Chapter 6
Lakeside Cafe sat at the edge of a lake, where an outdoor seating area gave patrons a beautiful view while they dined over a luscious meal.
Most of the outside tables were full of mingling customers, their attention devoted to their plates and company.
Grace eyed their easy comfort and simmered with jealousy as she neared the front of the restaurant.
Grace couldn’t remember a time in her life when she found it simple to make friends.
Not that was all her fault – Gregory Baker, Grace’s late Father, moved their small family around the country frequently, even venturing out of familiar soil more than a few times.
His good standing with the army forced them to do so, and it kept Grace from having real ties to any place, till she was finally on her own.
Of course, being on her own ended up with a marriage that would eventually lead to a divorce she never would’ve expected, but that was a thought for another night.
Either way, Grace was terrified. Meeting Caroline was easy, but that was on the side of the road, with an impressive tool at hand.
Grace was the knight in shining armor in that story.
She saved the day, and that was enough to forge a friendship.
But meeting people for the first time in a restaurant was real, it was as real as moving across the country and buying a house amongst strangers.
If Grace messed it up now, there wouldn’t be any chance to come back from it.
It wasn’t like there was anywhere else for her to go either.
The town had taken on a rather scary aura as the evening crawled forward, bringing a low hanging fog along with it.
The Halloween decorations brought a sort of suspense to the place too, despite being made of plastic or glass.
In the distance, a hooting owl made the hairs stand up on Grace’s neck as she faced the restaurant once more.
There was only one way to go, and it wasn’t back to the Lantern House.
She stared up at the lights surrounding the restaurant’s wide sign and let the cool air caress her skin one last time before she stepped inside.
“Hehehe!”
Grace jerked to the side, bumping into a few startled members of a tourist family as they tried to leave.
There was a witch figurine positioned beside the front doors, with a wide-brimmed black hat and a twisted green nose.
Grace’s shoulders fell with relief as she passed it by again, watching as the Halloween witch stretched out her arms and released a howling cackle.
A friendly faced host hung around the main counter, eyeing Grace with a curiosity she was still trying to get used to. “Welcome to Lakeside Cafe! Do you have reservations?”
“I’m not sure. I’m dining with the Caroline Shepard party,” Grace said nervously as she approached her.
The host beamed from ear to ear and nodded. “Right this way!”
As she was led through the restaurant's dining room, where it was busy for the late evening dinner rush, Grace was overcome with the startling sensation of deja vu. Everything about the restaurant’s decor reminded her of that odd dream she experienced, though she wasn’t sure what that meant.
Everyone had deja vu at one point or another, and Grace thought she could recognize the sensation rather well, but there was something incredibly off putting about what happened to her earlier in the day.
The feeling only grew to inexplicable heights when her gaze landed on the table with Caroline, and the very woman she had seen having coffee drenched over her.
Caroline squealed as she stood from the table, already rushing to grab Grace’s hand and tug her over.
“You girls are going to absolutely love this little dove,” she exclaimed.
With her hands fixed on Grace’s shoulders, she introduced her to the other two women already sitting.
“This is Anna Louise Harper, one of my oldest friends. She works for a lawyer, so you already know how smart she is.”
“We’ve met when I gave her all the information on the Lantern House,” Anna said with a large smile. “And I already love her.”
“The feeling is mutual,” I responded, trying to force a smile. Trying not to look at the woman next to her.
“And this lovely strawberry is Olivia Brooks!” Caroline said, forcing Grace to finally look at the third woman
Grace’s eyes went wide. She’d been hoping she was wrong, but looking at her took away all doubts. “I-I…”
The thin faced woman gave Grace a gentle smile.
A yellow dress speckled with small white flowers delicately stood out against Olivia’s pale skin, bringing out the deep red color within her long curls.
Freckles danced across her nose and cheeks before decorating her jutting collar.
Olivia glanced around the table, her smile beginning to falter.
“Are you alright?” Olivia sweetly asked.
Anna reached forward, touching Grace’s hand reassuringly. “Don’t look so scared, honey! We are the last people to be nervous about meeting. Honest!”
