Page 34 of Happy Harbor
Diane nodded. “Yeah, I can see that. But your nana wanted this, and I love my job. I can’t leave. For the first time in my life, I have roots. I know you can’t understand this at your age, but it’s very hard to start over when you’re older. I’ve longed my whole life for stability, and I have it now because I’m sober.”
“So you’re telling the truth about that?”
She smiled. “I am. I work very hard at it every day, but I’ve been sober for several years now.”
“I don’t think Mom believes you.”
“She doesn’t. And she has every right not to believe me. I’ve let her down more times than I can count. I was a horrible mother to her.”
“Maybe it’s too late for you to fix this,” Kendra said.
“I hope not, but all I can do is try.”
* * *
Josie stomped down the sidewalk toward Joe Strand’s house. She knew his office was closed today, but that didn’t stop her from hunting him down like a drug-sniffing beagle.
It’d been years since she’d seen his house, and she had almost walked up to the wrong front door. Finally, she found the house and knew it was his by the “Strand” sign near the front door.
It was a small house compared to Nana’s, but it was cute with its white picket fence and newly bloomed azalea bushes surrounding the pathway to the front door.
She knocked on the door and waited. A few moments later, Joe opened it, surprise on his face.
“Josie?” He looked like he’d been sleeping, which was odd given that it was after nine in the morning.
“We need to talk.”
“Darlin’, today is my day off. Can we schedule a time tomorrow?”
“No.”
He sighed and unlatched the screen door before walking out onto the porch wearing a pair of plaid pajama pants and a ratty old T-shirt.
“Sorry for my attire, but I wasn’t exactly expecting a guest.”
Josie walked over and sat in one of the white rocking chairs on the porch. Joe sat beside her.
“This isn’t going to work, and I need to know my options.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not willing to work with my mother, so if I’m going to run this restaurant we need to figure something out.”
“Oh, Josie, I do wish you’d reconsider. Adeline wanted you and Diane to?—”
She held up her hand. “No offense, Joe, but I don’t need anyone’s opinion on what my reject of a mother and I need to do. I’ve spent my whole life protecting myself from her, and now that I’m an adult, I don’t have to subject myself to her shenanigans.”
“Diane has been a pillar of the community for the last several years, Josie.”
She let out a loud laugh. “I feel like I’m living inThe Twilight Zone. A pillar of the community? My mother? The woman who was found sleeping on the mayor’s porch with a giant teddy bear she stole from the traveling amusement park?”
Joe stifled a chuckle. “That was many, many years ago, Josie. People change.”
“Everyone keeps saying that. But people do not change. They fake change to get what they want. All I need to know is what happens to the house and restaurant if I choose not to take them?”
He sighed as if he didn’t want to say it out loud. “Adeline prepared for that possibility.”
“What did she decide?”
