and Maxi around five, so most of the beach-goers had packed up, but there were still a few holdouts sitting on striped beach blankets under colorful umbrellas. Children danced in the waves at the water’s edge, and the air was spiced with suntan lotion, fried seafood, and laughter.
“Glad you could come!” Jane indicated for Andie to take the seat next to her. “I heard about the auction. Is there anything I can do?”
Claire and Maxi murmured sympathetic noises over their fruit-laden drinks. A basket of tortillas and dip sat in the middle of the table, and Andie reached for one.
“Nothing really.” She crunched into the salty chip. It was sweet of her sister to offer, but what could be done? The closest thing they had to a contact at city hall was the ninety-year-old grandfather of Jane’s boyfriend, Mike, who used to work in the sewer department.
“Maybe you guys can help me come up with some ideas. We can talk about that later though. Tell me, how is Mike’s place coming along?”
Mike had just moved to a condo, and Jane had been helping him set it up. “Not very good. I don’t think he’s very interested in decorating. I’ve been trying to suggest things, but he doesn’t seem to get it. Not that it’s really my concern. I mean, it’s not like I’ll be living there or anything.” Jane flushed and paused to let the waitress take Andie’s order.
“Hmm, yeah, you won’t be living there. Uh-huh.” Maxi gave Claire a knowing look.
