Page 55 of Windward Hearts

“Ellie, honey, if you keep squeezing me like that, you’re going to send me right back to my bed, only this time, it will be with broken ribs.”

For all her words, Miriam was squeezing Eleanor back with the same vigorousness, clearly as happy to be feeling better as her friend was to see her improved.

Hope was standing behind her grandmother, beaming, although there was something melancholy in her gaze.

Before Eleanor could inquire, however, Diana came through the door and made the same expressions of delight to see Miriam in such good health. Cadence, June, and Winnie followed not long thereafter. Each echoed Miriam and Diana’s sentiments about how pleased they were to see Miriam looking so well. By the time everyone had gotten a turn to hug Miriam, the older woman protested their attentions with a laugh.

“Okay, okay, you guys are happy to see me. I get it! But I’m starving, and if there’s anything I’ve been missing these past few weeks, it’s Eleanor’s book club snacks. Would someone be a dear and make me a plate? I’ll take two of everything.”

June hurried to comply, a smile on her face, while Cadence propped her hands on her hips.

“I’m sorry, what you missed was the snacks? What about our sparkling company?” she protested.

“Uh, yeah,” Miriam said with deliberate hesitation. “That too. Duh.”

Even Cadence couldn’t maintain her show of false outrage at Miriam’s antics.

“So, what does this mean for you, Hope?” Eleanor asked when everyone had a plateful of snacks and had, much to Eleanor’s pleasure, praised how cute and on theme the food all was.

Hope smiled, but it was clearly laced with sadness.

“Well, I came here to help Miriam during her recovery, and she got a really great report from the doctor recently, so I guess that means it’s time for me to start thinking about heading back to Boston. Time to figure out what’s next for me.”

“Oh no,” Diana said, her face creasing into a frown. “Honey, we’ll miss you so much!”

“Thanks,” Hope said, that same bittersweet smile on her face.

Winnie looked worried. “Not to make it sound like this is all about me, but aren’t you going to be here for the bazaar?”

Hope’s eyes went wide. “Yes, of course! Oh, no, Winnie, I wouldn’t ever bail on you after you did me the favor of getting me a booth! I’ll stay until after the bazaar and then head back. I guess it’s time.”

“Boo,” Cadence said.

“Yeah,” Hope agreed. “But… that’s life, right?”

There were some quiet murmurs of disappointed agreement, and Eleanor noticed that Miriam looked like she had something to say. But the older woman kept her lips pressed together, and Eleanor sensed that now was not the time to probe further.

To give Hope a moment out of the hot seat, Eleanor clapped her hands together and looked around the circle.

“Okay,” she said. “Who else has news? What’s the report?”

Diana grinned. “Well, I’ve found another dress shop that we have to check out,” she said. “And the whole deal with this place is that they look for unknown designers, find dresses that otherwise fly under the radar. So, hopefully it will have something different, since I’m starting to feel like I’m seeing the same ‘not quite right’ dresses at every shop at this point.”

“That sounds promising,” Winnie said.

“And we’re going to keep looking until we find you the perfect dress, honey,” Cadence said, reaching over to squeeze Diana’s hand. “We will scour the state. If we need to, we can even take a trip down to New York or something.”

Diana rubbed at the back of her neck. “I don’t really want to do that,” she admitted. “I mean, I guess I’d prefer it to getting married in a dress that I don’t love, but I’m a small business owner. I’d love to support a small business in the area.”

“Makes sense,” Eleanor agreed. “Maybe we’ll get lucky at this next store, then you won’t have to worry about it anymore.”

Diana held up both hands to show how she’d crossed her fingers.

“Here’s hoping!” she agreed.

“Oh,” Eleanor said, an idea occurring to her. “And Cadence, did I see Izzy running around in a pair of cute little glasses this week?”

Cadence’s face lit up. “Yes! Doesn’t she look adorable?”