Page 61 of Fish Out of Water

“Did you see that Robbie brought cinnamon rolls?”

“Is that what those were?” Jake said. “He didn’t show me, no.”

“You can have one after dinner if you like,” Robbie said.

“Just one?”

“Or more,” Robbie said quickly. “I made a dozen.” He was flustered. For once, Jake seemed to be getting to him before he got to Jake, and Jake wasn’t even trying.

“Tell me, Robbie, how’s business at the bookstore?” Isabel asked.

“Oh, you know,” Robbie said, tensing slightly. “About the same. Now that most of the summer tourists are gone, businesshas slowed down a bit. But one of our best-selling authors is holding a book signing there next month, so we’re expecting quite a bit of business from that.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but…”

“Spit it out,” Jake muttered. Isabel shot him a warning glance, and he lowered his head in shame.

“My parents are considering closing the bookstore down,” Robbie said. “They want to turn it into a cafe, as a matter of fact.”

“Oh dear, really?” Isabel clasped her hands together in front of her mouth, as though she were offering up a silent prayer to Mier that she had misheard what Robbie said.

“A cafe sounds kind of nice, doesn’t it?” Jake asked. He looked between the two people staring daggers at him, eyebrows raised. “What? It does to me, anyway.”

“We used to have a cafe in town,” Robbie said dryly. “The owner had to sell because of flood damage about twenty years ago.”

“Okay,” Jake said. “That still doesn’t change the fact that a new one would be nice.”

“It’s a hardware store now,” Robbie continued. “You may have seen it: Eaton Hardware?”

“Oh.” Jake shrank back into his chair. “Why didn’t they keep it a cafe?”

“It was in a bad location,” Isabel explained. Robbie shot her a grateful look, and she smiled at him. “And at the time, there was a recession and a decline in tourism, making it an even worse idea.”

“That’s too bad about the last cafe, but who cares if the Eatons take a building they already own and change it now?”

“Because they won’t stop there,” Robbie said. “Sea Bites already sells coffee in house. This cafe will operate in direct competition with them.”

Isabel shook her head. “I can’t imagine that will be good for their business.”

“It won’t be,” Robbie confirmed. “I don’t doubt that my parents are already planning on snapping up the restaurant when it’s forced to shut down in a few years.”

“And Madeleine and Junior really are serious about this?”

“I’m afraid so,” Robbie replied. “Nothing concrete yet, but they’ve been discussing the idea long enough that I doubt they would have put this much thought into it if they weren’t going to follow through eventually.”

“That’s a shame,” Isabel said. “Is there any way to support the store that would get them looking at it differently?”

Robbie shook his head. “The simple fact is that a cafe would be a better business venture in this town right now, and they’re already of the opinion that I would want to make more money too. I’ve told them I like the bookstore, but that doesn’t matter. It never mattered.”

“That’s bullshit,” Jake blurted out. He clamped his hand over his mouth, but it was too late.

“Well,” said Robbie, “my family’s built its legacy on making money, and my parents certainly don’t want to be the ones to drop the ball. Still, I don’t think they want to cause a rift with me quite yet, so as long as I keep it even marginally profitable, they’re probably not going to make any bold moves.”

“Probably?”

Robbie glanced at Jake, his eyes dull with the kind of tiredness he couldn’t simply sleep off. “Probably.”