That sounded better, but for some reason, Trevor accusing her of not being fun irked her. It wasn’t as if she cared what this stranger thought of her. A man who opened a business that would draw the wrong sort to their quiet corner of paradise.
Once all the merchandise was returned to its rightful place, Trevor stood staring at her as if he wanted to say something but didn’t know how.
“So, what brought you into my store today? In desperate need of souvenirs to pass out on your boat as parting gifts?”
“No.” Trevor toed the long crack in the linoleum floor. “Actually…” He let out a long breath and ran that hand through his dark waves again. “You’re not going to believe this.”
Dustin chuckled but put his knuckles to his lips. “I can’t wait to hear this,” he mumbled.
“We were chasing something, and it ran in here through that hole in your side door. Don’t worry. We can get it for you and put it outside or whatever.”
“Chasing something? What kind of something?” she asked, but she was already suspicious.
“A creature, like a mole or rat or weasel.”
Julie burst into laughter until her eyes watered.
“I’m serious. I know it sounds crazy, but it ran through these tunnel-like structures outside from our beach all the way up the road and into this building.” Trevor scanned the shop and moved to the registration desk, peering down into the cabinets and then standing up and eyeing the wood planks that lined the ceiling.
She stifled her laughter and readied for the trouble Houdini tended to bring with him each time newcomers came into her shop. “I believe you.”
He paused his investigation. “You do?”
“I do, but it wasn’t a mole or a rat. It was a ferret.” She crossed her arms over her chest and faced Houdini’s hiding hole that she assumed he retreated to when the men entered her shop. “Houdini, get out here now.” She tapped her foot and waited.
“That thing has a name?” Trevor asked with a hint of disgust to his tone that she didn’t like.
She sighed and moved the stepladder under the hole to climb up. Trevor wouldn’t be the first to take issue with a thieving ferret. “He does. Let me guess… That rusted old screw belongs to you.”
“It isn’t rusted and old. It’s an engine bolt.” Trevor sounded indignant.
Dustin clapped his friend on the back. “No, she’s got it about right. It’s old, rusted, and worthless except to a forty-eight-year-old divorcé who moved to Florida to restart his life.”
Julie dared a quick over-the-shoulder glance and caught Trevor’s scowl again. If she guessed correctly, Dustin was in for an earful when they left her shop.
Houdini’s pink nose and whiskers made an appearance but no more of him before the metal bolt rolled off the platform and into her outstretched hands. “You need to say sorry to these men.”
“That varmint’s your pet?” Trevor asked with wide eyes.
Houdini popped out, hissed, and ran back into his hole.
“Not nice,” Julie scolded.
“Is that thing dangerous?” Dustin asked, backing toward the door as if her two-pound ferret could take down all hundred and eighty or so pounds of him.
“No. He’s gentle, kind, and sweet.”
“I’m not seeing that,” Trevor grumbled.
“Can’t make fun of my shark phobia anymore,” Dustin said loud and clear, but she didn’t follow. Obviously some inside joke between them.
Julie made kissing noises, trying to get Houdini to come back out. “He’s upset that you called him vermin, that’s all. He really is a sweet thing. Poor little guy was abandoned by some tourists who brought him here, and the town has looked after him ever sense.”
“I’m sensing a trend in your dislike of tourists,” Trevor stated, as if it were a fact, not an opinion.
“Dislike, no? Distrust—only the loud, obnoxious, left-my-brain-at-home kind.” Julie avoided any further discussion about the type of person who vandalized her store the week after Joe died because they were upset she didn’t open the shop that day. “Houdini’s really smart. He brings Mr. Mannie his morning paper, he checks on Mrs. Watermore each day and helps get things off of out-of-reach places, and he keeps me company. However, I’m afraid that with intelligence comes a certain amount of mischievousness.”
“If you say so,” Dustin said in a you’re-an-eccentric-ferret-lady tone.
She’d show them how wrong they were about her sweet boy. “Houdini, come out now or you’ll be kept in the house for a week. No tunnel time or visits to your friends.”
Houdini nudged to the edge of the shelf, stood on his hind legs, put his paws together, and bowed his head.
“That’s a good boy. Now, you’re staying inside the rest of today.” Julie went to the side door and pushed the hatch lock over into the eye, sealing the tunnels from Houdini.
He whined, tugging at her heart. She’d play with him this afternoon and snuggle with him while she worked so he wouldn’t be too disappointed.
She handed Trevor his old rusted bolt that he’d made such a fuss over. Before she could usher them out of the shop, the front door swung open and in strutted a smiling, meddling, blast from the past, Wendy “Wind” Lively. “Good afternoon,” she said in her flirtatious, fun, everyone-will-notice-me way. “Who do we have here?” She touched Trevor’s arm as if to analyze his strength, and the way her gaze moved from his head to his toes made Julie want to slap instead of hug her long-lost, reappearing friend. “Not bad. Based on my conversation with your daughter, I thought you were hard up and lonely. Guess she had it wrong. Jewels has got game.”
Julie flinched at her words. A heat crept up her neck, and she wondered if it was a summer moment or embarrassment. These days it was hard to tell. Jewels. A name she hadn’t been called for a long time. It didn’t fit her anymore. She was no longer the creative, unfocused child who drew pictures
