Authors: Mariah Stewart
“And then there were those hops roots …”
“Rhizomes,” he corrected her.
“Right. I lost track of how many different kinds of those you said you planted.” She looked up at him. “How many kinds of beer are you planning on making, anyway?”
“How ’bout if we talk about that over dinner?” he asked. “Or do you think Grace would be upset if you didn’t have dinner at home your first night here?”
“Mom won’t be back until tomorrow. She’s off celebrating Trula’s birthday. I called my brother from the airport, and he said she was staying an extra day because she was jet-lagged.” Lucy smiled. “Apparently Robert Magellan flew Trula and her entourage in his plane on a whirlwind trip to London and Paris as a surprise. Daniel said Mom was bubbling over like New Year’s champagne when she called to tell him.”
“Nice to have your own plane. Nice birthday present.”
“Well, you know, Trula and Robert’s cousin, Kevin, are the only family Robert has.”
“I thought Trula wasn’t related to Robert.”
“Not by blood, but she was his grandmother’s best friend from girlhood, and when his grandmother passed away, she made Robert and Kevin—who are really like brothers—promise to take care of Trula since she had no family at all. So she’s been like a great-aunt/grandmother to both Robert and Kevin—he’s a priest—and Robert has always made a place in his home for Trula.”
“Sounds like Magellan is a nice guy.”
“He seems to be.” She put her arm though his. “And speaking of nice guys, did I tell you how much I appreciated the pictures you emailed me from Vanessa and Grady’s wedding?”
“You did. I’m only sorry you weren’t here for it. Their house looked great, and Vanessa told everyone that you were the one who gave her all her ideas.”
“Aw, that was nice of her. I’m sorry I couldn’t have been here, too. I hope someone took a video that I could watch sometime.”
“Wade took one, since Steffie was in the wedding. I’m sure they’d be happy to show it to you while you’re here, if you have time.”
“I’ll try to make time for that.” And some other things, she’d promised herself. This visit, she would work her tail off for the June wedding, but the last time she was home, she’d had a taste of reconnecting with her St. Dennis roots, and the taste had left her wanting more.
“So was that a yes for dinner?”
Lucy nodded. “I would love to have dinner with you, but I want to go to the inn first and get settled.”
“Great. I’ll run in and take a shower and I’ll pick you up in an hour or so.”
“Make it two,” she said. “There are a few things I have to discuss with Daniel and we agreed to sit down when I got home today to work out some of the details for the wedding. I’m meeting with Jason Bowers on Saturday, and there are some issues I need to go over with Daniel.”
He walked her to the car and leaned in through the
open window to kiss the side of her face. “I’m really happy to see you, LuLu. I’m really glad you’re home.”
“Me, too. See you in a while.” She smiled and made a U-turn in the wide lane, and waved when she passed him on the way to the road.
She’d been tempted to blow a kiss but didn’t because she knew it would be too corny, but the thought made her laugh out loud.
She drove through the center of town at a leisurely pace, waving to Gabriel Beck, the chief of police and Vanessa’s half brother, and to Barbara Noonan, who was closing up her shop, Book ’Em, for the day. She drove past Bling, and made a mental note to stop in first thing in the morning to tell Vanessa how much she enjoyed the pictures of her wedding that Clay had sent.
Or maybe
, she mused,
I’ll just get up early and come down to Cuppachino for my coffee like the rest of the locals do
.
She’d meant it when she vowed to make time for the St. Dennis native within her. She wanted to spend an afternoon with her nephew, D.J., and Diana, her niece. She wanted to take long walks around the town and reacquaint herself with its streets and its houses. There were people she wanted to get to know a little better, and people she wanted to meet. It was a lot to cram into two weeks, but if she stuck to her schedule, she just might be able to fit it all in.
The parking lot at the inn had two full rows of cars, so she had to leave her rental at the end of the second row.
“I didn’t realize you did such a business this time of the year.” She poked her head into the office, where her brother was reading an email.
“Thanks to the Chamber of Commerce for being so foresighted, St. Dennis has something going on every month that draws the tourists.” He looked up and smiled. “Good to see you, Lucy.”
“Likewise.” She took a seat in one of the wing chairs. “So what’s the attraction in April?”
“Here at the inn, we do an April showers special getaway weekend. Reduced rates. Spring garden tour. Later in the month there’s the wine festival.” He grinned. “There’s always something going on.”
