“Oh. Did you mean me?”
She nods vigorously, her dark hair sliding over her shoulders. “It would be running the register, helping customers find anything, and I could even show you how to make the candles, too, if you want.”
This woman is offering me a job?
The longer she and Raven examine me, the more I realize they aren’t joking.
“You’re serious.”
Willow nods again and runs a hand across the baby’s hair that looks incredibly soft. “I know it might be kind of stupid to be starting up a business when I just got married and I have a baby, but I didn’t want to wait any longer. I also know I can’t do it on my own. And I don’t know anyone else looking for a job right now.”
“I have a job.”
I’m literally at my job now.
What is even happening?
Raven snorts. “A job that you just told us you suck at.”
Willow gapes at her. “Did you really say that to her?”
The woman sitting at the counter. “What? She’s the one who said it first.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to agree with her!”
“No, no.” I hold up my hand and then tug at my shirt, showing them the stains. “I do suck. This is all from today. But I don’t know that I’d be any better helping you.”
Willow dismissively waves her hand at me. “Oh, it won’t be hard. And you can start right away. I’m working on getting the place set up right now. You know, hanging shelves, getting the product that I already have displayed, figuring out where I want things. All that jazz. I could really use your help. Raven doesn’t offer much of it.”
“Hey!” Raven feigns offense —at least, I think it’s fake. “I have a job!”
Willow glowers at her again. “You have a job you can do anywhere at any time. You could help me a little too instead of just sitting in the corner typing away every day.”
I can’t help but grin at the way these two bicker.
They’re obviously best friends who are incredibly comfortable with each other to talk like this. “Have you two known each other long?”
They both look at me, then burst out laughing.
Raven casts a glance at Willow. “Sorry. I forgot you aren’t up on all the McBride Mountain history yet. We’ve been best friends since elementary school.”
“Ahh. Well that certainly explains it.”
Willow’s brow furrows slightly. “Explains what?”
“The way you two talk. It’s just…” I laugh, my chest warming with an old memory of being in one of the foster homes where I stayed long enough to form those kinds of bonds with some of the other girls. “I miss hearing people talk like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like family.”
Raven gives me a sympathetic smile. “Oh, we definitely are. Everyone in McBride Mountain kind of is.”
That’s exactly what Liam told me last night when he walked me home, and, over the last several days, I’ve been learning that this town really is like one big family.
Whenever anyone comes into the diner, they always say hi to everyone else at the tables as if they’ve known each other their entire lives.
I’ve never heard a single argument—at least, not a real one. I’ve only heard familiar bickering between husbands and wives and friends like Raven and Willow. The type of arguments that show they know each other very well and actually love each other, not that they’re mad.
