Page 8 of Best Laid Plans (Rock Harbor #1)

Like he’d manifested her, a voice called out loudly from the seating area. “Mom! Dad! I’m home.”

And then, he noticed tears welling up in Mrs. Pierce’s eyes. But she stood up quickly, wiping at her face and shot Cam an apologetic smile which he absolutely didn’t deserve or need.

“My baby,” she said as Elle walked into the kitchen, Elle earning herself a hug at least as forceful as the one Cam had been given.

Elle shot Cam a sheepish glance over her mom’s shoulder, which he took as a silent thank you that he hadn’t let the cat out of the bag.

“Hi, Mom,” Elle said, and Cam watched as she, too, got surprisingly emotional at their reunion. “It’s good to see you. Hi, Dad.” Elle moved across the room and hugged her dad, who was still standing at the chowder vat, but his arms were open and ready.

After another hug from Mrs. Pierce, who’d walked over and joined her daughter and husband, Elle stilled.

She took a step back from her parents, surveying her surroundings.

Hands on her hips, just like she’d done last night, she looked thoughtfully at everything in her view.

Only now, she was wearing a pair of tight jean shorts and a black t-shirt with ‘Pierce’s Lobster Co.

’ emblazoned across the chest while she did it.

A v-neck, which wasn’t helping anything as far as Cam grudging interest was concerned.

When she turned back to the group, she looked more curious than anything. “What’s the deal? Are you guys not open today? This place is usually a mad house during the lunch rush.”

Well, hell. He scratched at his neck again before rubbing against his sore muscles.

She was absolutely right, Cam realized, looking toward the front of the restaurant which was unusually quiet.

On most Saturdays, there’d have been a line at the door for their eleven a.m. opening, which was right around the time he’d come down.

Only, Cam hadn’t noticed because he’d been too busy preening like a goddamn peacock at the Pierces’ attention.

Generally, there was at least one other person working at the counter along with Mrs. Pierce, plus an extra cook in the kitchen during the summer months. The restaurant was quiet–too quiet–for a Saturday afternoon during the peak of the season.

He lowered his head, feeling incredibly selfish. After all they’d done for him, and he didn’t even notice that something was wrong. He needed to get his head out of his ass, pronto.

“It’s been a little slow lately,” Mrs. Pierce said quickly, waving the question away.

She stood up and smoothed her own Pierce’s Lobster Co.

t-shirt. “With that new seafood restaurant in town, we’re figuring out how to keep up with the changing times.

But I’m sure it’ll pick up a little later today. It normally does.”

Cam’s head popped up like a bobble head. Now this was something he understood. A way that he could be helpful. “What new restaurant?”

Mr. Pierce was the one who spoke, rattling off facts.

“It’s called Heads & Tails. It opened at the beginning of the summer.

Started in Maine and now they have at least a dozen locations in New England.

Big social media following, from what I can gather.

And, they have a spot right on the main drag. ”

Pierce’s Lobster Co. had been a community staple for thirty years at this point, but people didn’t want tradition anymore. They wanted new and exciting and Instagrammable, regardless of the quality of the food.

Cam had seen it happen in every restaurant he’d worked in, though he’d never considered the same fate for the Pierces’ restaurant.

He knew that they served the best lobster and clam chowder in town, but they were a block off the beaten path.

If someone else was pulling the social media attention plus the foot traffic, he could see how things could go downhill quickly.

Elle shot him a glance, like she was just as confused as he was about everything. “Did you know?” she mouthed to Cam before her lips settled into a frustrated pout.

He shook his head. No, he hadn’t fucking known. If he had, he would have been back here in a heartbeat to help.

“Are they going to be open year-round?” Cam was trying to work through the possibilities.

Pierce’s was an all-year restaurant, while some of the other places in Rock Harbor were only open for the high months.

Summers would be challenging to get through, since it’s where the padding to survive winter came from, but it would at least be something.

“I think they’re going to see how business is going, but at this rate, I have no doubt they’ll want to stay open all year,” Mrs. Pierce answered, a crack in her voice that she tried to hide that felt like a punch in the gut to Cam.

“There’s still the chowder fest next weekend.

That usually brings in a good amount of business.

” Elle’s suggestion was a fair one, that again, Cam had completely missed.

It’d been years since he’d been able to make it home for the Rock Harbor Chowder Festival, an event that had become a weekend-long extravaganza of semi-local food, drinks, and art purveyors.

They shut down the main street through town and allowed vendors to set up along it, bringing in tourists from all over New England, sometimes even farther away.

Mr. Pierce turned conspicuously back toward the chowder vat, which in no way needed more stirring, speaking to the soup when he admitted, “The timing wasn’t great for the chowder fest this year, so we aren’t participating.”

Cam could’ve heard a pin drop. The silence was deafening, as he tried to make sense of what Mr. Pierce had just said. It seemed like Elle was in the same boat, shooting him a furtive glance that made it feel like at least, in this, they were aligned.

Just then, the bell at the front counter rang, and Mrs. Pierce sped out of the kitchen so quickly that she could have left tire marks on the floor.

Elle walked over to the prep table and put both of her hands down. Cam could see her flexing her fingertips back and forth on the cold metal, waiting for Mr. Pierce to explain what was going on.

She looked so intense, in a way that Cam had never seen before. Her dark eyes were trained on her dad’s back, like she was willing him to turn around. Cam was a breath away from walking over and turning Mr. Pierce by the shoulders, that’s how effective the look was.

“Um…should I?” Cam gestured toward the door. He thought of the Pierces’ as the closest thing he had to family, but whatever Elle was gearing up to do was probably better without an audience.

Elle seemed just as surprised by her own words as Cam was when she said, “No. You should stay.”