3. Chapter 3
three
W illow shivered as she stepped out of her car and grabbed her suitcase from the back seat. Churchill was colder than it had been when she left, and the snow was twice as high. She walked up the front step to the home she shared with Shane and warmed from the inside at the sound of barking coming from behind the door.
“It’s me, Barley. I’m home.”
Barley barked louder as she juggled her keys in her frozen fingers, trying to find the keyhole in the dim light. She’d nearly got it in when her phone rang, and she stopped what she was doing, shamelessly dropping everything to see whether it was Adam offering her the job. But when she pulled the phone from her bag and looked at the display, a photo of her and her nana filled the screen .
“Hi, Nana!” she said while unlocking the door and bracing for impact.
“Willow, are you home?”
“Just got here,” she said as Barley attacked her leg. He was a small but mighty corgi who had definitely missed her.
The feeling was mutual.
She dropped everything and went to her knees, hugging him while scratching his neck until he calmed down.
“Oh good,” Nana sighed. “I’ve been worried. You didn’t call to let me know you made it home safe.”
“My flight was delayed a little. Are you okay?” she asked with a smile. “You sound like a pony.”
Nana laughed. “A little horse?”
Willow snorted. “Yes.”
“I’m fine. I’m just getting over a cold. Tell me all about Mapleton.”
Willow filled Nana in on everything from the pretty little town to the wretched asshole who told her to get lost—but who owned the stunning brewery she loved.
“I visited Mapleton once,” Nana said. “Back in ninety-three. Maybe Ninety-four. Some girlfriends and I went on a wine tour, but I can’t seem to remember much of it. ”
Willow snickered. “Because you were loaded the whole time?”
“Yes.”
“You wild thing.”
Nana barked a laugh. “Speaking of wild things, how’s that fiancé of yours? He must be happy you’re back.”
She calmed Barley down with a belly rub and snuggled her cheek into his soft, furry little head. “I haven’t seen him yet. He wasn’t happy when I left.”
Nana let out a disapproving hum. “I know you two have been joined at the hip since you were teenagers, but you can go where you want, Willow.”
“I know. It’s just that things are still a little . . . strained between us.”
“Well, maybe you shouldn’t have—”
Another call beeped on the line as her Nana launched into a lecture, and Willow pulled the phone back from her ear and checked the display.
Adam Vale.
“Nana”—she cut her off—“the guy who interviewed me is calling. I gotta go.”
“Okay. Let me know what happens.”
“I will,” she said, hanging up and accepting Adam’s call. “Hello?”
“Hi, Willow. It’s Adam from Keller’s in Mapleton. ”
“Yes, hi,” she said, hoping beyond hope he would offer her the job.
“Did you get home okay?”
“Yup, just got back.”
Come out with it.
“Thanks again for coming. Your experience and talent are impressive. We would love for you to join our team.”
Willow silently bounced up and down, earning a head tilt from Barley, who nudged her hand with his nose to make her continue the belly rub.
“That’s great,” she said.
“I’ve had an offer of employment drawn up, and I’ll email it to you so you can look it over. If you have questions, you can call.”
“That’s great,” she said, then slapped her forehead.
You already said that, doofus.
“Great. I’ll be looking forward to your call.”
Don’t say great again!
“Cool,” she said, then shook her head at herself.
“Cool,” he said, and she could see his face in her mind, laughing at her. “Bye.”
“Bye.”
She hung up and screamed in excitement as Barley jumped up and down, barking. She stared at her empty inbox for a few minutes, begging for the mercy of a notification, before the realization hit that she was desperate to be offered this job.
Obviously, she didn’t love her job at Tipped Canoe, but in reality, could she even consider accepting a job in Mapleton?
She looked around the simple living room she shared with Shane. He’d lived in Churchill his whole life; his entire family was there, and he’d always been clear that he never wanted to leave. And she never wanted to leave him. She’d loved him since she was fourteen.
Maybe this had been a terrible idea. She’d gone across the country to interview for a job she knew she could never take. It was selfish and wrong.
She had just bowed her head in defeat when the notification of a new email arrived with a loud ping. She hit the icon, opened the email, clicked on the attachment, and forced herself to read through line by line until she saw the salary they were offering.
