Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
Eleanor Ridley thought that she was maybe getting the hang of this whole “home renovation” thing. After all, the door she was currently painting looked spectacular, if she did say so herself.
And yes, perhaps Garrett, the wonderful hardware store owner that she’d been dating for a little while now, had been the one who had installed the door.
And ordered it. And advised her on what was the safest, most secure option to separate the parts of her house that would be designated for her bookstore from her living quarters.
But Eleanor had painted the door herself! And she’d chosen the cheery, bright yellow that provided the most wonderful pop of color to her space.
So maybe she wasn’t exactly a home renovation expert just yet…
but she was definitely a pro at home decoration, and that was the fun part, anyway.
The more progress she made on the store, the more she was able to think of it as a store, instead of a strange part of her house she didn’t quite know how to use.
She was beginning to be able to see how the whole thing would look when she was done, and she liked it quite a bit, indeed.
“That looks great.”
Garrett’s words took Eleanor out of her reverie of her bookselling accomplishments to come. She turned and smiled.
Garrett was, to Eleanor, one of the more handsome men she’d ever seen… even if you did have to look a bit beneath his gruff exterior to the piercing eyes, strong jaw, and expressive face beneath. Garrett didn’t exactly make that easy for people either, not with his rugged but well-maintained beard.
As they’d taken their first tentative steps into dating, something they were taking slow but steady, Eleanor had increasingly realized that, for all Garrett’s reputation as the town curmudgeon, he was secretly very well liked. He helped people, even if he did it in something of a taciturn way.
“Thanks,” she said, his praise warming her. “I used the painter’s tape! And the sandpaper!”
“Wow,” he said, snaking an arm around her waist and pressing a kiss to her head. “Where did you get those handy tools?”
She nudged playfully him with her hip. She’d mentioned a few days ago that she was planning on painting the door, and had found, the next day, painter’s tape and sandpaper alongside a note that said, For the door. Use them.
Gruff caretaking. Just Garrett’s style.
She tapped her chin, pretending to think.
“Huh. I guess somebody pretty helpful must have gotten them for me…”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “Just trying to keep myself useful around here. If I’m not careful, you’re going to get too good and then you won’t have any use for me anymore.”
She double checked to make sure he was in his handyman clothes before she wrapped both her arms around him, although she wasn’t at too much of a risk.
As a hardware store owner, Garrett mostly wore things that were suitable for a bit of mess.
When she was confident that he was dressed in his usual well-worn flannel and jeans, she squeezed him tight, pressed up on her toes, and smacked an affectionate kiss right on his lips.
“Never,” she told him. “Not only are you the handiest guy in town, but no matter how good I get, I’ll never be able to kiss myself, will I?”
His response was to plant another kiss on her. She reveled in the feel of butterflies. She’d assumed that, in her forties and with a divorce behind her, that the days of having the fluttery first blush of romance were behind her.
But life had turned out to be chock full of surprises since she’d moved to Magnolia Shore.
And she didn’t regret one moment of it.
Although, as the adorable novelty clock she’d recently purchased chimed the hour, she realized that one thing had not changed. She still had a tendency to get caught up in her tasks and completely lose track of time.
“Shoot!” she exclaimed. “Oh drat, oh no! My book club is going to be here in like fifteen minutes.” She glanced down at her own work outfit, which consisted of a pair of shorts she’d owned for at least a decade and an oversized t-shirt from one of the clubs that her son, Jeremy, had been part of when he was in high school.
Both were spattered with yellow paint. And while the color looked cheerful on her door, it wasn’t exactly the kind of accessory she wanted to wear to her book club meeting.
“What do you need done?”
Garrett’s offer was steady and unbothered.
Eleanor knew that comparing one’s romantic interests was never a good idea, but sometimes Garrett would do something kind so effortlessly that it made her recognize all that she’d been missing during her marriage.
It made her feel so incredibly lucky to have the life she had now.
“Do you mind setting up the snacks while I get dressed?” she asked. “I’ve got stuff in the fridge for a charcuterie board, plus some fruit for another little plate.”
“Of course,” he said. “I can’t promise it will look as good as when you do it, but I can get salami on a plate.”
