Page 29 of The Glass Dolphin

Maddy leaned back into his body. “Okay,” she repeated. On her next breath, everything solidified inside her again, and she drew strength from the fact that she’d been in much worse situations before.

For this, she’d been out of town for a large portion of the rebuild, and it hadn’t taken that much. The assailant had thrown seven buckets through the windows, but those buckets had been empty. The hadn’t contained water, coins, or anything toxic that would’ve ruined flooring, tables, or chairs.

A good cleaning crew—her staff—had moved everything back out of the way for the general contractor, who’d come to make sure everything was still structurally sound and ready for windows.

Then, the waiting started. Maddy hadn’t needed to be here to wait for the glass to be shipped from New York. So she’d done her best to enjoy herself in Montreal. She’d laughed with Ben’s parents. She’d met his sister and her husband. She’d let his mother exclaim over her every morning and tell her how pretty she was and how she’d been praying for Ben to meet someone like Maddy for so long.

Ruth did have a strong personality, but Maddy didn’t mind. She’d been married before, and Ben’s mother had taken the news that they would be getting married in the cove pretty well. She still wanted to be involved, and she claimed she could fly down “at any time” to go dress shopping with Maddy, or help her pick out flowers, or to do taste testings.

The thought of it all exhausted Maddy. That tiredness went with her as she entered the restaurant she’d returned to last week. She’d met with Teresa and the building inspector, and they’d laid out a timeline for tonight’s grand re-opening.

“It’s not a re-opening,” she said out loud. “We just need to get everything where I want it, and then you can go.”

“I can stay as long as you need me to,” Ben said. “I’m not working today or tonight.”

Maddy went past the new seats that had been put in the waiting area. The other ones had been ripped and nicked with glass shards. The hostess station remained, as did their bar area. None of that had been damaged beyond repair, and as Maddy inspected every inch, she couldn’t tell what was new and what was old.

She marveled that broken things, shredded things, ruined things could be made whole again. If she hadn’t stood on the sidewalk in pre-dawn light, she wouldn’t believe that The Glass Dolphin had ever been anything but how it was now.

Her mind wandered as she made sure the menus were wiped down and set in the right spot. She hadn’t gone to see the display of items from the time capsule. She’d read and re-read every message on the chat she’d been added to months ago, and she could picture every item in her mind’s eye without having seen them.

She and Julia had gone through plenty of old pictures and heirlooms at The Lighthouse Inn, and frankly, Maddy didn’t want to see the old LP or the weathered photos. She didn’t need to read the headlines from 1950, or try to piece together who’d gathered the items and placed them in the ground.

If they even had. Maddy directed Ben to help her straighten chairs and curtains, and systematically, they moved through the restaurant. After several minutes of silently working together, Ben looked over to her, something dark and dangerous on his face.

Maddy paused, and Ben softened. “I’m worried about you,” he murmured from the other side of the table.

She wanted to reassure him that he didn’t need to worry about her, but it honestly felt nice to have someone care enough to fret over her. All she could offer him was a small smile, which she did. “I’m okay,” she said. “Really.”

“Work gives you a purpose.”

“It helps,” she admitted.

“Have I ever told you how sexy you are when you’re thinking about something?” He quirked up one half of his mouth, and Maddy couldn’t stop the smile that spread her lips fully.

“You’re not scared here, are you?” he asked.

Maddy shook her head, though a tremble of anxiety moved through her. “I maybe invited you along to help so I didn’t have to come alone,” she said. “But I’m not really scared to be here alone, no. He didn’t show up at peak dinner time and start throwing buckets.”

He’d waited until the middle of the night, when absolutely no one would be on this street, let alone inside the restaurant. He hadn’t run. He’d allowed himself to get caught. “This was about the message, not the mess.”

Ben straightened another chair and fixed the vase of flowers in the middle of the table. “It still caused a mess. It can still unnerve you.”

“It can,” she said, glancing around. She wondered how she’d feel if she was there alone. The front and the back of The Glass Dolphin were made of glass. Pure glass, with slim metal pieces holding them together. Anyone could see in or out; anyone could see her, alone, inside the restaurant.

Ben drew around the table and paused in front of her. “Sweetheart.” He didn’t really say much, but that word said so much. She brought her attention to him, feeling like she’d been sandwiched between two pieces of glass and then put under a microscope.

The planes pressed against her, squeezing tighter and tighter and tighter.

“Mads.”

The word snapped her back to the present. Ben still stood in front of her, one hand wrapped loosely around her wrist. She looked at their point of contact, then moved her gaze to meet his. “I’m okay,” she said.

“I don’t think you are.”

She had no reason not to be, so she smiled at him. She’d learned through her divorce and everything that had happened since, that human emotions couldn’t be explained. They simply swarmed onto a person at the most random of times, consuming them until there was nothing left.

Maddy had learned to tame hers during her time in the political spotlight. She hadn’t liked how cold and detached she’d become, and she’d vowed never to return to that state. “Could you stay?” she asked. “Just through opening. I’m sure once there are other people here, I’ll be fine.”

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