Page 74 of The Spotted Cottage By the Sea
“Don’t be sad!” Eliza said, getting behind Sheila and wrapping her arms around her. “Granny said this can be our new house, and we can have Thanksgiving and Christmas here and –”
“I’m not sad,” Sheila said, her voice breaking. “I’m proud of you girls. All of you.”
She smiled, finally able to take a breath. It felt like her chest could expand for the first time in weeks.
Shelby and Emma jumped up to join the group hug.
“We’re proud of you too, Mom,” Eliza said. “You’re the best. You know that, right?”
“Well doesn’t that look nice,” Mackenzie lamented. “I guess I’ll take a screenshot. I’m stuck here, alone, watching you all.”
“You’ll have to plan a visit!” Patty said, picking up the phone. “To your new home, for a cup of tea.”
Sheila closed her eyes. The pressure on her chest was completely gone now, replaced instead with a warm glow.
Thirty-four
Though her sisters’ visit was brief, Eliza made it count. She took them on a hike along the coast and snapped a picture of the three of them in front of the iconic Lime Kiln lighthouse. Their noses were red from the cold, but their smiles were genuine.
“It’s freezing! My toes are going to snap off!” Shelby complained.
Eliza sucked in a deep breath. “Doesn’t it make you feel alive?”
“The threat of shivering so hard I lose my balance and fall onto the rocks below?” Emma said through chattering teeth.
“No!” Eliza yelled over the wind. “The cold! It reminds you you’re alive, and you canfeel!”
It was so windy that they couldn’t tell if they were catching spray from the ocean beneath them or from the menacing clouds above them. After half an hour, even Eliza could admit it was a bit much. She drove them into town for pizza and a movie, and they both left Sunday night.
The real discomfort for Eliza came on Monday morning. Cold wind was nothing compared to facing reality at the tea shop.
Though they’d been successful in convincing their mom to sell the house to save the tea shop, money was still an issue.
Granny had told her to take out a reasonable salary for herself.
“You’re my best employee,” she’d said. “I trust you to pay yourself a fair wage.”
As flattering as her support was, there was no money for Eliza to draw a salary from. The tea shop wasn’t making a profit, not yet.
They were breaking even, and for most businesses starting out anew, that would be great. But for a tea shop that was entering a non-busy season, it was concerning.
Before heading over to the shop on Monday morning, Eliza logged into her bank account to see if she could make it until the tourists returned in the summer.
For the first time, she was grateful she’d been a hermit for the past few years. Her savings were enough to get by, but only if she didn’t contribute to household expenses at all.
She didn’t feel good about mooching from her grandma and made up her mind to pick up a second job. It wasn’t ideal, but she could make it work.
After opening the shop at eight and serving their only customer, she logged onto the website and nearly dropped out of her seat.
There were over three hundred tea orders waiting to be mailed out, and the tea shop email was overflowing with messages.
Eliza started clicking through. “Have you ever considered doing a virtual tea with Granny Patty?” one woman wrote. “I would pay for that!”
The week prior, she’d uploaded a video of Granny showing how to make the perfect cup of English tea. It had only gotten four views all weekend, and now it was up to twelve thousand.
Her mom walked into the tea shop carrying a box of pastries. “Is everything okay?”
“Mom! Look!” Eliza spun the laptop screen around. “We are getting a ton of business and I have no idea why.”
