He turned and headed off to find Emily to see if he could make amends. He was so very tired of making amends for Camille, too.
Maybe the break was a good thing. He needed a change and time to think.
Chapter 15
Donna wasn’t certain she’d made the right decision with the whole expansion of Parker’s. There’d been weeks of dust and noise and roped off areas of the store. At least it wasn’t busy season now, but still, the commotion every day was hard to take.
But Olivia was happy. Deliriously happy. There was that.
The bright spot in these past few weeks had been Barry joining her for evening drinks out on the point, watching the sunset. He’d come over a couple times a week after he’d stopped by to walk her home when she closed up Parker’s. Now they walked home together almost every night and she really enjoyed his company.
She looked up from behind the cash register counter to see Barry standing there smiling at her. It startled her to see him there right when she’d been thinking of him. She quickly covered her surprise.“Well, hello there.”
“Hi, Donna. I came by to get a malt. Emily said that the malt shop is being dismantled and moved the end of the week. Wanted to make sure I got one last one in before waiting for it to reappear next door.”
“Yes, they are tearing down the wall behind the malt counter and connecting it to the cafe next door.”
“Do you have time to join me? You know it will be your last chance for a while.”His eyes enticed her with the thought of a brief break.
“Let me get Lydia to watch the checkout. I’ll meet you over at the malt shop.”
She wasn’t really hungry, but spending a bit of time with Barry was always a welcome break. She found Lydia, then went to join Barry and gave Olivia a break while she chatted with him.
She made their malts and settled onto a stool next to him. As usual, he talked about the Cabot remodel. Things were getting closer to being wrapped up.
“Donna.”
She turned at the sound of her name, surprised to see Evelyn standing there.
“Evelyn, what’s up? Have you met Barry? He’s working on Cabot Hotel.”
“No, I haven’t. Nice to meet you.”
“Barry, this is my sister, Evelyn.”
“Great to meet you, Evelyn. Will you join us?”
Evelyn looked undecided.
“Come on, Evie, join us.”Donna stood and went behind the counter.
“Maybe a scoop of vanilla. In a dish.”
Donna got the ice cream and handed it to Evelyn.“So what brings you to Parker’s?”
“My cell phone charger isn’t working and I thought I’d pick up another one.”
Donna frowned.“Let me think where we moved the display. I think it’s over by the extension cords and lightbulbs. Used to be right up front, but everything is a bit…ah…disorganized right now with the expansion.”
“I’ll find it.”Evelyn took a bite of her ice cream.
“So, Barry was just telling me about the work on the hotel. It’s almost finished,”Donna said to Evelyn.
“We’re going to have a grand opening,”Barry added.“A bit behind on planning it. I need to find someone to head that up. Usually, these kinds of events are planned much further in advance, but we weren’t certain on how long some of the updates would take, and now Delbert doesn’t want to delay the opening. We’ve done some preliminary publicity for it, but it’s only six weeks away.”
“I could help with that,”Evelyn offered.
Donna had to keep her mouth from literally hanging open.“You’d help?”