“Aw, you’re the best,” she said, pecking another kiss on his cheek.
“You say that now,” he teased. “Wait until I grill for you. That’ll really knock your socks off.”
She chuckled even as she raced up the stairs, taking care not to touch the wet paint on her door. She washed her face and hands and quickly put on a light coat of makeup before tossing on a light sundress that she’d recently purchased at Diana’s boutique. It was airy and made her feel beautiful.
Garrett agreed, if the appreciative look he gave her was any indication.
Eleanor, for her part, was trying to stop her own heart from getting away from her.
They were going slow, she reminded herself.
He was just demonstrating such care with the careful way he was putting the pieces of the charcuterie board together.
He’d even tried to be artistic about it, she was pretty sure.
It was hard to tell, since everything looked a bit… blobbish.
It was extraordinarily sweet.
“You look gorgeous,” he said. She spread her flowy skirt wide and gave a wobbly little curtsey.
“Thank you, sir. And thank you for your fine charcuterie skills.”
He pressed a kiss on her forehead, holding his hands out wide so that he didn’t contaminate his food-service hands.
“I’m not finished,” he said. “Don’t mess with my artistry, woman. Go say hi to your friends and let me wrap this up.”
She laughed, but the bell she’d recently installed near the shop door was chiming, which meant that her friends were, in fact, arriving.
“Oh, hello, gorgeous!”
Miriam Landers, the eldest of their club at a spry and sparkling seventy, greeted Eleanor exuberantly.
“Hi, Miriam,” Eleanor returned.
“Oh ‘hi, Miriam,’ my left elbow,” the older woman scoffed. “Give us a twirl. I am assuming that this is a Diana Madsen original that I’m seeing?”
Eleanor obligingly twirled, her skirt flaring out, as Diana chuckled where she was coming in behind Miriam.
“You do realize that I don’t design the clothes I sell, right, Miriam? I just sell them.”
“And source them and buy them and pair them with the perfect person like our Eleanor here,” Miriam corrected. “Accept the compliment. Don’t fight it.”
“Oh, very well,” Diana agreed, leaning over Miriam’s shoulder to pop a kiss on Miriam’s wrinkled cheek. “If you insist.”
“Not to break up this party,” came a voice from behind them, “but can we move this along? I don’t want to drop this cake.”
“Oops!” Miriam exclaimed, hurrying deeper into the bookstore-to-be.
Behind her stood Cadence and June Caldwell, the latter of whom was balancing a bakery box on one arm while she held her copy for their book club book in the other. Eleanor grabbed the box from June’s arms, then moved toward the front room where they held their meetings.
“You didn’t have to bring anything,” Eleanor exclaimed.
June shot her a teasing grin as she tucked a piece of her shoulder-length blonde hair behind her ear. “Oh, okay, I’ll just take it back, then…” She made a playful grab for the box, but Eleanor backed out of reach.
“Now, now, I didn’t say that,” she said. “Let’s not be hasty.”
A smile crinkled June’s green eyes. At thirty, she was the youngest of their group, although she’d experienced more than her share of hardship in that amount of time.
June had married her high school sweetheart, Keith, when they were both young.
They’d had a son, Benjamin, and everything seemed to be poised for a long life of happiness together.
Tragically, however, Keith had passed away two years prior, leaving June scrambling to rebuild her life as a newly single mom.
June worked a variety of jobs to make ends meet, including waitressing and cleaning houses. Eleanor knew that the couple that owned the bakery represented on the box she held was one of June’s clients. They often gave her cakes that hadn’t sold at the end of the day.
“Okay, before June shows me up, I would like it put on record that I brought wine,” Cadence joked, hefting a bottle of red above everyone’s heads to show Eleanor.
“Excellent work, Cadence,” Eleanor said seriously. Cadence fluffed her hair playfully in response.
While they’d chatted, the ever-curious Miriam had slipped past them.
“Hurry up, you slowpokes!” she urged. “Look at how much progress our Ellie has made!”
Everyone filed into the space and oohed and aahed appropriately about all the progress Eleanor had made in turning her house into a store.