Her heart stopped as her eyes doubled in size.
Holy shit.
That was more than she and Shane made now, combined.
A little sound of disbelief escaped her chest. If she accepted this, they could move to Mapleton, and he wouldn’t even have to worry about finding another job. She could definitely pay all their living expenses herself.
He was always complaining about his job. Maybe he would move there if it meant he could just relax, take up a hobby or something. Even if it was only for a year or two.
She looked at Barley. “You’d love it there, Barls. It’s warm. And there’s a beach with no polar bears.”
Barley licked her hand, and she decided she’d at least try to talk Shane into it.
Willow sat on the worn-out plaid couch with Barley in her lap, staring at the old wooden clock hanging on the wall above a gigantic set of moose antlers from Shane’s last hunting trip. It was fifteen minutes past his normal arrival time.
She tapped her toe impatiently, trying to rein in her racing heart, and inspected the antlers with disdain for the hundredth time since he’d first hung them there. Decorating with dead animals wasn’t really to her taste, but the house was just as much his as it was hers, so who was she to tell him no?
If she was being honest, it was actually more his house than hers. It had belonged to his uncle, who’d died in the corner of the living room on a reclining chair that matched the couch. Shane had been eighteen and bought the house to live in. It had been right around the time when her father had announced he was moving to Northern British Columbia for a new job, and Willow had moved in with Shane so she wouldn’t have to leave. Since then, everything in the house remained as it had been when his uncle owned it, including the couch.
At least he’d thrown out the chair.
She stood from the couch, hugging Barley to her chest and pacing the floor.
Seventeen minutes now.
Ugh.
She caught a draft from the rickety window and shivered, remembering the greenhouselike taproom that was practically tropical compared to Churchill. If the brewery she worked at now had a taproom like that, every local in town would spend every evening in there. She closed her eyes and imagined being in there, surrounded by people drinking her beer, and a smile spread across her face.
Suddenly, the door opened.
She spun around with a big smile to see Shane step in through the door.
“You’re back!” she said, placing Barley down and going to the door .
“You’re back,” he said, his deep voice vibrating in her chest. He dropped his lunch pail on the floor and opened his arms.
She stepped into his chest as his cold arms came around her back, and his familiar scent of body wash and motor oil filled her nose. She used to hate the way being a mechanic made him smell and how his hands always looked dirty, but eventually, she got used to it, and now it made her feel at home.
He pulled back, then looked around the house. “It’s clean again,” he said with a lopsided smile. “I’m happy you’re home.”
Willow nodded, a little annoyed that when she’d left four days ago the place had been clean, and it was a mess by the time she got back, but that was just what guys were like.
At least he’d fed Barley.
She shook it off and waited for him to ask her how it had gone. But instead of saying anything else, he bent and unlaced his boots, threw his jacket over the back of the chair instead of hanging it on the hook, then walked to the kitchen without his lunch pail.
Ugh.
She rolled her eyes as she picked it up and followed him in just as he was taking the top off a bottle of beer. If she could get him to agree to going with her to Mapleton, she would make him all the delicious beer he wanted. And it would be significantly better than the stuff Doug forced her to brew week in and week out.
She watched as he pulled some leftover pizza from the fridge and shoved it in his mouth. “Aren’t you going to ask how it went?” she asked.
He stopped midbite, swallowed, and looked at her. “How did it go?” he asked in a dry voice.
She withered a little, but squared her shoulders, and refused to be defeated that easily. “It went really great. The brewery is amazing, state-of-the-art equipment, and the taproom is like a tropical paradise.”
Shane’s dark eyebrows scrunched up, and he took a deep pull from his bottle.
She braced herself. “The owner just called. They offered me the job.”
Shane huffed out a breath and shook his head. He stuffed the rest of the pizza in his mouth before turning away from her and walking to the bathroom with his beer.
She followed, undeterred. He’d always hated change, so she knew to expect this from him. First, he would ignore it and hope it would go away; then, he would get annoyed; finally, he would talk her into changing her mind.
But not this time .
“Just please hear me out, Shane.”
“I’m not moving, Willow,” he said, pulling his dirty shirt off his back and turning on the shower. “I told you that before you left.”
