"I wondered. You used to enjoy an evening drink out on the deck. When was the last time the two of you did that?"

  Margo took a deep breath. So deep her lungs burned. She let it out slowly. She nodded her head slowly. "It's all making sense now, isn't it?"

  "Well, you didn't go out and have an affair. But it does seem that you two grew apart and were living separate lives."

  "All my life consisted of was working."

  Carley frowned. "Well, now you can make a change in that regard."

  Margo snorted. "I guess."

  Carley squeezed her hands. "What were you doing back there?"

  "Tossing his shit in boxes."

  "Want help?"

  "Sure. Want a glass of wine to go with it?"

  "I'll never turn down a good glass of wine."

  Margo stood and pulled Carley's hand, so her sister stood, too. They moved together, hand-in-hand to the kitchen. Margo pulled a bottle of wine from the wine fridge, while Carley pulled two wine glasses off the hanging rack above the far counter. She opened the bottle. They both giggled when the cork offered a little 'pop'. She poured them each a generous glass of wine and Carley held hers out. "I propose a toast to a new life. One filled with love and laughter and fun."

  They clinked their glasses together and took a drink. Margo nodded. "Okay, let's get that bastard's clothes out of my house."

  They strode to the bedroom where a stack of unopened boxes lay on the bed and several opened and taped boxes stood on the floor.

  "Are you organizing the clothes in any certain way?"

  Margo grabbed a handful of clothes from the closet, hangars and all. "Yes." She turned and dropped the clothes into a box, shoved the parts that didn't drop into the box inside, and stood proudly to look at her sister’s smiling face. "Just like that."

  Carley clapped her hands. "Yes! I love it."

  They both grabbed armloads of clothes and shoved them into boxes. As they needed a new box, one of them would open a new one and tape the bottom.

  As soon as Logan's clothing was packed, Margo grabbed her glass of wine and a box. "On to his bathroom shit."

  Carley followed her, laughing, but she carried what was left of the bottle of wine. It didn't take them long to clean out Logan's shaving cream, aftershave, and some of his medicines. He had bottles and bottles of antacids. Margo tossed in three bottles of them and clapped her hands together. "Looks like his stomach was bothering him. Hope it hurt."

  Carley stopped what she was doing and stared at her. Margo shrugged. "He was probably having stress-induced acid reflux. Guess lying is more hazardous to your health than we thought."

  Carley stared a bit longer, then a smile crawled across her face. She burst out laughing, and Margo joined her. And it felt good.

  They finished off that bottle, then opened another one. Carley called the local thrift store to see if they could send someone over in the morning to pick up all these boxes. They said they'd have someone there at eight.

  Their last stop was the basement, where they started tossing Logan's lures and bobbers into boxes. Then Margo said, "I'm sick of doing this. I'm calling a couple of his customers that he worked with a lot..." She pulled Logan's phone from her back pocket and tapped it a couple of times. "Yes, here he is. Nathan."

  She tapped his name, and the phone began to ring. "Hello?" His voice sounded suspicious, and Margo chuckled. "Hi, Nathan, it's Margo. I suppose I gave you a start when I called you on Logan's phone. I'm sorry for that."

  "Oh, well, yes a start is a good way to put it. How can I help you?"

  "I'm getting rid of all of his lure and bobber-making stuff. Would you like it?"

  "What? You mean you're selling it?"

  "Nope. You can have it. But you have to take all of it."

  "Oh...well...I'm...wow. I'd love it. But it must be worth so much..."

  "It isn't worth anything to me. Actually, I’d like to get it out of the house, actually. If you want it, I'd ask that you come by tomorrow and pick it up. I have boxes here."

  "Oh. Um. I don't know what to say. Yes, I'll bring my son to help me. Does ten work for you?"

  "Ten will be perfect. I'll see you then."

  She hung up the phone and took another sip of wine. Carley smiled. "What else can we get rid of?"

  Margo burst out laughing and replied. "How about another bottle of wine?"

  11

  Jace stopped at the Town Hall office inside the courthouse. The clerk behind the counter smiled. "How can I help you?"

