Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“June, June!”
The moment June walked through the doors to the bookshop for that week’s book club, Eleanor called her name and approached, dragging a sheepish-looking young man behind her.
“June, hello. This is my son, Jeremy. Jeremy, this is my friend, June. I’ve been so excited for you all to meet!”
Jeremy shot his mother an affectionate, indulgent look that said that yes, she was definitely embarrassing him, but he was willing to put up with it out of love for her.
Even if June hadn’t already heard a thousand wonderful stories about Eleanor’s son, this look alone would have disposed her kindly toward him.
“Hi, Jeremy,” she said, shifting the box of donuts she’d brought with her over to one arm so that she could shake his hand.
She hadn’t had a chance to cook for this week’s meeting, but her friends never acted disappointed when she brought something store-bought.
“It’s so nice to meet you. Your mom is putting you on parade for the town, huh? ”
Eleanor put a hand to her chest, pretending to be offended, but Jeremy laughed.
“When I encouraged her to go out and meet new people in her new town, I never considered that she would want to show me off to all of them,” he joked. “If I’d known, I might have told her to take up a nice, solitary hobby like knitting.”
Eleanor slung an arm happily around Jeremy’s shoulders, even though she had to stand on tiptoe to do so. From inside the shop, Miriam called, “Don’t underestimate small town ladies, Jeremy! Knitting can be social too! You ever heard of a knitting circle?”
Jeremy pulled a playful face.
“Just kidding, Mom,” he said, wrapping his arm around Eleanor in return. “No knitting.”
Everyone laughed, then Jeremy disentangled himself from his mom in order to grab a scarf.
“Well, it was nice meeting everyone,” he called into the room, where the rest of the book club members were already waiting. “I don’t want to keep poor Uncle Shane waiting out in the cold any longer, since this is his first winter after living so long in California.”
“Have a fun dinner!” Winnie called. After Jeremy had given one last wave and left the room, she explained, “He and Shane are doing the sports bar dinner thing while we ladies have book club. I guess he didn’t want to hang around while we were doing our thing…
though Shane always seemed to be hanging out, when he was staying with you,” she said to Eleanor.
“Funny, that,” Cadence said in an aside to Diana.
“It’s almost like he had a huge crush on someone in this book club,” Diana added from behind her wine glass.
Winnie stuck out her tongue playfully, but she still beamed with happiness. Her relationship with Eleanor’s brother Shane seemed to be going wonderfully, and Winnie was perpetually over the moon that he had decided to stay in Magnolia Shore instead of going back to his old job in San Francisco.
The meeting started, as everyone was brimming with theories about the book they were currently in the middle of reading, but June found her mind wandering. Thinking about Winnie’s newfound romance caused June to drift back to the new man in her life… and his unbelievable offer.
It had only been little more than a day since Levi had asked her to record a single with him, and in that time, June had gone back and forth on the issue about a thousand times.
It seemed downright bonkers that she might even be considering it. How audacious was she? She was a struggling single mother, and he was a famous country music star! She couldn’t record a single with him. That was… it was unthinkable!
Every time she convinced herself that she really couldn’t consider doing such a thing, however, another side of her chimed in. That side said, What if?
What if she did say yes? What if it was wonderful?
She was pretty sure she wouldn’t make a total fool of herself; Levi had made no secret of the fact that he had a soft spot for her, but he wasn’t going to gamble with his career by offering to record with her just because he liked her.
He was too savvy for that. And besides, recording the single was only step one.
If it turned out badly, they didn’t have to release it or anything.
But what if it did go well? Singing with him… it would be like a dream come true.
No, though. She couldn’t. Could she?
Her heart did ache at the idea of losing the connection with Levi, even though she’d been the one pushing him away this past week.
She’d almost started crying when he’d sent the picture of a train just because he thought Benjamin would like it, and she’d laughed at his out-of-nowhere question about her favorite color.
He was sweet, and he made her laugh. Plus, of course, he was drop-dead handsome and unbelievably talented.
Wouldn’t it be a mistake to let this… thing between them disappear before she even truly knew what it was?
“Hello? Earth to June!”
June looked up to see Cadence and Miriam peering at her. Cadence was waving at June in a way that suggested that this was not the first time she’d called her name.
“Sorry,” she said. “Sorry. I’m totally paying attention.”
“Oh, sweetie,” Miriam said, shaking her head. She pointed at June’s lap, where the book they were discussing was open to the right chapter—except the entire book was upside down.
“Ah,” June said, flipping the book so that the words became legible. “Right. Yes, fine. I might be the tiniest bit distracted.”
“Obviously we’re going to need you to spill,” Cadence said.
“Didn’t we move book club up this week because we were so excited to discuss this part?
” June protested, mostly just to tease. She knew she would tell her friends everything, just as she knew that doing so would help.
She tilted her head at Eleanor, Winnie, and Diana, who had their heads close together.
“They’re engaged in the text. We shouldn’t get distracted. ”
“Pfft.” Miriam waved a hand. “They’re talking about the historical fashion in the book, which obviously is right up Winnie and Diana’s alleys…
and our Eleanor is just the most wonderful little sponge for any new information.
