But maybe, he thought as he absently shoveled his overdone eggs into his mouth, barely tasting them, it was time to be a littleless subtle. Texting was for kids, anyway, and he was a grown man.
He was a grown man who wanted a future with Eleanor. That’s what he’d been trying to tell her, that he didn’t find the idea of having a lifetime with her unpleasant in the least.
What he did find decidedly unpleasant was this time apart, this weird, stressful uncertainty.
He and Eleanor should be together, should be solving things as a team. That was the whole point of the conversation he’d been trying to have. He didn’t mean to spook her!
At least, hehopedshe was just spooked. It had occurred to him at about two in the morning, while he was staring at his ceiling and wishing sleep would finally find him, that maybe Shane’s information had been incorrect or somehow misunderstood. Maybe Eleanor hadn’t fled because he had surprised her, but because she didn’t want to talk about their future at all…
He choked down one more bite of the eggs before shoving his plate away and grabbing his phone. He dialed Eleanor’s number. A phone call, this time, not a text message.
His heart was in his throat as it rang and rang. Every new trill caused his hopes to sink lower and lower. They blinked out when her voicemail clicked on.
“Hi, you’ve reached Eleanor Ridley. I can’t get to the phone right now, but please leave a message after the beep.”
He hung up the phone without leaving a message. He didn’t want to get into another potential misunderstanding. He wanted to talk to Eleanor, face to face. He wanted to see her. He wanted to be with her.
Yesterday, those things had seemed so easy to access. Today, he feared that she wouldn’t want to speak to him like that again.
He ground his forehead against his fist. He had no idea where it had all gone so terribly, terribly wrong.
Eleanor knew that it wasn’t her bravest moment as she watched her phone vibrate on her kitchen table, her untouched cup of tea growing cold in front of her. She was usually a coffee drinker in the morning, but the very last thing she needed was anything that would make her more jittery, not when she’d practically been jumping out of her skin for the whole of the last twenty-four hours.
Garrett’s name flashed on the screen, taunting her. She watched, barely able to breathe, as it rang and rang. She sat, frozen.
She needed to talk to him. She knew that. For one, just not answering someone’s calls because you wanted to avoid them… that was childish. It was the kind of thing that she would expect from a tween with their first crush gone wrong, not an adult in her fourth decade of life. And it wasterriblydisrespectful to poor Garrett, who did not deserve to be ignored and avoided.
But she justcouldn’tmake herself answer.
The night before, she had avoided her brother too. She’d made sure that she was tucked into her bedroom early so that she hadn’t been forced to make conversation with him. She really wasn’t mad, but she knew that Shane would immediately be able to tell that something was amiss, and then he’d want to know what was bothering her. She didn’t want to make him feel bad about the slip, since she knew he would already feel guilty about betraying her confidence, however accidentally.
But it was hard to have nobody to talk to about all this. She could have turned to her friends, but she was pretty sure that they would tell her what she already knew.
She needed to talk to Garrett. She needed to clear the air.
She just… wasn’t ready. She was too scared thathewould be scared off by the intensity of her feelings.
So, she let her phone ring and ring. She stared at it as it went to voicemail, then watched it long enough to know that Garrett didn’t leave a message, as her phone didn’t light up with another notification.
She took a sip of her lukewarm tea, just for something to do with her hands. It didn’t help at all with the stinging feeling at the back of her throat that told her that she was far less successful in holding back the tears that threatened than she might have hoped to be.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Shane hadn’t brought much in the way of fancy clothes to Magnolia Shore. When he’d packed, he had done so almost mindlessly, feeling too eager to get out of San Francisco to think through any of his choices. Now, he was feeling a bit regretful about that fact, as the best thing he had to wear to dinner out with Winnie was a light blue button-down and some chinos. It wasn’t abadoutfit, per se. It was something he would wear to work, if he didn’t have some kind of client meeting or presentation that day. But he didn’t have a tie. And he didn’t have a jacket. And his shoes were only somewhat nice.
Basically, it was not what he would wear for your average first date…
If this even was a first date, that is. He wasn’t certain. He could admit to himself that hehopedthat it was a date. He liked Winnie. He thought she was pretty, interesting, and clever. He had been touched by her openness about her family background and her insecurities. And she made him laugh.
On the other hand though, he knew that now probably wasn’t the best time to be getting involved in a romance. His future was still very up in the air. He had no idea how long he would be staying in Magnolia Shore or what he wanted to do when heleft here. And Winnie was a local history expert. This was quite literally the only place she could do her job… not that it wasn’t gettingmilesahead of himself to eventhinkabout the possibility of her being somewhere else because of him.
So, no. It wasn’t a smart idea for this to be a date. But that didn’t stop him from wanting it to be a date, alas. He found that ideaextremelyappealing.
He quickly checked his hair in the rearview mirror before he got out of the car, something that was more a nervous tic than anything. His sandy locks weren’t long and naturally laid with a light tousle, meaning that it wasn’t easy for it to look ‘messed up.’ But he wanted to look his best, because he liked Winnie, more than he’d liked anyone in a good, long while.
He knocked on her door and was pleased that she answered quickly, as he hoped this meant that she was as eager for their evening together as he was.
“Wow, Winnie,” he breathed as he took her in. “You look beau—amazing.” He changed his wording at the last moment, just in caseshedidn’t want this to be a date. He didn’t want to come on too strong.
