Chapter 22

ChapterTwenty-Two

Jeanie leafed through the papers that Barb Sanders, licensed realtor, had dropped off in person this morning. It was a list of comps for what other buildings in the area had sold for recently. Jeanie had thanked her and served her a large hazelnut latte with soy milk while insisting she really wasn’t interested in selling.

Barb had smiled her bright-white saleswoman smile and told Jeanie to just think about it.

So now Jeanie was here at her little kitchen table, which doubled as her desk, in her apartment above the café in question, thinking about it.

If she was being honest, the amount of money she could sell this building for, café plus upstairs apartment, was staggering. She could easily pay off the last of her student loans and buy herself a cute little house somewhere. Imagine that.

She was definitely imagining that.

But is that what she wanted? She still didn’t know. Plus, Aunt Dot had trusted her with the café. She couldn’t just up and sell it, could she? She couldn’t. Although, she had a feeling that if she told Dot she needed to sell so she could follow her bliss somewhere else, her aunt would have been all for it. Dot was very big on bliss-following. It was how she’d ended up with this café in the first place and why she was now cliff diving in the Caribbean.

It had been nearly a month since Jeanie had arrived in Dream Harbor, a bundle of nerves, running from her brush with mortality. Did she feel any different now? Had she become the calm café owner she wanted to be?

Casper jumped up onto the table and plopped down on the pile of papers, like it was a little bed laid out just for him.

‘I was looking at those,’ Jeanie told him. He stared at her with big round eyes. She scratched between his ears, savoring his contended purrs. ‘It’s okay. I’m not going to sell, anyway.’ And somehow just saying it out loud to her cat made it true.

She wasn’t going to sell. She didn’t want that. She liked running the café. Even though she still hadn’t solved the mystery of who was messing with her. And even though running her own business was just as stressful, if not more so, than being Marvin’s assistant. At least now all her hard work was for her. For her dream. For her life. She wasn’t ready to give up on that yet.

Whether or not it had made her a whole new person, she wasn’t sure. But she did know that she’d made more friends this month than she had for the past seven years in her old life. She’d started reading again, she’d committed to more trivia nights – and she’d even signed up for Annie’s beginner baker’s class. She had a life.

Never mind her very life-affirming if not totally confusing feelings for the local sexy farmer. That was something she’d been trying and failing to untangle all week.

Her phone buzzed on the table, and she swiped to answer her brother’s call.

‘Are you already in your pajamas?’ he asked, his face filling the screen. A dog howled somewhere in the background.

‘I had a long day.’ Jeanie glanced out the window. Already dark even though it was barely six o’clock. The wind whipped the nearly bare branches of the tree out front against her window. It was hibernating season. Pajamas were perfectly appropriate. Maybe she should have waited until spring to start over. Fall was a strange time for a reinvention. Fall was better for ... snuggling and eating food covered in gravy.

‘Did you solve the mystery yet?’

Jeanie blew out a long sigh, disturbing the wisp of hair that had fallen in front of her face. ‘No. And it’s gotten worse. This morning I discovered the dishwasher was broken. The guy that came to fix it said someone had cut some wires in the back.’

‘Shit, Jeanie. Have you reported any of this?’

‘Yeah.’ After the window-breaking incident, Jeanie had finally gone over to the police station and informed them about what had been going on. They’d started sending a patrol car by the café twice a night, which made her feel a bit better, but it didn’t do anything to help if the person doing the damage was working for her.

‘And what do your employees have to say for themselves?’ Ben shushed a dog at his feet that Jeanie couldn’t see, but could hear whining for attention.

‘Well, Crystal immediately started to cry when I asked if she knew what was going on.’

‘Hmm.’

‘Joe assured me he’d keep an eye out for anything suspicious, and then told me what a great boss I was and how much he loves working for me.’

‘Laying it on kinda thick,’ Ben muttered.

‘I am a good boss.’

‘I’m sure.’

‘And Norman got insulted. Said, how would he know about any of that? And then he floated the theory that some customer was doing it. How would that even be possible?’

‘It doesn’t make sense.’

‘I know.’

‘Maybe it is a ghost.’

‘Shut up, Ben.’

‘So, what are you going to do?’

Jeanie shrugged. She didn’t know what she was going to do about it. Threaten her employees? Install security cameras? She didn’t really love either of those options, but she had to do something. If she really did like running the café, if she wanted to keep her new life here, then she’d have to put an end to this nonsense.

‘I’ll figure it out.’

Ben looked skeptical but he didn’t push her further. Instead, he admonished whatever dog continued to whine. ‘No more treats for you. Not after you ate all that garbage yesterday.’

‘Garbage?’

Ben rolled his eyes. ‘Pudgy knocked over the trash can yesterday while I was at work and feasted on the garbage.’

‘Gross.’ Casper seemed to roll his eyes as if to say, dogs, am I right?

‘And yet, today she’s still acting like she’s starving to death.’

‘Well, name is destiny as they say.’

Ben smirked. ‘How’s the farmer?’

‘His name is Logan.’

‘And...’

Jeanie could feel her cheeks heating under her brother’s assessing gaze.

‘That good, huh?’ he asked with a laugh.

‘I don’t know!’ Jeanie shifted in her seat, bringing her knees up so she could prop her phone there. ‘I thought things were good. They were good. But then, I don’t know. I kinda freaked out.’

‘Freaked out about what?’

Good question.

‘I don’t think he’s over his ex.’

Ben grimaced.

‘I know. Also, he’s got this thing about people not finding out about us, which I thought I was cool with at first – less pressure you know? But now I’m not sure.’

‘Wait a minute, this asshole doesn’t want people to know about you?’

‘It’s not like that. It’s just this town is really small, and everyone is in everyone else’s business and I don’t know, it was my idea. To keep it quiet.’

‘Hmm.’ Ben’s deep frown almost made her laugh. Almost. ‘Sounds like this guy wants to make it easier to cut and run.’

Jeanie’s heart sank. ‘It does?’

‘Don’t look at me like that, Jean Marie.’

‘Like what?’

‘With those big puppy-dog eyes. I don’t know what this guy’s deal is, but don’t let him get away with hiding you, okay? Don’t let him make you think you shouldn’t be exactly you.’

‘Thanks, Bennett.’ Her voice was small, her throat clogged with tears. Stupid brother making her feel sappy emotions toward him.

Ben fidgeted, glancing down at the garbage eater at his feet and then back to meet her eye. ‘He should feel lucky to be with you, that’s all I’m saying.’

‘Okay.’

‘Okay.’

‘I love you.’

‘Ugh, damn it, Jeanie.’

She grinned at him, sniffling back the tears.

Ben sighed. ‘Fine, love you too.’

‘I knew it!’

Ben laughed. ‘Goodnight.’

‘Goodnight.’

Jeanie ended the call and rested her head on her knees, letting the pressure massage her forehead. Was Ben right? Was Logan trying to make it easier to end things with her by keeping their relationship a secret?

She could see where her oddly protective younger brother was coming from, but the explanation didn’t sit right with her. It didn’t feel like Logan. And, if she was honest with herself, it wasn’t necessarily the secrecy that bothered Jeanie. It was the reason for the secrecy that snapped her back to reality the other day in his neat little apartment.

Logan had his heart broken in front of the whole town, and he clearly wasn’t over it. Now Jeanie had to decide if she wanted to wait around until he was.