Chapter 5
Chapter Five
C ould someone please remind her why she’d thought taking this job was a good idea?
Mia sat in Dani’s office, the two of them surrounded by piles of papers. Mia’s eye strayed to the poster of a hillside in Tuscany Dani had on her wall. Taking an extended vacation there sounded pretty good right about now.
“I can’t believe we had this much response in such a short time, Mia.” Dani’s words broke through her thoughts, and she shifted her gaze back to the papers in front of her. Each stack represented a business owner who had seen her call for applications and were eager to move to Jonathon Island. Dani had printed the applications off the online portal, and now the two of them were sorting through the piles on Dani’s desk.
“I can’t believe it either.” Mia reached up and retied the bandanna she’d wrapped around her hair this morning. Hopefully it covered the fact that she hadn’t had time to wash her hair during her five-minute shower this morning.
“I can’t believe how many of these mention your video reel. Or how many of them are just wondering if Cody is available.” Dani thumbed through a few sheets of paper. “I think if we eliminate the ones who are only looking to date Cody, we should have a good starting point.” She raised an eyebrow at Mia. “Unless you think we should set him up with one of them.”
Mia’s chest went hot. “What? No. He would hate that.” She shifted in her chair. The cushion in the seat must have been mashed flat, she could feel every spring.
“ He would hate it?” Now Dani raised the other eyebrow.
“What?” Mia furrowed her brow. Cody wouldn’t be interested in a blind date, would he?
“It’s just that every time we come across one of these, you huff a little and then throw it on the floor.” Dani smirked at her. Smirked!
Mia arched her back. “I do not.”
Dani crossed her arms and sat back in the chair. She didn’t say anything, just gestured to Mia’s side of the room. Mia looked around. Scattered around her chair, lay dozens of crumpled papers.
Her cousin leaned forward again and picked up an application off the desk. “In that case, maybe you will approve of this one. Look at this, she is an artist. She makes sculptures out of driftwood. She likes long walks by the shore and would love to live in a maintenance shed. She would make a great fisherman’s wife.”
No. Her heart thudded to a stop. She reached over the desk. “It doesn’t say that.” She snatched the paper out of Dani’s hand. She scanned the lines of text. It was an application from an older couple who wanted to open a pizzeria. “You little sneak.”
Dani laughed. “It was worth it to see the look on your face.”
Mia’s shoulders fell to a reasonable level. “Fine. You’re right. I guess I am being a little protective of my friend.”
“Mm-hmm.” Dani crossed her arms again.
“What?”
“It’s just that I don’t think you think of Cody as a friend.” Dani gave her an intense look. “And I know he has feelings for you.”
That couldn’t be true. “I do think of Cody as a friend. And don’t be silly, he doesn’t think of me as anything other than Troy’s widow.” But why did that thought sting a little?
Mia’s phone buzzed. A text from her mom popped up.
Mom
Want me to start some lunch?
Shoot! Was it that late already? Her stomach plummeted. When her mom had arrived that morning to watch the kids, Mia had promised to be back in two hours. It was now bordering on three.
Mia
That would be great. Thanks. I’ll be home in a few.
“I’m sorry, Dani, I’ve gotta go.” She gathered up the piles into a haphazard stack and shoved them into her messenger bag.
As she rushed out the door, she almost missed Dani’s parting words. “Call me when you’ve narrowed down the list.”
The beauty of the May sky beckoned to her, almost begging to be set to canvas. She pushed away thoughts of the perfect watercolor shade and hurried on toward home.
After she’d sent her mom on her way and the kids had been fed, Mia spread the papers back out on the dining room table.
She should be ecstatic, but instead, a wave of nausea threatened to take her under. She swallowed it down, took a few long breaths to slow her heart rate. Could she even do this job? If she failed, she would have no choice but to move.
Around her, the room embraced her. The dark wainscoting lapping the bottom of the walls, with a light gray around the top had been the first house compromise she and Troy had made. He wanted more wood in their home, but she thought it was too dark. He proposed the wainscoting, and she countered with the gray above. When they’d finished that part of the remodel, Troy had danced her around the room, laughing. We make a good team, he’d said.
Funny how that memory didn’t hold a sting anymore. In fact, all memories of Troy had faded into sepia-toned photos she took out more and more rarely every day.
Maggie climbed onto a chair next to her, a purple crayon clutched in her hand. “Hi, Mama.”
“Hi, baby.”
