The Bookstore on the Beach - Brenda Novak Page 0,37
just picked up and noticed the logo. “When did you go back to The Daily Catch?” She was eager to deflect attention from herself but she was honestly curious, too.
“I didn’t. I—” Autumn’s cheeks turned pink, a reaction that distracted Laurie, too. It wasn’t often that Mary saw her daughter blush anymore.
“You what?” Laurie prodded when Autumn’s words fell off.
“Quinn dropped it by,” she admitted.
“He did, did he?” Laurie jumped on that, a self-satisfied smile curving her lips. “What do you think that means?”
Autumn waved her off. “It doesn’t mean anything.”
“It has to mean something,” Laurie argued. “I love that cake, too, but he didn’t bring me a piece.”
“Or me,” Mary pointed out. She felt bad ganging up on Autumn, but she was grateful Laurie was no longer questioning her.
“We went to high school together,” Autumn said dismissively.
Laurie arched one eyebrow to show her skepticism. “So you’re saying he’d do it for any old friend who came to town?”
Autumn seemed stumped. In exasperation, she said, “It’s probably because he thinks I’m interested in him—after you called him over to the table when we went there to eat a couple of weeks ago!”
“Would that be so bad?” Laurie challenged.
“No,” Autumn said. Then, “Yes, of course! I’m not open to a relationship.”
Mary noticed that she hadn’t said, “I’m married,” and wondered if that meant her daughter was coming to terms with the loss of her marriage as well as her husband.
A penitent expression claimed Laurie’s face the minute Autumn hurried out the back. “Do you think I upset her? I shouldn’t have teased her, I guess.”
“If I know Autumn, she’s not upset—she’s embarrassed.”
“If that’s true, she must like him. Otherwise, what would she have to be embarrassed about?”
“Don’t let her know I told you this, but I think she does like him. She used to have a terrible crush on him when she was in high school, remember?”
“I remember. That’s why I thought I was doing her a favor by calling him over. I wanted him to know she was in town and to see how gorgeous she is.”
Mary finished putting the day’s receipts in the bank bag and closed the register. “That was nice of you.”
“But perhaps it was a tad too insensitive considering what’s happened to Nick.”
“It’s been almost nineteen months since Nick went missing. If he’s not coming back, maybe having someone else in her life will make that reality easier to take.”
“I hope so.”
“So do I.” Mary put the money in her purse. “I’ll make the deposit on my way home.”
“Wait a second.” Laurie stopped her before she could walk out. “You’re not getting away that easily. Do you really have a headache? Or is it something else?”
Mary sighed. “There’s a private investigator in town, looking for Bailey North. And I don’t know why.”
“Who told you that?”
“I saw him at the drugstore,” she replied and explained the encounter and her phone call with him.
“Could it be your mother who hired him?”
“He said it wasn’t.”
“He could be lying. But...is your mother even still alive?”
“She’d only be seventy-four.”
“But you told me she wasn’t one to take care of herself.”
“I don’t know. I try not to look back.”
“Are you going to meet him? The PI?”
“Do you think I should?”
Laurie leaned against the counter and crossed her arms. “Now that he’s this close, he wouldn’t have to look too hard to find you. You might as well try to put a stop to his questions before he brings others into it.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
“You won’t want to be seen with him around here, though. Where will you go?”
Mary had been trying to decide. “Richmond, I guess. But it’s a bit of a drive.”
“Give him a call right now. See what you can arrange. Whenever you need to be there, I’ll cover the store.”
“I’ll try to meet him first thing in the morning. But what will I say to Autumn if I’m not back when she comes in?”
“I’ll tell her you’re visiting a bookstore owner in Richmond who has a coffee shop and agreed to talk to us about how she sources her supplies.”
“That should work.” She was relieved to have a plan of action, was reasonably assured that the course of action she’d chosen was the best of her options, too. But she was still terribly nervous about what Drake D. Owens might have to say—and whether it would change the world as she knew it.
9
When Autumn went online that night, she didn’t see any messages from Nick. There was no