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The next couple days seemed to slink by for Nick. Now he was walking around the small shop, sweeping between the narrow aisles to keep himself busy. He found that if he was doing something, he didn’t think too much about how horrible the last few days had been. He chuckled lightly as he heard Gabe mumbling to himself as he skimmed over the day’s paper. He seemed to be easily irritated lately.

Hearing the bell at the top of the door, Nick glanced up and smiled as his grandmother came in smiling brightly. He was about to walk to the front of the store but noticed Gabe’s attitude change suddenly. Moving quietly up the aisle, he strained to hear Gabe as he stumbled over his words.

“W-well, hey there, Winnie.”

“Gabe,” Winnie smiled and nodded. “How are you?”

“Oh, I’m doin’ jus’ fine, I s’pose,” he answered a little more calmly.

“I’m glad to hear that. Is Nick around?” she asked and Nick ducked away toward the back so she wouldn’t see he had been eavesdropping.

Nick quickly went back to his sweeping and pretended not to notice Winnie coming toward him.

“I’ll be on my way to pick up Maddie soon, sweetie. Is there anything you need from anywhere?” she asked as he smiled and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“No, I’m good. Well, actually, I have to run by the bank real quick. Could you stay here and help Gabe out a little while I do that? It will only take a few minutes,” Nick said with a boyish grin.

“Well, sure,” Winnie nodded a little confused.

“Okay. I’ll be back in a few minutes, then,” Nick grinned again. Walking out of the shop, he nodded to Gabe. “I’ll be right back.”

***

Elisabeth walked out of the small antique shop and breathed in a deep breath of salty air. She wasn’t sure why, but her mother had come to her that morning and asked her to come out with her today. The last few days had been very strained for them when they were around one another, but Elisabeth had made sure to avoid her mother as much as possible. Now she was spending time with her for whatever reason. At least she’s being somewhat normal.

“Where to next?” Elisabeth asked unenthusiastically as her mother emerged from the antique shop a few minutes later.

“Actually, I’ve got to go to across the street for a minute,” Abigail said and started across the street. “Are you coming?”

“No, I think I’ll go down to the corner and get a soda,” she mumbled. She watched as her mother disappeared inside the store across the street. Heading for the store on the corner, she passed Gaines’ Hardware Store and hesitated. I shouldn’t go in there, she said to herself.

Sighing quietly, she opened the door and stepped inside. “Hello,” she said to the man behind the counter. He only grunted in reply as he kept his attention on his newspaper.

Stopping to look around, Elisabeth heard Winnie coming from the back.

“Nick? Oh, Elisabeth. Hello,” Winnie greeted, obviously surprised. “How are you?”

“I’m doing well,” she answered uncomfortably. “I, uh, I just stopped by to, uh, get some,” she looked around and quickly tried to think of an excuse, “I just came by for some nails. I have some pictures to hang at home.”

“Oh, okay,” Winnie smiled and nodded.

They both turned to the front of the shop when the bell on the door sounded. Thinking it could be Nick, Elisabeth’s heart began to thud in her chest. She groaned inwardly when she saw her mother walking toward them.

“I was wondering where you were, Elisabeth,” she said and turned her nose up at Winnie.

“Abigail, nice to see you,” Winnie said sweetly with a smile.

“Hello, Winnie,” Abigail said in a snobbish tone. “How have you been?”

“Just fine.”

“Well, mother we should be going,” Elisabeth said quickly before her mother could say anything arrogant or patronizing to Winifred. She offered up an embarrassed smile and steered Abigail toward the door. “Goodbye Mrs. Gaines.”

“Bye sweetie.”

Once outside, Elisabeth couldn’t hold in her anger any longer. “What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you like that?”

“Like what?” Abigail asked as she fished around in her purse looking for her car keys.

“Why are you such an arrogant bitch? How can you be so pretentious? Let me tell you something…you are no better than Winifred Gaines just because your bank account is bigger. God, I wish you could see how hateful you really are.”

Abigail could only stand there shocked as she watched Elisabeth turn and walk off.

***

“Daddy?”

“Yeah, Munchkin?” Nick glanced in his rearview mirror so he could see Madelyn. They had gone to Winnie’s for a little while and now were headed home.

“I’m hungry,” she said quietly.

“Okay,” he grinned at his daughter. “Let’s go get some grub then.”

A few minutes later, Nick and Maddie were waiting for their order to come up at Capt’n Jack’s Seafood Shack. Madelyn was sitting on Nick’s lap watching an older girl play with her puppy while she waited as well.

“Daddy, I’m really hungry.”

“I know, Maddie. They’ll call us soon, I promise,” Nick said and kissed the back of his daughter’s head.

As he promised, just a few minutes later, a woman opened the window and called their number.

“Can we go on your boat, Daddy?”

“Not today, Munchkin. It’s getting late. We can get on the boat this weekend. Does that sound good?”

They continued to eat quietly. Every few minutes, Maddie would start to play with her food and Nick would tell her not to, but he couldn’t help but smile.

“Eat your fries, Maddie,” Nick said but she only looked past him. “Madelyn, come on sweetheart, eat so we can get going.”

“Daddy?” her voice was a whisper. “Who’s that?”

Turning to look behind him, Nick was surprised to find Elisabeth standing there, looking troubled. “What are you doing here?”

“I, was here for dinner and I saw you over here,” she held up her plate. “Do you mind if I join you?”

Nick hesitated for a minute and looked at his daughter. “Sure.”

Elisabeth noticed that Madelyn was staring at her and she smiled at her as she sat down beside Nick. “Hey there.”

“Hi,” Maddie mumbled shyly.

“Nick, she’s beautiful,” Elisabeth said.

“Yeah,” Nick said absently, as he watched Maddie pick at her food.

Elisabeth sighed to herself and tried to ignore the tension that clouded the air between them. “I’m sorry for what happened, Nick.”

Turning to look at her, Nick shook his head. “We don’t need to get into this here.”

“But we have to talk about this sometime, Nick.”

“Okay, we can talk about it, but not here. Not in front of Maddie. Okay?”

“Well, will you come out with me tonight?”

“I can’t tonight,” he said and saw her hopeful expression turn to one of disappointment. “How about tomorrow? Is that okay with you?”

“Yeah, tomorrow is great,” she said with a smile as she stood up. Sticking out her hand toward Nick, she smiled a little wider. “Starting over?”

Smiling as well, Nick shook her hand and nodded. “Starting over.”

“Okay. Well, I’ll see you tomorrow night. It was nice to meet you, Maddie.”

Nick smiled at his daughter as she mumbled a shy goodbye and continued to pick at her food.

“Okay, Munchkin,” he said after a few more minutes. “Let’s get going.”