  "I need to file the paperwork to have the town council consider the expansion of my business at next week's meeting, please."

  "Oh, of course." She stepped away and pulled some papers from an organizer on the far wall. She strode to the counter and lay the papers in front of him. She pointed to the top sheet. "This is the application. You need to fill this out." She reached over and pulled a pen from a cup on the counter. "This next sheet is the detail behind your request. Fill it in as fully as you can."

  "Okay."

  The clerk pulled the last sheet from the pile. "This is the time of the meeting and location and what's on the agenda so far. This sheet will be updated before next week's meeting on Monday night."

  "Okay. Thank you."

  He moved to the small table at the back of the room and sat in the metal folding chair pushed up to it. He filled out the application using the neatest handwriting he had. More than once, he wondered if he should have asked for this to be emailed to him so he could have filled it out on his computer. But he was here now.

  After the mind-numbing process of filling out an application and asking detailed questions in minutiae, he finally walked back to the bar. He'd opted for walking today, not that he wouldn't get thousands of steps in later, but as a way to reconnect with the town. Often, he lived in his own little world at the bar.

  He felt pretty good about this application, and as he walked back to the bar, he noticed that the buildings around the square had second stories. There's no reason his couldn't. And as he stopped and looked at it now, staring at his building from the road, the building did block the view of the beach, but that wouldn't change. And a second story wouldn't change that either. He turned with his back to the sandbar and looked at the roadway behind him. There weren't any buildings back there whose view would be blocked. There were palm trees that hid his home, but there was nothing else. The Sandbar stood on Sunset Beach Road, and Main Street was a block over. His house was in between, sort of, and the only other building next to the thrift shop was the fire department, and that was absolutely a two-story. Plus, when it came to noise, the fire trucks leaving were plenty noisy, much noisier than his music. As he looked down Sunset Beach Road to the right, he had his little bungalows along the right of the road, and Grace's little bungalows were further down on the left. Jamie Hart's place and the barn and, finally, Sid and Grace's house way up on the bluff. He wouldn't be blocking any of those places’ view. And his friend Quinn, well he lived across the road from Sid and Grace's at the bottom of the bluff. He didn't have a view this way, so it wasn't going to block anything, was it?

  He felt pretty confident about his request, and then excitement surged through him. Oh, he couldn't wait to get this going. Somewhere deep, deep down, this had been inside all along.

  Things were finally coming to fruition. He couldn't be more excited.

  He strode into the bar and began to prep for the lunch crowd. He was tending bar until Mason came in at five today. Normally, he waited tables and served lunches, but Mason had something going today. It was going to be a hot one, so being inside at the bar wasn't all bad. As he began pulling clean glasses from the dishwasher rack, the bar door opened, and he had to stop and stare for a moment. A tall, lanky redhead with long wavy red hair flowing down her back sauntered in with another man. The man wore a dark suit, which seemed at odds with the weather. His build could be described as portly. His hair was balding, and they couldn't have been more of an opposite duo if he had imagined them himself. The redhead wore a tight, black sleeveless dress and a diamond necklace. She was curvy and stunning. She noticed him staring, and her smile grew wide. She winked at him, and he grinned. She sauntered to a table with her companion, and they sat. He waited a beat, then went over to the table to take their order.

  "What can I get you, folks?"

  The redhead smiled at him. Her right shoulder rose, and her head tilted. She was flirting with him. In front of her companion.

  Her red lips turned up in a smile and before she spoke, she slowly swiped her tongue along the inside edge of her lips. "I'd just like an iced tea, please."

  He swallowed. "You got it."

  He turned to her companion who seemed uninterested in anything, including the redhead, which he thought was funny. "I'll just take a coffee if you have it."

  "Yes, sir, we have coffee. Coming right up."

  As he walked away, his confusion grew, but who was he to judge? He prepared her iced tea, poured the gentleman a coffee, and brought creamers and sugar to the table with it. "Will you be having lunch with us?"

  The man nodded. "Yes. What do you have for a special today?"

