Goodbye again wyndham be.., p.18
Goodbye Again (Wyndham Beach), page 18
Another customer, overhearing, engaged Gus in conversation, and eventually ended up purchasing two books about sharks Gus recommended.
“You’re hired,” Liddy called to Gus as he left the shop, and he laughed.
“Wow, he was interesting,” Liddy’s next customer commented. “I could have listened to him all morning.”
“Maybe sometime we could ask him to lead a discussion on sharks,” Liddy thought aloud.
“I’d be there,” the customer said. “And I think I’ll look into the mystery book club. Thanks. I love your shop, and I’m so glad it’s here. My husband is the new tennis coach at Alden Academy, so we’ve only been here since June. It was disappointing to find the nearest bookstore was a half hour away. Not that it’s so far, but there’s something nice about walking to your local shop, then maybe taking your book to the coffee shop across the street.” She added, “It would be even nicer if there was a park close by where you could sit and read outside in good weather.”
“There is a park about four blocks north of here, but I do have plans for a patio out back with maybe a few small tables next spring.” Liddy hadn’t had such plans until just now. “You’d have to bring your own coffee, though.”
“I would love that.” The woman brightened. “And I’ll bring my son to the story hour next Saturday.”
“Please do.”
Liddy leaned on the counter and rested her back for a moment. It had been an interesting morning. She’d received good feedback from her customers and a few ideas on how to make a visit to the shop even more enjoyable. As the day progressed, she found her patrons loved watching Rosalita’s progress, so she decided to leave the iPad on the counter every day.
Around four, some kids from the local high school began to filter in. There were two girls, who looked about sixteen, who both wore their white-blonde hair in high ponytails and were dressed almost identically, and a tall, gangly, dark-haired boy carrying a backpack, whom Liddy judged to be maybe a year or so older than the girls.
“Can I help you find something?” Liddy asked the girls as the boy walked past them. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him sit in one of the wingback chairs in the children’s section. He dropped his backpack at his feet, removed a book, and began to read.
“Do you have the new book by Janet Friesner?” one of the two asked.
“Maybe.” Liddy tried to think if she’d seen that author somewhere. “Is it a YA?”
“Young adult, yes.” The girl’s ponytail bobbed up and down.
“That section is down here.” Liddy led the way to the back of the store. The young adult section was right behind the children’s books. She checked the shelves. “F . . . yes, Friesner.” She pulled out a book. “The Hollow Hills High series?”
“Yes!” The girl reached for it eagerly. “I’ve been waiting for this book for months.”
“I apologize for not being more familiar with this series.” Liddy selected another book from the series and read from the back cover. “The continuing adventures of Angelet and Karyl.”
“It’s pronounced Carol, not Carl,” the girl told her. Her companion rolled her eyes.
“Oops. Sorry. As I said, not familiar with it, but I am now.” Liddy started back up the aisle. “Thanks for calling it to my attention.”
Halfway to the counter, she heard one of the girls say, “Dylan, why’s your hair wet?”
“I took a shower after gym class last period,” the boy who’d earlier seated himself replied without looking up.
The girls exchanged an amused look and followed Liddy to the cash register. They chipped in an equal amount to pay for the book.
“Sharing?” Liddy asked.
The girls nodded.
“Smart. That way you can buy twice as many books,” Liddy said.
One girl elbowed the other. “See? That’s what I said.”
They took their book and left the store. Minutes later, Maggie and Emma came in.
“We’ve come to whisk you away for dinner,” Emma told her. “It’s after five.”
“Is it?” Liddy glanced at her watch. “Damn, it is. I guess time really does fly when you’re having fun. Which I am. But I can’t leave the store unattended.”
“Grace is coming back in,” Maggie said. “She’ll be here any minute. I hope you don’t mind, but I told her to park in that space right behind the shop. I didn’t want to take the one space out front in case a customer needs it.”