“Great marketing of the community.”
“Like I said, thank the Chamber of Commerce for being so proactive.” He spun halfway around in his chair. “So we have you for a whole two weeks now, I understand.”
“I should be able to accomplish the bulk of what I need to do.” She opened her bag and took out her notebook. “There’s going to be so much to do for the Magellan wedding. I told you Susanna wants the gazebo moved—”
“I have no problem with that.” He held both hands palms up. “I said, whatever she wants, and I meant it. Whatever we have to do, I’m for it, if it makes her happy. For one thing, this wedding is great for business. For another, Mom wants Trula to be happy, which means Susanna and Robert have to be happy. The details are all in your hands.”
“I’m going to need some help here in St. Dennis. I was wondering if Madeline could give me a hand with some of those details.”
“Absolutely. As long as she can balance the affairs she’s running here with whatever you need her to do, I’m fine with it.”
“We might have to hire someone part-time just to work on this.”
“Do what you have to do.”
“I’ll also need some office space.”
“There’s the little annex right next door here. Mom uses it occasionally, but for the most part, it’s just sitting there.”
“I’ll take it. I’d like to keep the wedding details somewhat confidential, so I appreciate the privacy.”
“It’s all yours.”
“Terrific.” Dan dangled a pen from between his index and middle fingers. “So is that it, for now?”
“For right this moment.” Lucy nodded. “We will need to go over the garden plans with the landscaper, but I spelled that all out to you in that last email I sent.”
“Right. Plant tons of roses. Move the gazebo. Plant flower beds. Got it. I’m fine with all of that.”
“And I’m meeting with the chef early next week …” She paused. “Dan, your chef is really good, isn’t he?”
“I wouldn’t have hired him if he wasn’t. No worries there, sis.”
“Good, because he’s going to be very, very busy that week.”
“What else?”
“There are some odds and ends to talk about, but right now I have to …” Lucy stood and took two steps toward the door.
“Now I get to tell you my news,” Daniel told her. “Sit back down, okay?”
“Sure. Is something wrong? You look so serious.…”
“This
is
serious.” He leaned forward on his desk.
“Since it got out that Robert Magellan chose this inn for not only his wedding but for a weeklong stay for all his guests, we’ve been having trouble keeping up with all the calls.”
“How did it get out there, anyway?” Lucy frowned. Her office never broadcast who their clients were, and she hadn’t seen an article about Robert and Susanna in which the wedding was discussed.
“Mom and Trula were talking about it on their Facebook pages, and I guess—”
“Mom and Trula are on Facebook?” Lucy choked. “Our mom who can barely send an email has a Facebook page?”
“Diana set up the pages for them the last time Trula was here and showed them how to use it. Anyway, it’s been great for business. Almost too great.” He took a deep breath. “We have a shot at two very important affairs. One is the September wedding of Senator Francis’s daughter. The other is an anniversary weekend that sort of blows back to the Magellan thing.”
“I don’t understand what that means.”
“The family is one of those that’s been coming here for like fifty years. The old man remembers Dad, used to sail with him. They always book that last week in June and did not want to give it up. I had to bargain with them to get them to move their week.”
“What sort of deal did you have to make with them?”
“They agreed to move to the middle of July, but only if the anniversary party is held here.”
“So, you can accommodate that, right?”
“Yeah, but there’s a string.”
“What’s the string?”
“You have to do the party.”
She laughed. “Uh-uh. No way will I have time to—”
“Lucy, it’s that, or they don’t give up their rooms.”
She stopped laughing. “They’re serious?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“How big a party?” she asked cautiously.
“Maybe twenty-five, thirty people.”
“They don’t need me for that. Madeline can handle that.”
“Madeline is not the party maker to the stars, or whatever it is that that magazine called you after you did the MacGregor weddings. Lucy, it’s a small event. How long can it take?”
“All right, Dan.” She sighed. “Is that it?”
“There’s more.”
“Of course there is.”
“Senator Francis’s daughter wants—”
“Oh, Dan, no …”
“I’m afraid so.” He nodded. “They want you to do the wedding. Otherwise, they take it to Annapolis.”
“That’s blackmail.”
Daniel shrugged. “What can I say, he’s a politician.”
“It would mean a lot to the inn, wouldn’t it?”
