Chapter 7

ChapterSeven

Jeanie reorganized the snacks for the fifth time since she’d laid them out. She might have overdone it. There were three kinds of potato chips, corn chips, and guac; pretzels in several shapes, a jumbo-sized bag of mini candy bars intended for trick-or-treaters; Twizzlers (which Jeanie hated, but thought Logan might like), fresh-baked cookies from Annie’s bakery; and she had a pizza on the way.

Definitely too much. She straightened the avalanche of chip bags again. The only thing she knew about stakeouts was that they required snacks. Right? That seemed right. Also, she was nervous about spending the night with Logan, so she figured if she kept her mouth filled with snacks, nothing too bad could happen. That made sense. She had this totally under control.

The pack of Twizzlers slid off the table and landed with a slap on the floor.

Yep, totally under control.

She plopped into one of the overstuffed chairs by the front windows. She’d laid out the snacks on the coffee table in the little nook, figuring this would be the most comfortable spot for their stakeout. The rest of the café was filled with small round tables and wooden chairs, perfect for a quick cup of coffee but not great for sitting in all night.

For the past three days, those tables had been crowded with town locals from open to close. It had been hectic and busy and exhilarating. The café ran like a well-oiled machine and Jeanie spent a lot of the time greeting and chatting with people. She was even learning some of the regular orders for her customers. Having a customer come in and say, ‘The usual, please,’ and Jeanie knowing what that was seemed like the pinnacle of café ownership.

Everyone had been very welcoming, happy to share stories of her Aunt Dot and to ask her a million questions about herself. Jeanie had almost felt like she belonged here, or at least like maybe she could belong here.

The best part about opening weekend was she fell into bed exhausted each night and with the help of Logan’s earplugs, and a newly installed lock keeping her safe and sound, Jeanie slept like a baby. And not one of those babies that’s up all night. Like a really impressive sleeping baby.

She glanced at the snack mountain again. She probably should have called off this ridiculous stakeout. She was about to, and she would have, had she not come down the back stairs this morning, flying high on a full night of sleep, and heard it again. Scratching at her back door. But when Norman came in a few minutes later to help her open, he said he hadn’t seen a thing back there.

It also didn’t help matters that good old Norman had told her the history of this building and about the family that had died here. He said it was scarlet fever. Or maybe yellow fever? Some kind of colorful fever that had taken out the whole family.

Apparently, Aunt Dot had made peace with them over the years, but it was Norman’s best guess that the family was not pleased with the change in ownership.

Jeanie grabbed a cookie and checked her watch again. 7.45pm. Logan should be here soon. He seemed like the type to be on time for things. Considerate of other people’s time. Thoughtful enough to bring you earplugs when you couldn’t sleep. Handsome enough to stop traffic. Things like that.

Why was she not supposed to date him?

Oh, right, she needed to get her life back on track first. Figure out how to live in this tiny, odd town. Transform into the quintessential café owner. Calm and cool, maybe a little quirky. The kind of person who paints purple farm animals in her spare time. Like Aunt Dot. A free spirit just living her dream, following her bliss, or whatever. Then she could date the farmer. Maybe. If his friends said she could.

A firm knock at the back door startled her out of her thoughts. It wasn’t the eerie scratching of a long-dead ghost, but the solid knock of the solid man on the other side. Jeanie got up and hurried across the café to the back door and undid her shiny new lock.

‘Sorry, I’m late.’

Jeanie peeked at her watch. It was 8.02pm. She bit down on a smile. ‘No problem. Come on in.’

Logan nodded and followed her across the small space.

‘I thought we could set up here since it’s more comfortable, but now I’m realizing I usually hear the noises out back, so maybe we should move toward the back of the café. I’ve never been on a stakeout before, so . . .’

Jeanie looked up from her rambling to see Logan staring at her snack pile.

‘Oh, and I thought we might get hungry.’

She watched the corner of his mouth hitch up. ‘We might.’ He ran a hand down his beard, his gaze still on the food. ‘Not sure I’ve ever been this hungry though.’

