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The answer didn’t immediately come to mind.
I mulled it over as I scrambled up a couple of eggs and threw a bagel in the toaster. By the time I had my breakfast ready, I’d decided that the culprit was stress. We’d been in Holiday Cove for six months after a lengthy stint overseas living on a navy base while Jack served a tour. We moved back during the summer. Between moving stress, readjusting to life stateside, and our first holiday season back home, things were a little crazy. No wonder I was edgy.
It would all sort itself out. At least that was what I told myself as I took my plate into the small den off the living room which I was using as a home office until I could justify the expense of renting something in town. I situated myself in my chair and caught sight of the framed photo of Jack and me together on the edge of my desk. It was a photo of us at our big welcome home party in August. Jack had his arm around me and I was flashing my engagement ring for the camera. We were both wearing mile-wide smiles.
A twinge of sadness hit me as I looked at the picture, wondering when we would ever get back to being those people instead of the people who argued over dinner plans and conflicting work schedules. When would we be us again?
“I can’t believe it’s been seven months!” Carly exclaimed over lunch later that day. “Have you guys talked about setting a wedding date now that the holiday blitz is over?”
We were sitting in The Siren, Carly’s beachside coffee shop and cafe, plowing through a couple of her locally famous sandwiches. The soothing turquoise tones of the cozy cafe went a long way to soothing my frazzled nerves but her innocent question shot them right back up again. I frowned at the sandwich in my hands. “Not exactly.” Carly and I had become close friends over the years since we’d originally met when I’d come to Holiday Cove on a solo vacation. I didn’t need to play coy with her. She could handle the truth. “Jack doesn’t even want to talk about it.”
“Really?” Carly’s brow wrinkled.
“He’s been really busy working at the museum and has been going on a lot of out-of-town trips with Aaron.”
Carly flashed a knowing smile. “Yeah, Nick’s been bitching about that too. He said Aaron’s bringing in new planes faster than he can fix them up!”
“Has he been pulling a lot of late nights too?”
Carly shrugged. “Yes and no. I mean not late, late. And he’s pretty firm on the no weekends rule.”
“Oh.” Jack had worked more weekends than not since we’d arrived home.
“But it’s different with Nick and Aaron,” Carly rushed to add, her eyes wide. “They get along well enough, but they’re not like Jack and Aaron. They go way back. They probably just get carried away when they’re together.”
I tried to smile but it fell flat. Sure, Aaron and Jack were best friends and had worked side by side since their time in the Navy, but that didn’t mean they had to be glued to each other now that they were working together again. Did it?
“What about your business? How’s that been going?” Carly asked before taking a bite of her grilled sandwich.
I sighed. Another touchy topic. “I’ve got three clients so far, and one is you. How do you think it’s going? I think I need to expand my advertising or consider getting an office outside of Holiday Cove. Merle Hastings has things pretty well covered here and he’s been in business since the Stone Age so everyone is set with him. I’m finding it hard to break in.”
Carly smiled. “Merle would be hard to break up with.”
Merle was the town’s only CPA and ran the books for all of the local businesses. He was in his seventies but his mind was sharp as ever and he had his two sons on the payroll as well. The whole town loved them and trusted their finances to his small, family-run firm.
“I’m just not used to the way things work in a small town,” I replied. “When I started my business in Irvine it was a lot easier! I had to turn business away because I was so busy.”
Carly laughed. “I remember how frazzled you were when you first got here.”
I smiled at the memory. I’d barely survived tax season and had sought refuge in Holiday Cove to give my brain a much needed break. I hadn’t planned on staying past the two weeks but then Jack happened. My plans rapidly changed and hadn’t quite settled down again in the three years since.
“You’ll figure it out,” Carly said cheerfully. “Besides, I heard a new developer is coming into the area soon. He’s taking over that O’Keefe land outside of town.”
