Free Marrying Mr. Right by Cathy Tully Page A

comment further, Ann strode into the shop, bringing with her the touch of a crisp autumn breeze. She pushed the door closed. “It’s really blowing up out there, but I’m not complaining.” She looked up and smiled. “Well look who’s here!” Ann dropped her shopping bag and hugged Cara. “How are you?”
    “Great.”
    “And work?” Ann asked.
    “Busy, but good.”
    Ann slipped out of her sweater coat. “Good. Busy is good.” She glanced at Missy and exchanged a what’s going on? look.
    Missy stepped out from behind the counter. “My daughter’s taking me to lunch. You can handle things while I’m gone, right?”
    Ann nodded. “Absolutely. You two have fun.” She turned to answer the ringing phone.
    Anxious to spend rare alone time with her daughter and escape the busy shop, Missy pulled her purse from beneath the counter. “Okay, let’s go.”
    Outside, the sun shone bright on Lighthouse Bay, a small beach community in New Jersey that had been her home for the past twenty-nine years. Missy inhaled the pungent smell of salt water and the cool breeze that made her feel alive again. Sea gulls soared overhead. God, she loved living here. Before the kids were born, commuting to work in Manhattan had been simple with easy access to the New Jersey Transit station in the middle of town.
    After Cara was born, Missy stayed home because it didn’t make sense to spend her entire paycheck on a babysitter. Besides, once she laid eyes on her beautiful Cara, Missy had no desire to leave her with anyone but herself. Two years later, her son Nick came along. Missy thrived on being a stay at home mom, but after awhile, as the kids got older, she found she needed more.
    Since she’d always aspired to become a florist, she figured there was no better time. So she went back to school at night for a degree in flower design. It had been difficult at first, needing to refocus much of her attention on her studies with the children used to having her on call 24/7. But once she developed a schedule that balanced kids and school, they came to respect her study time and everything fell into place. Shortly after graduation, she applied for a small business loan to open The Flower Box. Hard to believe that was seven years ago.
    Helen Dabek and her husband, John, owners of the dry cleaners down the block from The Flower Box waved hello. “Hi!” Missy hollered back. John busily swept the sidewalk as Helen pulled their garbage can to the back of the alley.
    Cara slipped her hand through her mother’s arm. “Let’s go to Luigi’s. I’m starving.”
    They waited for the town senior citizen trolley to turn the corner before they crossed. Missy swallowed the sudden lump in her throat. She hadn’t been to Luigi’s since she and Vinnie separated almost nine months ago. She couldn’t bring herself to step back inside the eatery they had once christened “their place” more years ago than she cared to remember.
    But as her daughter’s visit out of the blue was as rare as a blizzard in July, she told herself to suck it up. Cara had come to see her. Why shouldn’t they go to Luigi’s? Today was as good a time as any to reclaim part of her life she had enjoyed so much.
    Out of nowhere, Casey, the Labrador retriever who lived next door to Missy, flew by. His owner, Jackie Smith, hot on his trail, passed, but then had to stop to catch her breath. “Damn dog!” she cursed when she saw Missy and Cara. “I swear he’d live at the park if I let him. He gets one look at the leash and he’s off.”
    Missy looked down the block in the direction of the town park and figured Casey, one of the rowdier members of the local canine set, was long gone. “Do you need help catching him?” she asked Jackie.
    “Naw. No doubt he’ll be so busy humping the Irish setter he’s taken a recent shine to he won’t even hear me coming.” She straightened from her crouch and headed toward the park, waving over her shoulder. “Good to see you, Cara.