“Now,” Miriam said, folding her hands and settling herself into an oversized armchair that Eleanor had recently acquired at an antiques store. “Not to be a pill—”
“You?” June teased. “Never!”
“—but tell me about the timeline, darling,” Miriam went on, ignoring June’s joke. “When can I expect to buy books here? I have hours to burn in my retirement. I think I could really enjoy giving you a great deal of business.”
Diana looked at June. “I could have sworn that Miriam just said she had plenty of time to burn. How is that possible, when she has her finger in everything that ever happens in this town?”
“Be sweet to me,” Miriam ordered. “I’m a frail old woman.”
“You’ll outlive us all,” Diana opined.
“Eleanor, ignore the peanut gallery. When can I buy books?”
Eleanor winced and wobbled her hand in a noncommittal gesture.
“I’m not one hundred percent ready to commit to a timeline,” she said. “We’re making progress, but turns out this renovation thing is pretty darn hard, actually. I’m aiming for doing things well over doing them quickly.”
“Do you realize how much you just sounded like Garrett?” June laughed. “I was going to badger you about how that’s going, but I suppose that’s as good an answer as anything.”
As if on cue, Garrett popped his head in the room at that very moment, his somewhat lopsided charcuterie board in his hands.
“Oh, uh, hi there, ladies,” he said, looking a little uncomfortable as five sets of eyes swung in his direction. “I’m just delivering snacks, and then I’ll be out of your hair so you can… keep talking about me.”
Cadence hid her smile behind her hand. June ducked her head. But they did dutifully wait until they heard the front door click behind Garrett before turning to Eleanor with gleeful expressions.
“You should always keep a man that brings snacks, darling,” Miriam advised. “It’s one of the finer forms of romance. Harold brought me a cup of tea and a cookie before bed every night.”
Harold was Miriam’s late husband who had passed years prior.
Though Miriam still missed her husband, as was evident by the slightly sad fondness with which she spoke of him, she had not let her loss hold her back.
She was living every moment of her life to its fullest, no matter her age or past losses.
“Not to mention a man that looks that handsome while bringing you snacks,” June added with a wink.
Eleanor knew she was blushing furiously, not that she minded too much. Her friends shoed their love with good-natured teasing, and being included only emphasized how warmly they had embraced her when she’d arrived in Magnolia Shore.
“Speaking of renovating,” Diana said, shifting her posture so she was looking at Cadence. “We have a project going on at the art gallery?”
“Ugh.” Cadence raked her fingers through her hair. “It’s more rearranging than renovating but it’s… a project. I seem to have forgotten, when taking everything down, that I am not a tall woman.”
June frowned. “How’d you get them up there the first…” She trailed off as she realized. “Oh, Tyler hung them.”
Cadence nodded. Eleanor reached out to give her friend’s hand a squeeze.
“How’s that going?” she asked delicately.
Though none of her friends had had picture perfect lives, she was the only one of the group who had experience going through a divorce.
And though that wasn’t Tyler and Cadence’s stage, at least not yet, she knew something about the pain of drifting apart from someone you thought you’d love forever.
Cadence shrugged unhappily.
“I mean, it’s not going. It’s just… it just stinks, is all. And I can’t sit in it forever, so I’m trying to figure out how to move forward.”
The way she looked down at her hands indicated that she didn’t want to speak about it any longer, so Eleanor just gave her hand one more pat and moved on.
“Well,” Miriam said brightly. “Enough of the gossip, ladies. We’re here to have a book club, aren’t we?”
Cadence shot her friend a grateful look. They all knew that Miriam could gossip with the best of them, although she never meant anything unkind by it. She was a meddler, but a good-hearted one.
“Yeah, enough with the chitchat,” June chimed in. “Books or cake. Those are our options.”
“Or books and cake,” Diana said. “Let’s not limit ourselves.”
As she watched Cadence’s mood visibly lighten, Eleanor thought about how lucky she was to have friends like these.
Her bookstore was coming along too, and she was dating a wonderful man.
She knew Cadence was going through a tough time now, but she hoped the other woman knew that there was sunshine on the far side of this period of darkness.
After all, Eleanor was nothing if not living proof of that.