“My customers thank you, and I don’t mind at all. I’ll go unlock the back door.” Liddy walked past them but returned in a moment. “I must be losing my mind. The door was already unlocked, but I swear I didn’t unlock it. I can’t imagine how that could have happened.”
“When was the last time you went out back?”
Liddy shook her head. “I haven’t gone out there in days.” She tried to remember who might have done so. “Maybe Tuck’s guys took some leftover drywall or something out back before they left the other day.”
“Has anything been missing?” Emma asked.
“Not that I can tell.” She looked around the shop. The books appeared to be in place, and she knew the money in the cash register was all there because she’d made a quick count earlier.
“Then maybe Grace opened it this morning for some reason. I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation. There she is now.” Maggie pointed to the back of the shop. “Ask her.”
But Grace hadn’t used the back door in weeks.
“I’m not going to lose sleep over it.” Liddy grabbed her bag. “Gracie, thanks so much for coming in. I appreciate the chance to step out for a bit. I won’t be long.”
“Take your time. I don’t have plans for the night.” Grace shooed the three women toward the front door.
“I’ve had some interesting people come in today,” Liddy told them as they crossed Front Street. “I got some good ideas for the shop from some new customers.”
“You can share those over dinner.” Maggie linked an arm through Liddy’s. “But first things first. Emma tells me Johanna Hall is on the prowl, and she’s set her sights on Tuck, who might have his set on you. Spill it, Lids.”
Over dinner, Liddy spilled.
“I could see Tuck as a companion for you.” Emma touched her white napkin to the corners of her mouth.
“Companion, hell,” Liddy scoffed. “I’m not looking to Tuck for companionship. I have you two for that, not to mention a steady stream of customers to talk to.”
“Maybe companion wasn’t the right word,” Emma said. “You may fill whatever you prefer in the blank. Doesn’t change the fact I could see you two together for something more than ‘Hey, Liddy.’ ‘Hey, Tuck.’”
“I guess we’ll have to wait to see what comes next. I’m just hoping it isn’t Johanna.”
“Tuck isn’t stupid, and I’ll bet he’s had his pick of women to date for years,” Maggie said. “If he had his eye on her, he’d have done something about it by now. I think she was blowing smoke.”
“Why would she do that?”
Maggie shrugged. “Maybe because you’re both single, and she saw him coming out of your shop at an early hour and was wondering what he was doing there.”
“Could be,” Emma said. “Maybe she was thinking there was something going on between the two of you, and she wanted to let you know you had competition. She wouldn’t come right out and ask you, because she’s sneaky.”
“Not to mention petty and jealous. I agree with Em.” Maggie drank the last of her iced tea. “She told you she was going to invite Tuck for dinner on Saturday night, maybe to see if she could get a reaction from you.”
“She didn’t. I was cool as a cucumber.” Liddy checked the time on her phone. “I need to get back. Let’s get the waiter to bring the check.”
Emma left them at the corner to walk back to her house on Pitcher Street while Maggie and Liddy returned to the shop. Grace was at the register reading when they came in.
“How’s it going?” Liddy asked her.
“Two customers while you were gone.” Grace nodded in the direction of the children’s section. “The kid is still here. I think he must be doing his homework.”
“He could go to the library for that.” Liddy glanced at the boy—Dylan, the girls had called him—who was writing in a notebook that was propped up on his backpack. “I thought kids did all their homework on computers these days.”
“Maybe some subjects, maybe not some others.” Grace shrugged. “And maybe he doesn’t have a computer at home. He’s not bothering anyone.”
“Well, I wasn’t going to give him the boot, Grace. I was just saying . . .” Liddy gestured for Grace to vacate the area behind the counter. “Are you done upstairs for the night?”
“I am. Mom, want a ride?” Grace dug her keys out from her bag.
“Sure. I could probably use the walk, but I’ll make it up tomorrow with an early run.”
“I’ll run with you,” Grace told her.
“Are you two still thinking about running a marathon?” Liddy asked.
