“No, it’s—I’m fine,” she said. “I, uh. I think I’m just going to?—”
“Wait, Winnie, are you leaving?” Eleanor asked, her face creased with concern.
Something about this well-intentioned worry made a part deep inside Winnie feel as though she was going to crack into pieces. She gave a brittle smile.
“I—yeah, I’m just feeling a little tired,” she managed. “I think I’m just going to…” She waved vaguely toward the door.
Eleanor’s eyes darted over Winnie’s shoulder, but she was looking at the man, not the door. “Shane, give me a second, okay?”
“Sure thing,” the newcomer replied easily. “Nice to meet you,” he said politely to Winnie, which she thought was generous, given they hadn’t really met.
“Yeah,” she said absently. “You… too.”
He gave her a quick smile, which Winnie couldn’t help but notice was a nice one, then headed through to the main room.
Eleanor put her hand on Winnie’s arm.
“Are you sure you’re okay, sweetheart?” she asked gently. “You don’t want to stay?”
Winnie shook her head, feeling strangely overwhelmed.
“No, no, I just think I should…” She shook her head against her rising panic. There wasn’t a reason to feelpanicked. This was the irrational worry back again. But still. It was what she felt.
Eleanor still looked a little worried, but she nodded. “Okay, honey. We’ll talk soon?”
“Sure.” Winnie might have agreed to anything at that moment.
“Okay,” she repeated, sounding a little sad.
Winnie couldn’t meet her eye as she scurried over to grab her coat, and she tried not to look at the other book club members as she grabbed her coat and headed toward the door.
Again, she faced the dissonance between her feelings and her mind. It wasn’t logical to think that everyone was judging her for her early departure, especially since Cadence and June both had young children and had needed to duck out before.
But it still felt like judgment. She couldn’t banish the feeling.
Winnie hurried out to her car, then took a long, deep breath when she was safely in the front seat.
She was fine. She was just still… getting her feet beneath her with this whole friendship thing.
She had talked herself all the way around to believing that right up until she turned the key in the ignition of her car…
And it didn’t start.
This felt like the last straw. Winnie let her head drop to the steering wheel, her hands covering her face.
Changing was hard. She knew that.
But still. Today? Today, this felt like just a little bit more than she could take.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Shane was a self-sufficient man who had lived on his own for years.
That didnotmean he was above pilfering just afewsnacks from his sister’s book club.
In his defense, they had offered.
And it would have been rude to refuse.
