Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Would I be good at knitting? Or maybe cycling? Or… quilling? What even is quilling?
Cadence scrolled through an illustrated listicle of up-and-coming hobbies, wondering which one of them might scratch the itch she’d been feeling recently, the feeling that she needed some fresh new excitement in her life.
The part of Cadence that had taken a few psychology classes in college recognized this impulse.
She was feeling at odds with her life, so she wanted to find something new and fun that would distract her.
But understanding that a knew hobby could provide some much needed joy and diversion during her separation did not, as it turned out, actually help her choose a hobby to try.
She should ask Miriam, she decided. Miriam knew how to do everything, the odder the better, as far as the older lady was concerned. She would definitely know what quilling was, that was for sure.
This might not have provided her with an answer, but it did provide her with a direction, and Cadence felt a renewed energy. She jotted down a few ideas that she at least wanted to discuss with her friend. Even if Miriam didn’t have all the answers, speaking with her would likely be illuminating.
And Miriam probably would have some answers. She usually did.
“Hey, Cadence!”
She looked up from her page full of notes to see Martine, a local artist who sold her paintings in the gallery, carrying an old-fashioned milk crate full of canvases.
“Martine!” Cadence tossed aside her notebook and stood, grabbing the crate and putting it on the desk before giving Martine a quick peck on the cheek.
“Hi there, girl,” Martine said, returning the brush on the cheek. “I have some things for you if you want them.”
“From you? Always.”
The older woman had moved to the Massachusetts Bay from Haiti in her adolescence, and her art combined elements both from Haitian artists and New England movements like the Hudson River School.
The result was striking and often seemed like it shouldn’t work, but Martine’s works always made the unlikely combinations into gorgeous, spectacular pieces of art that sold out as quickly as they came in.
“Amazing,” Martine said. “I have to dash, but I know the system well enough by now. Just send me the info when you have it ready, and I’ll shoot the signed contract back to you.”
“No, you’re amazing,” Cadence replied with a laugh. “I’ll have that contract in your email by the end of the day, tomorrow at the latest.”
Martine blew a kiss over her shoulder as she dashed back out, leaving Cadence to sort through the canvases.
The first two were beautiful. The third one Cadence knew she’d be displaying in the gallery’s front window.
But the fourth one was the one that made her pause her movements, her breath leaving her in a rush.
The creature emerging from the ocean in the painting wasn’t clearly identifiable, not the way Martine had blurred the lines to imitate movement.
Even the ocean itself was painted in an unusual way.
But her genius blending of colors was still there, and the majesty of the creature surging from the sea… it was captivating. Unique. Beautiful.
Cadence grinned. This painting wouldn’t be getting hung on the walls of the gallery.
No, she already had the perfect buyer for this particular painting, someone who needed a statement piece just like this one to complete her home.
Much to his chagrin, Garrett found that he was still thinking about Eleanor as he ate lunch the next day at the Main Street Diner.
And she wasn’t on his mind just because he’d well and truly put his foot in it when he’d made that little comment about getting her husband to do her handiwork.
Heck, he knew the comment would have been a little out of line even if she had been married.
Goodness knew that if his fifteen-year-old niece, or her mother, Garrett’s older sister, had overheard it, they’d be giving him an earful about old-fashioned attitudes and capable women.
Yup, he had pretty much been a jerk. But that wasn’t why he was still thinking about her.
No, of all the foolish things, he was dwelling on sympathy. He knew that the success or failure of a relationship wasn’t about “deserving” things. He hadn’t deserved it when Maria had ditched him shortly before their wedding. Things just didn’t work out sometimes.
But Eleanor…
Well, Garrett was anti-relationships, but he wasn’t ignorant, and he had eyes in his head.
Eleanor was a beautiful woman. That husband of hers, or ex-husband, whatever, must have been a fool to let her go.
Especially since she wasn’t just a pretty face either.
Starting over the way she was doing, tackling a big renovation project when it was absolutely clear that she didn’t have experience on that front?
That was brave too. Resilient. It was impressive.
It was not, however, he reminded himself as he ate a French fry with a little more vigor than was strictly necessary, his business to be impressed by her. He didn’t get involved in other people’s lives, and he saw no reason to start now.