“It’s a lot of money. You wouldn’t have to work.”
He stopped, stared at her. “You told me you wanted to stay here, too. When we got engaged.”
She looked down at her empty ring finger, remembering the horrible circumstances that had surrounded their engagement. She’d forgiven him for all of that before she’d said yes, but as much as she’d tried, she could never forget.
She had told him at the time that she wanted to marry him and stay in Churchill, but that was before she saw what she could achieve in Mapleton. She tipped her chin down to her chest as the guilt swirled.
“Kyle and Nikki are coming over,” he said, ignoring her and stepping into the shower. “They’ll be here soon.”
Willow turned and walked out of the bathroom without another word. He was impossible to negotiate with. She wasn’t sure anyone on earth was as stubborn as him. But he had a point.
She sat on the couch, and Barley immediately curled into her lap just as the door opened and Nikki walked in .
“Willow!” she said, toeing off her shoes and plopping down on the couch next to her. “Thank God you’re back.”
She smiled as her best friend stretched out next to her, completely at home. She loved living so close to her best friends. If she and Shane left, they wouldn’t have Nikki and Kyle in their lives, and that would be awful. Maybe staying in Churchill was for the best.
Logically, it made sense to stay, but she couldn’t seem to stop the disappointment from swirling in her mind. She felt like a sprinter who’d just broken their ankle before a big race.
She shook her head, trying to focus her attention on all the good things in her life.
“I missed you, Nik. Where’s Kyle?”
“He’s just dropping something off in the garage. Are you okay?” she asked as she stared at Willow’s face, clearly sensing that something was wrong. “You look upset.”
Willow wondered how to answer or whether to even say anything about the job offer before she and Shane figured it out. Although, according to Shane, it had already been decided. She’d be turning down the job and staying in Churchill.
Forever .
Nikki glanced at the bathroom as the shower turned off, then back at Willow. “Were you guys fighting about Bunny367 again?”
Willow squeezed her eyes shut at the sound of that name. She had been deeply in love with Shane before she found those explicit messages hidden on his phone from that fucking Bunny367. She could still remember the embarrassment and heartache when she packed her bags and showed up at Nikki’s doorstep, asking for a place to stay.
And the relief when Shane came to her a few days later and told her it would never happen again, then asked her to marry him.
Willow shook her head. “No, it’s not that. I got offered the job in Mapleton, but Shane doesn’t want me to take it.”
“Well, no,” Nikki said with a laugh. “None of us want you to take it. What would I do if you left?”
Willow took in Nikki’s pleading brown eyes. “It’s not like we’d have to be gone forever.”
“I know, but I don’t want my best friend and maid of honour to leave,” she said, closing the distance between them on the couch and pulling Willow into a hug.
She didn’t really like the idea of leaving her friends and hometown, either, but she just wanted something—anything—exciting to happen. Or even just something to work toward. Going back to work and making boring beer after boring beer now that she’d seen Keller’s Brewery was going to be demoralizing.
“You and Kyle could come to Mapleton and visit. It’s really beautiful there.”
Nikki shook her head as she pulled two giant resealable bags filled with wedding paraphernalia next to her. “I want to have a baby right after the wedding,” she said. “Will you help me make these centrepieces?”
Willow nodded as Kyle walked through the door and Shane came out of the bedroom, cleanly dressed. His entire demeanour had changed. He was now wearing a big smile as he greeted his best friend.
A much bigger smile, Willow noted, than he’d had for her.
She watched as Nikki showed her how to fill a vase, just how she wanted it, and tried to wipe her mind of Keller’s Brewery. This was her home, and these were her people. She loved it in Churchill. She had agreed to marry Shane and had forgiven him for sexting with Bunny367. Now she had to live with the consequences.
Besides, the grass wasn’t always greener on the other side. Maybe Mapleton was actually horrible. And she knew working for Max wouldn’t be great. She was probably better off staying where she was, with her friends whom she loved, and working on her relationship with Shane. If they could just get back to where they’d been before the cheating, she’d be happy.
She excused herself from Nikki and went to her bedroom for a quick moment, pulling out her phone. Then she called Adam and declined the offer.