“Are you kidding? Do you know how many of those D.C. pols would be staying here? How many could conceivably come back if they like what they see?” He shook his head. “I can’t even begin to tell you what we could do with the revenue, Luce.”
“Let me see what I can work out with Bonnie. I’ll do the best I can, Dan.”
“I know you will. I’m sorry to put you in this
position—I really am. But I had to ask. Thanks, Lucy.”
“Right now I have to run up and change.” She stood, gathered her bags, and went to the door.
“You going somewhere?” he asked.
“Yes. I have a date,” she told him as she walked out of the office. Over her shoulder, she added, “Don’t wait up.…”
“Wow.” Lucy studied the menu at Lola’s Café. “When did fine dining come to St. Dennis? Other than at the inn, of course.”
“Seriously?” Clay peered over his menu. “Was that supposed to be a serious question?”
“It was,” she replied. “It is.”
“You’ve been away from home for way too long if you have to ask that. In addition to Lola’s—and of course the inn—there’s now Bancroft’s on Charles Street right before you go over the bridge to Cannonball Island, and McClaren’s over on New River Road. Not to mention Let’s Do Brunch, which is gourmet from its sandwiches to its frittatas.”
“Sounds like I’ve been put in my place.” She smiled in spite of the mild rebuke she detected in his tone. “Looks like I have a lot of catching up to do.”
“Hey, the foodie movement is alive and well in St. Dennis.” He put the menu down. “I’m pleased to say that I’ve played a modest part in its success.”
“Because your patronage keeps all these restaurants in business?”
“I don’t deny I like to dine out. After all, I’m a
lonely bachelor, living by myself …” He unconvincingly faked a sad-sack face.
“Baloney. I’ll bet you know your way around the kitchen.”
“I have my moments.”
“But back to your contribution to the success of all these new dining establishments.”
“They all buy from me. Every one of them. Whether they buy some of the produce I raise, or only certain things, or just herbs … every chef around buys from the Madison Farms.”
She detected the note of pride in his voice, and it made her smile. She understood what it meant to do something really well, then stand back and take a look at it through someone else’s eyes. “You really do love what you do, don’t you?”
“I’m a farmer. I never wanted to be anything else. I’ve never spent one day wishing I were somewhere else, doing something other than farming.”
“Do you think you’ll be able to continue to supply the customers you have now once you get more into the business of brewing beer?”
“I admit time is occasionally going to get tight. I grow certain specialty items for restaurants outside of the Eastern Shore. D.C., Baltimore, Philly, New York. I wouldn’t give up that business. It’s not only lucrative, but it’s fun.” Clay grinned. “Besides, I’m determined to get MacGregor out there in the fields with me.”
“I take it that Wade’s not much of a farmer.”
“Not on his best day. But he’s willing to learn because he wants to be involved in the total process. He can’t afford to have the business collapse if something
happens to me, so he has to know his way around the crops. Just like I have to learn his end of it. He’s the one who knows how to brew a great beer, the one who has the formulas for all those flavored beers he wants to make.”
“I thought beer’s flavor was just beer.”
“In the hands of some, that may be so.” He raised an amused eyebrow. “But Wade’s sort of a mad scientist when it comes to brewing beer.”
“I’m conjuring up an image of him wearing a white coat puttering around in a lab full of bubbling test tubes.”
“He’s maybe more like Dr. Frankenstein, taking a little of this and a little of that for his creations.”
The waiter stopped by for their orders, refilled their wineglasses, and took their menus.
“So what exactly are you growing that Wade will turn into flavored beers?”
“Chili peppers, heather, basil, oregano, raspberries, cherries, nasturtiums—”
“Whoa.” Lucy held up a hand for him to stop. “You lost me at chili peppers.”
“Wade said his chili beer was a big seller for him in Texas.”
“The Eastern Shore isn’t Texas,” she reminded him.
“I think there’s a market for it. As far as the fruit beers are concerned, they’ve been around for a long time. It’s going to be an adventure to see what we can come up with and what sells for us, but we both agreed we have nothing to lose. I think the experimentation we do over the next year or so will pay off. Wade had a really successful brewery and he’s applying everything he learned to this effort. He believes
MadMac can be even more successful because we’re able to cut costs by growing so many of the raw materials ourselves. Besides cutting out the supplier, we’ll have total control over the quality of our ingredients. We can make the best because we’ll grow the best, and it can all be organic.”