She’d attached a photo of the ring, a modest but still gorgeous solitaire cut in a simple white gold band.
Diana quickly sent back a congratulations text to her sister, complete with as many relevant emojis as she could think of, then turned her phone to show the picture to Cadence.
“Kylie’s engaged,” she said, trying to sound cheerful about it. Cadence, she knew, could see right through her… and would never judge her for her feelings.
“I think you might be right,” Diana went on with a sigh. “It might be time for me to really put some energy into my personal life.”
Cadence raised her wine glass for Diana to clink, looking a lot happier than she had when she was talking about herownpersonal life.
“Cheers to that,” she said. “Diana Madsen, let’s find you love.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Eleanor was, to put it bluntly, feeling pretty darn proud of herself.
When Brian had told her he’d wanted a divorce, she’d felt inadequate. How did a woman who’d spent the last twenty years as a housewife and stay-at-home mom suddenly pivot to living independently? Was such a thing even possible?
Well, she had shown her doubts to the door, because not three weeks after that terrible dinner, she had managed to find herself a new place to live, in a new city, pack her belongings into her car, and drive halfway across the country. As the rolling fields of the Midwest gave way to the tiny towns of the Northeast, she felt each mile like a jolt of caffeine.
She’d done it. She’d really done it!
Brian, perhaps in an act of contrition, given the circumstances of their separation, had been reasonably generous, as far as financials went. The original divorce papers, the ones he’d left for her in that shocking envelope the first morning, had offered to let her keep the house. Since Eleanor had found the idea of continuing to live in that house about as fun as the idea of a hundred root canals, she’d offereda counterproposal: what if they sold the house and split the proceeds?
Brian had agreed, which had left Eleanor with a modest little nest egg for starting her next chapter… or it would, once the sale went through.
For now, her budget was a bit more limited, but she’d found a good-sized house online that was within Magnolia Shore’s borders. The pictures had made it seem like it would need a little TLC, but Eleanor was no stranger to cleaning supplies and elbow grease.
She wished there had been afewmore pictures, a little more information to go on before she’d jumped in, sight unseen, but she wasn’t going to let any of that put a damper on her ‘new adventure’ attitude. She’d decided as much when she’d cried on and off for the first few hours of her drive, but once she’d gotten to the western Massachusetts border and was officially in her adopted home state, she decided enough was enough.
She wasn’t shedding any more tears.
She was just taking the interstate off-ramp toward Magnolia Shore itself when her phone rang. She answered it through her car’s hands-free system.
“Hello?”
“Hey, sis.”
She smiled at the sound of Shane’s voice. Eleanor’s younger brother worked in California, a computer programmer in some kind of fast-paced tech hub out there, and between his busy work hours and the time difference, she didn’t get to talk to him as much as she would have liked. Recently, however, her brother had made a point to check in more frequently than usual. He’d been a rock for her during this whole transition.
“Hey, city boy,” she teased. “Shouldn’t you already be working?” It was close to noon on a Tuesday on the East Coast,which meant that it was just time to clock in on the West Coast. Shane chuckled.
“Oh, I’ve already had two meetings this morning. I’m just in line for a coffee at the cart right now, so I thought I’d give you a ring.”
She shook her head. Of course he’d already been working for hours.
“I don’t know how you do it,” she admitted. “If I tried to keep your hours, you’d find me passed out asleep on my desk more often than not.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he complained, his tone good natured. This was a common faux argument between them. “I work too much, don’t relax enough. You’re not the first to say it.”
Eleanor paused. She wasn’t sure her brother soundedquiteas happy about his fast-paced city life as he usually did.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
Shane let out a littleharumph. “Yeah, it’s fine. I’m just in a little bit of a snit because this client wants the impossible but isn’t taking any of our recommendations to actually make it become possible. Just regular annoying work stuff.” Eleanor was reassured by the way he sounded lighter after getting even that little complaint off his chest. “But enough about me. How’s your trip? When do you get to the new town?”
“Right now, actually. I literallyjustdrove past a ‘Welcome to Magnolia Shore’ sign.”
“Ooh, I get the real-time reaction. Okay, tell me everything. What are we seeing?”
