Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
“I’m so excited for our first official book club meeting,” Eleanor gushed to Garrett as she arranged snacks on a platter.
Her boyfriend paused from where he’d been mixing a pitcher of sangria.
“Ellie, you know I think you are a dream, but, woman, what are you talking about? Your book club has been meeting for months at this point.”
She grinned at the combination of gruffness and fondness in his tone.
“Okay, yes, that’s true. But the bookstore is starting to look real and ready now, so it feels real. Real-er.”
“So you’re telling me I’ve been helping make snacks for a fake book club until this point?”
Eleanor finished up her arrangement, quickly washed her hands, and then crossed over to hug Garrett around the waist from behind.
She leaned her cheek against his broad, flannel-covered back.
It didn’t matter that they were well into summer.
As soon as the sun dipped beyond the horizon and the air started to cool, Garrett was sure to be found in his usual uniform of flannel and jeans.
“Have I said recently how much I appreciate you?” she asked.
He twisted so he could hook an arm around her and give her a side hug, keeping his hands, sticky with sangria fruit, from touching her.
“You have, but I’m not opposed to being thanked with a kiss,” he said, smiling down at her.
Eleanor obligingly pressed up onto her toes and gave him the requested kiss and then, when she couldn’t stay up on her tiptoes much longer, sank back down and settled into a hug.
There were really no words for how grateful she felt for Garrett’s support throughout the entire process of getting her store up and ready to go.
It wasn’t just his help and expertise with building and home repair, although that had of course been invaluable.
It was more the emotional support that mattered to her.
From the time she’d hatched the idea, Garrett had never wavered in his belief that she could do it, that she could make a bookstore happen and indeed thrive in Magnolia Shore.
“I’m a little disappointed that my bookshelf didn’t arrive, though,” she admitted after she had really absorbed the happiness of the hug.
Eleanor was waiting for one more delivery to really make her bookstore complete. It was the biggest furniture purchase she’d made for the entire store.
“Oh, the focal point bookshelf?” Garrett said. “The one that’s going to go over there?”
He pointed to a large, conspicuously empty space in the room.
She nudged him with her hip.
“Yes, yes, okay, maybe I’ve already talked about it a lot,” she admitted. “But can you blame me? I’m just so excited. The carvings are going to be so beautiful—”
“—and that’s not even to mention the hand-painted designs on the side,” he interrupted, finishing the exact sentence she’d been about to say. “And no, honey, I don’t blame you at all. I like to see you excited about it. Is it coming tomorrow?”
Eleanor gave a mock little pout. “I sure hope so. It was supposed to be here today, but they sent me a message that something happened with the delivery, and it would be delayed. They said probably tomorrow. But I’m not going to be satisfied until it’s in my store, full of books, just waiting to find people something amazing to read. ”
“Soon,” he reminded her. “It’ll all come together very soon. All your hard work will pay off.”
“All our hard work,” she corrected him. Then she frowned a little. “And none of Winnie’s hard work to sabotage us.”
Even as she complained though, she felt a twinge of guilt.
There was something about Winnie’s meddling that seemed…
maybe not mean-spirited. Eleanor hadn’t totally been able to see that when she’d still been in the midst of the stress that Winnie, intentionally or not, had laid at her door, but now that she was days away from making her bookstore dream a reality, she felt a bit bad about how angry she’d gotten.
“I’m not sure that’s fair,” she admitted on a sigh. “I guess I don’t really know her.”
Garrett gave her a tender look, warm and proud, and Eleanor melted.
“Well, if anyone can dig past the surface to find out if there’s more beneath the prickly surface she shows to the world, it will be you, Ellie,” he said.
“After all, I recall you having to peel back a few of my prickly layers before you were able to really appreciate all my excellent advice about never trying to fix your own sink.”
His reference to one of the first times they’d met, an instance where they had not gotten along at all, caused Eleanor to throw her hands up in the air in mock exasperation.
“You spray a guy with water one time…” she complained.
“And bonked me on the head with a shelf,” he reminded her.
“Yeah, well, your head is hard enough to handle it,” she teased, pulling him down to smack a kiss on his forehead, as if the long-past injury might still be lingering. “Besides, it was all worth it in the end, don’t you think?”
The kiss he laid on her was agreement enough.
