Changing Tides

by Meredith Summers

  Mike must have sensed her thoughts. His eyes were sad as he watched Cooper. “It was kind of a bummer letting the old place go. Gramps loved living in the town. He used to be a town official here.”

  “You know, I think I might remember my grandparents mentioning a George Henderson. Is that your grandfather?” Jane asked.

  “Yep. They probably knew each other. Seems like most people in town did back then.”

  Cooper dropped the stick proudly at Mike’s feet. It was as big around as Mike’s fist and nearly as long as the dog. Mike stared blankly at it. “What do you expect me to do with that?”

  The dog sat proudly, his tail thumping the sand.

  With a sigh, Mike bent to pick up the stick. “This thing has to weigh ten pounds!”

  He threw the stick hard, and Cooper took off after it.

  “I’m sure your grandfather appreciates you being here and taking Cooper to see him. Will you stay out here long?”

  “I’m a programmer. I can work on my code from anywhere, but I’ll have to go back at some point.” Mike’s face turned serious as he looked down at Cooper, who had returned with a different stick. “I’m not sure what I’ll do with Cooper, though. My apartment in Seattle is definitely not dog friendly.”

  Jane’s heart pinched as images of Cooper sad and depressed in a small apartment—or worse, inside a cage at the animal shelter—bubbled up. A dog like Cooper needed room to run.

  Mike picked the stick up and threw it. “But I guess I’ll figure something out. He’s a good dog, deserves a good home. Besides, I’m not ready to leave yet. Gramps needs me.”

  “Well, they’re both lucky to have you,” Jane said. “I guess I better get back. My inn is down at the other end of the beach.”

  “Oh, well, then I guess I’ll see you around?”

  “Probably,” she said as she turned to leave.

  When she glanced behind her, she found Mike shading his eyes, keeping a closer watch over Cooper. The dog was happily frolicking in the waves, chasing them up and down the beach. Jane couldn’t help but laugh.

  And just like that, the tension melted from her body, and she wished that she could stay. Because the dog, for whatever reason, made her forget the weight of her worries, the weight of the past. She could just be herself, free and happy.

  But she couldn’t stay. She had lots to do to rebuild Tides. After a moment, she turned back and continued to the inn.

  Mike tore his gaze away from the happily frolicking dog to watch Jane walk away, his mind automatically comparing her to the last woman he’d dated, Tiffany. She was the complete opposite. Of course, he wasn’t dating Jane, not even close. He barely knew her, but he wouldn’t mind getting to know her a little better.

  Though maybe dating wasn’t a good idea. The last relationship had not gone well. He should have listened to his best friend about dating a woman six years younger than him, even if she was thirty-five. She acted more like twenty-five and was prone to drama, not the least of which was the way she refused to accept the fact that things were over between them.

  Jane was more mature, and she didn’t seem the least bit like a drama queen. She fit with Lobster Bay—humble, unassuming, peaceful. She was elegant in a way most woman strived to be. The short haircut, that might look mannish on some women, looked incredibly feminine on her. She didn’t wear a lot of makeup or color her hair like Tiffany had either. Nor did she dress in tight flashy clothes designed to draw the eye—but classy, plain clothing that made a man feel at ease while still admiring her figure. Jane had a nice figure, long legs and a lean body that told him this wasn’t the only time he’d find her walking along the beach. Maybe, if he was lucky, she’d do it daily.

  Judging by the age of her mother at Tall Pines and what she’d said, she might be a bit older than him, but probably not by much. What was a few years between them at their age, anyway? Besides, she was cute, and he liked the way she blushed every time she fiddled with her hair. If he gave her just the right smile, he got that faint blush in return. It had become a challenge.

  Yes, he definitely hoped to see her again.

  His eyes flew to Cooper just as the dog plunged into a particularly deep wave then bounded back onto the beach, shaking the water off and looking toward Mike.

