Chapter 1 #2
“He’s pretty amazing, Keith,” she said to the quiet of her little car.
Sometimes she just needed to talk to her late husband.
It was just one more little way of keeping his memory alive.
“I’m really worried about this diabetes thing, though.
I hate seeing him so weary. But the doctor tells me it will normalize so I’m… holding on to hope.”
There was no answer, of course. But she still felt better for saying it.
June brushed gently underneath her eyes, where tears had threatened to gather, then turned on her car and pulled out of the driveway.
The moment she got to Anchor Bistro, she started to feel better. Miriam had, as usual, been right… and darn it all if the older lady didn’t know that she was almost always correct too.
June had needed this.
She’d started coming to the weekly open mic nights at Anchor Bistro a few months ago, when her friends had encouraged her to get back into singing, a hobby she’d enjoyed in high school but had given up after the many complexities of adult life, not to mention the burdens of being a single parent, got in the way.
And yes, that ‘encouragement’ had meant more like ‘practically dragging her out to the bar’ for the first time or two… or four. But now, June relished the opportunity to get up and sing for the small crowd that always turned up to the open mic events. She missed the weeks when life kept her away.
But she wasn’t going to dwell on that for now, nor on any of the many stressors that kept her awake at night.
For the next little while, she was just going to enjoy herself.
This proved very easy, because the moment she walked into Anchor Bistro, she was greeted by a chorus of voices.
“June!”
“Hey there, Caldwell!”
“Oh, look, it’s June!”
June followed the voices to see three of her friends Eleanor Ridley, Winnie Burnett, and Cadence Meadows, all smiling in her direction. June pivoted to head in their direction.
The three women, as well as June, Miriam, and their friend Diana Madsen, were all part of a book club at the bookstore that Eleanor had opened a few months prior.
The book club actually predated the shop by a few months, as Miriam loved to remind customers at the store whenever she was there.
Both the club and the store that hosted it had come to Magnolia Shore after Eleanor had moved here, following her divorce from her ex-husband.
It was strange to think that, a year ago, Eleanor hadn’t even been in town; now, June felt as though she was an inextricable part of their group of friends.
But it had been a big year for their little town beyond Eleanor’s arrival.
Indeed, it was rare to see Cadence and Winnie without their better halves these days, since Cadence had recently reconciled with her husband after a brief separation, and Winnie was dating Eleanor’s brother, Shane, who had come to Magnolia Shore to visit his sister and then decided that he wanted to stay.
Eleanor, too, had found a romance in her new hometown, although her boyfriend, Garrett Wilder, was not particularly fond of crowded, noisy environments like the one to be found at Anchor Bistro.
He might be distinctly less curmudgeonly than he had been before he and Eleanor had fallen in love, but still, the man had his limits.
“We were starting to worry that you weren’t going to make it,” Cadence said as she scooted over on the booth bench to make room for June. “And then what were we going to do? Listen to not the best singers in town? Pfft.”
June laughed and elbowed her friend lightly.
“Stop that,” she chided. “There are plenty of great performers here every week.”
Cadence had a gentle look about her, with bright blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair that she had worn in a long braid for years until a need for change during her separation had led her to impulsively chop it all off.
The result had been… less than flattering, especially with the rather aggressive perm that the stylist had given her.
But June had done a little repair work, using the skills she’d gained cutting Benjamin’s hair over the years, and she didn’t think she was being too proud if she observed that she’d made Cadence look adorable.
All of this outward sweetness obscured Cadence’s completely mischievous sense of humor.
“Oh, sure,” Cadence said with an exaggerated roll of her eyes. “I guess that’s true. But we just wanted to see you, sweetie.”
She slung an arm around June’s shoulders.
“It’s true,” Eleanor said, sliding a glass of wine across to June, who took it with a grateful salute of the glass. “See? We bought you a drink and everything.”
“You guys are the best,” June said. “And I promise I mean that even when you aren’t plying me with wine.”
Eleanor grinned. She was in a great mood these days, since things were going so well with her business and with her relationship. Plus, it was hard to say who was happier, between Eleanor and Winnie, about Shane’s decision to relocate to Magnolia Shore permanently.
Winnie was the newest member of their little group.
She still sometimes had moments like this one, where she was a little quieter, a little more reserved than the rest. Even so, June knew this was a huge step forward for Winnie, who had hidden her shyness behind formality and rules.
As the women bantered, Winnie observed before jumping in, tucking a strand of her sleek platinum bob behind her ear. A smile played on her lips, though.
“I was definitely going to drink it if you didn’t show up,” Winnie ventured.
June, playing along, leaned the glass in Winnie’s direction, but Winnie held up her own drink as if shielding herself. This earned her a round of laughter from the group, and Winnie’s shy grin grew a little bit braver.
“Okay,” June said, taking another hasty sip of her wine before sliding out of the booth. “If I don’t get on the list now, it will fill up before I get a chance. I’ll be back.”
As she headed up to put her name in for the performance, waving hello to the emcee and several of the regular performers whom she often saw here week to week, June marveled at how much more confident she felt in just a few months of coming to perform.
The part of her that loved to sing was a part that she thought she’d left in her past. And she hadn’t realized how much she had felt as though most of the good things in life, excepting Benjamin, were in her past.
But she’d taken the leap, and it made life look a little bit brighter, as though she could expect things to go in her direction every now and again.
Challenges would come. She knew that all too well. But as she mounted the stage that evening to applause from the crowd and a shocking, ear-splitting whistle from Winnie, June felt the most herself she’d felt in a very long time.
And it felt really, really good.
She opened her mouth and began to sing.