“Did you say the Tides?” Mary’s client, an older woman in her eighties with unnaturally dark hair, had followed Mary from the back and come to stand in front of the checkout desk with her purse open so Mary could cash her out.
She looked at Andie, her gaze curious. “My daughter is staying there next week on her visit. Do you own it?”
“Sort of. It’s been in our family for generations, but my sister, Jane, runs it.”
“Lovely place.” The woman nodded as she fiddled with her purse, pulling a few bills from it for Mary, then she looked at Andie again, her expression sympathetic. “I knew your mother back in the day… how is she?”
Andie knew she was asking about her mother’s memory issues. “She is doing pretty good.”
Mary finished cashing the woman out, and she waved goodbye to Andie and Jules while calling her thanks to Mary as she left.
The shop door closed behind her client, and Mary turned to Andie, a friendly smile on her lips. “How have you been? I haven’t seen your shop open in a few days, so I figured you must be busy up at the Thompsons’. How is that going?”
Andie settled into one of the chairs in the waiting area. “It’s going pretty good. We’ve got a lot done already, and there’s still a few things to do, but it feels good to be accomplishing things.”
“You seem to have a zip in your step, or I should say a renewed sparkle in your eyes? Is that because of the project? Or maybe it’s because of Shane?” Mary asked slyly.
Andie felt her face heat. She really wished people would stop making suggestions about her and Shane. Especially since nothing was going on between them. “The project. There’s nothing going on with Shane.”
Jules looked over from her task of rearranging the flowers. “No? I heard about the little date you had with him at the beach.”
Andie blushed. “It wasn’t a date.”
Was it? Their walk along the beach had felt so similar to those of days past, and yet so different. Shane was there. She was there. She’d felt drawn to him exactly as she had before. But there was still a distance between them—about thirty years of distance—that a single walk down the beach for hot dogs couldn’t quite bridge.
“It wasn’t?” Mary asked. “You look a little disappointed.”
Shaking herself out of the memories, Andie blinked. “No. I mean, I don’t know. It’s complicated.”
Marytsked. “Nothing complicated about it. You like him. He likes you. So you have history. Get over it.”
Andie laughed. “You make it sound so simple.”
“It is.”
Andie wasn’t so sure. If it were, Shane would have said something, right? If he were okay with moving forward despite their past, he would at least have tried to see her again. Wouldn’t he?
“We’ll see. Right now, I’m concentrating on the Thompson project. Which reminds me, that’s one of the reasons I came over.”
“You didn’t just come to spread cheer with your flowers?” Mary asked.
“That too. But we’re nearing the part of the project where we need an inspection.” She waited.
It didn’t take long for Mary’s face to acknowledge the significance of her inflection. “Damien. Right.”
“Sally mentioned something about you taking care of it…?”
Mary waved her hand dismissively. “Oh, yeah, don’t worry about that.”
Andie’s face scrunched up. “Seriously? I mean, I can’t imagine how you could influence him.”
“I have my ways, but I can’t tell you what they are. Hairdresser-client privilege, you know.” Mary’s hand fluttered to her heart protectively, and she grimaced as she reached for the bottle of Tums she kept on the checkout desk.
Andie slid a quick glance at Jules and decided not to press Mary more. She changed the topic to something more positive. “The best part of the project so far is that we took Addie and Sadie to the house, and they uncovered a secret passage.”
Jules’s eyes widened. “Really? I’ll bet it was used for the Underground Railroad.”
“We think so.”