  Mike sighed and rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. The dog needed more than his small apartment. The longer Mike spent in his company, the more attached he became, even though he knew it wouldn’t be fair to the dog to cart him back to Seattle. He’d have to find a home for the dog here, but it was going to be hard to leave him. Cooper had such a good personality.

  Honestly, it was going to be difficult for Mike to leave Gramps too. Some of his fondest memories had been made on the coast of Maine: Gramps teaching him how to fish. Tagging along at Gramps’s heels as they visited the community, helping people out who needed it. Mike had spent most of his summers around this area, a world away from his parents’ suburban home. Returning made him feel lighter, carefree.

  But he couldn’t stay. His life was in Seattle.

  Or was it? What did he have back home that he couldn’t have right here? He was forty-one years old, and all of his friends were married with children. Most of their time was spent with their kids. He’d broken up with Tiffany. He could telecommute. Truth was, he really didn’t have much back in Seattle, and Gramps needed someone nearby as his power of attorney.

  Mike’s phone pinged, and he slipped it out of his pocket to check it out of habit. Tiffany. Scowling, he shoved it back in. That was, what? The sixth text he’d received from her in the past two days? He’d taken to counting them, responding only to every fourth. He should block her and stop replying, but he didn’t want to be rude. It might have to come to that, though. The girl just was not getting the message, even though he had spelled it out as plain as day the last time they’d talked in person.

  Tiffany was one more reason to stay here, to start fresh. As he glanced down the beach after Jane’s retreating figure, he turned over the idea in his mind. He didn’t have any reason to go back to Seattle, except for the cactuses on his windowsill. The idea of staying here, in Lobster Bay, was becoming more appealing the longer he thought about it.

  Chapter 6

  Jane returned to Tides in time to snag the last remaining lemon poppy seed muffin, see Brenda out the door, and vigorously clean the sunroom. The part-time maid had dusted and laundered the bedsheets from Mrs. Weatherlee’s room. With no other guests, there wasn’t much else for her, or Jane, to do. Jane checked the messages on the answering machine, but no new bookings had come in, so she retreated to the rocking chair on the porch with her muffin and a cup of coffee.

  Rocking in the chair, her thoughts turned to Cooper. The dog was a welcome distraction from her troubles, and she leaned forward and craned her neck to see if she could spot him down the beach. She couldn’t, though. The section in front of the cottages was too far away, but it was nice to think she might run into Cooper again, simply by walking down that way. She’d run into Mike, too, but it was Cooper she really wanted to see, of course.

  Jane settled back in the chair and fished her cell phone out of her pocket, taking in a deep breath to steel herself before dialing her sister. Andrea had returned her call earlier, but she’d missed it. Now it was time to call her back. Too bad all she got was voicemail.

  Jane sighed. “I guess I missed you again. Call me later.” She hung up, not knowing what else to say.

  She stuffed a big bite of muffin into her mouth and opened the email app on her phone. She had a lot to accomplish and no idea where to start except to see if someone had gotten back to her about the website work she needed done.

  Only one of the website designers she’d emailed had answered her, and the news wasn’t favorable.

  Hi, Jane. I’d be happy to redesign your website, but I’m booked solid for the next three months. I can start working on it then, if that timeline works for you. Let me know, and I’ll give you a quote.

>   Three months! No, that timeline did not work for Jane. For all she knew, by then she might be out of business. Luckily there were two other web designers. Surely one of them would be able to start sooner. They had to because she needed a better website. But, of course, that wouldn’t help if she didn’t start tending to some of the maintenance issues at Tides. She closed her eyes, rocking in sync with the waves as she made a mental list of the things that needed to be spruced up. First there were the railings on the stairs that needed repair, the wallpaper in the sunroom, the molding in the front parlor needed to be painted—

  “Is this a bad time?” Sally’s voice permeated her thoughts.

  “No, sorry. I was just thinking. Are you done for the day?”

