“Thanks.”
“Did you see the package that arrived yesterday?” Nora asked.
“It was from Holly. She sent me a basket of beach stuff to ‘remind me to relax.’”
“Sounds like she knows you all too well.” Emma’s gaze shifted to Nora. “We were just discussing birthday plans. Let’s take the day off. We could go to Bald Head Island or go kayaking or whatever you want. It’s your day.”
“I think I want to go to church,” Maddy said impulsively.
Some of the things Connor said had hit home. She’d been hit-or-miss with church at home on account of her work hours, and the sisters hadn’t attended at all since they’d come to Seahaven.
“Okay,” Emma said. “I’ll go with you.”
“I guess I will too,” Nora said. “It’s probably the same people we knew from before. I wonder if they still have that old organ—and the woman who played it—the one with the white granny fro.”
“Oh, she was ancient then,” Emma said. “She can’t still be alive, can she? Remember that usher with the glass eye? It always felt like he was staring me down.”
“I was so scared of him when I was little.” Maddy sipped her coffee, trying to wake up. “Then when I was five or six he helped me tie my shoe, and I realized he wasn’t so bad after all.”
Nora scratched Pippy behind the ears, and the dog’s eyes all but glazed over. “Gram dated him for a while.”
Emma gasped. “She did not.”
“I didn’t think Gram dated anyone after Gramps passed,” Maddy said.
“I don’t think she dated much,” Nora said. “But I know she went out with him at least once—she mentioned it to me.”
“She and Gramps had the perfect relationship,” Emma said with a sigh. “I don’t think anyone else could live up to him.”
Nora humphed. “There’s no such thing as a perfect relationship.”
Maddy lifted her mug in a mock toast. “Hear, hear!”
“What do you want to do after church?” Emma asked.
“You know what?” Maddy said. “At the risk of sounding like an old fuddy-dud, I think I’d just like to relax and take a nap. These late hours at the restaurant are getting to me.”
“You should do that,” Nora said. “I think I might go for a jog on the beach, if it’s not too hot when we get back.”
“You? Jog?” Emma smirked. “Isn’t golf or tennis more your style?”
Nora ignored the scorn in Emma’s tone. “I like the endorphins it gives me. I can take Pippy along, if you don’t mind. She might like it. She seems like the adventurous sort.”
“She’s never gone running before,” Emma said. “She might tire easily.”
“I don’t run very far or very fast. Just a mile or so.”
“Suit yourself. Just keep her on a leash, or you’ll be the one doing the chasing.” Emma’s gaze drifted to Maddy. “So how about if we take you out to supper tonight? We can dress up and make a night of it.”
“That sounds like fun.”
“Where do you want to go?”
Maddy had been wanting to experience Sullivan’s Landing as a customer, but hadn’t had the time. Maybe this would be the perfect opportunity.
“Not the Landing,” Nora said firmly. “It’s your day off.”
“For heaven’s sakes, no,” Emma said. “No work today. How about that fancy restaurant on the other side of the bay—the Harbormaster? They filmed a scene from that Nicholas Sparks movie there, and I heard someone raving about it at the coffee shop.”
