The Chesapeake Diaries Series (250 page)

“We’ll have to stop in at the office to pick up the key.”

“Good. It’ll give me a chance to see Jesse before the rehearsal dinner tonight, and I haven’t seen Violet in years.” Olivia’s gaze swept both sides of the street.

“Oh, look at that darling little shop!” she exclaimed when they stopped for the red light in the center of town, where a small crowd of tourists—day-trippers and weekenders—drawn to St. Dennis by the exceptionally warm weather waited to cross.

“That’s Bling. Great clothes and accessories. Vanessa Shields owns it. I got my dress for the wedding there,” Sophie explained.

“I’ll have to make a point to stop in there before I leave. Slow down so I can see what’s in the window.” Olivia craned her neck to stare.

Sophie laughed, but rode the brake past the shop, where a display of leather bags in spring colors took center stage.

“I may have to go there today,” Olivia said. “After lunch. There’s a fabulous mustardy-colored bag …”

“Because you have so few bags.”

Olivia waved her hand to dismiss her daughter’s remarks. “We all have our vices. How much farther to the office?” Before Sophie could reply, Olivia rolled down the car window and leaned out slightly. “I love the architecture in this town. There’s a lovely Federal-style house back there right next to a Victorian with a wide sweeping front porch and a huge bay window that goes three stories up.” She turned back
to Sophie. “And the trees! You’re weeks ahead of us when it comes to the flowering trees. The town looks so pretty. No wonder you decided to come back to stay.”

“I can’t claim that the magnolias and the weeping cherries and all those other pretty trees had anything to do with my decision to move to St. Dennis. I’ve never been here in the spring. But I admit, it’s pretty to look at.”

She made a right turn onto Old St. Mary’s Church Road, then another right when she arrived at the corner where the office was located.

“Enright and Enright.” Olivia pointed to the sign. “I suppose it hasn’t been lost on anyone that with you joining the firm, it’s still …”

“Yes, Enright and Enright. I know. You’re about the twentieth person who’s mentioned that.” Sophie blew out a long breath. “Sorry. Twenty might be an exaggeration. But it has been said that me agreeing to work here is keeping the tradition alive.”

“I suppose it also hasn’t been lost on you that if your father hadn’t been such an ass, you’d be able to skip this step and concentrate on your restaurant.”

“I can’t say that it hasn’t crossed my mind, but it is what it is, Mom. It may take me a while longer to get where I want to go, but I will get there.”

“That’s my girl.” Olivia leaned across the console and patted her daughter’s arm. “I wish … well, I wish that you could have skipped this step, that’s all.”

“It’ll work out. I’ll be fine.” Sophie took the keys from the ignition. “You coming in?”

“Of course.”

“I don’t see Jesse’s car,” Sophie noted. “Maybe he’s still at his meeting.”

The office door was locked, Jesse apparently still out, and with Violet having the day off, the office was empty and quiet. Sophie grabbed the key from her desk drawer where she now kept it and tried to keep her excitement under wraps as she drove to River Road.

“Now, it’s rough, like I said …” Sophie parked in front of the building.

Wordlessly, Olivia got out of the car as soon as it came to a stop. She stood, hands on her hips, staring first at the structure, then at the surrounding property.

“It’ll look a lot better when the weeds are cut down and the doors painted,” Sophie said somewhat weakly, trying to see the place through her mother’s eyes.

“What’s on the second floor?”

“There’s an apartment.”

“Are you going to live there?”

“Eventually. I need to get the restaurant up and running before I can start to work upstairs. I can sublet Jesse’s place at least until the fall, when his lease expires.”

“What’s next door there? Behind that God-awful Cyclone fence?”

“I don’t know.” Sophie paused to take a better look. “Looks like a couple of trucks and some sort of heavy equipment.”

“That could turn out to be an eyesore.”

“I can always plant some evergreens, I suppose, to block the view.”

Nodding, Olivia walked closer. “That would definitely help.”

“I thought it would be pretty to have some flowers planted under the windows and next to the door.” Sophie pointed to the flower beds that in her mind already existed.

“Some roses, yes.” Olivia nodded as if she could see it, too. “Daylilies. And something else …”

“The door painted green, maybe. Or blue.”

