Sand Castle Bay

Emily smiled. “It’s a lesson I’m struggling with myself,” she told him. “Thank her for me.”

“You’ll be in touch?”

“Of course. And there are things I can get started on from here. We won’t be losing much time.”

When she’d disconnected the call, she allowed herself a moment of triumph over snagging the job, then sighed. She wondered if anyone in her family would be excited for her over this coup. More likely, they’d be disappointed in her for making a promise to leave before the work here was likely to be done.

* * *

Cora Jane looked around at her girls, drinking in the sight of them, and the next thing she knew there were tears gathering in her eyes. It was Gabi who caught her before she could wipe them away.

“Grandmother, are you okay?” Gabi asked quietly.

“I’m just so glad to have the three of you under this roof again, even if it is leaking in a dozen spots and the place is a disaster.”

“There’s nothing wrong we can’t fix with a little elbow grease,” Gabi assured her. “I’ll make some calls about the roof, too.”

“No need,” Cora Jane told her. “Boone’s already taken care of that. He has someone coming first thing tomorrow to replace it. Shouldn’t take more than a couple of days to get it fixed up. As long as we don’t have another storm between now and then, we’ll be okay.”

“Did I hear you mention Boone?” Emily asked, coming back inside just in time to hear Cora Jane.

“He’s arranged for someone to fix the roof,” Gabi told her.

Emily’s expression soured. “Why don’t you let me make a few calls? Negotiating with contractors is what I do.”

“How many contractors do you know here who could get to the job tomorrow?” Boone asked, choosing that moment to join them in the kitchen, B.J. at his side. “But if you want to give it a try, I won’t be offended.”

Emily flushed pink. “She should have competitive bids, that’s all I’m saying,” she retorted.

“Gee, why didn’t I think of that?” he asked, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

Cora Jane looked from one of them to the other and shook her head. Hadn’t it always been this way? If Boone said the sky was blue, Emily would argue it was a gloomy gray. She’d never before known two people who were happiest when they were at odds over one thing or another. She thought it was because they were so alike with high expectations of themselves and everyone around them.

“Enough, you two,” she scolded. “Tommy Cahill will be here tomorrow. He gave me a price I’m happy with, so that’s that. I was lucky that Boone was able to get him to take on such a small job on short notice when there’s so much to be done out here. He’s only doing it as a favor to Boone. I could wait for weeks for someone else to become available.”

Emily sat back, her expression disgruntled. “Whatever you want.”

“Thank you,” Cora Jane said dryly. “Now I propose we all get busy and get this place cleaned out. I’d like to open for breakfast tomorrow morning if I can get supplies here this afternoon.”

“That’s crazy,” Emily blurted. “The place is a mess. It’s going to take days for me to get some new furniture in here, get everything painted and spruced up with a new look. I sketched out some ideas on the way from Colorado.”

Cora Jane knew her granddaughter only wanted to help. And she was an expert, after all, but the last thing she wanted was to walk in the door a couple of weeks from now and not even recognize the family business started by her late husband. The decor it had—minus the debris and dampness anyway—suited her just fine. And they’d never wanted for customers. Locals and tourists packed the place. Caleb had had a knack for understanding what worked in a coastal community, and she’d merely followed the path he’d established.

“We’ll look over those designs of yours tonight,” Cora Jane promised, to take the sting out of her remark. “And you’re right about a fresh coat of paint. But in the meantime there are going to be locals coming back home and workers galore, and they’re all going to need someplace to grab a bite to eat. We’ll make do with what we have for the time being. Maybe later we can think about making a few changes.”

Emily looked as if she wanted to argue, but instead she just stood up and walked out of the kitchen and back onto the deck at the side of the restaurant.

Cora Jane turned to Boone. “Go after her.”

He regarded her with predictable alarm. “Me? Why me?”

“Sweetheart, you know why as well as I do. The two of you need to talk. You might as well do it now and settle things. Arguing with you might take her mind off whatever she’s stewing over right this minute.”

“And you think we’re going to settle things with a quick chat on the deck?” Boone inquired skeptically. “Assuming we don’t fall through the damaged boards, that is?”

“Probably not,” Cora Jane admitted. “But you have to start sometime. It might as well be now. Gabi, Samantha and I will get started in here. B.J. can help by washing up these dishes. You don’t need to worry about him getting into mischief or in the way.”

Boone gave her a resigned look, but he did head for the deck.

Cora Jane turned to see both of her other granddaughters grinning.

“Nicely done,” Samantha said. “Do you have any other missions for these next couple of weeks we should know about?”

Cora Jane chuckled at the girl’s impudence. Samantha might be thirty-five, but she’d always be a girl in Cora Jane’s eyes.

“Guess you’ll just have to wait and see,” she replied. “And in case you’re wondering, while I might feel I have a halfway decent relationship with Our Lord, not even I can call up a hurricane. That was His plan.”

And in her view it was definitely starting to look as if it had been a blessing in disguise.

* * *

Emily was crying. Boone could tell by the dejected set of her shoulders and the soft sniffs she tried hard to disguise when she heard the door to the deck open and close.

“Go away,” she muttered.

“Sorry. I’m under orders.”

Her head snapped around at that. “You!”

“Who’d you think it was?”

“Samantha, Gabi, maybe even Grandmother.”

He laughed. “Yeah, those would have been my first choices, too.”

Surprise, then resignation registered on her face. “Of course Grandmother sent you.”

Boone leaned on the railing next to her and stared at the ocean across the road. It was hard to believe that just a couple of days earlier it had been washing over the road with giant, angry, destructive waves. Today the sky was a brilliant blue, the waves were lapping gently against sand littered with boards, house siding and roof shingles.

“Cora Jane seems to think we should settle things,” he explained.

“What things?”

“You and me, I’m guessing. We didn’t exactly part on the best of terms. That weighs on her.”

“True, but we both moved on. That’s in the past,” she said, a hopeful note in her voice. “Right?”

“I’d have said so until you walked in the door this morning,” he said candidly. “You came in with complication written all over you.”