Something crashed in the kids’ bedroom. “Don’t come in here.” Finn’s voice sounded pinched.
“Well, that’s never a good sign,” she said to Maggie. The toddler nodded even though Mia knew she had no idea what her mother was talking about. “Stay here.”
In the bedroom, the table lamp, normally on the bookshelf, lay on the ground. The crescent moon stem was in pieces. Nearby, lay the ball Finn had been repeatedly told not to throw in the house.
Finn sat on his bed, studying his fingers.
“Are you hurt? Did you cut yourself?”
A quick shake of his head told her he was fine.
“What happened here?”
“I was holding the ball and it slipped.” Finn wiped his hand across his face.
She put her hands on her hips, tried for a casual tone. “Slipped, eh?”
“I only threw it a little.”
“You aren’t supposed to throw it at all.” She knelt by the bed and raised Finn’s chin until he looked her in the eye. “What did I tell you about throwing things in the house?”
“I’m sorry, Mommy.” He sniffed.
“I forgive you.” Finn reached out his arms and she pulled him into a hug. “I’m glad you weren’t hurt. Go get a trash bag. We’ll get this cleaned up.” He ran off and was back a minute later, white garbage bag held around his neck like a cape. They carefully placed all the broken pieces into the bag before Mia scoured the carpet looking for stray shards. When she was satisfied there were none left to cut anyone’s feet, she tied the bag shut.
“We’ve left your sister alone too long.” They walked hand in hand the few steps to the dining room. “Maggie! No!” At the table, her cherub daughter drooled purple crayon, the half which was not in her mouth was dancing all over the application papers spread before her.
“Cowor, Mama.” Maggie grinned wide. Bits of purple crayon stained her teeth. Gripping the crayon tight in her chubby fist, she drew a long streak across the page in front of her.
“Oh, Mags.” She scooped her daughter out of the chair and carried her to the kitchen. “Those are Mom’s papers. You can’t color on them.” Sitting Maggie next to the sink, she dug the remaining crayon bits from her mouth, then washed her face. “You can’t eat the crayons.”
“Pwum is fwuit,” Maggie informed her, showing her the damp, uneaten end of her plum crayon.
“I—” A knock at the door saved her from having to untangle that one. “Don’t eat crayons.” She lifted Maggie down from the countertop and went to the door.
Cody.
Her heart rate picked up again, but this time she didn’t mind it as much. In his flannel work jacket and worn Levi’s, he looked like the cover of Eligible Bachelor’s Weekly. If such a magazine existed.
He held up the toolbox in his left hand. “I’m here to fix your fence. I’d have been here sooner, but I got tied up with my remodel of the old Hansen place. Dani wanted to make sure it was ready.”
“No problem.”
Finn brushed past her. “Cody!” He barreled into Cody’s legs.
“Hey, bud.” Cody ruffled Finn’s dark hair. “Want to help me again?”
“Yes!” He started to run down the steps, but Cody stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
“Whoa, bud. I think your mom would like you to be wearing shoes.” The smile he sent Mia’s way made a warmth gather in her belly.
Ridiculous.
Mia helped Finn find his shoes and started to help him put them on, but he ran over to Cody instead. Cody glanced at her, his gaze searching her face. She gave a little shrug. It didn’t hurt to have help getting the kids into outdoor gear.
“Be careful, Finn,” she said. “Listen to Cody.”
“We’ll watch out for each other,” Cody said. He put a hand on Finn’s shoulder. “Won’t we?”
Finn nodded, his face serious. “Don’t worry, Mommy.”
She leaned against the doorframe as they walked over to inspect the fence. Her heart squeezed as Finn slipped his hand into Cody’s. She rubbed at her chest before going back into the house to make sure Maggie hadn’t turned more of her paperwork into coloring pages.
She found her daughter curled up under the dining room table, fast asleep, the plum crayon stub clutched tightly in her palm. Mia glanced at the clock. No wonder Maggie was sleepy. It was an hour past her normal nap time. She’d been so distracted with the work and with Finn to notice.
Moving at a snail’s pace, she picked Maggie off the floor and cradled her to her chest before tucking her into her “big girl bed”. She smoothed the damp bangs from Maggie’s forehead then left the room on tiptoe. If she kept quiet enough for Maggie to sleep, she could get a good hour’s worth of work done uninterrupted.
Her phone rang, and she jumped before grabbing at it to answer. “Hello?”
“Why are you whispering?” Evie’s voice came on the line.