“Mom is; I’m not.”
“You could train with me, Lids,” Maggie suggested. “I’ve been working with Dee Olson. She started running marathons after the last of her five kids left for college. She’s done Boston and New York. I run with her on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings.” Maggie laughed. “Of course, so far, I’ve only been able to go three miles, but I’m working up to it slowly, which Dee said is the best way to go. Build up gradually.”
“Well, it sure sounds like a good time to me, but I think I’ll pass.” The shop phone rang, and Liddy answered it. Maggie pointed toward the back of the shop to indicate they were leaving, and Liddy acknowledged their departure with a wave.
With twenty minutes left before closing, Liddy’s neighbor, Bernadette Sikorski, strolled in.
“I meant to come in earlier, but I had my grandsons after school, and time just got away from me,” Bernie told her. “I wanted to pick up the new book about the army nurse who was in Vietnam right at the end of the war. You know the one I’m talking about?”
“I do. It’s right over here.” Liddy led her to the general fiction bestseller table, but noticed the book was sold out. “Oh, maybe there’s one left on the shelves.”
The two women searched the shelf for the book and found it, out of place.
“It’s unbelievable people can’t put things back where they found them.” Liddy held up the book. “Bernie, I’m pretty sure this is the one you want.”
“Yes, that’s it. That’s the cover they showed on TV this morning. Thanks, Liddy.” As she paid for the book, Bernie said, “I saw Maggie’s daughter over by your place this afternoon.”
“She’s thinking about renting out the little house. You know, the small place down by the pond where Jim used to have his insurance agency.”
“Oh, sure. Is that place even livable?”
“Grace has plans to make it so.”
“Tell her to call my niece in Fairhaven if she needs insurance.”
“I’ll mention it to her.” Anyone but Jim. Liddy’s phone chimed nine o’clock, as she’d set it to do. “Did you walk over, Bernie?”
“I did. You ready to leave? We can walk together.”
“Just let me check the back door to make sure it’s locked and turn out the lights in my office. And there was one customer here . . .” Liddy looked around when she reached the back of the shop, but the boy who’d been doing his homework there for hours was gone. “Closing time. I’m locking up,” she called just in case he or someone else might still be in the shop. When there was no response, Liddy locked the back door and got her bag from her office. He must have left the shop while she was helping Bernie.
She decided to leave her iPad and Rosalita on the counter for the morning, and she and Bernie headed off toward Jasper Street. They took their time, discussing Grace’s plans for the shop and Bernie’s grandson’s soccer game along the way. The streetlights were a hazy glow overhead, the cicadas hummed in the background, and the very first faint hint of fall settled over the town.
Chapter Nine
Hope momentarily fluttered in Liddy’s chest when her doorbell rang at seven in the morning, but a glance through the glass panel in the door brought her back to reality when she saw a thirty-three-year-old woman where she’d hoped to find a handsome man of sixty-two. She opened the door with a slight sense of disappointment.
“Liddy, I just came from the little house, and I had a thought.” Grace stood on the front porch dressed in dark-gray sweatpants and a white UPenn sweatshirt, a colorful striped bag over her shoulder, and a bottle of water in her hand. “May I come in?”
“You didn’t sleep there, did you?” Liddy opened the door and Grace went inside.
“No, of course not. No bed. Critters galore—did you know there are snakes down there?”
“I never thought about it, but it doesn’t surprise me.” Liddy led the way into the kitchen. “I was just going to have coffee. Want some?”
“I’d love some. Thank you.” Grace sat at the table and hung her bag on the back of her chair.
Liddy poured coffee into two mugs and set them on the table, where she’d already placed the sugar bowl and a container of cream.
“You know, seeing you sitting there makes me think of all the times you had dinner with us when you were younger,” Liddy said. “All the time you spent here with Jess during the summers when you were still a kid.”
