Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
Okay, Shane had to admit it. He understood why his sister loved Magnolia Shore so much.
The place was… well it was like something out of a postcard, frankly.
And that wasn’t just a metaphor. He had stopped at a little snack stand after taking a bus from the airport and had seen actual postcards for sale.
They were adorable enough that he’d purchased one, although he didn’t know where he would send it.
That was a sad thought. He’d spent so much time working for the past…
nearly two decades now that most of his friends were work friends.
They might grab a drink after work, if they managed to get out of the office before it was alarmingly late, that was.
But they weren’t the kind of friends to whom you sent a postcard.
The only person like that he had in his life was his sister. And she already lived in Magnolia Shore. She didn’t need a postcard.
Still, he’d purchased it anyway. And then he’d gotten the harebrained idea that maybe he should walk the rest of the way to his sister’s house.
It wasn’t totally nuts, he told himself as he strolled down the streets, which were admittedly idyllic. Leaves drifted down to the ground as the season began to change, and the breeze was just enough that his light jacket was just right.
Stupid New England and its stupid beautiful autumns, he thought grouchily. Except it was hard to be grouchy with such beautiful scenery.
He kept walking, pulling his suitcase behind him, wondering if he had totally lost his mind.
Unfortunately, there was a lot of evidence for this theory.
Argument one: he hadn’t technically told his sister that he was coming.
Yes, they’d talked generally about him visiting, and he didn’t have any doubt that Eleanor would be happy to see him, but he had gotten approval for his time off, and then suddenly, he had found himself in his car, on the way to the airport.
It was like something inside him had just cracked, and he had needed to get away.
He had put himself on a standby list and boom.
A few hours and he was in Boston, then on his way to Magnolia Shore.
Argument two: what was he even doing here? He was a big city guy! He’d lived in San Francisco for over a decade. He didn’t belong in this small town that, for all its charms, was very remote. And tiny. Could he even survive in a town this tiny? What was their coffee situation even like?
The universe conspired, in that moment, to remind him that he was, just maybe, being the teeniest, tiniest bit ridiculous.
It wafted a breeze full of delicious smells his way.
Baked goods. Coffee. He glanced to the left and saw a cute establishment called Honey Bee Bakery.
In their front window was a display of muffins that looked so delicious that he could practically taste them from here out in the street.
Feeling the tiniest bit calmer, he let his gaze wander without the tinge of panic coloring everything.
And what he saw was… really, really nice.
He saw two people stop to chat as they walked their dogs out of Sandy Paws Pet Shop.
The dogs were clearly well-acquainted, sniffing one another happily and overall threatening to mess up the new grooming they’d just gotten.
Shane found himself uncommonly charmed by the idea of these two dog buddies scheduling their grooming sessions together, with some help from their humans, of course.
He breathed in a lungful of crisp fall air, and it felt like the first real breath he had taken in ages. Goodness, how long had it been since he had felt relaxed enough to just… be, even if only for a few moments.
He paused long enough for one more deep, steadying breath.
He had already accepted that his sister was right about this trip, but his feelings right now were hammering her point home pretty intensely.
After all, he’d been pretty twitchy for the first half of the flight until he realized what had been bothering him: he wasn’t on his computer, working.
Just the fact that he had spent a few hours sitting and reading a book instead of frantically coding had been so unusual, that it had given him that haunting, terrible feeling that he was forgetting something important.
Once he’d realized what was making him so antsy, he made himself reflect on it. What did it mean for his work life balance that he couldn’t take even a few hours off?
He didn’t like the answer.
Now though, nothing was nagging at him. He felt… unburdened. Calm.
Happy.
And he hadn’t even made it to his sister yet.
He was absolutely, one hundred percent not going to tell her how right she had been, though. They might be grown, Ellie with a grown child of her own, but he would always be her little brother. It was just the principle of the thing.
He kept walking, his pace making it more of a stroll than anything else, pausing to look at this and that as he went.
It was only when he caught himself looking at the properties advertised at Sunrise Realty that he shook his head at his own self-indulgence.
Of all the things he should be spending time looking at, real estate was the last choice.
It wasn’t as though he was staying, after all.
He might have found a cute bakery and some charming dogs, but a town like this wouldn’t hold a city guy like him, not for the long term.
He pulled away from the cheerful flyers showing adorable seaside properties for sale or for rent, then continued the rest of the walk to Eleanor’s bookstore.
His first sight of the place made him grin broadly.
It was the perfect fit for his sister, with its cheery shutters and window boxes overflowing with flowers.
The front door opened as he watched, and a little kid with an armful of books skipped out, followed by what had to be her grandparents, who looked happy and indulgent as they walked arm in arm.
It was idyllic, like something out of a movie. And Shane was thrilled. His sister deserved every bit of this happiness and more.
If he lingered out here much longer though, his surprise was going to be ruined.
He went in through the business entrance, reflecting that it was extremely nice, for the purposes of surprises, to have a door that was open to the public.
Inside, there were perhaps a half dozen customers milling about, which Shane thought was probably a pretty good showing for a weekday afternoon at a small local bookshop. He peered around the browsers, some of whom gave his suitcase a brief, quizzical glance before returning to their perusal.
And then he saw Eleanor. She was standing with her back to him as she restocked shelves. He grinned as a mischievous idea occurred to him.
He pitched his voice lower than its usual register.
“Excuse me, ma’am, do you think you could recommend a book for someone who needs to take a nice, relaxing break?”
Eleanor started responding before she turned. “Of course, sir, let me just—aah! Shane!” Her shriek was half surprise, half excitement… and one hundred percent loud. Several of her customers looked over in surprise, and Eleanor waved at them apologetically.
“Sorry, sorry,” she called out. “I was just surprised by my punk little brother.”
Shane heard a few commiserating chuckles from the customers as Eleanor threw her arms around him. He squeezed her tight, breathing in the familiar scent of the same kind of shampoo she had used for the past decade or more.
“Hey, Ellie,” he breathed. “I missed you.”
“I missed you,” she said, pulling back to look at him in a way that felt extremely maternal. He supposed the skills translated between big sister and mom. “But what are you doing here?”
He pulled a face. “Wait, did you not want me to come? I could have sworn that you invited me once or twice… or seventy million times.”
She shoved his arm affectionately. “Of course I want you here, you brat. I meant why didn’t you tell me you were coming? I could have gotten you from the airport!” She looked alarmed. “I don’t even know if there are clean sheets on the guest bed!”
He laughed. “Well, given that it’s only about two in the afternoon and I have been putting my own sheets on for years, I think, between the two of us, we can tackle that problem before bedtime.
As for the impromptu arrival…” He gave her a sheepish wince.
“I got approved for the time off, and I just sort of took a wild hair. Next thing I knew, I was at the airport.”
She gave him an understanding, sympathetic look.
“You have been under way too much pressure,” she said in commiseration.
This was true, but being away from the pressures of his job felt so good that Shane didn’t want to talk about it right now.
“Never mind that,” he said hurriedly. “Show me the shop. I am only realizing right this minute that you’re a fancy businesswoman now, and I am showing up at a bad time—”
“Not a chance,” she said vehemently, cutting him off.
“There is not any bad time for you to come here. Not now, not ever. I do have to do a little bit of work still today, but do you know what’s one of the great parts of being your own boss?
You can take a pause to show your little brother your store. ”
He looked at her… looked down at her. “I’m your younger brother,” he teased. “But am I really your little brother?”
“Oh, hush,” she said. “Come see the store.”
Eleanor tucked Shane’s suitcase, which fortunately was small, behind her cash register area, and then spent a pleasant half an hour showing him every single detail of her store.