Grace’s mouth opened and closed but nothing dared to come out.
She only stared at Olivia, the dream repeating over and over in the back of her mind.
How could she have seen her before knowing her?
How could she have known what dress she would’ve worn, down to the white flowers?
Down to her characteristically red hair?
Grace raised a trembling hand to her lips, covering her mouth as an embarrassing heat rose to her face.
“Honestly,” Grace finally breathed as she shook her head, letting out an airy, breathless laugh, “I think I’m sleep deprived! Forgive me, I had the oddest of dreams this morning and its…its just came back to me all of a sudden.”
Olivia looked intrigued. “What happened in the dream?”
“It’s silly, really.” Grace wished to brush it off but the three women exchanged glances with each other before eyeing her again, their attention not at all wavering.
“I-I saw you. Not just you, but you getting coffee spilled over you. It’s the weirdest thing, honestly, and I swear I won't start all new friendships with weird mess-inducing dreams.”
Caroline guided Grace to her seat before retaking her own, sipping at her ruby red wine and watching her friends over the rim of her glass.
“Sounds like the best way to be friends to me.” Anna raised her own fluted glass.
Olivia beamed. “Here, here.”
By the time the waiter came around to grab Grace’s drink order – which remained a classic Vodka Martini, especially after the embarrassing events from earlier – the ladies were engaging her in a vivid conversation about their local postman.
It was hardly a conversation she would remember, but that wasn’t the point.
They were pulling Grace into their world, inviting her in and hoping she would take the rope.
Perhaps it was something so much simpler, but Grace didn’t let herself believe anything else.
Once the drink arrived in front of her, she was already breathlessly laughing, already eager to learn more, already imagining what it would be like to spend the rest of her life alongside friends like them.
“I couldn’t help but notice how nice your business card is,” Grace said to Caroline after they placed their orders. “Seems like you have a real enterprise going on.”
Caroline laughed and brushed it off, but there was no doubt that there was pride beaming in her eyes. “That wouldn’t be how I would put it.”
“No,” Anna drawled, pointing across the table at her. “She’d just say she’s filthy rich!”
Olivia’s musical laugh followed. “Filthy rich and filthy bored!”
“The Shepard family is one of well-bred entrepreneurs,” Caroline explained as she popped a piece of bread in between her teeth.
“It sounds stuffy and uptight, I know, but it’s the truth.
Mommy and Daddy brought together their two empires to forge an even larger one.
The money flowed and I was sent through life without doing a damn! ”
Caroline reached to pluck the business card out from between Grace’s fingers.
“Now, the last thing Mommy and Daddy expected was to have a pair of kids who wanted nothing to do with their business. Jack turned to the police department and I have my salons. Neither one of us have had plans to grow our family any further.”
Grace raised a brow, fascinated by Caroline’s words. “Just like that?”
“Like what?”
“No kids, no marriage?” She shrugged, hoping she sounded curious instead of judgmental, which is what she was. “Are the salons enough for you?”
Caroline started to beam, entirely lighting up the room from her beautifully charming smile. There was no doubt that she believed the words she spoke. “They’re more than enough. And you know, I’m not the only woman in Holiday Hollow who is unmarried and enjoying life. Take Olivia, for instance.”
Olivia’s red curls fell over her eyes. “Me?”
“Yes, you, Olivia.”
The cherry haired woman thought about it before she nodded dramatically. “I’m the best party planner around these parts,” she bragged. “I haven’t met anyone who’d outrightly call that a successful career, so there’s that!”
Caroline waved her hand. “And…?”
“Oh!” Olivia fully faced Grace. “I’ve got a long-term boyfriend of about six years now, and we live apart. Permanently.”
Grace’s eyes went wide. “Really?”
“Sure! What’s weird about that? We’ve got our own space. Sometimes space is the key to a healthy relationship, you know.”
Grace chewed on the inside of her mouth.
She didn’t suppose she really knew what the key was to a good relationship anyways.
Knowing that other women her age were proud of their lives without being married or having children was reassuring to a degree, but a part of her was still too stuck on how important those things have seemed to be all her life.
“What about Anna?”