Chapter 12

ChapterTwelve

There. She’d done it. She’d had a perfectly normal conversation with Logan that didn’t involve a weapon, a ghost hunt, or her own tears. Success. She was well on her way to being the sunshine-y café owner she dreamed of being, instead of a big bag of anxiety and murder theories.

She watched him go before turning back to the next customers, a couple of college students from the next town over. The sight of them with their bags full of books and questionable piercings gave her the sudden urge to message her college roommate, Emily. Just one more person she’d neglected over the years.

She itched the spot on her nose where she’d let her piercing close up when she’d started interviewing for ‘real jobs’ and wondered if Emily still had hers.

‘Jeanie, come back and join us!’ Kaori called. ‘We weren’t done chatting with you.’

Jeanie bit down on a smile, remembering Hazel’s warning. They’d probably ask for her blood type next.

The line at the counter was gone, and Crystal could handle it anyway, so Jeanie made her way back over to the book club table. The tiny surface was covered in empty mugs and well-loved paperbacks with half-naked men on the covers.

‘Can I get you guys anything else?’

‘Oh, no.’ Nancy waved away her offer. ‘We’re just chatting a bit before Kaori has to be back at the office and Isabel has to pick up Jane from school.’

Mateo sat gurgling happily in Isabel’s lap, munching on a shortbread cookie and Jacob tickled his chubby belly. The little boy giggled, showing his gummy smile. Isabel glanced at her watch. ‘I still have some time,’ she said with a knowing smile.

‘Me, too. My next class isn’t until three,’ Jacob said, handing Mateo a fresh cookie after his landed on the floor.

‘Linda and I are free as birds today, aren’t we, love?’

‘Every day since we retired.’

‘So, pull over a chair, Jeanie.’ Nancy gestured to the closest chair and Jeanie felt she really had no choice but to join them. She didn’t want to be rude, and they were paying customers after all. And she also really liked them and wanted to join their fabulous little club.

‘What did you read this week?’ Jeanie asked, settling into her seat. She picked up one of the books from the table. A very impressive male torso filled the front cover with the title Heat It Up scrawled across the center. The author was Veronica Penrose which Jeanie very much doubted was a real name, but she liked it anyway.

‘It’s a male-male hockey romance,’ Jacob told her, clearly excited about this week’s pick. ‘Enemies to lovers perfection. Highly recommend.’

‘I’m not really into hockey,’ Jeanie said, flipping through the pages slowly.

Kaori’s laugh reverberated around the small space. ‘Nobody cares about the hockey part, hun.’

Jeanie’s gaze snagged on several interesting passages, confirming that this book was not at all about hockey. ‘Right. Got it. Looks like a good one,’ she said, her cheeks heating as she scanned a few more lines. It was possible Jeanie had been reading the wrong books her whole life.

‘I just loved how vulnerable they were with each other,’ Isabel said with a sigh.

‘Yeah, and how freaking hot it was,’ Nancy added. ‘That thing they did in the car with the... ’

‘Okay, Nancy. Let’s not scare Jeanie away just yet.’ Kaori cut her off before Nancy could get into exactly what the rival hockey players did in their car, which was too bad because now Jeanie was curious. ‘Anyway, we called Jeanie over because we weren’t done getting to know her.’

Jeanie shifted in her seat as all eyes turned back to her. ‘I think you know everything there is to know. Grew up in western New York, came this way for college, lived in Boston for the past ten years or so.’ Jeanie shrugged, the truth of it hitting her again. That really was everything there was to know. She’d chosen Boston for college to escape the small town she’d grown up in and yet in the end, her life had become small, narrowed down to the frenetic energy of her work life and nothing else.

‘You didn’t leave behind anyone special in Boston?’ Nancy asked.

‘Nope.’

‘And you plan to stay? Here in town,’ Isabel asked, wiping the cookie crumbs from Mateo’s face. ‘I mean, you’re serious about running the café?’

‘Uh ... yeah. I mean, yes. Yes, staying to run the café is my very serious plan.’ She had literally no other plan. No backup plan, no escape hatch, no run-back-to-the-city-and-find-a-new-assistant-job plan. Now that she was here, she was determined to make this work. It was just like she’d told Barb Sanders, the realtor, when she’d called again. Jeanie was the owner of the Pumpkin Spice Café, and she had no plans to sell.

Now she just had to convince herself, Barb Sanders, and the book club that that was true.

‘Oh, we’re so glad to hear it,’ Kaori said with an encouraging smile.

‘See, I told you she was different,’ Linda said, giving Nancy a nudge with her shoulder. ‘They’re worried you’re going to leave Logan in the lurch like Lucy,’ she said, leaning toward Jeanie like she was telling her a secret. ‘Poor Logan. She breezed into town and turned that boy inside out. Like I said, the only good part about her was she brought him into town more. I do like to see him, even all grown up as he is. I feel like I owe it to his mother to check in on him. Anyway, I still remember the look on his face when Lucy said no to his proposal at the Christmas-tree lighting–– Ow! Who kicked me?’ Linda reached down to rub her shin, leaving Jeanie in shocked silence.