They’re fine.” She gestured between herself and Cadence.
“We are the horrible gossips. Please, spill.”
Cadence, rather than protesting this characterization, nodded eagerly, a grin lighting her face.
June laughed.
“Okay, okay,” she said. “So, I might have been slightly avoiding Levi because he’s a famous country star and I’m, you know, me.” She waved at herself.
Cadence frowned. “We’re going to loop back on that one, because you say that like you aren’t wonderful and like he shouldn’t be falling all over himself wanting to get to know you, but go on.”
Goodness, all these compliments were going to go straight to June’s head if she wasn’t careful. First Levi, now Cadence. Still, she went on with her story.
“Anyway, yesterday we ran into one another and he… asked if I wanted to record a single with him.”
Cadence gasped, and Miriam whooped so loudly, throwing her hands up in the air, that the three other women immediately turned away from their conversation.
“What’s happening?” Diana asked.
“Our June is going to record a single with Levi Hawkins!” Cadence cried.
“Whoa,” Winnie said, her eyes wide. “Even I know who that is and I’m a huge nerd.”
“When is this happening?” Eleanor asked.
June held up her hands. “Wait, wait,” she cautioned. “It’s not happening. Yet. I haven’t decided if I’m going to do it.”
All five of her friends let out horrified sounds of protest.
“June Caldwell,” Cadence said sternly. “You have to do it.”
“It would be really cool,” Winnie admitted.
“What do you even have to lose?” Diana asked.
But June found her gaze traveling to Miriam, the person who so often understood her best when emotions about letting someone in after loss came into play. Miriam, no matter that she was typically the most exuberant of the group, had the softest look on her face now, one gentle with understanding.
She reached out and gripped June’s hand in hers.
“Don’t let happiness slip away from you just because you’re scared,” she advised.
“The hard times will come either way. You and I both know that better than most. But,” she added, patting June’s fingers, “it is the good times, especially the good times that we enjoy when we’re young, that help us get through those tough times. ”
Eleanor was nearly three decades younger than Miriam, but she was the next oldest of their group, and she added her own two cents.
“You can’t let fear rule your choices,” she advised.
“If I’d done that, I would have stayed in Indianapolis after my divorce.
But I came here, and I opened this store, even though I was downright terrified!
And look how much wonderfulness came from that.
” She winked at June. “Besides, sometimes you persevere despite fearing that someone will judge you and are pleasantly surprised to learn that nobody even wanted to judge you in the first place. You learn that they were secretly all in your corner all along.”
“Plus,” Winnie chimed in, “even if some other punks try to give you a hard time, you know you’ll always have us in your corner.”
She tried to put on a fierce expression, which made June chuckle, even as she teared up a little bit.
“Thanks, guys,” she said, wiping a gentle finger under her eye. “That means a lot.”
“Forget all the mushy stuff, though!” Cadence protested. “When are you supposed to meet him?”
June looked down at her watch, which already made Cadence let out a strangled sound, apparently at the realization that this was a matter of hours, not days. June’s poor friend looked even more dismayed when June said, “Um, now… ish?”
“Out!” Cadence cried surging to her feet and pointing to the door imperiously. “Out! Get out of here, June Caldwell! I don’t even know what you’re still doing here?”
June looked at the book in her lap, feeling somewhat overwhelmed by this sudden turn of events.
“Uh, book club?” she ventured, raising the book in Cadence’s direction. She glanced around the room for support, but found none.
“No, you definitely have to go,” Diana insisted.
“Time to hustle!” Miriam said, shaking her hands above her head like she held pompoms.
“We could pretend that we’re going to catch you up on the book later, but you know that we’re just going to talk all about you and that handsome singer after you’ve gone,” Eleanor added with a playful wink.
Even Winnie, who was least prone to bossing around another member of the book club, given that she was the most recent addition to the group, had her hands planted firmly on her hips.
“I think you’ll regret it if you don’t,” she said quietly.
And June had to admit that this was possibly true. Maybe even probably true.
“Okay,” she said. “I’ll go.”
Cadence let out a whoop loud enough that even Miriam, whose hearing was slightly less acute than what it once had been, winced.
There wasn’t any time to react, however, as Cadence practically leaped from her chair and grabbed June by the arm, propelling her toward the front coat rack where they’d all hung their winter gear.
She wrapped June’s scarf for her, like she doubted that June would manage the task quickly enough on her own.
June, helpless with laughter, couldn’t do anything other than stand there and let her friend dress her like a little doll.
When she was appropriately bundled, she headed for the door, glancing back at her friends’ eager, encouraging faces.
“Go get ‘em, babe!” Diana encouraged, sending June a playful wink.
June felt buoyed by their encouragement… right up until she got behind the wheel of her car. The moment she was alone, however, her nerves gripped her in full force…
But this time, she didn’t feel nervous about what she was doing. She felt nervous that she might have dallied too long. She feared that she might be too late.