  Jace nodded. "Let me get you some menus."

  He strode to the hostess podium near the front door, and pulled two menus from the rack. He laid one in front of each of his guests and said, "Our special today is fish and fries. It's a recipe from my own family, and folks around here seem to think it's pretty good. If you're not into seafood, we also have a mushroom Swiss burger on special today. Both are two dollars off and come with fries, or you can substitute onion rings. We also have chicken noodle and beef barley soup. I'll give you a few moments to look over your menus."

  He sauntered back to the bar and continued unloading the clean glasses from the dishwasher rack. His mind floated back and forth between the expansion, and how he would broach the town hall committee. They could be sticklers sometimes, and he wanted to formulate his argument if they gave him any grief. Now that Quinn had drawn the second story, he couldn't see his bar any other way. Quinn was right. The view would be phenomenal.

  The redhead and her companion closed their menus, so he sauntered over to them. "What can I get for you, folks?"

  They both ordered the mushroom Swiss burgers. She continued to flirt with him by tilting her head, lifting her shoulders, and smiling while staring into his eyes. He thought it was weird that her companion didn't seem to notice, or care, shaking his head as he moved toward the kitchen.

  He tucked their order on the cook's rack and called out, "Order up!"

  Stepping out to the bar he continued to formulate his argument for the town council meeting.

  12

  A knock sounded on the front door. Margo stared at herself in the full-length mirror in her bedroom. White slacks and a flowing white sleeveless top with tiny blue flowers on it were what she'd chosen this morning. More due to the heat than anything. She turned to answer the door, but her sister Carley rushed out of the spare bedroom.

  "I'll get it."

  Margo halted and decided to dig through the safe at the back of her closet. That's where they kept all of their important documents. The business incorporation papers, estate planning, deed to the house and business. All of it was in there for fire and theft protection.

  She dug to the back of the safe and found the deep blue folder where her estate planning documents were safely tucked inside. She opened it to confirm the contents. Margo Elizabeth Price was typed in bold letters. She knelt to reach further to the back. The other deep blue folder containing Logan's estate documents was not in there. A pit grew in her stomach. She had a feeling this was not going to be a good day for her again. Another crap to be taken on the top of Margo, just as the past two weeks had done to her. She stepped from the bedroom, hugging the blue folder to her body, and heard Carley speaking to another woman.

  As she entered the living room, she saw Hanna Valentine. She hadn't seen Hanna in years.

  "Hi, Hanna, how are you?"

  "I'm good, Margo. I came to, well, bring you these."

  Hanna held out a little pink box in front of her. "I made these cinnamon rolls. I'm not sure if you're aware, but I'm back in town and running my grandmother's bakery. Mom retired. But I revived grandma's cinnamon roll recipe and they've been a hit in town, so I thought I'd bring you some as an offer of condolences and friendship."

  Margo's heartbeat increased. Here was sweet Hanna Valentine offering her gifts of condolences, and all Margo wanted to do was kick Logan in the balls. "Well, thank you, Hanna. That's very nice of you."

  "I know this can be a hard time. But I wanted to offer you a shoulder, if you needed one, although it looks like..." Hanna turned to Carley. "You have a great one right here. But if you ever need someone to speak with, I just wanted to let you know I'm here. My friend Grace, also." Hanna smiled, then rushed to continue. "Which, by the way, I'm not sure if you're interested, but tonight my fiancée, Quinn Kurtz, from Kurtz Construction Company..."

  Margo smiled, "Yes, I know Quinn. I just helped him with the barracks deal."

  "Yes, that's right." Poor Hanna seemed frazzled or nervous. "Well, Quinn and his friend, Sid, who owns Miracle Garage on Main Street, will be at the Legion with area veterans, and Sid's wife Grace and I are going to the Sandbar to enjoy a couple of drinks. There's a band playing. Anyway, I'd like to extend the offer to you and Carley. Please join us. It's nothing formal. Casual dress. It's going to be a beautiful evening. The temperature is supposed to cool down to the mid- seventies which will be perfect for sitting out on the beach and listening to some music."

