Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Hannah walked into her grandmother's house. No, her house. It was hard to think of it as anything but her gram's.
She breathed deeply of the air that still seemed to be dusted with cinnamon, although there was definitely a musty smell as well.
She'd just arrived that morning, unloaded a few things from her car, and went straight to the clinic.
Now, looking around, it was obvious she had a lot of work to do.
The U-Haul with most of her things would be arriving the next day, although she had no furniture. The antiques her grandmother had used were still scattered around the house and had conveyed when she had inherited the structure.
She smiled at the worn, old-fashioned couch where her grandmother had sat with books on her lap, a cup of tea steaming on the coffee table, while they spent Saturday afternoons reading together.
Although the kitchen was where most of her memories had been made. The Formica countertops, the old-fashioned linoleum floor, and the cupboards that looked like they had been made out of plywood during the Second World War were gently worn and serviceable, but would never win any fashion awards.
It could definitely use a remodel, but Hannah wasn't sure if she was interested in that. After all, the things as they were held a lot of memories and made her happy. What did she care whether it looked modern or not, as long as it was functional?
A little scratching sound alerted her to the fact that she might not be living in the house by herself. Her skin crawled a bit as she thought about what a person needed to do in order to get rid of a rodent population.
Suddenly, the idea of sleeping upstairs held less appeal.
She pushed her shoulders back. Most likely those were descendants of the same mice that lived there when her grandmother was alive. Not that she held any fondness for the family line. Still, it reminded her she needed to finish doing the laundry so she had clean sheets to sleep in.
After she switched the laundry, throwing her sheets in the dryer, her stomach growled, and she realized that she hadn't done any grocery shopping at all.
She had been in such a big rush to get to the clinic to... revive her career? She wasn't sure exactly what she would say, because that wasn't the reason. There was no reviving the career trajectory that she had been on in this small town. That had hit a sudden and very harsh dead end.
Grabbing her keys from where she'd left them, she focused her thoughts on the here and now.
Get enough food to survive the weekend and fuel her body while she unpacked and settled into her new home so that she would be ready on Monday morning to tackle this next challenge in her life.
She was no stranger to doing hard things, having survived medical school and residency and landed a job at a prestigious hospital in the city, and she supposed this was no different.
Still, she hadn't anticipated what had happened and figured that there was probably no way that anyone could.
She turned her car onto the main street of Mistletoe Meadows and drove down the familiar, nostalgic road, passing the park where she and her grandma had played when she was younger and then entered the downtown area with streets lined with small shops, including Henderson's candy store, as well as the candle shop which had always smelled so good, and the other cute stores.
As she headed toward the new grocery store on the other side of town, she noted a policeman standing along the road, talking to two rather scruffy-looking teens.
The policeman looked stern but kind. And there was something familiar about him.
Or at least there seemed to be. Hannah had known a good number of kids from town, although she'd never gone to school with them because her parents had lived just outside of Charlottesville, and she'd only visited her gram in the summer, over school holidays, and the occasional long weekend.
She would've moved in with her if she could have, but... maybe her life would've taken a different turn. She really didn't know, and speculation along those lines was a waste of time.
The warm glow from Henderson's candy shop made her smile, and her heart warmed as she watched a lady wearing a hairnet seem to teach a young girl how to pull candy as they smiled and laughed together.
A man, handsome and wearing an apron, lifted a brow at their antics, watching as he dumped something into a mixer, and the whole family just seemed so cozy and happy and represented everything that was missing in Hannah's life.
Deliberately. She'd made deliberate choices, knowing that she was going to miss out on some things because she wanted other things. Unfortunately, those other things had been yanked away from her, and she was left with nothing.
Should she have made different decisions?
She drove by the church, noting the well-used parking lot and a couple of teenagers shooting hoops in the deepening twilight.
Eventually, she made it to the grocery store and pulled into the parking lot, which was almost deserted.
She had forgotten that things closed down early in small towns.
Hopefully she'd be able to grab at least enough groceries for her to be able to feed herself tonight before the place shut down entirely.
Making a mental note to do her shopping earlier in the day, she got out and began walking toward the store.
"You must be new in town," an older lady spoke, startling Hannah out of her thoughts.
"I am. I start my job at the clinic on Monday morning."
"Then you must be Hannah Reynolds. I remember you visiting your grandmother as a child. My daughter, Terry Landis, is the doctor at the clinic."
"Oh my goodness. It's a small world. I just got done talking to Terry a few minutes ago, and I got all the way home before I realized I should've made a stop at the grocery store."
"I'm eating at my daughter-in-law's house, or I would invite you over for supper." The woman stopped for a moment and then laughed. "I didn't introduce myself. I'm Marjorie McBride."
"I remember you. Your children are about the same age as I am, and yeah, I played with Terry when I was here over the summers."
"I'm so glad you're back," Marjorie said warmly, and Hannah had no doubt that she meant it. She felt like the woman truly remembered and was happy to see her, even if she did look tired and worn and perhaps was also in a bit of pain, to Hannah's medically trained eye.
"You know, you could come anyway. There's always room at our table for one more."
"Oh, I couldn't impose like that." Maybe if it had been Marjorie's house and not her daughter-in-law's, Hannah would've said yes.
After all, she didn't relish going back to the house and eating by herself.
She had never been much of an introvert.
She loved spending time with people, and maybe that was part of the reason that she had wanted to be part of a big city hospital.
There was always busyness and things to do.
"If you change your mind, I could give you the address so you can just stick it in your GPS." Marjorie started to pull her phone out of her purse.
"I couldn't impose like that, and plus, I'm a little bit tired. I've been traveling and then going over some things with Terry at the clinic."
"Of course. I'm always exhausted after driving for any distance too." Marjorie seemed to understand, or maybe she just wanted to ease Hannah's guilt at saying no.
"I'll take a rain check," Hannah said, hoping that Marjorie would invite her some other time.
"Of course. As I recall, you and your gram ate at our house multiple times when you were visiting."
"We did. I'd kind of forgotten about that until just now."
There were a lot of things that she'd forgotten about.
Penny candy at Henderson's candy store, the Christmas festival that always seemed larger than life, and.
.. Ben Tucker. Oh goodness, she'd totally forgotten about him and the massive crush she'd had on him every summer she'd gone to visit.
Every summer she thought maybe that would be the summer he would notice her, but it had never happened.
Goodness, she'd forgotten about that.
Marjorie chatted a bit about how the kids had grown and a few things that had changed in the town, and then she said, "I'm sorry, but I really should run. They're going to be holding supper on me. Are you sure you don't want to come?"
"Not this time, but please ask again. I definitely want to get involved in the town."
"I understand," Marjorie said, patting her arm with her calloused fingers, which had obviously seen a good deal of work over her lifetime. "If you need any help settling in, be sure to let me know."
"I will," Hannah said, feeling almost as though Marjorie was taking care of her as she would take care of one of her own.
It was a good feeling. It also meant something to her that Marjorie and her gram had been friends.
Some of the jittery feeling in her stomach settled down.
With talking to Terry Landis face-to-face, knowing that the doctor that she was going to be working with was a kind and decent person, and also having Marjorie reach out to her, she felt like maybe she had some friends in this town, and things wouldn't be as bad as what she had been afraid of.
Although there was still a part of her that just wanted to hide from humanity for a while and lick her wounds.
Knowing that was not possible, she finished her grocery shopping, stuck the bags in her car, and headed back to her grandmother's house.
No, she headed home.