Page 32 of Starfish Cottage
“You can stay at your grandmother’s when you come back. I’m sure she’d love to have you. We can’t afford two places.” Lorelei cocked her head and studied his face. “What’s this really about? You don’t want to move in with me?”
“No, it’s not that.” He did want to move in with her. That had pretty much been the plan in his head for over a decade. But in his head, he hadn’t considered that meant movingawayfrom Shell Cove. Truth be told, he hadn’t thought much about what moving in with Lorelei did entail. It had always seemed so far away. He just needed time to get used to the idea.
“Well, if you move to Portland, you’re going to be spending a lot more time there. You’ll make new friends, and you’ll love it there. There’s a ton of great restaurants, and you’ll still be near the ocean.” She hooked her arm through his, and the fact that she seemed happier made him happier. He hated to disappoint her. “You just need to get out of your comfort zone. Once you do, you’ll be glad you did.”
She was right, of course. He just didn’t want to bail on Shell Cove. He wanted to make sure the town had the best chance of growing, and if he could help with that, he wasn’t going to let them down. But maybe hewasspending too much time on it. Time to start focusing more on moving on with the future and less on Shell Cove.
“You’re right. Let’s plan a fun two days in Portland, and you can show me some of your favorite places.” Dex realized he hadn’t spent much time there. It was time to give the city a chance.
“Now you’re talking.” She kissed him on the cheek, and her bright smile was worth the brick of worry weighing down his heart. A worry that made him afraid that this time going with the flow might not be the right thing to do.
Chapter Twenty
Maddie had placed advertisements for the event in every local paper and even some of the major ones. She’d made up flyers and driven them to the chambers of commerce in other towns. She’d posted all over social media. She’d arranged for tents, porta potties, and even more trash barrels to temporarily place in town.
But the one thing that hadn’t happened was no one had figured out how to get around the bylaws to have the party on the pier. Sure, they could have it at Sharkies, but the pub only had capacity for eighty, and Maddie was expecting a lot more than that. If they stuck with the pier, then they could have more people. But what fun was a dry party, especially when it was in the middle of an event for an infamous bootlegger?
People were excited about the party too. Jules had gotten several reservations for that weekend, and they had mentioned the Great Gatsby party specifically and wanted to know where they could rent costumes.
It was a good sign that people were booking rooms, and Maddie was optimistic about the event bringing people to town. So when Rose called to tell her Constance had called an emergency meeting of the planning committee, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of impending doom.
The rest of the committee might have felt the same, if the looks on their faces as Maddie entered the small room in the town hall were any indication. She took a seat next to Rose. Where was Constance?
“Maybe you could update us on the progress while we wait for Connie,” Rose said.
Maddie was in the middle of the update when the door opened and Constance entered. She looked different than normal. Usually, she dressed in frumpy outdated clothing. Today she wore a clean white blouse and sharp linen capris. It might not have been the clothing that made her look so different, though. It might have been the fact that she was smiling.
“I’m so sorry I’m late.” Constance pulled out a chair and sat, arranging a stack of papers in front of her. “The printer down the hall wasn’t cooperating.”
“It’s fine,” Rose said. “Maddie just updated us on the project.”
“Oh?”Constance looked at Maddie. “Things are going well?”
Was she asking because she was hoping to put another wrench in the works? “As well as can be, considering the restrictions.”
“I see. Well then, I think I have good news. I might have found a way to loosen the restrictions for the event.” Constance started handing out stapled packets from her pile.
Maddie was speechless. She glanced at Rose. Rose appeared surprised too.
“This is great. I knew there was a workaround.” Belinda pointed to a paragraph in the middle of the first page. “See here, there is a town ordinance waiver that we can put in place for special events.”
Maddie leafed through the papers. They were copies of various pages from the town laws and then a written-up recommendation at the end to enact the temporary workaround.
“You mean we can have the party on the pier now, and Burt can set up his demonstration on the common?” Maddie asked.
“I believe so. Unless anyone sees something wrong in the packet?” Constance looked around the table, but no one raised an objection.
“It looks in order to me,” Belinda said.
“Me too,” Lorna agreed.
“Well, I’m not about to try to find fault in it.” Alice closed her packet and folded her hands on top of it. “So do we have to do something official to get this enacted?”
“I believe there are enough of the town officers here for a quorum, so all we have to do is vote,” Constance said.
“Well, in that case.” Rose stood. “Everyone in favor of enacting the temporary orders, say ‘aye.’”
Maddie half expected Constance to throw another curveball at them at the last minute, but she loudly said, “Aye.” As did everyone else. It was unanimous!
