In the back of Eleanor’s mind, however, a happy little question hummed along. What on earth was life even like before Garrett? She couldn’t imagine her world without him any longer… and maybe, if she was very lucky, she would never have to try.
CHAPTER TWELVE
When Winnie entered Nuts and Bolts, Garrett looked up from where he was frowning down at one of those yellow legal pads over at the counter.
“Oh, hey, Winnie,” he said in his usual, gruff manner. “How’re you doing today?”
She smiled at him. Something about Garrett’s usual gruffness had always made her find it easier to get along with him, at least in a passive, surface sort of way. She suspected that it was because he didn’t try to hide his true self behind good cheer. It made her trust that he was really feeling what he seemed to be feeling.
For example, right now, he looked like he really didn’t want to be drawn away from his task.
“I’m good,” she said.
“Need help with anything?”
She totally, absolutely, one hundred percent did. But Garrett had already helped her plenty when he’d offered to drop off the battered cornhole boards at her house, and he was clearly in the middle of something, so she waved him off.
“I’ve got it,” she said. The look of relief in his expression was unmistakable.
“Okay, great,” he said. This part was convincing. Less convincing was when he added, “Feel free to let me know if you need anything.”
“Of course,” she said, hoping she was simultaneously conveying that she would do everything in her power to avoid needing him.
She thought he got what she was saying. There was some sort of ‘rapport of the socially awkward’ between them, or something like that. She felt good about this good deed for about two whole minutes, which was the amount of time it took to realize that she hadnoidea what she needed to repair the activity she’d gotten from Miriam.
She needed… screws? Screws seemed right.
But there were… alotof screws here.
Winnie was a smart woman. She was capable! She could figure this out.
She was still in the middle of the figuring when she heard the door to the hardware shop open. Then, she heard Shane’s voice.
“Garrett, hey. Ellie sent me over here with a lunch for you. She was going to bring it herself, but then she got a bunch of customers come in, so I’m serving as errand boy.”
Winnie couldn’t see him from where she was standing, but she could picture him, somehow. She could just imagine the crooked little smile he wore when he was being silly, like when he had given her those increasingly outlandish ideas for fundraisers.
She didn’t so much decide to poke her head out of the aisle as she found her feet deciding for her. She leaned out from the beguiling aisle of infinite screws with a grin and a wave.
“Shane, hi.”
He turned, and his smile grew from the crooked silly one that was just as she had imagined it to a full-on beam.
“Winnie!” he exclaimed. “Hey! What are you doing here?”
The instant Shane stepped away from the front counter, Garrett ducked his head back toward his work, as if he could, by sheer force of will, stop them from trying to bother him again.
Shane saw this too, and shot Winnie a wink.
Winnie felt a thrill of happiness. That was twice she’d felt this moment of understanding with someone. Twice in a single morning!
Maybe her ‘project remake Winnie Burnett’ was working after all.
“I am… struggling,” she admitted with a wince, waving Shane over. “So, I got my hands on these old cornhole boards, and they’re part of my in-progress idea about making a fundraiser that’s?—”
“Afundraiser?” he interjected slyly. She nudged him and he laughed. “Sorry. Couldn’t resist.”
“You’re cheesy,” she said, “but you are not wrong.”
