“Thank you. You’re being so reasonable about this.”
“Well, you were right. There’s no one to leave the land or anything else to.” Suddenly Jim sounded very tired. “So if we can do something nice for someone Jess loved, that’s what we’ll do. Maybe Jess will know, wherever she is, and it will make her smile.”
Liddy swallowed the lump in her throat, but before she could say anything else, he’d hung up. She turned off the light in her office and sat for a while in the dark. At eight thirty, she got up from her desk and walked up to the counter.
“I think I will take off a little early,” she told Marion. “Are you sure you don’t mind closing?”
“I don’t mind at all,” Marion said. “And I’ll open in the morning. Come in when you’re rested.”
“Thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Liddy found her bag behind the counter, and left the shop. She crossed Front Street and walked the few blocks to Jasper Street, but at the corner, she paused. Johanna’s house was one block up and another block over. She found her feet moving in that direction, and though she told herself it was a bad idea—a really bad, dumb idea—she kept walking.
Never ask a question you don’t want the answer to, her father used to say.
And still, she kept walking.
When she came to the large two-story house with the big white pillars in front, she slowed. Yes, that was Tuck’s truck in the driveway. She glanced at her watch, the numbers barely legible in the shadow of the streetlights. Johanna had announced to the entire shop that dinner was at seven, so he was probably past the hors d’oeuvres and into the main course.
She crossed the street and chastised herself for acting like the lovesick fourteen-year-old she’d been that summer she’d stalked Russ Watson. Having decided he was the love of her life, she’d done everything she could think of to get his attention. She’d shown up everywhere he went, as if by accident, when in actuality she’d eavesdropped on him and his friends every chance she got. She’d finally been caught hiding in a clump of forsythia while he was making out with Chery Thompkins in his backyard when the Watsons’ next-door neighbor’s dog sniffed her out and chased her across the yard. A picture of the chase flashed, and she saw herself screaming for help while the dog nipped at her ankles. She’d dashed across the grass and down the Watsons’ driveway. The dog had chased her all the way to Beach Road before Russ caught up with it and took it home. He’d been so shocked at her appearance he hadn’t said a word to her that night—or ever again. It hadn’t been funny then—she was sure Chery Thompkins was going to tell everyone in school, but she hadn’t because she’d told her boyfriend she was going to a sleepover at Adele Maxwell’s, so she kept quiet. Liddy, of course, had not uttered a word to anyone, not even telling Maggie or Emma till the end of the summer. She’d thought they’d be shocked and horrified, but instead they’d both laughed, and she’d joined in, the three of them laughing until their sides hurt. Remembering made her laugh out loud all over again.
She laughed all the way home, at the absurdity of the situation and her foolishness at having reverted to spying on the guy she liked just as she had when she was a kid. And she did like Tuck, more than she’d ever liked any man—other than Jim, back when he was still a good guy and not the man who’d walked away when things got rough. She knew Tuck liked her, too. It was evident in the way he talked to her and the things he did for her. But if he chose a shallow, silly woman like Johanna over her, well, c’est la vie. There wasn’t much she could do about that.
They could still be friends, which of course was second best in Liddy’s eyes, and certainly not what she’d prefer. But she enjoyed his company too much to give it up should romance not be in the cards. He made her laugh, and he made her feel special, sexy, and smart. Who wouldn’t want a man like that?
What she could do, she reasoned as she walked up the path leading to her front porch, was pour herself a nice fat glass of red wine and put her feet up. Of course, she’d rather have one of her world-famous margaritas, but it had been a long day, and margaritas were more work than she felt like tonight. Wine it would be, with a side of brie, crackers, and Netflix.
Having decided to take Marion up on her offer to open the shop in the morning so she could sleep in, Liddy set the alarm for seven instead of six. She took advantage of the extra time, treating herself to a longer shower than she’d had in weeks and making herself a real breakfast of poached eggs on toast and bacon. She’d just poured her second cup of coffee, which she’d decided to drink out on the deck, where she could admire the last of her summer flowers, when the doorbell rang. Expecting Emma or Maggie, she took her time getting to the foyer, wondering what could bring either of them out so early in the day.
She opened the door to find Tuck standing there.
“I hope this is okay—to stop over so early—but when we got home yesterday, we realized we’d left JoJo’s book at the bookshop, and she was despondent. I thought I’d have time to stop at the shop last night, but you were already closed when I swung by.”
“Ah, that’s right. Dinner last night with the hot widow Hall.”
Tuck looked at her as if she’d suddenly sprouted a second head.
“Hot widow?” He laughed. “I don’t think so.”
“Come on in and have a cup of coffee with me. Marion’s opening up this morning, so I have time.”
He followed her into the kitchen, and she poured him a mug. The cream and sugar were already on the table, so he fixed his coffee and took a sip. “You do make a great cup of coffee, Liddy.”
“Thanks. I was just about to go out to the deck.” She opened the back door and gestured for him to step outside. “Come join me.”
There were three lounges on the left side of the deck, and a table with four chairs on the other. The morning air was crisp and scented with a faint hint of salt from the harbor mixed with the sweet autumn clematis that wound around an arbor.
“Let’s take the lounges,” she suggested.
“This is really nice out here.” Tuck sat and put his feet up. “Your yard is beautiful. Do you have someone do your gardening? The flower beds look professionally done.”
“Nope. That’s all me, though I have to admit, lately the beds have taken a back seat to the shop. The weeds are out of hand, and pretty soon I’ll have to find time to pull those canna tubers out and store them for next year.”
“Running your own business can monopolize every bit of your life. I know all about that.”
“I’m starting to understand just how much it takes. I don’t mind, though. I love that shop, and I love seeing people find something to read that excites them. I love to read, so it’s no hardship for me to read the new releases at night so I can recommend them to the right people. It’s a fun job if you’re a people person.”
“Which you are,” he noted.
“Yes, I am, but the past three years, I hardly saw anyone except Emma, and then Maggie moved back, so I was spending a lot of time with her as well. I didn’t know how badly I needed the shop until Carl mentioned he was putting it up for sale. I knew right away I had to buy it.”