“That reference opened a lot of doors for me, Liddy. So whatever you need, whenever you need it, I’m just a phone call away. Retired, semiretired, or spending my days fishing, I’m always here for you.”
“Well.” Liddy cleared her throat. “Good to know.”
“So I’ll start on the front on Monday. The guys can do the painting, I’ll take care of the door myself.” He ran a hand over the wood. “I’m wondering what I’ll find under all this paint.”
“I’m curious myself. By the way, how’s the sign coming along?”
“It’s almost done. It just needs another coat of paint, and it’ll be ready for hanging next week.”
“I can’t wait to see it.” She pictured the front of the shop with the brand-new WYNDHAM BEACH READS sign out front, and another vision popped into her head. “Tuck, if I bought a flower box for under that window, could you install it for me?”
He looked at the space she indicated. “You mean a window box? One that would go the entire length of the window?”
She nodded.
He pulled a tape measure from a pocket in his tool belt and measured the length, then whistled. “A window box that long is going to have to be custom made, and it should probably be freestanding, since the window is so low, and God only knows how much weight that lower section of stucco could handle.”
“Hmmm. I guess that would be pretty expensive.”
“Custom has its price.”
“So I guess I’ll stick to planters on either side of the window. That should be doable, right?”
“Doable, sure.” He stared at the front of the store as if seeing something she couldn’t see. “Really would be pretty with planters at either end and one long window box spilling over with flowers.”
“Overkill?”
“No such thing when you’re talking about flowers.”
“Flowers in season, then maybe some gourds and pumpkins and purple cabbage in the fall,” she said. “Greens and holly in winter. Things that create a little interest, you know?”
“Color to draw the eye to the shop. Then they’ll see the window and all those books, and they’ll be hooked.”
“That would be the idea. Everything I have is invested in this place, Tuck. I have to make this work. So that custom window box is going to have to wait. Maybe next year.” Her eyes traveled the length of the window longingly, but she knew her money was going to have to be spent elsewhere.
“Well, then, let’s go inside, and you can show me what else needs to be done in there so you can open on time, and we’ll see how much we can get done today.”
“Tuck, I can’t ask you to do any more for me than you already have.”
“You’re not asking, I’m offering.”
Liddy switched on the overhead lights after they stepped inside. She still didn’t like the fluorescent glow, but until she knew what the must-haves—updating the heater and installing air-conditioning, for example—would cost, she didn’t want to get ahead of herself.
“So what do you still need?” Tuck gestured to take in the entire shop. “Looks pretty good to me.”
“Well, I was thinking maybe a coffee bar over here.” Liddy walked to the open space to the left of the counter.
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why would you want a coffee bar?”
“I thought it might encourage people to browse. You know, grab a cup and walk through the store to get acquainted. Plus I think it would be nice once I get a book club or two rolling.”
“Let me ask you this: How would you feel if Ground Me started selling books?”
Without hesitation, she said, “I’d be pissed off.”
“Might want to think about that.”
She nodded again, more slowly this time.
“You’ve got the best coffee in Massachusetts right across the street. Why would you want to compete with them?”
“I wasn’t thinking of it in those terms, but yeah. You’re right. So we’ll scrap the coffee bar, maybe use that space for something else. A display of some sort, maybe the current week’s bestsellers.”
Liddy bit her bottom lip. All along she’d been sold on the coffee bar, but Tuck was right. For a shop as small as this one, a coffee bar wasn’t the best use of the space. Especially since she herself relied on Ground Me for their excellent coffee. “Maybe for the opening I’ll just send across the street for some carafes.”
“A much better idea if you’re determined to offer coffee on opening day and if you want to keep the peace on Front Street. You can just set up a little table there when you want to offer coffee or whatever.” He gazed around the room. “So what were you planning on doing in here today?”
“I was going to start putting the books back onto the shelves, now that the floors are cleaned up and the shelves look so good.”
“Just cleaning them up, adding a little shine, was all the floors and bookcases needed.” Tuck ran a hand over the nearest shelf. “Nothing like beautiful wood grain, Liddy.”
“It’s pretty, all right.” She walked to the back of the store and picked up one of the boxes of books waiting to be returned to their shelves.
“You’re going to pull your back out doing that.” Tuck took the box from her hands. “Tell me where this goes.”
She pointed to a bookcase, and he carried the box over.
“Next?” he asked, his hands on his hips.
“Tuck, you don’t have to cart all these boxes around. I know you have other things to do.”
“You’re right, I do. So let’s not waste time arguing about what I can and can’t help you with. Just point.”
She sighed. She knew Tuck well enough to know he wasn’t a man to argue with once he set his mind to something. Today he’d obviously set his mind to giving her a hand in the shop, so she was going to have to let him do just that.
Tuck finished hauling all the boxes of books to their destinations, and Liddy began sorting them so she could stock the shelves.
“Liddy, I’m going on upstairs to take a look at the water damage on the third floor.”
“Check the back wall on the second floor, too, while you’re up there,” she called to him as he disappeared into the back hall.
As the morning progressed, Liddy accepted a shipment of new releases from a distributor for several of the big publishers. She stacked those boxes by the back door while she decided where and how to display them. Grace had designed price stickers for the shop, but Liddy still had to go through the books and decide on pricing. She’d need to discount the hardcovers, and the stickers would have to reflect the discount. She sighed. If she thought too much about everything she still had to do before opening day, she’d probably run screaming down Front Street as if her hair were on fire.
“At least then I’d be working off some of this tension,” she muttered.
Tuck appeared at the back of the shop, wiping his hands on a checkered cloth. When he drew close to the counter where she stood, he shoved the cloth into a back pocket and announced, “Well, there’s good news and bad news. Which do you want first?”