“I’m on a break now,” Mary announces as she breezes by me. “Back in fifteen.”
“Fair warning, Grump is dead asleep on the sofa in the break room,” Jake says to her, his smile disappearing for a moment. “He worked an overnight shift and then got straight on the boat with Charlie all day.”
“I’ll try not to wake him,” she replies.
“Wake his ass,” Terra pipes up. “He has to go get his furball from my place anyway.”
I have no idea what or who they are talking about but as Mary disappears into the kitchen, I realize it doesn’t matter. I’m just enjoying the show.
Jake turns to Terra. “I’m gonna run down to the boat and make sure your dad doesn’t need something to eat.”
Terra nods at him, smiling like he hung the moon, but as soon as he’s out the door, she looks me dead in the eye, all business. “Do you work on retail sites? Ones that want, say, to sell product directly from the web?”
“Yep. Done that.” I tear open the creamer package and pour it into my coffee, then grab my spoon and try and think of specific, local examples. “Have you heard of Patti’s Parlor?”
“Of course. Patti is a friend of the family,” Terra replies, and I nod. “Jake is the one who gave her the idea to always have a homemade flavor of the month.”
I nod. “Well, I designed a website for them. One where you can purchase pints of the flavor of the month directly online and have it delivered.”
Terra smiles. “Cool. I didn’t even think of delivery. Why haven’t I thought of delivery? I mean if Patti can do it, why can’t we?”
She looks right at me like she expects me to answer that. I decide to just shrug as I lift my coffee mug to my lips. “There’s no reason you can’t. There is also a huge market in pick-up. I know people come here, order at the counter, and take it down to the beach or their boats, but what if they could order online and not have to wait around for it? They could just show up when it’s ready.”
“Oh my God, yes!” Terra claps her hands. “Watch the front, I’ll be back in a sec!”
Now I’m watching the restaurant? As Terra disappears through the swinging door to the kitchen, I can’t help but think this is truly the oddest interview I’ve ever been on. The kitchen door swings open again a second later, and I expect to see Mary or Terra, but someone new appears. Someone who makes Jake’s intense good looks seem like the low end of the scale. This guy is a hair shorter, probably six feet, with even wider shoulders, and chestnut hair. His strong, angular jaw is covered in thick, dark stubble. Not quite a beard but more of an aversion to shaving regularly. He’s in a dark gray Henley and a pair of bright orange rubber pants with suspenders that somehow appear sexy as he stalks over to the coffee pot. He barely glances at me, but in the brief moment our eyes connect, I notice his are a stormy but vibrant blue and he’s got the same chin dimple as Terra, only more pronounced. This has to be someone from her family. One of those single brothers Mrs. Cofax was asking about? I watch as he pours himself a cup of coffee then starts searching the countertops for something and muttering under his breath.
“I have cream and sugar over here.”
He glances up again. His blue eyes move from me to the coffee condiments in front of me. This guy does not have the same friendly, jovial vibe as everyone else. He’s solemn and intense. He gives me a curt, tight half-smile as he walks over and reaches for an unused creamer. I clear my throat. “I’m Chloe.”
“Oh. Cool,” he says with zero enthusiasm in his tone. Zero anything, really. He sounds almost robotic and he must realize it because as he stirs his coffee, he lets out a sigh. “Sorry. I’ve been on the fishing boat since five this morning, so I’m groggy to say the least.”
The conversation from earlier between Jake, Mary, and Terra comes back to me, and my voice raises with my understanding. “Oh, you’re the grump asleep in the back.”
Oh my God did I just blurt that out? Crap.
His eyes narrow on me and his face, which wasn’t jovial to begin with, drops into an unmistakable scowl. “What?”
“Jake said you were sleeping in the back. Well, he said the grump was sleeping in the back after working all night and then going out on the boat,” I say, and just keep on rambling like a lunatic. “I don’t think you’re a grump. I don’t know you at all, and if I had worked an overnight shift and then got on a boat to work some more, I would be tired too, I’m sure. I just…I was just repeating what I heard. I mean, not that I do that. Repeat stuff. Gossip. I don’t. I just—”
Terra bursts through the swinging door, now holding a laptop. Her eyes move to the guy standing in front of me and rightfully looking at me like I should be committed. “I see you’ve met my brother Logan.”
“Logan? Yes. I guess I did.”
“You’re telling strangers I’m a grump now?” Logan asks his sister, an eyebrow arched.
“You’re growling at me, grump,” Terra replies and Logan grunts and leaves, disappearing with his coffee through the kitchen door.
I put down my empty coffee mug. “So, I’m sorry about that…mentioning the grump thing.”
“Whatever. He is. I say it to his face constantly,” Terra looks up from the laptop screen. “I really like what you did with Patti’s website. It’s quirky but professional, just like the business.”
“Thanks.”
Terra spins the laptop toward me, and the website on the screen is one I don’t recognize. The background is navy blue and the accents are goldenrod. The font is a formal script and there’s no real imagery except some stock photography ocean pictures and one of a lobster in a tank. “Does this website scream multi-generational business run by simple Mainers who care about their community?”
I lean closer and scour everything I can see on the site. I don’t have time to figure out how to give her a constructive, honest answer before she continues to speak. Well, rant, actually.
