“Soon,” he reminded her. “It’ll all come together very soon. All your hard work will pay off.”
“Allourhard work,” she corrected him. Then she frowned a little. “And none of Winnie’s hard work to sabotage us.”
Even as she complained though, she felt a twinge of guilt. There was something about Winnie’s meddling that seemed… maybe not mean-spirited. Eleanor hadn’t totally been able to see that when she’d still been in the midst of the stress that Winnie, intentionally or not, had laid at her door, but now that she was days away from making her bookstore dream a reality, she felt a bit bad about how angry she’d gotten.
“I’m not sure that’s fair,” she admitted on a sigh. “I guess I don’t really know her.”
Garrett gave her a tender look, warm and proud, and Eleanor melted.
“Well, if anyone can dig past the surface to find out if there’s more beneath the prickly surface she shows to the world, it will be you, Ellie,” he said. “After all, I recall you having to peel back a few ofmyprickly layers before you were able to really appreciate all my excellent advice about never trying to fix your own sink.”
His reference to one of the first times they’d met, an instance where they had not gotten alongat all, caused Eleanor to throw her hands up in the air in mock exasperation.
“You spray a guy with waterone time…” she complained.
“And bonked me on the head with a shelf,” he reminded her.
“Yeah, well, your head is hard enough to handle it,” she teased, pulling him down to smack a kiss on his forehead, as if the long-past injury might still be lingering. “Besides, it was all worth it in the end, don’t you think?”
The kiss he laid on her was agreement enough.
The question of Winnie’s motives lingered in the back of Eleanor’s mind as she finished getting ready for book club, then bid farewell to Garrett, who headed out as soon as her friends started to arrive, as always.
“You know, there’s no official rule that says this book club is women only,” Eleanor said to him.
“She’s wrong!” Miriam called jovially from the other room. For a septuagenarian, she had incredible hearing. “Girls only! No boys allowed!”
Garrett gestured to the doorway as if to say,see?
“It is my book store, I will remind you both,” Eleanor objected. Neither Miriam nor Garrett were moved, however, so Eleanor bid her boyfriend goodbye and went to join her friends.
Not that this was some mere consolation prize. She loved her friends and loved their time together.
Speaking of…
“June!” she cried when her friend arrived. “I’m so bummed that I missed your last open mic! The local grapevine said you were amazing.”
June blushed, clearly bashful over the idea that people were talking about her, but her smile was clearly pleased.
“Thanks,” she said. “I’m starting to feel less like I’m going to throw up every time I do it, so that’s… progress?”
“Plus you’ve got singing buddies,” Diana added, coming in the room and giving a quick round of hugs to everyone. “The guitar player with the blond hair is cute.”
“He is,” June agreed. “Also married. He and his wife have a hundred kids.”
Diana arched a brow. “That number cannot be correct.”
“Okay, but don’t bury the lede, Diana,” Cadence interjected. “Because if we’re talking about cute guys at the open mic night, what about Anthony the Accountant?”
Cadence wiggled her eyebrows in a teasing way, and Diana shielded her face from the group.
“Yes, we talked to the new accountant in town,” she said from behind her hand.
Miriam reached over and tugged down Diana’s blockade. “I need to assess what’s going on based on how hard you blush,” the older lady said.
“Wait, was that the guy you were chatting with?” June asked. “Hewascute, and you guys seemed to totally hit it off.”
“It wasn’t like that,” Diana protested.
