A Nantucket Affair (Nantucket Beach Plum Cove #4)(16)

“Oh, how interesting,” Kate said.

“Do you suppose Lillian put her up to it?” Lisa asked. She couldn’t imagine deliberately trying to harm someone’s business that way.

“It wouldn’t surprise me. Unfortunately, from what I’ve heard online it’s a thing. Competitors try to sabotage the competition by leaving bad reviews or trying to direct traffic their way by mentioning their name in a review for a competing product.”

Lisa was shocked. “And that’s allowed?”

“It’s against the terms of service, but it’s not always obvious or easy to enforce. People have a right to their opinion, even if it’s a negative one.”

“Hm. Well, I guess I’m lucky then that he offered to fix it.”

“You really are. That seldom happens.”

“I knew Lillian wasn’t happy about my new business. She obviously thinks it’s a threat to hers.”

“It looks that way. But hopefully this is a one off, and won’t happen again.”

That thought hadn’t crossed Lisa’s mind. “Ugh. Hopefully not.”

“I’m sure it won’t. Don’t worry about it. I’ll keep you posted how the new ads go.” Kate gave her mother a hug and headed back home.

Once she was gone, Lisa put on her sneakers and walked down to the beach. It was cool but sunny, and she could use a long walk down to the lighthouse and back to work off some coffee cake. Walking along the beach always lifted her spirits, too. She loved the salty smell of the air coming off the water, and the soothing crash of the waves as they hit the sand. Every time she walked along the beach, she felt better and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.





Chapter 10





Barry was waiting outside having a smoke when Chase pulled up to the house. He took a final puff, then put the cigarette out with the heel of his scuffed boot.

“How bad is it?” Chase asked when he reached the front steps.

“I’m no plumber, but I don’t think it looks good.” Barry led the way to the closet. He’d disposed of the dead squirrels and already plugged an air freshener into the wall, so the scent of lavender mingled with death as Chase entered the room.

“Take a look.” Barry stepped back and handled Chase his flashlight.

Chase kneeled down and trained the light on the hole in the wall and the exposed steel pipes that were not in good shape. They were rusted at all the joints.

“Did you check the water?” He asked Barry.

“Color is good, nice and clear, but the pressure is low.”

Chase frowned. When he’d toured the house with Beth and Lauren, he’d checked the kitchen faucet and the water pressure seemed fine. He hadn’t bothered to check the bathrooms. But he did that now, and all the faucets were all the same, very low pressure.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Barry asked.

Chase sighed. “Yeah, I’m probably looking at a full re-pipe. No one uses steel much anymore, but all these older houses have it and they always have to be replaced at some point. Looks like it has to be now on this one.”

“What do you think that will run you? You’re doing this as a flip, right?”

Chase nodded. “I’m guessing between eight and ten thousand. Hopefully not more than that. I usually use Rick Cushman for plumbing. I’ll see if he can get out here tomorrow. And yeah, this is a flip, so it’s not ideal to have to sink that kind of money into it, but what are you gonna do?”

Barry smiled. “Yep. Well, at least it won’t stink of dead squirrels.”

“There is that.” Chase had his checkbook with him so he wrote out a check for Barry, and as they left, he put a call into Rick.





Beth had expected Chase to call her after he met with Barry, but she didn’t hear from him until he returned to the office at the end of the day. She could tell that he was in a bad mood the minute he walked through the door. Chase was so seldom in a bad mood that it took her by surprise.

“Is everything okay? I thought you would have called after your meeting,” she automatically asked before he said anything.

Chase sighed and ran a hand through his hair. It was thick and wavy and normally one of his best features, but today it just looked rumpled and frazzled, much like Chase himself.

“No. Sorry I didn’t call. I had to go right to the Johnson site and put out a fire there. One of the vendors is holding up the project and we’re running a little behind. You know I hate that.”

Beth nodded and waited for him to continue. Chase prided himself on finishing his projects on time or earlier.

“So, yeah, I met with Barry. There’s a plumbing issue. Probably needs a re-pipe. I called Rick and he’s going to take a look tomorrow. Re-pipes are expensive and we didn’t plan for that in our budget.”

Beth mentally did the calculations in her head. She knew the going rate for a re-pipe and conservatively estimated high. Even if it came in at ten thousand it would be a hit to their budget, but they could still potentially be okay—as long as there were no other unexpected surprises.

“We can work with that. If we need to, we can cut costs in other areas, maybe go with less expensive tile or counter tops.”

Chase frowned. “We still need it to look high end though, or we won’t get the price we need.”