Dear Jill, I hope this finds you and all my friends in South Cove well. Thank you for hiring Evie. She’s a great person and will fit right in, or will as soon as she deals with some demons from the past. I believe South Cove is an excellent place for people to find their true calling. Like I did. Hope to see you at the party. If Toby wants to come and bring a date, Olivia would love to see him. Sasha.
Toby. My barista and part-time deputy had carried a torch for Sasha and Olivia for a long time after they left South Cove to start a new life. He still hadn’t started dating anyone seriously since the breakup. I wasn’t sure attending Olivia’s party and seeing their new life with a new man was in his best interest. But I’d talk to Greg to see if I should pass on Sasha’s note. She could have just sent Toby an invitation. She knew how to reach him. I hated being in the middle of this.
Relationships were hard. Relationships and past relationships in a small town were impossible to just step away from. There was always someone who liked to bring up your past and your past mistakes. I tucked away the invitation in my planner and put a note in the calendar on the day of the party. I’d at least send Olivia a book basket from the store. Pushing the reading button was not only good for society but also my livelihood. Besides, I knew Sasha kept the girl busy with books. It was something in our blood.
I went upstairs, changed, and brought down a load of laundry to start. It was time to run and forget about everything except the taste of the salt air on my lips and the feel of the cool breeze that would cool me down as I ran. Emma had her own running joys, like playing in the surf and chasing away the seagulls from the shoreline. I had to face the fact that we were both addicted to our shoreline lifestyle. I hoped I never had to leave.
I’d had a bit of a scare a few months before, when a developer wanted, badly, to buy my house. But I’d dealt with that. My fear was that he wouldn’t be the last to come with suitcases filled with money to purchase my house or the property around it. I had to face the fact that the area was starting to grow. And things around me would change. I just had to keep a level head on me and not worry about a random future.
Traffic into town and on Highway 1 was light as we crossed to the beach parking lot. Early spring meant we didn’t get a lot of weekday visitors to town, which was great for me. I loved it being a little quiet, even though my aunt bemoaned our financial future every off-season. This year she’d been too busy setting up her new life to badger me. Something I blessed Harrold for every morning. We hit the sand, and because there wasn’t anyone in sight, I unclipped Emma’s leash. She’d stay nearby and come back when I called. And she knew to stay away from sea lions after having a bit of a scare when she was a pup. Now, she’d let me know one was nearby with a short bark and then she’d run next to me. Like I could save her from the massive beast.
I love that my dog thinks I’m a superhero.
We were on the way back when I saw someone walking toward us. I was about to clip on Emma’s leash when she took off running toward the figure. It had to be someone we knew or she would have stayed next to me. I kept up my pace and, as I grew closer, realized it was Greg walking toward us.
“Hey, handsome, what are you doing off work?” I stopped running as I reached him and leaned in for a kiss.
He obliged, then took Emma’s leash from me and clipped it on her collar. “Just keeping the beach safe from random loose dogs and running women.”
“Did someone call with a complaint?” I glanced around the beach, which was still empty except for us and the sandpipers playing in the waves.
“No. I’m just giving you my standard beach protocol speech. On your way home? Can I walk with you?” He fell in step with me and I got a bad feeling.
“Okay, so what happened?”
He jerked his head toward me and frowned. “What do you mean?”
“You never come walk me home from a run. Either there’s a serial-killing clown in the area or you had a run-in at work. Probably with the mayor. Nope, he’s on a cruise.” I took his hand in mine as we walked. “Tell Jill all about your troubles and maybe I can fix them.”
“I don’t know if you can fix this one. Esmeralda’s talking about quitting.” He glanced up at the bluff, where my house stood. Esmeralda lived across the street, just up from the farmers market stand that had been built a few years before. During the off-season the stand was only open on the weekends, so today it stood boarded up and silent.
“Why? Don’t tell me she’s moving?” I liked my neighbor. Well, once I got past the freak-out I had when she did her woo-woo fortune-telling stuff on me. I didn’t mind the fact that she made her living telling people messages from beyond. Well, that and being a part-time dispatcher for Greg at the police station.
“I don’t think so. She said something about it not being fair that she was taking a job from one of the other townspeople who needed it. It was a strange conversation. I’m not sure exactly what she wants.” He sighed as we climbed the stairs. “I know I can get along without her. We’ll hire someone and train them. But I like working with her. She has a good head on her shoulders and isn’t afraid of telling me when I’m off on a wrong track.”
I considered Greg’s dilemma. I knew I hated losing people from the shop, but they usually quit to go on to better things. Like Sasha. And Nick, my friend Sadie’s kid, who stopped working summers for us because he started doing financial internships at college. He’d spent last summer working in London. This summer he was probably getting his first adult job and moving away to his new life. Those kinds of losses were easy for me to deal with because it was for a better life. This felt off. Like Esmeralda was listening to the wrong voice and not taking her own needs into consideration. “I could talk to her if you want me to.”
Greg’s face lit up and I realized that was why he’d come to find me. He wanted me to fix this. “That would be great.”
I groaned inwardly. I did want to help my boyfriend with his employee troubles, but honestly, it wasn’t my business. He should be the one to convince Esmeralda to stay, not me. “I really don’t think she needs my input on this. You should be the one to talk to her.”
“I will. I promise. But if you could just lay the groundwork for me? I’d appreciate it.” He paused as we looked both ways, then looked again. Then he changed the subject. “I proposed a walk light to the City Council again this year. I’m hoping it makes it to the budget. The state has safety grants that will pay most of the cost. Marvin’s shot it down three years in a row to put more money into his mayoral budget. This year, I feel lucky.”
As we climbed the hill to my—I meant, our house, because Greg lived with me—I glanced over at Esmeralda’s place. She was home and a black BMW convertible was parked in the driveway. Esmeralda always kept her Land Rover parked in the garage. I think she didn’t want her clients to know what her financial situation was; maybe it made for larger tips if they thought she was struggling. I knew she’d bought the SUV new and for cash because she’d given me the name of the dealership in Bakerstown when I bought my new Jeep a few years ago. He’d given her a discount for an all-cash offer.