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“Hey, Steven,” Elena called to him behind the counter.
“Well, if my eyes don’t deceive me.” Steven Ford’s booming voice echoed throughout the store. He walked over to her and wrapped her in the biggest bear hug. “Elena Cruz, back in the Cove.”
“Only long enough to convince your stubborn daughter to go on tour with us.”
“Well, I think Skylar’s made up her mind.” Steven crossed his arms over her chest as he looked Elena up and down. She’d once again chosen jeans, sneakers, and a sweatshirt to attempt to conceal her identity, but after last night, Elena knew it was useless. “It’s good to see you, Elena.”
His voice was so sincere it made Elena’s heart swell. “It’s good to see you too, Steven. The shop looks great.”
“It’s been a blessing. Even with everyone going to streaming services, we’ve still managed to keep our sales up. Skylar even set us up an online shop.”
“That’s fancy.”
“Isn’t it?” Steven chuckled. “I think Skylar’s finishing up some work in the back. She mentioned you two were going to lunch.”
“Yes, we are.”
“Well, I think that’s great. And hey, I hate that I missed your performance last night. Skylar didn’t tell me about it; I had to find out in the Gazette.”
Because, of course, their impromptu jam session made the Moonflower Cove Gazette.
Steven didn’t wait for Elena to say anything before he clapped his hands together excitedly.
“Hey, would you care to sign some of these?”
He nodded for her to follow him to a corner of the shop that could only be described as the Maine Event section. All the albums were hanging on the wall behind nice glass frames, and several pictures of the band were framed alongside them. There was even a decent stack of CDs and vinyl from their Maine Event days, and Elena noticed Skylar had signed all of them already.
“We still get the occasional fan that travels through here because they’ve heard Skylar works here. I’m sure they’d love it if your autograph were on there too.”
“Dad,” Skylar laughed as she walked out of the back room, “don’t make her sign those so that you can charge more.”
“I’m not,” he defended. “I’m just thinking of your fans. Hell, we’ve sold two CDs already this morning to people who were there last night and saw you two singing. That could be great publicity for the tour if you two would sing there again tonight.”
“I’m sure the regulars would love that.”
Skylar crossed her arms over her chest, and for the first time, Elena could see how much she resembled her father. They were both tall and muscular with blonde hair, even if Steven’s was grayer now. Both were even wearing T-shirts and jeans with sandals as if it were the uniform for the store.
She looked over at Elena and smiled.
“Anyway, we should probably get to lunch. I have a music lesson later, and I need to finish up the inventory for the new shipment.”
“Oh, I can do that.”
“Dad, I’d let you teach piano lessons before I let you deal with inventory.” Although Skylar laughed, Elena could tell she was serious. “You hungry?”
“I am.”
“Good. Let me grab the boat keys and the Crock-Pot, and then we can go.”
“Boat keys?”
Steven laughed. “Skylar spends most of her lunches out on the boat. Didn’t she tell you?”
“No,” Elena arched an eyebrow at her as Skylar smirked, “she didn’t.”
“I made lasagna,” she said with a shrug as she disappeared back into whatever room she first appeared from. Elena assumed it was an office.
“She makes really great lasagna.”
