Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“If you’re interested in fishing, you should take a look at our refrigerator magnets, we’ve got some really fun ones with fishing themes.” Corey smiled at the elderly man who had just come into his shop and told him that he’d spend a wonderful, relaxing morning fishing.
“I’ll do that.” The old man winked at him, and started toward the corner of the shop where the magnets were located.
Corey’s heart felt light. Business had been going excellently that morning, and it had been going beautifully for the past few days as well.
And this store just opened, he thought, pleased. Already it seems like tourists have latched onto this place. It’s only going to get better as the store becomes more well known.
He smiled, feeling a rush of satisfaction as he reflected that opening the store had been a good decision. He watched the customers milling around his store, and his mind started to wander to the other venture he was considering.
Ever since the day by the water with Olivia, he had been wrestling with wanting to ask her out. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her and had even had a couple of dreams about going on dates with her. She had captivated him—he found her kind, fascinating, and fun to being around. He wanted to get to know her better.
He sighed, feeling torn between an almost dreamy attraction to her, and a fear that his kids weren’t ready for him to consider finding a new wife yet. He hadn’t thought about letting a new woman into their lives since his wife’s death, but Olivia was making him want to try. And in this case, she wasn’t just a strange woman that the kids would have to get used to, she was someone that they already knew and adored.
He began to think about the logistics of asking her out. He’d have to have a conversation with her, of course—which scared him to death, he hadn’t asked a woman out in decades—and if she said yes, then he’d need to get a babysitter for the kids. That shouldn’t be too difficult, although because of Haley’s fragile temperament, he was nervous about finding someone who was definitely up for the task. But there were tons of nice folks in Blueberry Bay, so he felt confident that he’d be able to find someone qualified as long as he tried hard enough. Olivia probably knew people, and she could give him a recommendation…
His phone began to ring. Thinking the call was probably just spam, he casually pulled his phone out of his pocket, and then frowned when he saw that the caller was Little Clams.
“Hello?” he said anxiously, feeling worried that something had happened to the kids.
“Hi, Corey? It’s Maddie from Little Clams.”
She sounded a little flustered, and his heart rate picked up even further. “Is everything all right? Did someone get hurt?”
“No one got hurt,” she assured him hastily. “But—well, Haley is having an uncontrollable tantrum. We don’t know what to do for her, and it’s our policy to ask the parents to come get their children when these things last for more than a few minutes.”
His heart sank. “Of course,” he said quickly. “I’m at my store right now, but I’ll close up and be there as soon as I can. It should be just a few minutes.” A couple of his customers glanced at him as he said it.
“Okay. Sorry to call, but—”
“No, I understand. Thank you for letting me know.”
They said goodbye and hung up.
“Do you need to close the store?” asked a kind-looking woman wearing a bright pink t-shirt.
He nodded. “I have a family… situation. Not an emergency, but I need to leave the store for about an hour.”
“You hear that everyone?” called the woman. “He’s got to close the store for an hour, family emergency! Everybody out!”
He smiled gratefully at her, but he felt stressed about having to ask people to leave—and he felt a twinge of regret that he had five potential sales literally walking out the door.
“I’ll come back,” the old man assured him. “I like all of those magnets. This gives me time to decide on the right one.” He winked, and Corey felt grateful for the kindness of the strangers there.
In only a few minutes, he was out of his store, in his car, and driving as fast as he legally could toward Little Clams. He tried taking deep breaths, but he continued to feel stressed—because the reality was, he didn’t know how to calm Haley down either.
As soon as he’d parked his car in the Little Clams parking lot, he hurried inside. Maddie met him in the hallway, smiling at him reassuringly even though she also appeared stressed.
“She’s in her classroom with Olivia,” she said gently. “We took the other students out into a different room to… give Haley some space.”
He winced. “Thank you. I’m sorry this happened.”
“No, don’t be. We’re educators, we understand. I’ll get Max and wait with him outside until you’re ready.”
“Thank you.”
He continued down the hallway, not wanting to waste another minute, even though he guessed that Haley had stopped crying by then, because he couldn’t hear her having a tantrum.
He pushed open the door to the classroom and saw Olivia sitting quietly in a chair by the door, as if she had been waiting for him. Haley was sitting in a beanbag chair in the corner, her face streaked with tears and her arms tightly crossed. She appeared to be moping instead of actively crying, however, and he felt relieved that the tempest had passed.
“Thanks for coming here,” Olivia said, standing up and walking to him. “We didn’t know what else to do.”
Corey swallowed. “I’m sorry. I know I put in the paperwork that she has outbursts sometimes, but I should have—”
He paused, remembering that he and Olivia had talked about this very thing in person. She did already have a clear idea of how troublesome Haley could be—and now that she’d witnessed an outburst in person, she was practically an expert.