“I was just thinking the same. Jessie and I used to ride our bikes out to the point and back, or we’d play at the playground with the other kids all day till we had to come home for dinner. In the beginning of the summer, I always felt like a fifth wheel because they all went to school together and knew each other so well. By August, I felt right at home, like I belonged here, but by then it was time to go home. The following year, rinse and repeat.” She put a scant bit of sugar into her mug and followed it with a healthy dose of half-and-half. “I’d start crying as soon as my dad got here because I never wanted to leave.”
“Jessie always cried, too, when she knew you were leaving.”
Grace held up her index finger on her left hand. “Someone told us this finger was the one that had the blood right from your heart. Jess and I decided one time we wanted to be blood sisters, so we cut our fingertips and mixed our blood together. We thought that would mean my parents couldn’t take me back to Pennsylvania.” Grace took a sip. “We were so bummed when my mother told us it didn’t work that way.” She stared at her finger. “If you look real close, you can still see the tiny scar.” She smiled and looked up at Liddy. “We obviously had no conception of anatomy or where veins were. We cut a little too deep, and we both bled profusely.”
Liddy reached for Grace’s finger and studied it, then ran her thumb over the barely visible scar. “Did Jess have a scar, too?”
Grace nodded. “Not more noticeable than this one, I’m sure.”
“I never saw it.” She stared at the scar for a moment longer, then released Grace’s hand. “Gracie, did my daughter ever tell you she’d thought about taking her life?” When Grace drew back in apparent shock at the unexpected question, Liddy said, “I’m sorry. I should have led up to that better. It’s just, seeing you here, remembering how close you two were, I just wondered maybe . . .”
“No, Liddy. If Jess had ever given me any hint she was thinking about doing something like that, I’d have talked to her, I’d have told my mom, she would have told you.” She shook her head. “Uh-uh. But please remember, we didn’t see much of each other after high school. I came up here in the beginning of the summer with Mom and Natalie after graduation, but I only stayed for a few days before I left for the study program in Spain. After that, we both went to college, and I hardly ever saw her again. The few times we did see each other, it was sort of like ships passing in the night. She was living in Boston, and unless she happened to be home for the weekend when we were here visiting my grandmother, we just didn’t connect. I’m very sorry. If I knew something, I’d tell you, but by then, we’d really grown apart. If she’d confided in anyone, it wouldn’t have been me.”
“I just had to ask.” Liddy patted Grace’s hands. “So tell me why you were at the little house at seven in the morning.”
“Actually, I was there at six,” Grace confessed. “I couldn’t sleep, so I got up and got ready for work, but it was still so early, and I’d had this idea about some furniture of Mom’s from the Bryn Mawr house. So I walked to the little house, and I was mentally placing those pieces around, you know how you do?”
Liddy nodded, wondering where this was going.
“So, I started thinking . . . oh, but first, does the little house have a separate address from your house?”
“Yes. I’m pretty sure I told you it’s deeded separately, and Jim didn’t want business mail coming to the house and family mail going to the office. So he arranged to give that property its own number, which it would have had if a regular-size house had been built there. It’s two-oh-eight, by the way.”
“Two-oh-eight Jasper Street. Got it.” Grace took a deep breath. “I’m thinking I would like to buy the place rather than rent it. What do you think?”
“I have no use for it, Grace. And frankly, since you want to put so much money into it to fix it up, you should own it. I think I said that before. So, sure.”
“How much would you want for it?”
“I have no idea what it’s worth. I imagine most of the value is in the property.” Liddy shrugged. “I have no idea how big the lot is.”
“Let’s get it appraised so I can make you a fair offer.”
“Honey, I’d sell to you for one dollar.”
“Uh-uh. Fair value. I’m not going to take advantage of you because our families are close.”
“If I’m willing to sell to you for a dollar, you’re not taking advantage of me. That’s my price.” Liddy folded her arms across her chest.
“So if I were Joe Blow from Rhode Island, the price would be one dollar?”