  “Your windows are all tight as can be. There won’t be any cold air coming in through cracks this year. That, I promise.”

  “Thank you. I really appreciate you fixing up the inn so quickly.” Not everyone was willing to go to such lengths to make time for her, and she didn’t want Sally to get overwhelmed with all the work ahead of her. “I spoke to Shane Flannery, and he’s coming for an interview.”

  Sally nodded approvingly. “He’s a good sort. Loyal. Hardworking.”

  “I know,” Jane said simply.

  “You know him?”

  She shrugged. “We went to high school together. He and my sister dated for a long time.”

  “Oh, that’s right. I think I remember that now.” Sally studied her for a few seconds. “Is something bothering you?”

  Jane sighed. “I was just going over all the things that need to be done to get Tides in tip-top shape so we can bring in more customers. It’s overwhelming.”

  “Ah-yuh,” Sally said, with feeling. “I can see it would be. But don’t worry, once you get Shane on board, the two of us can whip it into shape. This place has charm, but if you got with the times and modernized it a bit, I’m sure you’d have people coming here in droves.”

  Jane stopped rocking in the chair and tilted her head, thinking.

  “What do you mean?”

  Sally shrugged. “You need to do something to make it stand out from those Airbnbs cropping up everywhere. Talk about the delicious breakfasts you make here—Brenda offered me a piece of quiche when I got in earlier. I’d stay here just for that! And why don’t you have some tables out here so your customers can come out and watch the ocean while they eat? It would be perfect.”

  Jane considered her words in silence. Neither her grandparents nor her parents had served meals on the porch, but nowadays restaurants all had outdoor seating. She’d just gotten used to doing things the way they’d always been done and only serving in the dining room. Sally might be on to something.

  With a sigh, Sally shook her head. “Has your sister given you a reason why she hasn’t come down to help you run this place?”

  “We’ve been playing phone tag, but I suppose she’s busy. She has a very demanding job as an antiques appraiser at Christie’s in New York.” Why did she feel the need to defend Andie?

  Sally made a face. “Ah-yuh, I know. Fancy city job. That girl always did want more than she had. But the thing she never realized is that sometimes you’ve already got what you really need. They say ‘Home is where the heart is’ for a reason.”

  Jane looked out over the ocean. “I know exactly what you mean.”

  It was part of why she couldn’t sell the inn. Not without taking her best shot at running it first. Every time she walked through the door, she was comforted by happy memories. “But I’m not sure Andie will ever realize that. I don’t think she feels the same way we do about Lobster Bay.”

  Sally tsked under her breath. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that. Home calls to us all at some point.”

  Maybe Andie had made herself a home away from Lobster Bay. Maybe she was happy. Jane didn’t really know because they’d grown apart over the decades. They’d never gotten back to the closeness they’d had when they were younger, and somehow over the years, Jane had stopped hoping it would magically happen.

  Jane looked out over the beach and then back at the inn. Sure, it might need a coat of paint and there might be a few broken things here and there, but Tides was her family legacy, and Jane was going to do her best to make it profitable again, whether or not her sister cared to be a part of it.

  Chapter 7

  Andie poked her head into Doug’s office.

  “Fancy finding you here,” she said with a little laugh. She meant the statement to be ironic, poking fun at the fact that too often when she had stepped past this same office in the last week, Doug hadn’t been inside. She’d thought he’d been avoiding her. Maybe he’d only been busy.

  She stepped into the office. Doug had always been messy. It was in direct contrast with his neatly trimmed beard threaded with silver and the suits and ties or sweater vests he tended to wear to the office. But as much as the clutter of his office sometimes got on Andie’s nerves, it was also kind of charming in a distracted-professor sort of way.

  She trailed her fingers over the edge of the desk as she waited for him to look at her. “When did you get back in? I didn’t realize you’d come back.”

  “Is there something you need? I’m really busy.”

