Matt’s eyes grew wide and he chose his words carefully. “That is a milestone, congratulations.” He waved the bartender over. “Their next round is on me.”
“You got it.” The bartender went off to make their drinks.
“Thank you. You didn’t have to do that,” Mandy said.
“It’s my pleasure. I won’t keep you ladies though. Continue your celebration. I see my brother just came in, so I’m off to meet him. Have a great night.”
As soon as he was out of earshot, Jill leaned in and spoke softly. “He’s definitely interested in you, Mandy. Just an FYI… keep it in mind.”
Mandy laughed. “Okay, I’ll keep it in mind.” A few minutes later, she brought up another topic that they needed to discuss. She thought they were all on the same page, but wanted to make sure.
“Our year is up next month. Do you know what you want to do about Mimi’s Place? Do you want to keep it, or sell it? Emma, do you know what Paul wants to do?”
Emma nodded. “We discussed it when we agreed to move in together. We both want to keep Mimi’s Place. If you want to sell, we’ll find a way to buy you out and I’ll move into his place. If you both want to keep it too, then we’ll probably get a bigger place together.”
“I don’t want to sell,” Mandy said. “Mimi’s Place has saved my sanity this past year. I’ve wanted something else to focus on for so long and I really love it there. I want to try to expand our wedding business.”
“I love Mimi’s Place too, and I’d like to keep it, but stay involved as more of a silent partner, like Grams did. My place is in Manhattan, with Billy, though I really have loved being here this past year. And we both want to try to make sure we get back here more often, maybe for a few weeks every summer as well as occasional weekends.”
Mandy smiled. “I think we could work that out. I think we need to toast to Grams. She knew what she was doing when she left us Mimi’s Place—especially with that year-long condition. She always loved Paul and I think she knew he and Emma belonged together. And we all needed to spend more time together. It goes by so fast.”
“It really does. Her diary was an inspiration,” Emma added. Mandy had given the diary back to Emma and Jill and they’d both read it.
“And Matt is in the same business that Grampy was,” Jill said. “Maybe it’s a sign.”
Mandy laughed. “Stop with the match-making. Let’s raise our glasses to Grams.”
“To Grams, and to Mimi’s Place,” Emma said.
“Cheers!” Jill clinked her glass against the others.
“And to helping our dreams come true,” Mandy added.
Thank you for reading The Restaurant! I hope you enjoyed it.
Next up is Nantucket Weddings, book 5 in my Nantucket Beach Plum Cove series.
Click here to order your copy!
If you haven’t started the series, the first book is
The Nantucket Inn. The most recent is A Nantucket Affair.
And I have another women’s fiction standalone novel, set in the world of country music, Nashville Dreams.
I’d love to also invite you to join my reader group on Facebook. We talk about what we are reading and there are occasional fun giveaways.
About the Author
Pamela M. Kelley is a USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of women's fiction, family sagas, and suspense. Readers often describe her books as feel-good reads with people you'd want as friends.
She lives in a historic seaside town near Cape Cod and just south of Boston. She has always been an avid reader of women's fiction, romance, mysteries, thrillers and cook books. There's also a good chance you might get hungry when you read her books as she is a foodie, and occasionally shares a recipe or two.