“I just put Maggie down, and I need her to sleep while I work.” Stepping around the creaky floorboard in the hall, Mia made her way to the dining room. “Cody has Finn outside fixing the fence, so I think I can make some real progress.”
“Cody is there again, eh?”
Seriously? Were Dani and Evie conspiring to gang up on her? “I don’t think I like the tone of your voice.” She shifted a few papers onto the floor.
“What tone? I don’t have a tone.”
“Yes, you do.”
“I saw your video.”
Mia held back a groan. Why hadn’t she edited that video? The truth was, it was a good shot, and the harbor looked so pretty that day. She couldn’t bring herself to cut out Finn’s laughter and Maggie’s bright smile. Cody was just icing on the cake. “It was just a picnic.”
“‘A local attraction,’ I believe you said.”
What had she been thinking? The words just slipped out. But then, his easy smile and the way he didn’t give her grief for saying that about him made her feel safe. Just like he always did.
But still. “Evie. C’mon. You know we’ve only ever been friends.” She looked at the sea of paper swamping her table, threatening to tow her under.
“What do you mean? You told me a few weeks ago you were thinking about dating again.”
She had said that. They’d had a long conversation after watching Sleepless in Seattle, where she’d admitted the barest possibility that she was lonely. But that was before she’d found out that she might lose her house. Now she needed to concentrate on keeping a roof over her kids’ heads. She didn’t have time for dating anyone. “Yeah, but it’s Cody.”
“I fail to see the problem. He’s single, you’re single. What’s the issue?”
“The issue is he was Troy’s best friend. How weird would it be to date my late husband’s best friend? Doesn’t that violate some code?” Although, to be fair, Cody was her friend first.
No, she must have just been feeling a spark of getting back to her normal self. A feeling she hadn’t had in a long time. Maybe ever. At least as an adult.
After all, she’d been an unwed mother, married before she was twenty, then before she’d adjusted to that, Maggie was on the way. And just as she was getting used to the thought of two kids, her husband was killed in that tragic accident.
Besides, she didn’t have time for anything except sorting through these applicants. When she had agreed to do this job…check that—when she had begged for this job, she hadn’t anticipated this much response.
“Do you really think Troy would mind?” Evie sounded genuinely curious. “I would think he would be happy for you.”
She could never make her sister understand how Troy hovered between them every time she and Cody were together. Perhaps if his death had happened in a different way…“People would talk.”
“Psssht. Since when do you care what people think?”
“I guess I just feel like I need to hold myself to a higher standard, after coming home pregnant at nineteen. People judge me in a different way.”
“I get that, but you don’t have to punish yourself forever.”
The blood of Jesus covers that too. Cody’s words rattled through her head again.
“Besides, your voice got lighter in that video when you talked about him. I haven’t heard that from you in a long time. You sounded invested.”
Was she attracted to Cody? He was attractive, sure. But was she romantically drawn to him? She thought about their picnic, the way he remembered she liked avocado on a sandwich, his quiet words about her guilt, his coaxing her to be her best self. Not to mention the spark of emotion she’d had when he was playing with the kids.
Sure, she appreciated him, but attraction? That couldn’t be it.
“He’s like a brother to me. Or maybe a cousin.” She stood and moved a stack of papers to the far corner of the room.
Evie laughed. “So, you feel the same way about him as you feel about Bash? I doubt it.”
Um. Okay. “Well, when you put it that way.” Mia thought again about the sparkle in his eye. “Sure, I can appreciate his many qualities. But, really, we’re just friends.”
Evie sighed. “Fine. But as your big sister, promise me you’ll think about getting out there again. If not Cody, then someone.”
She made a noncommittal noise and hung up the phone before taking in the papers spread out in front of her. If anything, they were a bigger disaster than before.
She heard a rustle at the door, and then it opened. Through the dining room entryway, she glimpsed Cody duck through, Finn on his shoulders. They both belted out the lyrics to “Baby Shark.” Cody caught her eye, and she put her finger to her mouth.
“Maggie. Nap.” She mouthed. Hopefully he could read lips. Cody swung Finn down and shushed him. She watched as Cody helped Finn remove his shoes before toeing off his own. Then they both came through the living room and into the dining room.
“What happened in here?” Cody tucked a hand into his pocket. She caught the scent of wood shavings and fresh air.
Resisting the urge to clutch her head in despair like an old-time movie heroine, Mia waved at the papers. “Oh, these? Just a little light afternoon reading.” Her attempt at nonchalance fell flat as her throat tightened.
