The Inn At Seagrove - Rachel Hanna Page 0,41

you hiring?" Darcy suddenly asked. Meg looked at her, her eyes wide, and shook her head.

"I don't think you want to do that," she whispered.

"Yes, I am hiring, but everybody I've hired so far has left a few days later. Do you know somebody who is responsible and can put up with my apparently difficult personality?" SuAnn asked, cutting her eyes over at Meg.

Darcy laughed. "Listen, if you can put up with my difficult attitude and personality, I can certainly put up with yours."

SuAnn smiled slightly. "How would you like to start tomorrow?"

Chapter Eleven

"And three dollars is your change," Dixie said, putting the money in the little girl’s hand. "Now, you enjoy that book about seashells!" She watched as the little girl made her way onto the sidewalk, her mother waiting there and waving at Dixie through the window.

She turned around to get her purse, ready to finally close down the bookstore for the day so she could go spend some time with Harry. Instead, she heard the door open again. As she turned to tell the person she was closed, she saw SuAnn standing in front of her.

For some reason, she felt like this was going to be a showdown from the old west.

"Hi, Dixie.”

"Hello. Congratulations on your successful bakery. I hear the poundcake is very good."

SuAnn. "Mind if I sit down and talk to you for a moment?"

Dixie didn't think she had ever heard her be so polite. Curious, she nodded and walked over to the table to sit down.

"So, what can I help you with?"

SuAnn put her hands on the table, laced together, and stared at them like she was nervous. Dixie was not used to seeing this side of her.

"Well, you seem to have a lot more insight into my daughters than I do. I thought maybe you would give me some… advice?"

"Really? You want advice from me?"

"Look, I know I haven't always been the nicest to you, but I really do respect you. I think you're a strong woman, just like me."

"Well, thank you." Dixie didn't know where this was going.

"It's just that I came here because I love my family, and I wanted to be near them. You know how it is when you're getting older and you don't want to be alone."

"But weren’t you married? I mean, you weren't alone."

SuAnn closed her eyes and sighed. "Can you keep a secret?"

"Most of the time."

"My husband left me. I didn't leave him."

"Oh no. I'm sorry to hear that. What happened?"

"Buddy is kind of a boring guy. You know, I had all these dreams for what I would be doing in this phase of my life, and he hardly ever talked. He was nice enough, but he didn't want to travel and do fun things together. I like to salsa dance, and he can't dance at all. I like to watch mystery movies, and he only watches those shoot ‘em up westerns. We really didn't have much in common."

"But he left you?"

"Well, probably about a year ago, I was getting stir crazy up there in our cabin. I didn't want to worry the girls, so I turned to online shopping. Before I knew it, I had run all the way through our savings, but he didn't know it. I would have the stuff delivered at our local post office, and I'd unpackage it and bring it home when he was asleep or not paying attention. You know, when he was doing yardwork or something like that."

"Oh wow."

"Before I knew it, he found me out. The bank called him and told him that something must be wrong with our account because massive amounts of money were coming out of it. I had all of this stuff stored in a building on our property that he normally didn't go into. I had to confess what I had done, and he was so angry."

"Do you know how much money you spent?"

"Tens of thousands. We tried to have a big yard sale, but that didn't give us back nearly enough money. And then we started fussing and fighting, and before I knew it, I told him that I didn't think we had anything in common. I offered to go to counseling or something, but he chose to leave."

"And so that's why you came here?"

"Yes. I came here because I missed my family, and I wanted to be somewhere that I was accepted. I wanted to start over because I had seen Julie and Janine do that here, and I was