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Bailey was referring to George Beckwith’s old tourist gift store He used to sell the traditional Hartwell tourist stuff I secretly considered junk However, tourists wanted the s, postcards, and all that jazz So when he sold his store to a fancy French chef who used to work in New York, I’d incorporated the traditional gifts into my store
Iris and Ira orried when they learned George’s boardwalk property was being converted into a restaurant Although I hadn’t glily ad son of a bitch His naone up for the restaurant, and it was called The Boardwalk, which was decidedly unpretentious We all thought it would be some fancy-ass place that wouldn’t fit in, but apparently, Mercier was smarter than that
“You said it will be a seafood restaurant, Lobster and all that stuff That won’t cut into Antonio’s” Iris and Ira weren’t Italian, but they did good Italian food in their pizzeria
“It will” Bailey shrugged “Any other restaurant opening on the boardill cut into their profits no matter what style of food it is People who don’t want to wander off the boardwalk or want a meal with a vieill have options now”
“I still don’t think it’ll impact them as badly as they think Not everyone likes seafood Almost everyone loves Italian”
“Hmm Well, that may be true, but they’re still worried They’re still stressed about it on top of worrying about Ivy The last thing they need is Devlin harassing them”
I couldn’t argue with that I only wished there wassuch a pain in this town’s backside
Bailey groaned “God, I’m such a bad friend I’ve been so distracted for weeks I haven’t even asked how you’re doing?”
Bailey had been anxious aboutthe way I’d left things with my mom and Michael Thankfully, the trip home had been uneventful I spent all ether I never heard fro And I knew the latter was too It was just harder to convince o He’d done it
It was the right thing
“I’e that I still drea
“Jess and E about it You know I haven’t said anything about all the stuff that’s gone doith your family I will, however, reiterate to you that if you don’t want to tell E to Jess I think you till find you have a lot in common”
“Bailey, I’ave her an apologetic s on, and I’ back to that place I’ood I promise”
If she wasn’t convinced, that wasn’tit
After she’d fed iven me coffee to start my day, I still had ti the off-season because of the shorter days, which oodbye, I made her promise to call me if she needed hn, and I was happy for her I was Yet I couldn’t help thinking maybe I should keep my promise to my dad and actively try to move on and find so about the man I’d left behind