“Something light.” Pointing upward at the sign, Olivia asked, “Name?”

“I haven’t come up with one yet.”

“There’s time. Let’s go inside …”

Sophie unlocked the door, this time grateful that she didn’t have a flashlight with her. Maybe her mother wouldn’t notice just how much work needed to be done.

She should have known better.

“Well, you do have your work cut out for you,” Olivia said after having had the grand tour of both the restaurant and the apartment. “But I think it’s going to be fabulous once you’re done. I can hardly wait to see it.”

“Thanks, Mom.” Sophie swallowed a lump. Her mother was the first person in the family to give her venture wholehearted and optimistic support.

“I’ll be here on opening day,” Olivia assured her. “Now, tell me what you’re going to have on the menu …”

“Mostly basics, with a special every day.” Sophie reiterated her conversation with Shelby as they walked around the building.

“It sounds as if Shelby has given you good advice.”
Olivia paused out back. “You’d have a lovely view of the river if you removed some of those trees. You could have some tables out here …”

Sophie grinned. “I’m planning on it. Maybe not this year …”

“Why not this year?”

“I don’t think I’m going to be able to afford to have all the trees removed, a patio put down, and purchase the sort of tables that should be out here. So maybe next year.”

“I wish we knew what was going on, on the other side of that fence.” Olivia frowned disapprovingly at the sight. “Does the fence belong to you or to the property next door?”

“I’m pretty sure it’s theirs. It goes all the way across the front and down the other side, and now that I’m looking at it more closely, there’s a big double gate out front.”

“It’s really ugly. Well, maybe you can sweet-talk the owner into removing it.”

“I don’t know who owns it, and I doubt they’re going to go to the expense of taking down a perfectly good fence—ugly though it may be—and then pay to put up something that’s more aesthetically pleasing to me.”

“Evergreens, definitely. And maybe you could plant some flowering vines on it,” Olivia suggested. “At least along the section that faces your building.”

“We’ll see.” They reached the bait shop side of the building and Sophie shared her plans for the garden.

“Yes, yes, I can see it. It’s going to be beautiful. I applaud your good eye, Sophie. And I can see where this could be a success, given the amount of early
morning traffic you can expect, and the opening of the studio down the road.” She paused. “Now, if we’re done here, why not show me where that new film studio is going to be. I read somewhere that they’re casting their first movie. Then maybe we can stop in that little shop so I can take a closer look at that bag that was in the window. And after that, you can take me to that ice-cream place. I’m thinking this is a dessert-first kind of day …”

Jason rounded the bend in River Road just in time to see a dark SUV drive away from the parking lot of the building next to his property. The building he’d been coveting. The one where he’d planned on opening his retail business. The one that Paul Dunlap, his Realtor, had just told him had been sold.

“Sold!” he’d all but shouted into the phone. “How could it have been sold? You told me it wasn’t even on the market!”

“It wasn’t. At least, the owner told me that it wasn’t. When I called this morning to check in with her again, just like you asked, she told me she’d had an offer and decided to take it.”

“But she promised I’d have first shot at it.”

“I don’t remember a
promise
, Jason. I’d
asked
her to call if she wanted to sell the place, and she said she’d keep it in mind. There was no promise, nothing binding. She wasn’t under any real obligation to call me.”

“So it’s done?” He couldn’t believe it. His place. Sold out from under him …

“Not done as in gone to settlement. But she was pretty adamant.”

“Can’t you go back to the owner and see if we can make a better deal with her?”

“She’s signed an agreement of sale. The only way it’s going to be nullified is if the buyer found some way out of the contract, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. I’m sure that whoever’s buying it is taking it as is, no contingencies.” The Realtor paused. “I’m sure that’s the case, since it’s such a fast settlement.”

“How fast?”

“She said they go to closing week after next.”

“Can we find out who bought the place? Maybe I can make them an offer.”

“I’ll ask around, see what I can find out … but you know, if someone went out of their way to buy that property that quickly, they must have some plans for it.”

“Who was the Realtor?”