The question of Winnie’s motives lingered in the back of Eleanor’s mind as she finished getting ready for book club, then bid farewell to Garrett, who headed out as soon as her friends started to arrive, as always.
“You know, there’s no official rule that says this book club is women only,” Eleanor said to him.
“She’s wrong!” Miriam called jovially from the other room. For a septuagenarian, she had incredible hearing. “Girls only! No boys allowed!”
Garrett gestured to the doorway as if to say, see?
“It is my book store, I will remind you both,” Eleanor objected. Neither Miriam nor Garrett were moved, however, so Eleanor bid her boyfriend goodbye and went to join her friends.
Not that this was some mere consolation prize. She loved her friends and loved their time together.
Speaking of…
“June!” she cried when her friend arrived. “I’m so bummed that I missed your last open mic! The local grapevine said you were amazing.”
June blushed, clearly bashful over the idea that people were talking about her, but her smile was clearly pleased.
“Thanks,” she said. “I’m starting to feel less like I’m going to throw up every time I do it, so that’s… progress?”
“Plus you’ve got singing buddies,” Diana added, coming in the room and giving a quick round of hugs to everyone. “The guitar player with the blond hair is cute.”
“He is,” June agreed. “Also married. He and his wife have a hundred kids.”
Diana arched a brow. “That number cannot be correct.”
“Okay, but don’t bury the lede, Diana,” Cadence interjected. “Because if we’re talking about cute guys at the open mic night, what about Anthony the Accountant?”
Cadence wiggled her eyebrows in a teasing way, and Diana shielded her face from the group.
“Yes, we talked to the new accountant in town,” she said from behind her hand.
Miriam reached over and tugged down Diana’s blockade. “I need to assess what’s going on based on how hard you blush,” the older lady said.
“Wait, was that the guy you were chatting with?” June asked. “He was cute, and you guys seemed to totally hit it off.”
“It wasn’t like that,” Diana protested.
“It totally was,” Cadence corrected.
Eleanor and Miriam, the two who hadn’t been present, listened, rapt, as Diana explained how their appetizers had gotten mixed up, and then, with the restaurant so crowded, they’d been forced to let Anthony sit at their table.
Every member of the book club except Diana had to bite back a smile when Diana used the word forced.
“So you see?” Diana concluded. “Just a random run-in. He and I probably won’t ever see one another again.”
“Yeah,” June said, sighing dramatically. “That’s probably true. Since, you know, we live in a ginormous city with lots and lots of people, and you and this guy are definitely not both small business owners. Not that it would matter if you were, because of how giant and big our city is.”
“Okay,” Diana said, pointing at June, “you make it sound like Magnolia Shore is a postage stamp. It’s a decent sized town!”
“It worked for comedic effect,” Miriam told June. “Diana just is currently not in a position to appreciate your rhetorical maneuvering.”
Diana stuck her tongue petulantly out at both her friends, who laughed in unison.
“But wait,” Eleanor said as an idea occurred to her. “Forget about seeing this guy again socially.”
“Um, no,” Cadence interjected, but Eleanor waved her off.
“Or do whatever you want in that regard. What I meant was, weren’t you just telling me that you were looking for somebody new to help out with your books? This guy seems like he’d be perfect for that.”
For a moment, Diana’s cheeks flushed bright red and this, more than anything else from the conversation, told Eleanor how her friend really felt about the handsome accountant she’d met at Anchor Bistro.
“Oh, no,” Diana said hastily, clearly flustered. “I, uh, I can figure out all that by myself. I don’t need help from Anthony… or from anyone!” she added.
This was not remotely convincing, but the whole group of friends seemed to instinctively realize that if they tried to push any harder, it would upset Diana.
And while teasing one another was fun, they didn’t want to actually hurt their friend, who had a lot of complex feelings when it came to her dating potential.
“We’ll file that under ‘to revisit later,’” June told Diana, laying a hand on her arm. “But for now, we’ll stop bugging you. Let’s talk books?”
“Let’s talk books,” Eleanor agreed.
The group settled into their discussion of the cozy mystery they’d read for this session, leaving Eleanor with a pervasive sense of peace.
It was hard to imagine a life better than this or friends better than these.
Even so, she knew, with the opening of her bookstore on the horizon, that there were even more wonderful things to come.