“Is this something for your job?”
She nodded. “Can you believe we have over a hundred applications for the housing initiative?”
“Wow! That’s amazing. Congratulations.” His eyes opened wide. Sincere.
Something loosened in her chest when he didn’t tease her. “I’m not sure if it’s congratulations or Good Luck Charlie .”
“Your work paid off big time. That’s definitely congratulations territory.”
She couldn’t help but shoot him a wink. “I’d say it was your face that paid off big time. An even half mention you specifically in their paperwork.”
His face turned red. “You can’t be serious.”
“Wait, are you blushing?” She plucked a paper from one of the stacks, began to read aloud. “‘Your island is pretty and would be a great place for me to launch my pottery business. Especially if Cody is around to inspire me.’” Goodness the man was turning an even brighter red. She found another one. “‘A friend forwarded your video to me saying I would appreciate the attractions on Jonathon Island. She was right!’”
Cody rubbed at the back of his neck. “Maybe she means the kids?”
Oh, she liked making him uncomfortable. “This one will prove it to you. ‘Is Cody single? If not, does he have a brother?’”
“It doesn’t say that.” Cody snatched the paper out of her hand. She laughed at his growl as his eyes found the sentence she’d read.
“C’mon, Code. You have to know you’re bachelor-of-the-month material. No wonder these girls are interested.” An itchy sensation began in her chest. What if one of these women came to the island and fell for Cody for real?
Finn tugged on her hand. “Can I watch a show?”
“Sure, bud.”
She got Finn settled in front of the TV, his favorite program turned low. “Just one, Finn, and then it’s quiet reading time.” He didn’t even look up at her as the opening music began.
She stood in the doorway of the dining room and surveyed the paper tornado. A long sigh from the bottom of her feet burst out of her.
“Mia.” Cody’s voice was pitched low. “Let me help.”
“What? No. You’ve already done too much for me.”
“Untrue. Nothing will ever be enough.”
“What does that mean?” She glanced up at him.
“Nothing.” His gaze searched her face. He looked so earnest. “Come on. You’re overwhelmed, and rightly so. You carry the weight of the world on your shoulders all the time. I’d love to share the load.” Cody held up his hands. “It’s not because I don’t think you’re capable. It’s just what friends do. And we’re friends, right?”
She blinked against a sudden wetness in her eyes. Sweet man. “Yes, of course we’re friends.” Surely it wasn’t giving up if she let him help her for an hour. Just until she could get a handle on things. She nodded once. “All right, come on.” Then she led the way into the room.
Mia pointed at the stack of papers. “I think if we weed out the last of the ones that are just looking for love, we’ll have around sixty to go through.”
“Do you want to sort them by business type?”
“Good idea. We want a mixture of dining, service-related businesses, and gift shops.”
They sifted through the papers in silence a few minutes, Finn’s program punctuating the air between them. Cody let out a grunt and tossed a paper on the floor. Must have been another application listing him as the reason to do business on Jonathon Island.
Soon, the papers were in a better order. “I think that’s the last one.” Mia laid an application for another souvenir shop on top of the stack.
Cody leaned his elbow onto the table. “Not bad. There are some great candidates here.”
She surveyed the piles. “I think I might have another problem though.”
“Uh oh. That doesn’t sound good.”
“Count the piles. We only have five unique categories. I don’t think the council is going to be happy with me if I present them with six pottery shops. They will want variety, not competing pizza parlors or whatever.”
They’d rejected a few things outright, like the gun shop with a racial slur in its tagline, a boutique that only sold mountain-themed tchotchke, and of course any that were only applying as an excuse to meet Cody. They were left with the six pottery shops, eleven pizzeria and pizza-related restaurants, seven art galleries, four bike rental possibilities, and twenty-five applicants who wanted to open some sort of a souvenir shop.
“Okay. So, why don’t you make another video? The last one was so popular. This time you could pitch exactly what we would need to fill out the businesses with a better variety. I’m sure there are others out there who would be interested in the opportunity. They just don’t know it yet.”
It all seemed so overwhelming. But then she looked at Cody. His open and earnest face gave her a boost of confidence. “I guess you’re right. In the meantime, I need to organize these into some sort of list, so I know who to contact first.”
She glanced over at Cody. His brow creased as he sorted through the stack of pizzeria candidates. A warmth spread through her chest. With Cody on her side, maybe she could pull this off after all.
She was going to get all the applicants she needed. She simply didn’t have any other options.
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