  Carley rushed. "Oh my God, that sounds like so much fun. Margo we've got to go. We need to get out of the house. Please let's go out."

  Margo hesitated. She wasn't sure she'd be good company after whatever was about to happen at Grant Park's office.

  Did it look right? So soon after Logan's death, did it look right for her to be out?

  "I don't know if it would be right, so soon after Logan's death, doesn't it look like I'm out scouting the town?"

  Carley shook her head. "You're single. Logan's been dead almost a week. The old rules don't apply these days and you are still alive. And having a drink with lady friends and listening to music isn't scouting. At least not the last time I checked."

  She hesitated and bit her bottom lip. She wasn't ready to let the town know what Logan had been up to. It was embarrassing.

  Hanna shrugged, "Well, I mean, I don't want to put pressure on you, but I wanted you to know that Grace and I will be there, and we will hold the table open for you, too. If you care to join us. I hope to see you there."

  She turned to leave, and Carley nudged Margo. "Let's go, Margo. Let's go."

  Margo swallowed. "We'll see you there tonight, Hanna. Thank you for the invitation."

  Hanna smiled brightly. "That's great. We're happy to have you join us. Seven o'clock."

  "We'll be there."

  "Jace. He's a friend of Quinn and Sid's. He saves us a table up near the stage. It's not right in front, so the music isn't too loud. It's off to the side, but we have a great view. Plus, we're close to the water. It's perfect."

  At the mention of Jace's name, Margo flinched.

  Carley seemed incredibly excited and rushed in. "Oh my gosh, that is so fun. Thank you so much for the invitation. We'll be there for sure. Right, Margo?"

  She grabbed Margo's arm and squeezed tightly. Margo nodded woodenly. Maybe it would be fun.

  "Yes, we'll be there at seven. Thank you for the invitation."

  Hanna smiled and stepped out of the door, and Margo turned to Carley. "I don't know if this is a good idea, Carley."

  Carley shook her head. "Stop worrying about what anyone thinks. The old pearl clutchers aren't going to be there drinking and listening to music. And so what if they are? All that matters is that we know the truth. Right?"

  Carley stepped in front of her. "We know the ugly truth."

  "Yes, we do, and it is ugly."

  "I agree with you. But you can't stop living. And actually, now more than ever, you need to get out there and live again. You haven't been living in years, Margo. Not in years."

  Tears threatened, and Margo blinked furiously. She still gripped the folder in front of her. Taking a deep breath, she let it out. "I guess we better get going. And by the way, this is a copy of my estate planning documents. Logan's are missing from the safe."

  Carley's shoulders dropped. "Oh dear. I dread this for you."

  Margo shook her head and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, she stared into her sister's eyes, similar to her own. "Don't dread it for me. I will deal with whatever he's done. But that fucker better not be trying to take my business away from me. I don't know how I'll get even, but I will."

  Carley nodded. "Well, I like that attitude. Better to fight than it is to dwell in despair."

  "I'm not desperate for anything. So this is just one more nail in the coffin, so to speak, for me to get past all of this. It seems as though Logan was hell-bent on ruining my life for whatever reason. I do not know. But I guess we better go find out."

  "Okay."

  Margo took a deep breath before she stepped inside Grant Park's office. She was still clutching the folder with her estate planning documents inside like it was a lifeline. She didn't even know why she brought it. Her documents weren't in question. Thankfully, Carley was with her.

  Jailisa, Grant's personal assistant and receptionist, sat behind the front desk. She's always there and had been for years. For as long as Margo could remember, anyway. "Good morning, Ms. Price or should I say afternoon. Good afternoon, Ms. Price."

  Margo tried to smile but nerves forbid it. "Good afternoon, Jailisa. This is my sister, Carley. Carley, Jailisa."

  "Nice to meet you, Carley. I'll let Mr. Park know that you're here. Please take a seat."

  Jailisa stood and then halted. "You know, on second thought, how about if you come right into the conference room? They followed her to the door to the right of her desk.

 

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