Logan had proposed to this Lucy person. And she’d said no? Who was this woman and what was wrong with her?

‘That’s enough of that, my love,’ Nancy said sweetly, even though Jeanie was sure the kick had come from her direction. ‘Lucy never really fit in here. She wasn’t a good match for Logan in the first place.’

Lucy never really fit in here. Jeanie glanced around the table. Did she fit in here? Maybe she needed ripped jeans like Jacob? Or more crystals like Isabel? Even little Mateo wore a string of amber beads around his neck. Chunky scarves that looked like a grandmother had knitted them seemed to be integral to the look of Dream Harbor as well. And Jeanie didn’t own a single pair of fingerless mittens. They should hand them out when you cross into town.

Instead, Jeanie had been stuck with her business-casual wardrobe and hadn’t had time to shop for anything different. In her slacks, sweater, and ballet flats with her hair in a low twist, she felt more ready for an afternoon business meeting than for a day running the town coffee shop. Kaori had a similar vibe, but she really was headed into the office for the afternoon – as some sort of lawyer, maybe? Accountant? Jeanie couldn’t remember but she did know Kaori drank a large French roast with soy milk every morning.

If Jeanie wanted a new lifestyle here, maybe she needed to start dressing the part...

‘You and Logan looked pretty cozy together at the counter,’ Jacob said, derailing her wardrobe thoughts and diving directly into her Logan daydreams instead. ‘He looked like he wanted to jump over it and––’

‘Jacob,’ Kaori snapped. ‘You’re making Jeanie blush. Don’t mind him, sweetie. He gets all kinds of crazy ideas in his head after we read these books.’

‘If equal-opportunity orgasms and parity in relationships are crazy ideas, then I don’t want to be sane!’

Kaori waved him off. ‘Yes, yes, but let’s not traumatize Jeanie at her first meeting.’ Jeanie felt less traumatized and more horrified that Jacob was reading her mind, but she wasn’t about to add that to the conversation.

‘My first meeting? Does this count?’ Look at me, making grown-up friends and getting hobbies! She could already feel years being added back onto her life.

‘Of course, it does! And you’re welcome to join us anytime. Give Jacob your number and he’ll text you the book for the week. Now I have to go.’ Kaori grabbed her purse and stuffed her book inside. ‘I’ll see you all later.’

‘I should go, too. I want to get this monster down for a nap before his sister gets home,’ Isabel said, collecting Mateo’s pile of half-eaten cookies.

And with that, Jeanie’s first unofficial meeting with the Dream Harbor book club ended in a flurry of goodbyes and promises to chat again soon.

Jacob stayed behind to get Jeanie’s number.

‘Thanks for including me,’ she said as he typed.

‘We’re open to all,’ he said with a smile. ‘And...’ he leaned in conspiratorially, ‘I know this town is like weirdly protective of Logan, but trust me, I saw the proposal and it was brutal. And the whole town witnessed it.’ He winced, remembering it.

‘We’re just friends,’ Jeanie said weakly. The thought of Logan having his heart torn out in front of everyone was making her feel dizzy and a little sick. Maybe she should sit down?

‘Well, if you’re thinking of becoming more than friends, which I don’t blame you, that man is all the big broody handsomeness I could ask for, just make sure you’re serious about it.’ Jacob shrugged. ‘Lucy hightailed it back to Boston after she dumped him, but if you really plan on staying ... things would be awkward, to say the least.’

‘Right. Got it.’

Jacob smiled and slung his bag over one shoulder. ‘K, well, see you later!’

‘Bye.’

Jeanie dropped hard into the nearest chair as soon as Jacob was out the door. For the second time since she got here, she’d been warned to stay away from Logan. This town was not kidding about protecting their own. She rubbed her temples with her fingers, a full-blown stress headache coming on.

If she got involved with Logan, the whole town would be watching. And then what happened when it inevitably ended? That was way too much pressure. Pressure she absolutely did not need. Pressure she left her old life behind to avoid.

She took a deep breath, inhaling and exhaling slowly, like she’d learned from the meditation app she’d downloaded shortly after Marvin’s death. Not a problem. She would just steer clear of Logan from now on. Polite customer and barista chatter only. No flirting. No staring into his deep blue eyes. Definitely no breathing in his outdoorsy scent.

They were friends. Acquaintances, really. And that was just fine.

Jeanie was here to focus on herself, not to get tangled up in a town scandal, and she would just keep reminding herself of that until it stuck. She’d been silly to add Logan to her plan, anyway. Coming here was about finding New Jeanie, not about finding a man. Right?

Right.

It wasn’t until she went back behind the counter that she noticed the book Jacob had left for her. The Farmer and The Milkmaid. The Post-it note on top read: to help you get it out of your system.

As Jeanie stared at the rugged man on the cover, his flannel shirt unbuttoned and flapping in the breeze, she knew it could never be as good as the real thing.