Olivia shook her head. “It’s okay. Life happens. Kids are kids.”
He offered a forced smile, but he knew that most kids didn’t react to things the way Haley did—or even if they did at home, they were less likely to do so in class.
“She’s just started to calm down,” Olivia continued gently. “It looks like one of the other children upset her—accidentally bumped her arm while she was making a painting and she smeared red paint from the autumn trees across the blue sky. At least, that’s what I gathered from seeing the painting and hearing the other kid telling Haley that it was an accident—by the time I got to her, she was crying too hard to be understandable.”
Corey nodded. He knew that Haley was passionate about her art, and having one of her paintings ruined would be particularly upsetting to her.
He walked over to his daughter, who wiped her nose with the back of her hand and snuffled when she saw him.
“Hey, sweetheart,” he said, crouching down and looking into her eyes. “We’re going to go home in a little while, okay?”
“I want to finish my painting,” she said, tears welling up in her eyes.
“You can make a better painting at home, okay? The one you started today can be your first draft. You remember when Mommy used to talk about first drafts, right?”
She nodded, hiccupping a little. “Yeah, I remember.”
He gave her a long hug, rocking her back and forth until her crying subsided.
“Okay,” she said, hiccupping again. “Let’s go home.”
“Would you be okay with sitting outside with Max and Miss Maddie for a little while? I want to talk with Miss Olivia.”
“Okay,” Haley said, smiling. “I like Miss Maddie.”
Corey walked Haley out to the front of the school, where Maddie was reading a book out loud to Max, sitting on a bench with him near the front door. Haley joined them happily, and Corey excused himself, going back inside to talk to Olivia.
She was sitting in the same chair by the door when he returned to the classroom. She gestured, smiling, to the chair opposite her, and he took it, feeling strangely nervous. He wasn’t nervous just because of what had happened with Haley and his uncertainty about how to handle it—he also felt nervous around Olivia, especially considering he’d spent a large part of his morning considering asking her out.
“Moving forward,” Olivia said, her tone calm and cheerful as if nothing was wrong, “I’d like to know what you would suggest for calming Haley down. What do you usually do in these situations?”
Corey shook his head. “I don’t know what to do. I feel helpless—it seems like nothing that I try works.” He grimaced. “You must think I’m an inept father.”
To his surprise, she laid her hand gently on his arm. He found that his heart was beating faster.
“I don’t,” she said firmly. “Not at all. I think you’re a single dad who’s doing the best he can. Sometimes there are things that just don’t have easy solutions.” She was quiet for a few moments, and then said, “I think she’s probably struggling with grief over losing her mother. May I ask what happened to your wife?”
He nodded. “Her death was very sudden and unexpected. She passed away in a car accident. Both the kids took it very hard.”
Olivia sucked in her breath, her eyes wide with sympathy. “I can imagine,” she said softly. “I’m so sorry that happened. To all of you.”
He swallowed. “It has been hard. And I love my kids so much—but I can’t fill the role of a mom in their lives. I think Haley is missing that especially. Her mother had been able to calm her down in a way that I don’t seem to be able to. I think she needs a woman in her life.”
Olivia watched his face intently as he spoke. “Just remember that you’re doing the best you can, and that’s all you can do. And remember that you can ask for support from other people. You don’t have to parent all by yourself. I’m going to keep a careful eye out for both Max and Haley while they’re here. They both absolutely have my support, and you do too.”
“Thank you,” he said, feeling a rush of gratitude as he looked into her kind eyes. He felt drawn to her calm sweetness, and he felt as though his entire bloodstream was moving faster.
“I don’t want to keep you,” she said gently, standing up and looking suddenly shy. “I’m sure Max and Haley want to get home.”
He nodded, standing up as well, even though he felt suddenly reluctant to leave her. “Thank you for talking with me. And offering your support. It truly means a great deal to me.”
To his surprise, she took a step toward him. “Could I hug you?” she asked, a tender look in her eyes.
“Yes,” he said, his heart doing a somersault. The next thing he knew, she was in his arms, giving him a tight hug.
Their embrace only lasted for a couple of seconds, but he felt bolstered by it. Olivia smiled at him shyly as she opened the door of the classroom.
“See you around,” she said.
He hesitated in the doorway. He wanted to ask her out right then and there, but he reminded himself that his children were waiting for him, and he’d posted a sign on the door of his shop saying that he would reopen it within the hour. He would have to ask Olivia out another time.
“See you around,” he said, smiling at her, and started down the hallway toward his kids.
Dane sighed as he closed his laptop. It had been a long day of work, and his mind was still buzzing with all the information that had been passing through it for the past eight hours. He took a final swig of his coffee, leaning back in his chair and glancing out the window of his office. It looked like it was a beautiful day outside—sunny, with a blue sky. He was looking forward to spending time outside that evening—maybe he and Alissa and his mother could eat their dinner out on the patio. A special dinner, to celebrate the baby.
