No Vacancy (The Aveline Series Book 2)

Chapter 11

DARCY

I walkedfrom the barn to Aveline Books to see if Margot had any new romance novels before heading to my dad’s hardware store. It was only a few blocks away—everything in Aveline was within walking distance—and when I saw the big FOR SALE sign in the window, I stared at it for so long that Mrs. Nelson placed her hand on my shoulder, making me jump.

“You okay, Darcy?” Mrs. Nelson was my third-grade teacher, and even though she had been retired for several years now, she still wore a teacher sweater every day. Today was one I hadn’t seen before with the words, “Teaching is a work of heart,” printed on it.

I forced a smile. “Yeah, I’m good. I’m just popping in to see my dad.”

“It’s hard seeing that FOR SALE sign up there. I remember when your daddy opened this shop. I’ll admit, I thought he was crazy. . .What does Aveline need a hardware shop for? But look at me, on a Sunday, out here buying my gardening gloves because the dang dog ran off with my other ones.”

I chuckled. “Did Jenkins bury them in the yard again?”

Jenkins was Mrs. Nelson’s Jack Russell Terrier who had a habit of burying treasure. This was Mrs. Nelson’s third pair of gloves already this year.

“You bet he did. And for the life of me, neither Phil nor I can find where he hides them. We’re missin’ a remote, a can of Pringles, and my favorite spatula, too. Anyway, I hate to see the shop go. I’m not much for orderin’ online, but I guess that’s what we’ll have to do now.”

My eyes lowered to my feet. My dad, Poe, opened this hardware shop when he was twenty-five and freshly married to my mom. They had worked side by side ever since, with Beau and me helping in high school, though now they were both ready to retire—and rightfully so.

I nodded, knowing that most of Aveline wanted me to take over the store. With Beau living in California, it had been thrust upon my shoulders, and when I declined, it had sent everyone in an uproar. Change was not always welcome in Aveline. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to keep the store—I did. I knew the ins and outs of tools and was pretty handy myself, but I also didn’t know the first thing about running a business. I knew if I took over, my dad would spend more of his time answering my questions and helping me than he would ever be able to relax and enjoy his retirement. To me, that just didn’t seem fair.

I sighed, not wanting to hear the lecture about how it should stay in the family like I got every time the store was brought up among its regulars. “Let’s just hope whoever buys it will keep it a hardware store. You never know.”

We stepped inside the sliding doors. “We will see,” Mrs. Nelson replied as she headed to the right toward the gardening center. “Maybe I should buy a few more pairs of gloves, just in case.”

My dad’s office was toward the back. It had an old door with a glass window, the word OFFICE stuck on the front of it. I peeked in as I opened the door, my dad sitting quietly at his desk.

“Hey, Dad,” I said as I sat down in the chair across from him.

He looked up and smiled. “Hey, Jerry.” Jerry was the nickname only my dad was allowed to use. He started it when Beau and I were babies, deeming us Tom and Jerry, and it had stuck. My mother refused to use it, but my dad had never called me anything but some form of Jerry all my life. “What are you out doing? Got your basket, I see. Was it everything you’d hoped for?”

I sighed. “Yes, except the fact I had to share it with the new guy.” I pulled out Ruby’s jam. “He didn’t get this, though.”

My dad chuckled. “That’s my girl. Never share the jam.”

“Anyone interested in buying the store yet? Mrs. Nelson is really worried about where she’s going to continue getting her gardening gloves.” I grabbed a mint from the dish on my dad’s desk. So far, the only person who had shown even a meager interest in taking over the store had been Peter Penske, and he’d offered to pay my dad with a lifetime supply of bolts and hammers.

My dad had politely declined his offer.

“Not yet. The right person will come along, I’m sure. Either that, or you’ll change your mind.” He winked at me.

I shrugged, sitting back in the chair. “If Beau were here, I would in a heartbeat. He could do all the businessy stuff, and I could help customers with what they need. I’d have to; you know he can’t tell a Phillips from a flathead.”

My dad chuckled. “Oh, Beau never had any interest in learning about this stuff the way you did. Remember when we had two flat tires coming home from vacation that year? You guys had to have been twelve, and I brought you both out there with me and showed you how to change it and what tools you needed. By the time I had finished with the first one, you had already started on the second, and Beau was just over there picking at the grass.”

I laughed at the memory. “Yes! And what about the time we were building the treehouse for the Keller kids, and we asked him for the jigsaw, and he brought over the chainsaw?” I turned the mint over to the other side of my mouth. “Ugh, I miss him. I wish he would come back to Aveline. What does California have that we don’t?”

“The beach?” my dad said as more of a question.

“Well, who would want to go to the beach every day anyway? How gross!”

My dad scoffed playfully. “I can’t imagine the kind of person who would want that.”

“Not me. All that sunshine and vitamin D? It can’t be good for you.” I scrunched my nose and shifted in my chair. “And who wants a tan year-round? I much prefer being pale.”

“Me too. I’ll just take my summer farmer’s tan,” my dad replied. “But Beau needed to get out, at least for a while.”

“Yeah,” I said, thinking of my brother and his desire to find himself outside of Aveline.

My dad took off his glasses and set them on the desk. “Just remember, whatever happens with the store, it’s meant to be, okay Jere-Bear? Everything always works out just the way it should. I don’t want you to feel bad if things change around here. It’s not always the end of the world when one chapter ends. You should know that. You read enough of them novels to understand that sometimes, the best things happen later on in the book.”

I nodded, appreciating my dad’s ever-present optimism but knowing I liked things just the way they were.