  His voice was curt, and it cut her. She gritted her teeth, trying not to show it. She’d feel better if he looked like a mess, stressed up to his eyeballs or overworked and exhausted. But no, he looked pristine. Cold and pristine.

  She could take a hint, even if it stung.

  She should have known she would get hurt if she carried on with a married man. A part of her had hated it—and herself—from the start. It was why she pushed him about the divorce. She’d wondered all along if the separation was really as final as he’d said. But now she was starting to wonder if maybe his lack of attention had more to do with a certain new employee than it had to do with his not really wanting to make the break from his wife.

  Well, the heck with him.

  “I need time off,” she blurted out.

  He frowned. He pulled the reading glasses off his nose and tossed them haphazardly onto the desk. How he’d be able to find them again in the pile of all that junk was anybody’s guess. “You can submit a vacation request.”

  “Actually, I need time off now. Today. I finished my cataloguing for today, and I have a family emergency at home.”

  His eyebrows climbed. “I didn’t know anyone in your family was sick.”

  If he’d even remotely listened to her, he would have known about her mother’s health problems. But Doug had always been all about himself. Tightly, she told him, “There’s been a decline in my mom’s health, and I have to go home.”

  “Home is… where?”

  “Lobster Bay. It’s in Maine.”

  He grunted. Why wasn’t he consoling her? She didn’t expect him to leap over the desk or anything, especially not here at work where everyone could see, but a few friendly words would have been nice.

  “That’s a long way from here. What if the Richhaven estate comes up while you’re away?”

  “Text me if that happens, and I’ll fly back.”

  He was treating her like she was a new, flaky employee, not a woman he’d known and dated for the past few years. When they’d started their affair, she had felt as though he had seen her, valued her. Now it was clear he didn’t.

  But maybe, if she left, he would. Not as a girlfriend—now that she was seeing another side of him, she realized that she’d known for quite some time their relationship was going nowhere. And oddly, it didn’t hurt as much as it should have. Maybe she’d dated him because deep down she knew he would never be able to make things more permanent.

  She hadn’t been satisfied for months with their arrangement, and he didn’t care enough about her to keep her happy. Besides, didn’t she deserve somebody who gave her his full attention, who didn’t keep her as his dirty little secret?

  “Okay, fair enough. If it’s an emergency, you must go, then.”

&nbs
p; “I’ll call you later in the week and let you know how long I think this emergency will take. Text or email me if the Richhaven estate comes up. Goodbye, Doug.”

  She turned and walked out of the room, feeling lighter for having turned her back on him. She needed to get away—from all of this, but especially from Doug. And maybe, with her gone, he’d realize how big of an asset she was to this company.

  After all, no kid barely out of college could do her job like Andie could. It was about time somebody acknowledged that.

  Chapter 8

  The sun was just about to set when Jane arrived at Splash, the oceanside restaurant that she, Claire, and Maxi frequented. Splash was casual, with an outdoor eating area on the beach. Tiny white lights twinkled from the umbrellas, and frothy waves washed up on the beach in front of them. The evening sky reflected the pinks and blues of the sunset.

  Maxi and Claire where already seated with drinks in front of them. Maxi’s had a tiny plastic pink mermaid perched on the rim—Claire’s, a blue seahorse. Jane ordered a salty seafarer margarita and sat in the empty chair facing the ocean.

  “We put in an order of steamers.” Claire glanced over the rim of her drink. “How are things going at the inn? Any new bookings or ideas?”

  “Not too bad. I’m going to hire Sean Flannery to help Sally so we can get some repairs done.” Jane’s drink came, and she took a sip, glancing out at a dog frolicking on the beach. It reminded her of Cooper, and she smiled, craning her neck toward the end of the beach where the cottages were. But of course the section where Cooper lived was way too far down.

  “Looking for someone?” Maxi asked.

  Jane blushed. “No, I just ran into that dog again on the beach. Cooper, the one I told you about?”