Page 33 of Starfish Cottage
“Thank you so much, Connie, for doing this work. I’m thrilled you saw your way to helping our town.” Rose beamed at Connie, who looked uncomfortable, as if she wasn’t used to helping out.
“Well, it’s only fair. In Shell Cove, we help each other out, and someone recently helped me. That reminded me of how nice it is to be a giving member of the community. As you know, I’ve been a little withdrawn lately, but now I want to get involved, and this is my way of helping the town.”
“That’s wonderful news!” Rose said.
“It is.” Belinda patted Constance on the hand, and the woman actually blushed.
Maddie walked beside Rose on the way out. “I guess whatever you said to Connie must have really made her see things differently.”
“That’s the funny thing. I never did get a chance to talk to her.”
“Really? Then what was all that about someone helping her?”
Rose smiled. “I have no idea, but let’s not question it. The important thing is we can have the event the way we wanted it.”
Chapter Twenty-One
The party was on! Maddie wasted no time in arranging things for it to happen at the pier. Caterers, a tent for outside, strings of white lights to wind around the tent and tables. Dex built a solid platform for dancing. It was going to be amazing, mingling and dancing under the stars with the ocean below.
The Beachcomber was overflowing with reservations, and the costume store was racking up orders. Deena and Chuck were making extra orders of the whisky fudge and freezing it in anticipation of the demand.
It had been an exhausting week, but Maddie didn’t mind. She had the feeling that after this event, people were going to go back home and talk about Shell Cove to their families and neighbors, and that was exactly what she wanted.
Dex had gone overboard helping her, and she’d gotten used to his company. It turned out they had a lot in common, and his way of flying by the seat of his pants did have some merits. She’d gotten him to admit that her way of planning had merits, too, and she’d even caught him making a timeline of sorts for the progress on her cottage.
The cottage was only coming along slowly, though, since he was spending most of his time on the event. Maddie didn’t mind. The town was more important, and her cottage would still be there after.
She was on the pier with the tent company, trying to figure out the exact placement, when Lorelei strolled up.
“Dex told me Constance let go of her witchy ways, and you can have the party here. It’s a good spot,” Lorelei said.
“Yeah, that was nice of her.” Maddie felt awkward, but maybe this was Lorelei’s attempt to make friends, seeing as Maddie had become such good friends with Dex. But there was something off about her, as if some other purpose was simmering under the surface.
“Well, she should be nice after what Dex did for her.”
Maddie was confused. “What did he do for her?”
Lorelei’s left brow rose. “He didn’t tell you? Her property was a mess. She hadn’t been taking care of it, so he went over and fixed things up for her.”
Rose had said she didn’t know who was responsible for Constance’s change of heart. Had it been Dex? She smiled, thinking of his kindness in fixing up Constance’s house and doing it so the town could have the party on the pier just like she wanted.
“That was nice of him. He’s a nice guy,” Maddie said.
“He is. I’m surprised he didn’t tell you, seeing as you spend so much time together.”
Did she detect a tinge of jealousy in her voice? “We’re not that close. We have worked on a lot of the things for the event together, but we’re busy working. It’s not like we hang out.” Except for that time on the beach where she’d felt that tug of a connection.
Lorelei bent over to inspect the pot of colorful flowers in front of the old donut shop. Lorna had put it there for the baking contest and had kept it up. Lorelei plucked a bright-yellow marigold off its stem. “Then I guess it won’t affect you too much that he’s leaving.”
“Leaving?” Dex was leaving? What did she mean? Were they going on vacation? He hadn’t mentioned it, but then again, it wasn’t like they were besties.
Lorelei sniffed the flower, glancing up at Maddie from under her dark lashes. “He’s moving to Portland to be with me, of course. We’ve planned it for ages. In fact, we’re going to pick out a place this weekend.”
“Oh, of course. I knew that, just didn’t realize it was going to be so soon.”
“Yep. So I hope you won’t be needing him to do too much more here in Shell Cove.”
“Of course not. I can handle the rest of this.” Hopefully he was sticking around long enough to finish her cottage.