Jeanie might have been embarrassed if she hadn’t caught a glimpse of the other side of his mouth rising. She’d made him smile.

She grinned at him in return. ‘Well, we have the whole night ahead of us. I haven’t stayed up all night since middle school sleepovers, and we always had a lot of snacks for those.’

‘Sure,’ he said, the amused look still on his face as he tore open the pack of Twizzlers and pulled one out. Aha! She knew it.

‘When’s the last time you heard the noises?’ he asked, lowering himself into the chair next to hers, getting right down to business. He tore off a piece of Twizzler with his teeth and chewed.

‘This morning.’ She sat down, too, taking a bag of sour cream and onion chips with her. ‘You really like those things? They are objectively the worst candy.’

‘Objectively, huh?’ He studied the red licorice in his hand and then took another bite. ‘There’s been studies done on this?’

Jeanie laughed. ‘Probably. It’s common knowledge that they’re the worst.’

Logan studied her a minute too long, causing the heat to rise in her cheeks. He took another bite. ‘A woman with strong opinions.’ He nodded, as if deciding something. ‘I like that.’

Jeanie stuffed a handful of chips in her mouth before she could say that she liked his shirt and his face and his entire personality, even though she barely knew him. Instead, she just nodded between loud, crunchy bites.

‘So, do you have strong opinions about ghosts, too?’ he asked. ‘You really think that’s what’s going on here?’

Jeanie shrugged. ‘Maybe. It seems to be as good a theory as any.’

Logan raised an eyebrow as if to say, really? But he didn’t voice his thoughts on that out loud.

‘Plus, the mayor and everyone else seemed really convinced this was a good idea. I mean me and you ... I mean, you helping me with this.’

He huffed. ‘Yeah. This town is full of great ideas.’ Oh, no, she was afraid of this. He didn’t want to have any part of this crazy stakeout thing. She should have known. She’d cornered him into it and then the whole town basically jumped on board.

‘You don’t like it here? Dream Harbor, I mean,’ she asked, avoiding her real question for the moment.

‘I love it here. It’s my home.’

‘Oh. It just seemed like you maybe didn’t.’

Logan ran a hand down his beard. ‘Do you have siblings, Jeanie?’

A bit of a left turn, but they were here all night. Good to keep the conversation going. ‘I have a brother who lives out in California.’ In fact, she’d been on the phone with Bennett an hour ago as she’d tried to pick out snack food. It had been his bad influence that convinced her to get way too much of everything.

‘Okay, well you know that feeling that no one is allowed to say bad things about your brother except you? Like even if he bugs you, only you can say he’s a pain.’

Jeanie smiled. ‘Yeah, I get that.’ In third grade, she’d uninvited two girls from her birthday party for accusing Ben of knocking down their snowman. And then she’d had to sit on him until he confessed when she realized he’d probably done it. It was a very confusing time for her.

He nodded and bit into another Twizzler. ‘That’s how I feel about this town.’

‘So, you love them even though they make you crazy.’

‘Exactly.’

‘And you’re here against your will because the mayor sent you to help the new girl?’

Please say no. Please say no.

He shook his head, his dark eyebrows pulling together. ‘I’m not here against my will.’ Phew.

‘Okay...’ She hadn’t forced him into this insane evening of ghost hunting, but she couldn’t help but feel like there was more to the story, like Logan had some other theory for why the town wanted him here.

Jeanie waited, munching on chips while Logan slowly chewed his way through the rest of the Twizzler. Finally, he met her gaze.

‘This town, the people in it, they can be ... a lot. But they care about me.’ He shrugged like it was no big deal to have an entire town of people care about you. Jeanie could count on one hand the people who cared about her.

She swallowed hard.

‘But I don’t believe in ghosts.’

She laughed. ‘Ghosts or not, I’ll be happy if we get to the bottom of this mystery. Although the earplugs helped a lot. And that new security system you installed – very helpful.’ She smiled at him and watched the blush creep up his cheeks.

He cleared his throat. ‘Glad it helped.’ He shifted in his seat. ‘Now tell me more about these noises.’