Seeking a distraction from the way his traitorous mind wanted to focus on Eleanor’s flushed cheeks, he looked around the diner.
His eyes landed on Tyler Meadows, Cadence Meadows’…
husband? Ex-husband? Garrett wasn’t actually certain about the status of that relationship, although he knew the couple had split recently.
It was hard to avoid that kind of gossip in a town this size.
Especially when the old timers loved to come into the hardware store for a gossip.
Either way, Tyler looked like a guy who had recently seen his life get upended around his ears. Garrett knew that look all too well.
“Tyler, hey. How’s it going?”
Tyler worked as an electrician, which made him one of the residents of Magnolia Shore that Garrett knew well.
While Tyler mostly got his equipment wholesale, as Garrett did, the younger man would sometimes pop into Nut and Bolts when he needed odds and ends quickly.
Since Tyler, in his mid-thirties, was three or four decades younger than most of the rest of Garrett’s clientele, the two men had struck up a natural rapport.
Plus, Tyler never probed into Garrett’s business. Garrett liked that.
Tyler looked almost startled to be addressed. “Garrett, hey,” he said. There were dark circles under his eyes that looked like they’d been there for a while.
Although Garrett and Tyler had an easy relationship, Garrett knew that he and the other man were very dissimilar.
While Garrett stuck to his own business, Tyler was the kind of guy who was always keeping an ear out…
not so that he could gossip or stick his nose in, but so that he could help.
He ran, for example, a weekly beach clean-up, one that had started as just Tyler, some latex gloves, and a trash bag, and now had at least a dozen regular or semi-regular participants and those dedicated grabber things so that the older volunteers didn’t have to bend down so much.
Normally, Tyler had the attitude to match. He was cheerful, warm, kind. In fact, Garrett would have said, until this very moment, that it was his least favorite thing about Tyler.
But now, seeing the man look worn down and weary, Garrett found that it didn’t fit him at all.
And so Garrett broke his cardinal rule and got involved.
“How you been?” he asked. “Want to join me?” He jerked his chin at the spare chair on his table.
“I’m waiting for takeout, but I’ll sit while I’m waiting,” Tyler said, smiling faintly.
It looked like it took a lot of effort to put the expression on his face.
“I’m picking up Izzy from school and we’re going to do a beach picnic afternoon.
She’s back with Cadence tonight, but Cadence is working, so I’m getting some time with the kiddo before we shuffle back and forth. ”
He sounded exhausted just talking about it. Garrett didn’t know Cadence as well as he knew Tyler, but he’d seen her around too, and she’d had that same look about her, as if the world itself felt heavier these days.
This was, Garrett told himself, a perfectly timed reminder about why he shouldn’t be thinking about anybody’s pink toenails or the annoyed little pout on her face when he’d told her to hire a professional handyman.
He didn’t even know her last name, for goodness’ sake!
And he shouldn’t want to learn it either.
Tyler and Cadence, who had always seemed so happy together, were a perfect example, one he would do well to keep in mind.
Relationships ended. And when they ended, everything in your life fell apart with them.
Why would he sign himself up for that pain again? He’d have to be nuts.
Garrett, keenly reminded of his faux pas from yesterday, cleared his throat and paused before speaking.
“Beach picnic sounds fun, though,” he said.
Tyler’s shoulders got a little lighter. “Yeah,” he said. “I hope Isabelle isn’t upset that we’re going without her mom… we used to do it all together, but I guess things change…”
He trailed off, like he’d half-forgotten the conversation he was having.
Garrett might be known for being a touch grumpy, but he wasn’t heartless.
He felt for the family. They were going through something tough right now.
And though he did not, as a general rule, like people, kids were an exception.
Isabelle Meadows was funny, smart, and she knew about wire gauge sizes, which was, as far as Garrett was concerned, three great qualities in any child.
“Well, tell Izzy I say hi,” Garrett said as they called out Tyler’s name from behind the counter.
Tyler gave him an absent smile as he stood. “Yeah, of course, will do.”
As Tyler left the diner, he had a slumped look to him.
That’s what relationships get you, Garrett told himself.
And yet, the door had barely closed on Tyler before Garrett found himself once again thinking about auburn waves and the persistent, annoying curiosity over whether those strands felt as soft as they looked.