A trio of women stood in front of the spa; as she and Diana approached, Eleanor realized that one of them was Winnie.
And the other two, she realized a beat later, weretotaljerks.
“Oh my gosh,look,” one of them said in the kind of sly, mean voices that Eleanor associated with high school bullies. “It’s little Winnieagain.”
Motivated by some kind of mutual instinct, Diana and Eleanor both froze.
“Good afternoon,” Winnie said, sounding as though she was already exhausted by this conversation.
Eleanor had never felt such immediate kinship with Winnie Burnett.
“Is it?” the other woman asked. “Maybe this is what passes for a good afternoon, in this little hamlet of yours, but I am about to positivelykeel overfrom boredom. I’m going to be a medical history case. The first person to ever perish due to small town syndrome.”
When Eleanor glanced over at Diana, Diana’s eyebrows were so far up her forehead they nearly touched her hairline.
“Well,” Winnie said, “it’s a nice spa. I’m sure you’ll have a good time.”
“Oh, sweetie,” said the first woman. “We’re on our way out. We already tried it there. Has nobody in this place even visited a city? Is culture illegal here?”
And then she let out a high, trilling laugh as if that made all her mean comments just fine.
“Maybe you’re just not looking in the right places,” Winnie said. It was only the smallest spark of defiance, but Eleanor wanted to cheer her on.
The next laugh the women let out was decidedly mean, and Eleanor decided that enough was enough.
“Winnie!” she said brightly. “Oh my gosh, I’m so glad I ran into you.”
She approached with a broad smile. Surprise crossed Winnie’s face.
Just go with it, she telegraphed with her eyes.
“Whoa,” one of the mean girls whispered to the other. “Apparently little Winnie finally made a friend.”
Eleanor was firmly against using violence to solve her conflicts, but a small, mean part of her really wanted to kick that lady right in the shins. Jeremy had played soccer as a child, so Eleanor had taken quite a few accidental blows like that when they’d practiced together. Getting kicked in the shins hurt, but then it faded.
It would probably fade a lot faster than the flicker of hurt on Winnie’s face, that was for sure.
“Seriously,” Eleanor said. Instead of giving the two rude women the dressing-down of the century, she decided to ignore them completely. “We’ve been looking for you everywhere, babe!”
Diana, fortunately, was quick on the uptake.
“Yeah, honey, there you are,” she said. She deftly looped her arm through Winnie’s. “We have a permit thing to deal with and, let’s be real, you’re the one who gets stuff done down at city hall. Can we pick your brain?”
“Sorry, ladies,” Eleanor said to the two other women, not bothering to look all that sorry at all. “You’ll have to excuse us.”
She grabbed Winnie’s other arm. Between her and Diana, they practically dragged Winnie down the street.
None of them said anything until they were out of earshot. Then Eleanor chanced a glance behind her. The two women were gone, thank goodness.
Eleanor pulled both Winnie and Diana to a stop.
“What in the blazes did we just overhear, Winnie?” she demanded. “Who were those awful people?”
Winnie tried to summon a smile, but it was strained.
“I’m sorry that you had to hear them be so mean about Magnolia Shore,” she said tersely.
“What?” Diana’s question burst out of her. “Winnie, we don’t care that they were mean about thetown.”
