Sea Glass Cottage (25 page)

The next morning
Thane walked Jonah to class and then went in search of the principal. Tapping on the open door to her office he found her sitting behind her desk surrounded by a pile of paperwork.

“If this is how you start every day you have my sympathies. Going through all those folders would drive me up the wall.”

“It isn’t as bad as it looks. Besides, the school board increased our budget and I’m getting an admin to help me with a lot of the filing and correspondence.”

“Good for you. That’s kind of what I wanted to talk about. A job. Isabella tells me that you wanted to open up a resale shop on Main Street but couldn’t find anyone to manage it.”

Julianne nodded, waved her hand over the file folders. “This is pretty much the reason Reclaimed Treasures has taken a backseat. I’m considering giving up the idea because I just don’t have the time to set up, tag every piece of merchandise let alone take care of the day-to-day operation.”

“What do you think about Greg Prather as your manager?”

“Bobby Prather’s father? Oh, I don’t know, Mr. Delacourt, the Prathers are going through a really rough patch right now.”

“Call me Thane. Peggy Prather’s already left town. My take is their rough patch is about to get a whole lot rougher. The couple’s headed for divorce. Mrs. Prather didn’t want to take Bobby with her and Greg didn’t want him to stay.”

“Oh, no. Does Bobby know this?”

“He overheard every word of the knock-down, drag-out fight.”

“When will parents realize arguing in front of the kids…?” Her voice tailed off and she let out an impatient sigh. “Listen to me, dishing out advice when I don’t even have kids. I’m not even married yet.”

“In theory I suppose it’s not a bad rule for parents to live by though. Anyway, I sat down yesterday with Greg, got to know him a little better. He’s trying to hold down three jobs, all of them at night. He pointed out to me that it’s difficult to find a job here. He can’t give up his night jobs if he wants to put food on the table. Taking that into consideration, how is he supposed to look after Bobby when he isn’t home at night?”

“So, as a solution you want me to give Mr. Prather a chance at the resale shop that hasn’t even opened its doors yet?” The principal sat back as if deciding what to do, all the while chewing on her bottom lip. After several long seconds she said, “Tell you what, let me talk to Ryder first before I dive headlong into making a bigger mess of Bobby’s life than it already is. It’s a good idea, Thane, doable. Once we talk, Ryder and I’ll be able to figure out how much I can pay him and go from there.”

“That’s all anyone can ask. You know he says he wanted to design jewelry. He went to school for it.”

“Greg Prather, a jewelry designer? Really?” She shook her head again. “The old adage is true. Never judge someone from afar. But that’s interesting…about the jewelry I mean. Over the years I’ve found some gorgeous silver pieces for next to nothing that would make lovely bracelets or rings. For that matter I’ve found pieces of clunky metal that would make cool necklaces.”

“Then maybe Greg’s your guy.”

“Imagine that.”

S
aturday night, the welcome dinner for Fischer Robbins turned into the opening of Longboard Pizza. Sort of. The place was packed with those residents who couldn’t wait for the official grand opening in two days.

While traditional pepperoni would no doubt win out as the most popular item, there was a long list of gourmet concoctions for the adventurous types who wanted to build their own.

The restaurant offered every kind of cheese you could think of—gorgonzola to smoked gouda to the standard mozzarella, and every veggie to go with all that cheese and crust. You could mix it up any way you wanted including an array of herb toppings to add to the varied meat choices, like tender roasted chicken, crispy bacon, hot capicola, and the traditional Italian sausage.

Tonight the wait for a pizza was zilch unless you ordered a pizza to-go. For the crowd that dined inside, Fischer had spent several hours making up an assortment of extra-large pies served buffet style. But the wait for a table was another matter. Maybe that’s why it seemed like the entire town had begun lining up at six o’clock to get inside for a sample.

Thane had managed to squeeze two more tables into the eating area, which made for seven inside and four on the side patio. With the counter on the side wall, it brought his maximum occupancy up to a grand total of forty-eight. Not bad for a tiny eatery. It didn’t sound like a lot, but when the throng included elbow-room-only it meant one thing. The advertising and word of mouth had paid off.

Lilly’s mural grabbed the attention of all who came in, as well as the photograph of a young, teenage Thane that dominated the front wall. She’d drawn a map of California using light blues and greens, added famous surfing spots, painting them in complete with foaming whitecaps. From Stinson Beach to Mavericks all the way down to Baja, the places she’d highlighted made patrons want to dive into the water, right then and there, and catch a wave.

