She wouldn’t necessarily say that she was one hundred percent excited or anything like that, but she was definitely intrigued. It was the phrase “challenge yourself” that stuck in her mind. She had been challenging herself recently, and even though it was, well, challenging, it had also been incredibly rewarding.
So what if she kept trying that? What if she pushed a little harder?
Maybe this wasn’t just her time to become more open and creative personally. Maybe this was a chance for her to grow professionally too.
The more she thought about it, the more she liked that idea. Maybe this would be the year of Winnie, the year where she was brave enough to pursue all the things that she truly wanted fromher life. It would obviously be easier said than done, but still. Maybe.
Nodding pleasantly to herself, she looked down at the note again. Yeah, she wanted to try this! Now, all she had to do was come up with an idea. No, not justanidea. A great idea. A brilliant idea that made donors eager to open their wallets because they were as enamored of local history as she was.
And just like that, her enthusiasm popped like a balloon.
She had to come up with a great idea. How on earth was she supposed to come up with a great idea? Let alone an idea that was meant to inspire people to give away their money? Winnie was bad with people; that was her whole problem. She was just making her first friends in her thirties, for goodness’ sake. And now she was suddenly supposed to have some brilliant insight into how to motivate them?
Winnie admitted that it might have been atouchdramatic to let her face drop into her hands so she could let out a frustrated groan, but she did it anyway. She had absolutely no idea where to start when it came to spicing up historical events.
Where was she supposed to go from here? How could she make this happen without ending up with a massive flop?
CHAPTER FIVE
Okay, Shane had to admit it. He understood why his sister loved Magnolia Shore so much.
The place was… well it was like something out of a postcard, frankly. And that wasn’t just a metaphor. He had stopped at a little snack stand after taking a bus from the airport and had seen actual postcards for sale. They were adorable enough that he’d purchased one, although he didn’t know where he would send it.
That was a sad thought. He’d spent so much time working for the past… nearly two decades now that most of his friends were work friends. They might grab a drink after work, if they managed to get out of the office before it was alarmingly late, that was. But they weren’t the kind of friends to whom you sent a postcard.
The only person like that he had in his life was his sister. And she already lived in Magnolia Shore. She didn’t need a postcard.
Still, he’d purchased it anyway. And then he’d gotten the harebrained idea that maybe he should walk the rest of the way to his sister’s house.
It wasn’ttotallynuts, he told himself as he strolled down the streets, which were admittedly idyllic. Leaves drifted down tothe ground as the season began to change, and the breeze was just enough that his light jacket was just right.
Stupid New England and its stupid beautiful autumns, he thought grouchily. Except it washardto be grouchy with such beautiful scenery.
He kept walking, pulling his suitcase behind him, wondering if he had totally lost his mind.
Unfortunately, there was a lot of evidence for this theory.
Argument one: he hadn’ttechnicallytold his sister that he was coming. Yes, they’d talked generally about him visiting, and he didn’t have any doubt that Eleanor would be happy to see him, but he had gotten approval for his time off, and then suddenly, he had found himself in his car, on the way to the airport. It was like something inside him had just cracked, and he hadneededto get away. He had put himself on a standby list and boom. A few hours and he was in Boston, then on his way to Magnolia Shore.
Argument two: what was he even doing here? He was a big city guy! He’d lived in San Francisco for over a decade. He didn’t belong in this small town that, for all its charms, was very remote. And tiny. Could he even survive in a town this tiny? What was their coffee situation even like?
The universe conspired, in that moment, to remind him that he was, just maybe, being the teeniest, tiniest bit ridiculous. It wafted a breeze full of delicious smells his way. Baked goods. Coffee. He glanced to the left and saw a cute establishment called Honey Bee Bakery. In their front window was a display of muffins that looked so delicious that he could practically taste them from here out in the street.
Feeling the tiniest bit calmer, he let his gaze wanderwithoutthe tinge of panic coloring everything.
And what he saw was… really, really nice. He saw two people stop to chat as they walked their dogs out of Sandy PawsPet Shop. The dogs were clearly well-acquainted, sniffing one another happily and overall threatening to mess up the new grooming they’d just gotten. Shane found himself uncommonly charmed by the idea of these two dog buddies scheduling their grooming sessions together, with some help from their humans, of course.
He breathed in a lungful of crisp fall air, and it felt like the first real breath he had taken in ages. Goodness, how long had it been since he had felt relaxed enough to just…be, even if only for a few moments.
He paused long enough for one more deep, steadying breath.
He had already accepted that his sister was right about this trip, but his feelings right now were hammering her point home pretty intensely. After all, he’d been pretty twitchy for the first half of the flight until he realized what had been bothering him: he wasn’t on his computer, working. Just the fact that he had spent a few hours sitting and reading a book instead of frantically coding had been so unusual, that it had given him that haunting, terrible feeling that he was forgetting something important.
Once he’d realized what was making him so antsy, he made himself reflect on it. What did it mean for his work life balance that he couldn’t take even a few hours off?
He didn’t like the answer.
Now though, nothing was nagging at him. He felt… unburdened. Calm.
