“So, he didn’t go?”
“He did at first,” Jolene admits. “Driving back and forth. Checking in on momma and me. Trying to keep up with studies. With baseball. With Becky.” Jolene shakes her head and pauses for a moment before continuing. “But all that wears on you, ya know? Eventually, Becky’s plan won, and Noah gave up his scholarship to work for her daddy’s company. You see, Becky comes from money. There isn’t a person in this town that doesn’t know the last name, Brown.”
Jolene stands and makes her way to the front counter to help a customer cash out. I sit with the information she just gave me and try to wrap my brain around it all, but something is still not adding up. So, he left his scholarship. They were engaged. He went to work for her father. That must be the nine-to-five he told me about. But then what happened between the two of them?
When she returns, it doesn’t take her long to know what I am thinking. “There is more to this story, Eva. Trust me, I know you need to hear it. I just can’t be the one to tell you.”
Just as I’m about to argue, a lady approaches my table. Jolene embraces her in a big hug. After hellos are exchanged, Jolene turns her attention to me. “Mary, this is Eva Monroe,” she says as she introduces us. “Eva, this is Mary Thacker. She’s actually the publisher of the town newspaper. This must be kismet if you ask me, Mary, because Eva here is a journalist. She’s visiting from California.”
Mary’s eyes light up as she reaches out to shake my hand.
“Nice to meet you,” I say, and she replies the same.
“I didn’t know your family knew anyone on the West Coast, Jolene. What brings you all the way out here from California, Eva?”
“Actually,” Jolene buts in. “She’s looking for a job.”
I shoot her a look as she slides behind Mary’s back, and gives me a wink. Not knowing what she is up to, I smile back at Mary.
“Is that so?” Mary asks. “When are you looking to move? I actually need a new editor. Is that something you’d be interested in? The job wouldn’t start for a month or so, but I’d be willing to meet with you and talk about it. I’d like to see your work history if you are interested? What type of work did you do in California?”
“I was just a reporter,” I answer, slightly embarrassed and not sure if that would immediately count me out for the position. A position I didn’t even know existed and had no plan on applying for, but one I am now all of a sudden slightly intrigued by.
“Well, we all start somewhere don’t we?” Mary smiles as she slips her card across the table to me. I pick it up and examine it. Flipping it over in my hand, I take a deep breath. The weight of what it offers is too heavy to even begin to process.
“Come by my office Wednesday,” Mary suggests. “Let’s talk. Jolene, it was excellent as always. I will see you next week. It was nice meeting you, Eva.”
“What was that about?” I ask Jolene as we watch Mary leave and walk across the parking lot. “Why did you tell her that?”
She shrugs and smiles a sly smile as she walks back towards the kitchen. “I heard they were hiring from one of my regulars earlier. Never know, maybe you are looking for a job and you just don’t know it. Best to keep your options open.”
She pushes through the doors and into the kitchen as I turn my attention back to the card in my hand. I can’t meet with her. That would be insane. Or, would it? Could I actually do this? What if she wanted to hire me? Would I actually say yes? Move to Kentucky? What on earth am I thinking, I can’t move to Kentucky! Can I?
“Hey,” Gwen says, as she rushes into the restaurant and plops down in the seat across from me. “Sorry I slept in. What did I miss?
I look up at her in shock. She looks down at my hands, still holding the business card, and then back up at my face completely lost.
“I think I just got offered a job,” I say, amusement lacing my tone. Her eyes widen. Jolene walks over and sets a cup in front of her. Gwen looks up at her in disbelief.
“Coffee?” Jolene smiles, as she starts to fill her cup.
Chapter Forty-Three
Eva
After breakfast, Gwen and I decided to walk the stores downtown for a while before she headed back to the hotel to lie down. The effects of last night were obviously too much for her this afternoon. While she slept off a little bit more of last night’s shenanigans, I took my laptop and stopped into a local coffee shop to check up on some emails from back home. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t also look at the local newspaper’s stats, and prices around the area to live.
Still not convinced at all that a move to the other side of the United States would be a good thing, it struck my interest enough to at least Google a few things and go from there. That is, if I ever really did want to take that leap of faith. Something about it thrills me and scares me at the same time. I have been in a slump back home, struggling to move forward in a career and still feeling like I can’t get anywhere. Maybe this is the break I need. Or maybe I’m just fantasizing way too hard about a future that could never exist, especially after the way Noah treated me last night.
It didn’t take long to email, research, and get way too deep into my thoughts about everything that had transpired in my life in such a short period of time. So shutting down my laptop, I grabbed a coffee to go, put my work in the car, and drove downtown where I once again found myself walking the streets window shopping. Hopeful maybe the fresh air will take all my troubles away on the heavy breeze that is blowing through after a thunder storm, I leisurely look in the windows of the adorably perfect boutique shops.
Life out here sure is more peaceful, I will give it that. Everyone smiles at you when you walk into a local business. No one is rushing around bumping into everyone, late for an appointment or mad at the world for God only knows what. Cell phones aren’t glued to everyone’s faces, and people actually talk to one another. Talk a lot to one another. It’s like they almost don’t care how long it takes to actually be civil and polite. They’d rather do that and be a few minutes late than be rude. Imagining a world like this compared to the one I grew up in is hard, yet it exists - and slowly I am finding myself falling in love with it the more I settle into this little town and the thought of a southern life.
Stopping to look in the window of a shop full of the kind of southern knick-knacks only a woman could love, I take a sip of my coffee and admire all the items on display. A car door shuts behind me and I hear an all too familiar voice talking on the phone.
“What time?” Noah asks. I have to remind myself to breathe as I secretly wish I could also disappear, vanish into thin air, and escape the possibly awkward moment that might be coming next. “I have to pick up a few things for momma, but I should be able to make it.”
I debate turning and walking the other way. I debate standing still, with the hope he won’t see me, not like there is really any chance of that happening. Then, I debate taking off in a fast run.