For the time being Thane had hired only one other employee to help out. Tonight, pretty Madison Colter, daughter of Emma, sister to Gerald, helped him jot down customer orders. As people continued to sail through the door, Thane tallied up their bills, worked the register, while Madison took drink preferences, either beer or soda, filling pitchers to the brim and handing out glasses. After placing their food requests, patrons could then move on to grab a table and wait for their pie to be brought out to them.

Because seating was scarce tonight, every table taken, many were getting their orders to-go. The busy crowd kept them all hopping. Isabella had volunteered to help with orders. And Jonah’s role was to meet and greet or hold the door open or bus tables if people didn’t clean up after themselves and left the table messy.

Logan and Kinsey pitched in to keep the line moving and organized, while Murphy and Carla Vargas helped with crowd containment.

The party atmosphere rocked until it began to wind down four hours later. Everyone had been fed and those that remained were die-hard friends who stayed to help with cleanup.

Ryder and Julianne’s group had stayed on, sitting with Nick and Jordan. Gavin and his wife, Maggie and their kids had been latecomers, but they now clustered around, pulling up chairs to eat their pizza. When the festive mood began to die down and taper off, the talk turned to more serious subjects. It was Ryder who brought up the Taggert Farms issue of limited growing space.

By that time Thane, Isabella and Fischer had joined the assemblage as Ryder took the lead, trying to figure out what to do about the problem.

“After Gavin mentioned it, the two of us sat down and looked at the subject from several different ways. For the past few weeks we’ve kicked it around and found there’s no way around it. The farm is slowly running out of growing room,” Ryder explained. “We’ve increased production so much that there’s a real chance in five years we’ll be at a limited capacity.”

“I guess that’s my fault,” Nick admitted. “I thought adding more products would be a good thing.”

“It is a good thing,” Gavin said in response. “The farm provides jobs for more people in town than any other business. So don’t spend too much time beating yourself up about your decisions. It runs like a well-oiled machine and that’s because of you and Jordan.”

“Thanks for that,” Nick said in gratitude.

“What do you suggest we do?” Jordan asked. “There’s no available land between the B&B and the farm to expand. Nick’s already checked several years earlier.”

“There might be an alternative,” Logan prompted from the end of the table. “Recently, Isabella brought me an idea. I’ll leave it to her to tell you about it.”

“But it’s your property,” Isabella pointed out.

“That doesn’t matter. It’s a solid plan,” Kinsey noted.

“Okay. There’s the piece of land at the lighthouse, at least three acres, between the road and the forest to the north. The space is just sitting there wasted. It could certainly be utilized as a secondary site to grow quite a number of vegetables. The stipulation would be to keep the yield right here in town instead of shipping it to other parts of the state. In that way it would benefit the people right here in town.”

Jordan and Nick exchanged glances. It was Jordan who said, “That’s it, that’s the solution we’ve been missing. It’s a win-win for the town. That’s brilliant, Isabella.”

“I’m no expert but I’ve read about other places that started a successful co-op by growing things on rooftops. I figured surely we could take that available land and do something worthwhile with it.”

Heads turned, eyes got big, until Thane said, “If the residents helped work the land, it would keep costs down, significantly.”

“We should all thank Logan for his generosity,” Fischer suggested.

“But
Logan
had nothing to do with coming up with this idea,” the sculptor replied with a grin. “Isabella is the generous one. That’s what makes this town work, why I’m proud to be a part of it. We have people here who care what happens to one another. They care about the town as a whole. You can’t get any better than that.”

Fischer raised his glass of red in a toast. “Then here’s to all of us who had the presence of mind to move here and put down roots.”

After the other
guests left, Isabella lingered behind. She wandered outside to the little strip of patio. She was looking up at the starlit sky when Thane joined her. “I never thought I’d feel this comfortable in a little town like this. It never occurred to me people could accept a stranger so willingly without bias.”

“Bias? You mean like racial bias? Jonah goes to school with all different types of kids. It’s one reason I feel the way Logan does. I’m proud to be part of a town that comes together in a crunch.”

“No, I wasn’t really talking about that kind of bias. Sometimes outsiders find themselves shunned starting over in a small place among strangers. For months, I’ve been keeping my distance. Now, I’m beginning to settle in, get more comfortable, get a better feel for the people.”

He was tempted to pursue why she’d been so aloof. But one glimpse into her eyes had him offering, “Fischer’s watching Jonah for the night. Let’s go back to your place and take advantage of it.”

She glanced up at his tall form, hooked a finger in the loop of his jeans and tugged him over to her. “Take advantage of me, Thane.”

“You bet. Several times.”

“Promise?”

“Watch me.”