“Both probably,” he said. “Whatever keeps us from messing up this good thing we’ve got going on.”
She nodded. “Good night, Nick. And thank you again for my gift.”
The smile he gave her was tight, but it was the best he could do. “Good night, Lucy.”
When he was stretched out on the bed, staring up the ceiling, Nick had to admit to himself that he was worried about messing up this good thing. But every day he grew more certain kissing Lucywasthe good thing.
Chapter Ten
Is anybody missing a dog? Looks like a shorthair breed mixed with a husky maybe? No collar. Very skittish and not friendly at all. We had a hard time getting him in the crate and had to use meat to trap him. Please spread the word because he’s very unhappy.
—Wayward Harbor Online Community Group
Eight days later, Lucy was such a tangled mess of nerves that, if her nerves were yarn, even the most experienced and frugal knitter would toss the skein and knit something else.
Helen was only one day into her two-week cruise, and Lucy hadn’t anticipated how much anxiety she’d have about her grandmother being on a floating resort out in the ocean.
She didn’t knowwhatwas going on with Nick. Since the night they’d come very close to crossing the line from kissing to making out in her bedroom, he seemed to have retreated back across the friend zone line. There was laughing and joking and conversation, but he hadn’t initiated another kiss, and she wasn’t brave enough to do it.
The whispers and looks around Wayward Harbor, especially at the Keel, weren’t dying down. If anything, there were more, and she didn’t understand that. The Las Vegas thing should definitely be dying down, and since Iris hadn’t followed her daughter to town, it felt as if people should be getting over Lucy’s last name by now.
And she was about to serve her “fancy shots,” as Billy called them, to ten obviously wealthy women on the deck. They were friendly enough, but clearly used to the best, and Lucy wanted desperately to deliver.
The shot had three layers—from the bottom up Kahlúa, then Bailey’s Irish Cream carefully tinted a pale blue, and at the top, a more intense blue made of blue curaçao and vodka—resembling the beach, the ocean and the sky. She set each shot glass on its own little saucer of sand. Billy had grumbled about buying play sand when they lived on the ocean, but she’d curtly told him that good old Maine sand was full of bugs and bacteria and who knew what else, which shut him up. The little shells she’d collected and cleaned with Nick. When she’d explained what they were for, he’d taken the task seriously, and the shells were perfect.
She used tweezers to set a tiny floating candle in the center of each shot. Then, when she’d signaled Mattie and gotten the nod to indicate she was free to carry a tray, Lucy lit each candle and took a picture with her phone for her digital scrapbook.
Luckily, it was a still night, with no wind to blow out the candles. She’d obsessed over the weather forecast so much Nick had threatened to take her phone away, but Mother Nature had cut her a break.
Lucy and Mattie carried the two trays out to the deck and set a saucer in front of each woman. Their gasps and the way they scrambled for their phones to take pictures earned Lucy a smile from Mattie before she took the empty trays and went back to her customers.
“Get one of all of us, please,” the hostess said, handing over her phone.
Lucy took a deep breath and took a step back so she could fit them all in the frame. “This is a wish from all of us at the Uneven Keel, that all of you have a magical, wonderful summer. Now, three…two…”
She was ready when they blew out the candles and captured more of them laughing and clapping. After setting down the phone, Lucy quickly and efficiently went around the table and used the tweezers to remove the candles and drop them onto an empty saucer. She set it out of the photo frame and picked up the phone to take pictures of them downing the shots.
Then she returned the phone and went back inside, leaving them to their revelry.
“Pretty slick,” Billy said, giving her what she thought was a nod of approval. “You got a little sweat around your hairline there. They’ll be content for a few minutes, so go take a quick break.”
Lucy nodded, pulling her phone from her pocket as she went through the kitchen and out the back door. While the joy and triumph were still pumping through her system, she was going to call Sydney. And since the clock was ticking, she couldn’t think too long about it or second-guess herself. She skimmed through her contacts and hit the button to call.
“Lucy!” Sydney’s greeting was so loud, she pulled the phone away from her ear for a second. “I’ve been so worried about you.”
“I know, and I’m sorry. I just… I was hiding from the world.”
“Where are you?” her friend demanded. “Are you still in Vegas?”
“I’m in Maine, actually.”
“Instead of coming right here, you went toMaine? Girl, it’s cold as hell there. Why would you do that?”
Lucy didn’t want to confess she was afraid Sydney would do like everybody else in her life and turn her back. “My Gran’s here and it felt like a good time to visit with her. During the transition, you know?”
“Oh, that’s right. I forgot you had family there. How’s she doing?”
Lucy laughed. “Good, from what I can tell. She’s not actually here.”
