Rainier Drive (Cedar Cove #6)(66)

He brought his arms around her then, and they clung to each other. Words weren’t necessary. He wanted her and Aaron with him, and yet he’d been willing to compromise, to give her what he felt would make her happy.

“I love you so much,” he whispered. “You have no idea how much I dreaded telling you this.”

She hadn’t made it easy, Cecilia realized. Every day she’d been full of joy about the house and working hard to make it comfortable and welcoming.

“We can start packing this afternoon,” she said, tears spilling from her eyes.

“We’ll go visit Allison first.”

Yes, and while she was there, Cecilia would tell her baby girl goodbye.

Twenty-Eight

Justine glanced at her watch, surprised it was almost noon. With a staff meeting and back-to-back appointments, the morning had gotten away from her. She grabbed her purse and hurried out from behind her desk. She should’ve left ten minutes ago. She was meeting Seth and their insurance agent at The Lighthouse, or rather where The Lighthouse used to be. The site had been cleared now, and decisions needed to be made.

As Justine headed out, she nearly collided with Warren Saget, who was just entering the bank.

“Justine,” he said catching her by the shoulders. “I almost bowled you over.”

“Warren,” she said, nearly breathless. “Oh, my goodness, I’m sorry. I’m in a rush—I’m supposed to meet Seth and our insurance agent.”

“Oh.” His face fell, his disappointment obvious. “I was hoping to convince you to have lunch with me.”

“I can’t,” she told him. “I have to run. I’m already late.”

“Will the meeting take long? I could wait.”

She didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but Seth had asked her not to see Warren again. Her mother had been critical of her, too, for that one lunch meeting. Olivia didn’t know the nature of her relationship with Warren, although Seth, of course, did. Warren was impotent, and they’d been friends who’d provided each other with certain mutual benefits, including company in social or business situations.

“I’m going to be at D.D.’s on the Cove,” Warren told her as she started backing away from him. “They do marvelous crab cakes. That was your favorite entrée, wasn’t it?”

“You go on ahead,” she told him, eager to get away. She realized she hadn’t explicitly turned him down.

“Meet me if you can,” he said.

Justine nodded and, because she was late, decided to drive rather than walk. She rushed across the parking lot where she’d left her car. Seth had been so busy at the boatyard lately that they hadn’t had a chance to discuss their plans for the restaurant. She still had mixed feelings about rebuilding. The restaurant was too demanding; it took too much time away from their family life.

Tragic and distressing as the arson had been, she loved the freedom the last few months had given her. Seth was doing so well in sales, and each commission he collected was more than they’d cleared in any single month at the restaurant. In her heart of hearts, she hoped Seth would see that rebuilding The Lighthouse would be too hard on them. At the same time, she understood what he was saying about not wasting all the effort of the last five years. Besides, she had an idea, one she’d come up with during a recent visit at her mother’s and briefly discussed with Seth. He seemed to listen but she wasn’t convinced that he’d truly grasped her vision.

Seth and Robert Beckman, their insurance agent, were already at the site. Justine parked and hurried across the street to join them. The view of the cove was dramatic and beautiful, part of the reason this was such a valuable piece of real estate.

When she approached Seth and Robert, they were deep in conversation, pausing only to smile at her. Still speaking, her husband put his arm around her waist and brought her close.

“Robert was just saying he’s reviewed the architect’s plans,” he told Justine. “With a fresh start, we can make some necessary changes and update the old floor plan.”

Justine unsuccessfully hid her surprise. Construction plans? No one had mentioned any of this to her. “I have a few ideas of my own,” she inserted.

“Because of the fire,” Seth said, ignoring her comment, “we have the opportunity of a lifetime.” He grinned wryly. “Ironic, huh?”

She understood what he meant. They’d purchased the old Captain’s Galley restaurant and done extensive renovations before opening and renaming it The Lighthouse. Even with all the money they’d sunk into the business, they were stuck with the original floor plan and kitchen. Rebuilding from the ground up gave them the opportunity to change everything. “What about my idea?” she asked. “What about the tearoom I told you about?”

Seth frowned and went right on speaking. “Robert’s saying that in the rebuild, we can add a banquet room, which I’d already discussed with the architect. We can do the things we dreamed of doing. You could make the banquet room a tearoom, too, if that’s what you want,” he said, in an obvious concession to her. The longer he spoke the more animated he became.

“Not a restaurant like we had before,” she said, refusing to let go of the idea. “But a tearoom for women in the area. This has nothing to do with adding a banquet room,” she said slowly.