“Hamilton Forbes. Look, Jason, I’m sorry …”

“Yeah, thanks.” Jason hung up, kicking himself for not going to Forbes himself when he first spied the property. Forbes was a lifelong resident of St. Dennis, his company had been around forever, and he knew everyone in town. Jason had gone with Paul because, even though he was new to St. Dennis himself, Paul had been the listing agent for the nursery property and had assured Jason that he’d keep an eye on the Walsh building, that he’d make certain that when it came up for sale, his would be the first offer.

So much for that
. Jason blew out a long stream of agitation. He idled the engine and leaned on the steering wheel, watching the dark SUV disappear around the bend in the road, his earlier good mood growing fouler by the minute.

He’d counted on buying that building. He’d sketched it out fifty times—where he’d grow what, where he’d eventually build a greenhouse. He’d calculated how many people he’d have to hire right away, how many more he’d likely need next year and the year after, and how much income the business would have to generate in order to pay for it all. That property—that building—had played such an integral part of his overall long-term business plan that he felt momentarily stunned at the reality that it would belong to someone else.

He tried to remember if he’d ever before been too stunned to even curse, but was pretty sure that this was a first.

There was no way around it. He was going to have to come up with a Plan B, find another place for the retail shop. Unless, of course, he could convince the new owner to sell the property to him. Paul obviously thought that was a dead end, but hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Maybe the buyer picked it up on spec, thinking to hold it for a while, then sell at a profit. With Dallas’s studio opening up soon, surely property values would increase along this stretch of River Road.

He finished his coffee and crushed the cardboard cup. He’d started the day on such an upbeat note and he hated that it had gone downhill in the time it took for him to answer his phone.

Good mood or bad, he still had a long day’s work ahead of him. There was a new office building out on the highway that had contracted him to landscape, and his best crew was already on their way to the job site where he was to meet with them. He’d get them
started, then spend the rest of the morning having sod laid in Curtis Enright’s backyard.

“Got all the grandkids in town for Jesse’s wedding this weekend,” Curtis had told him. “I know the gardens can’t be finished in time, but could we get some grass out there where the backhoe tore up the lawn when those big trees were brought in? I’d sure like it if I could walk the kids down there to show off what we’re doing, maybe play a little horseshoes or badminton on Sunday afternoon.”

“Not a problem.” Jason tried to picture Curtis swinging at the birdie, but he couldn’t quite manage it. “I’ll take care of it.”

They were cutting it close—Curtis’s family was due to arrive in St. Dennis tomorrow—and the sod had taken longer to arrive than had been promised. It would need to be well watered today and with the weather forecast for tomorrow calling for temperatures in the 80s, Jason was pretty sure it would be dried off by the time Curtis’s family descended on him.

All in all, no time to pout, Jason reminded himself as he turned the pickup around. Things were what they were. If he’d dwelt on hardship or misfortune every time something bad happened to him, he’d be in therapy right now. Tomorrow was bound to be better—his mother always told him that, that sun always followed the rain. She’d been an optimist, always looking for the bright side of things, always looking for the good in every situation and everyone she met. That was one of the things he best remembered about her, her little homilies about life and how everyone’s life had hills and valleys. When things
were not going so well and you felt like nothing was ever going to be good again, you were in the valley.

“When you’re down, you have to look up,” she’d tell him. “Watch the top of the hill, and see how much closer you get to it every day. Before you know it, you’ll be at the top. Don’t ever forget to appreciate your good fortune, hold on to how it feels when things are right, and be grateful. Then when someday you find yourself sliding back down to that valley, remind yourself that it’s only a matter of time before you head on back to the top of the hill again. Peaks and valleys, Jace. That’s what life is all about.”

“Why can’t we just stay at the top of the hill all the time?” he’d once asked her. “Why do we have to sit in the valley and feel bad? Why can’t things just stay good?”

“If things were good all the time, you wouldn’t appreciate it. Besides, no one’s life is without some pain. Everyone goes through some bad times.” She’d shrugged. “So when things are good, enjoy it. When things are not so good, make the best of it and remember that it will get better.” She’d ruffled his hair. “Life has lots of ups and downs in store for you. You ever want to talk about it—the good or the not so good—I’ll always be here to listen.”