The baby. He grinned to himself. Part of why he felt so tired was because it had been hard to concentrate on his work when he felt so excited. All he wanted to think about was Alissa’s pregnancy. Their lives were about to change forever—a whole new person was going to become a part of their family. He couldn’t have been more eager—although it would have been a lie to say that he wasn’t also a little nervous.
He stood up and turned out the light in his office. He stepped out into the main part of the office, where Alissa and Josie were talking to each other at Josie’s desk, chatting and laughing excitedly.
“You ready to go?” he said to his wife, beaming at her.
“Yup!”
She hopped off the edge of Josie’s desk and hurried to him, grinning. She seemed to be glowing—ever since they’d learned about their good news, she’d had an added glint of happiness in her eyes. He’d kept checking on her all throughout the day to make sure she didn’t feel too tired, but she kept insisting she felt great that day.
“See you tomorrow, Josie!” Alissa said, waving to their friend, who waved back, grinning. Josie’s new engagement ring sparkled in the light. Dane reflected cheerfully that good things were happening to all of them.
Dane and Alissa stepped out into the sunlight. Beside him, his wife took a deep breath.
“It’s a beautiful day,” she said. “I can kind of start to smell autumn coming, can’t you? I can’t wait. I love fall.”
He wrapped an arm around her as they walked toward his car. “Me too. I was thinking that tonight we could eat out on the patio.”
“Oh!” She lifted her eyebrows. “Actually, I was going to suggest eating in town tonight. I was thinking that it would be fun to show your mom around Blueberry Bay some more.”
“Yeah?” He opened her car door for her. He could see a gleam in her eyes that told him she was up to something. “That sounds great to me. We could eat somewhere that has outdoor seating. What gave you the idea?”
“Well,” she said, as she climbed into the car and sat down. “I was thinking about how your mom hasn’t really spent that much time in town since she’s been here because of her injury.”
“I’m listening.” He grinned at her as he sat down in the driver’s seat beside her. “You want to show her around town more, huh? Any particular reason?”
She laughed. “You can see right through me. You’re right. I’ve been thinking about how we can try to convince your mom to move here to Blueberry Bay. I think the best first step would be showing her more of the town. The more she realizes how great it is, the more likely it is that she’ll want to stay here.”
“It’s a great idea,” he said, his eyes on the road as he started the drive back toward their home. “Do you really think she’d be willing to leave New York, though? She always said that she would never want to live anywhere besides there.”
She nodded. “I know, I remember her saying that too. But I really think she’s starting to change her mind. I think she misses you, and I think she’s starting to become kind of disenchanted with the city. She told me that she’s been starting to get stressed out by her life there.”
“Really?” he asked, concerned for his mother. “Did she say why?”
“Yeah, she did.” He glanced at her and saw that she was looking out the window contemplatively. “She said that she’s been finding it hard to keep up with her New York friends. Like, she feels this constant pressure to keep up with appearances and be on top of everything all the time. And I mentioned that it sounded like her New York friends aren’t very genuine, and she said that was true. Like, they talk to each other a lot but it’s never really about personal things—it’s about social status stuff. Who went where, what did they just buy, who did they meet, that kind of stuff.”
He nodded. “That makes sense. It’s the kinds of things she talks about a lot herself. I guess I never considered the idea that she would actually prefer a different style of conversation.”
“Me either. And she never came right out and said this, but I think she’s hungry for a community where people can be honest about their struggles and what’s on their heart. So Blueberry Bay is perfect for her.”
“Yeah, it sounds like it. Wow. That’s a lot to take in.”
He reflected for a moment that these were the kinds of things women talked about with each other. He hoped his mother knew that she was free to share anything with him—he felt a little disappointed that she had confided in Alissa instead of him.
I guess I need to improve my relationship with her, he thought. Which will be much easier to do if she moves here and is so close to us.
“Obviously, the choice is hers,” she continued, “but I think we should at least bring it up to her and let her know that she’d be welcome. That we’d love for her to move here. And first we should show her around town so she gets a real sense of how amazing it is here.”
“And then we’ll talk with her about possibly making her move here permanent, and see what she says,” he said, loving the idea. He smiled warmly at his wife. “Thank you for thinking of this, sweetheart. I love you.”
“I love you too. And I love your mom.” She laughed.
He grinned. “I do too. It would be incredible to have her so close to us. It would really mean a lot to me if there were three generations of my family here in Blueberry Bay. My mom, us, and our baby.”
“Our baby.” She beamed at him.
“I’m so excited.” He laughed as he pulled his car into their driveway and parked it. “Our family is getting bigger.”
“Yes. I’m so happy.”
“Come here.” Beaming at her, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and drew her close for a kiss.