Page 21 of Starfish Cottage
Something flickered across her eyes. Anger? Jealousy? Dex couldn’t be sure. He was too shocked at her reaction. She was totally overreacting.
“Why? You have to admit, there’s not much here.” Her expression softened, and she dropped her arms and stepped closer to him. “And you’re going to be leaving and moving in with me soon, aren’t you?”
“Soon?” This wasn’t the first time she’d asked, and the requests had been getting more frequent. Dex hadn’t put much thought into it, though. He wasn’t very excited about the idea, and he also didn’t like to plan too far ahead. But Lorelei’s job was in Portsmouth, and it was too far to commute from Shell Cove. And, as she’d pointed out many times, he could do carpentry anywhere.
But the thought of leaving his beautiful hometown by the sea made his heart ache.
“What are we waiting for?” Lorelei’s voice was as smooth as honey now. The hard edge it held just moments ago was gone. “I thought we talked about this.”
More likeshetalked and Dex avoided. “I know, but things are going good for me in town now. There are a lot of new opportunities, and I want to take advantage of that.”
“So now you’re rethinking about moving to Portland? Because if you are, that could be a deal breaker.”
The look of disappointment on her face broke his heart. He didn’t want to disappoint her, but then he thought of his grandmother and how disappointedshewould be if he did move. He didn’t want to disappoint her either.
Panic bubbled up in his chest. Lorelei was putting him on the spot, and he didn’t do well with being put on the spot. If not moving to Portland meant they would break up, then he certainly didn’t want that. For almost a decade now, he’d had it in his head they would be together forever. He’d just never thought far enough ahead to envision what that would actually mean.
He didn’t want to think about it now, either. He needed more time to give it his full attention.
“Of course not. I just don’t want to rush into anything.” He put his hands on her shoulders and kissed her forehead. She melted in and gave him a hug.
“Okay. Can we go out to eat now?” she said against his chest.
Dex had promised to take her to a fancy restaurant a few towns over if she came to the town meeting with him. “Yes. I’m starving.”
He opened the passenger door for her, and she got in. As he walked around to the driver side, his mood lightened. The argument was over, at least for now. But sooner or later he knew he was going to have to make a decision.
Chapter Eleven
The next morning, Maddie awoke feeling both excited and worried. The event had been green-lighted at the town meeting, and she was excited to plan it out. But Constance Harbinger’s subtle threat loomed over her. She needed to figure something out so that Constance wouldn’t try to ruin the event.
She made coffee, booked advertising in some local papers, and started thinking about the logistics of the event. How many tents would they need? Would there be specific demonstrations or events? Burt had already mentioned the moonshine demonstration. Would they have other events too?
Most importantly though, she wanted to show off what Shell Cove had to offer, and that meant putting the businesses and the town scenery front and center.
She was elbow deep in paperwork and planning when Dex showed up for work. He’d taken all the whisky to Sharkies and was planning on finishing the removal of the wall today. He’d brought her favorite latte from Ocean Brew.
“Thanks so much. My K-Cups aren’t nearly as good.” Maddie accepted the coffee gratefully.
“What in the world is going on here?” He raised a brow toward the papers that were spread out all over the kitchen counter.
“I’m planning.” She pointed toward one of the papers. “I drew a model of the town and the shops. I’m figuring out where to put tents because we don’t want to block the fronts of the shops, and you pointed out the problems with traffic flow in my original drawing the other day. And, of course, we want them to be able to see the pier and the beach and the ocean from as many places as possible.”
“I should have known.” Dex smiled. “But sometimes planning things on paper isn’t the best idea. There might be obstacles in real life that you don’t know about. Why don’t we go downtown and look at what we have to work with? That way we can see any pitfalls there might be.”
Maddie had the idea in her head that she could just work things out on paper, but Dex had a point. He was probably a lot better at these sorts of things than she was. “Okay. I appreciate the offer. I have to go to Saltwater Sweets anyway, so let’s take separate cars and meet down there.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
It took less than five minutes to get from Maddie’s cottage to downtown. Dex had parked in front of Saltwater Sweets, and she pulled in behind him.
They walked down the Main Street with her map, and Dex pointed out several things that had her adjusting her plan. Some areas weren’t level, so she moved the tents to a more level spot. She hadn’t accounted for the giant elm trees that lined the street either. Dex had some good ideas for placement, and she appreciated that.
“How many tents are there going to be?” Dex asked, glancing down the street to the ocean. “Too many will block the view.”
“I’m not exactly sure. I asked the different shop owners to sign up if they wanted one, and the president of the Marco Rosone fan club suggested some out-of-town vendors they always have at their events.”
“Let’s not forget that we need a tent front and center for Burt and his moonshine demonstration.”
