Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
Winnie Burnett tucked a strand of her pin-straight, platinum blonde hair behind her ear so she could inspect the glass display case without anything obscuring her peripheral vision.
She had just put the finishing touches on the newest display at the Magnolia Shore Historical Society.
Winnie had been the head of the society for the past seven years running. It was her pride and joy.
It was perfect. It was all perfect.
Except… what if it wasn’t? Her fingers practically itched to go fetch the level from the storeroom and make sure that the trestles were all perfectly even. Even though she’d already checked four times.
No. She didn’t need to do that. Not even when the voice in her head whispered that if it wasn’t perfect, then everyone would see. And then they would laugh at her. And then she’d be fired from the historical society. And then she’d have nothing left.
Nothing and nobody.
“Keep it cool, Winnie,” she told herself quietly. Her voice was a bit scratchy, and it made her realize that she hadn’t talked to anybody all morning.
That was what came from spending so much time on her work, she supposed. She lived alone too.
But it was all worth it… right?
“This is very exciting,” she said out loud to herself, since she didn’t have anyone else to tell about her accomplishments. “This is a very important find. I should celebrate.”
But celebrating didn’t mean that much when there was nobody to celebrate with.
Her smart watch beeped on her wrist, reminding her that she had an upcoming meeting with a history professor from one of the smaller colleges that was about an hour out of town.
The historian was writing something about nineteenth century whaling expeditions that had launched out of Massachusetts ports, and she wanted to access Winnie’s archives… er, the historical society’s archives.
Even if Winnie had been the one to organize them almost singlehandedly.
Her meeting reminder informed her that she still had about twenty minutes before the professor was set to arrive, and those academic types were always a few minutes late, something that normally put a bee in Winnie’s bonnet.
Today though, she was celebrating her triumph, even if she had to celebrate it alone.
And that meant she deserved an afternoon pick-me-up from Juniper Café, she decided.
She checked to make sure that her skirt hadn’t gotten twisted, then confirmed that the line of buttons on the front of her blouse were lying just as straight.
The outfit was a little stuffy for such a warm summer day, but Winnie, who always preferred to maintain a polished appearance, wanted to make sure she looked extra professional for the launch of the exhibit.
It wasn’t necessarily likely that a rush of patrons would come to check out the train tracks as soon as they were available to the public, but maybe.
Winnie needed to be ready for every maybe.
The warm sun hit her like a wall as she walked out of the municipal building.
The offices to the historical society were in one wing of the sprawling, red brick building, while the town clerk resided in another part, the mayor in another, and the city council chambers in yet another.
Some people might have found that crowded, but Winnie liked it.
She liked knowing all about what happened in her town, not just the things that had happened centuries prior.
Fortunately, Juniper Café was only a few blocks away.
Winnie didn’t even want to think about having to show up to her next meeting looking sweaty and disheveled.
The air conditioning in the café was a soothing balm, however, and she sighed, luxuriating in it as she stood in the short line to get her drink.
She ordered an iced, skim, sugar-free vanilla latte, her preferred drink for a hot summer’s day.
Just before the cashier rung her up, she added a honey twist pastry on an impulse.
It was a touch irresponsible, as working with historical artifacts and eating sticky honey didn’t really go together.
But she reasoned that she could be a little daring…
just as long as she washed her hands thoroughly before returning to her office.
She nibbled at the pastry while she waited for her coffee. The chiming of the entry bell over the door absently grabbed her attention.
Winnie paused mid-bite as Eleanor Ridley and her friends, Diana Madsen and Cadence Meadows, entered the shop. They were already laughing about something, and Cadence was gesturing with her hands, apparently to illustrate a point.
Winnie felt an uncomfortable clench of envy in her stomach.
Eleanor Ridley had breezed into town earlier that spring and had, practically in an instant, found herself with a big group of friends.
Winnie almost winced just thinking about it.
She knew that life wasn’t fair, and that it was horrible to even think in those terms, because it wasn’t as though she wished that Eleanor didn’t have any friends.
Winnie knew how hard it was to be alone. She wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
But Eleanor had only been in town about two weeks before she’d made a bunch of friends. Close ones too. Winnie seemed to see them all together, all over town. Practically every day. She would turn around and there they were, happy and pleased just to be together.
It was hard to watch that and not wish that she had something similar for herself. That was all.
But that was something that had never been in the cards for Winnie, it seemed. Oh, she’d had friends as a young child, back when everyone was friends with everyone, needing nothing more than proximity and a suitable diversion.
But then she’d hit middle school, and she’d been the nerd who loved history.
She’d had braces and a… pretty unfortunate haircut that she’d thought would look the same as what she’d seen in a magazine, but really, really hadn’t.
All of this had contributed to make Winnie a popular target for tween bullies.
Eventually, her family had moved to Magnolia Shore… but it had been too late. Winnie’s confidence had been shot. She’d responded to this self-doubt, combined with the ‘new kid’ pressure, by focusing her attention on pleasing her teachers.
At the time, it had seemed like a good idea. Adults were more predictable than teens. All she’d had to be was polite, neat, and bam. They’d liked her.
In hindsight, she should not have been surprised that it hadn’t made her popular.
Even when she’d gotten a better haircut and finally gotten her braces off, she hadn’t seen any uptick in her social status.
Sure, sometimes she’d get called pretty, and she didn’t flatter herself in thinking that was true.
But she’d remained friendless, not to mention stubbornly single.
And maybe her high school years had been some kind of critical period for learning how to socialize properly, because even though Winnie was now an adult, she still hadn’t mastered making friends.
No, instead she’d just doubled down, however unintentionally, on the reputation that she’d had in high school. Winnie Burnett was standoffish. Picky.
An irritation.
The thing was, she didn’t entirely know how to stop. This was the only way she’d ever done things.
After all, she hadn’t even really meant to make Eleanor mad when she’d first pointed out the problems with her store. Those were just the rules, and it was Winnie’s job to share them. So she had.
But Eleanor had seemed to think it was personal. She’d acted like she thought Winnie was trying to personally mess with her. As if rules were personal! They were for everyone’s benefit! That was their whole purpose!
But if Winnie had learned something since those awkward teenage years, it was that people didn’t tend to react well when she gave her explanations.
So she just ducked her head over her phone and didn’t try to make eye contact with Eleanor, Diana, and Cadence. She just waited for her drink, and when it arrived, hurried quickly back to her office.
She would just have to accept her lot in life. It should be easy.
After all, she’d been doing for as long as she could remember.