Chapter 19
Lucy
Lucy had checked the Little Free Library quickly before she’d gone down to the beach, and she hadn’t seen the letter, so she assumed he’d taken it. She’d gone straight to the Little Free Library from the beach, and checked it again, but there was nothing there from Gatsby’s Ghost.
Maybe he had seen it but something terrible had happened. Maybe he’d been in an accident?
Sighing as she let herself into the bookstore the following morning, Lucy locked the door behind her and plopped her purse on the worn wooden counter that had been handmade by Annie’s grandfather. She leaned down to pet Alice, who was circling around her ankles. When she started leading Lucy to the back of the store by walking a few feet and then turning around to meow, Lucy knew she was ready for breakfast.
She was feeding the cats in the back of the store when she heard someone knocking on the front door. It was still nearly an hour until she opened, so she figured it was someone she knew. Her breath caught for a moment as Logan popped into her mind, his green eyes sparkling. Maybe he’d come to check on her this morning. Just as quickly as hope had surfaced, it faded. It would be a pity visit because she’d been stood up, and she didn’t want his pity.
She was relieved when she rounded the corner and spotted Taylor with her hands up against the glass door, peeking inside.
“Morning!” Taylor gave her a quick hug as she came in, then headed for one of the blue armchairs by the front window. “Sorry I didn’t answer your call last night. Jack and I went to the movies.”
“What’d you see?”
“Some stupid sea monster movie. It was terrible.” She rolled her eyes. “Tell me about last night! Was he handsome? Are you in love?” She leaned forward, grinning as she waited for details.
Taylor was the only person Lucy had dared tell about her attempt to meet Gatsby’s Ghost.
“Quite the opposite.” Lucy fell into the other armchair. “He never showed up.”
Taylor’s mouth fell open. “What? Did he leave a note? Did something happen?”
Lucy shook her head. “Nope, no note. I checked again this morning. I waited for half an hour, and there was no sign of him. I guess he could have seen me and changed his mind and left.” Lucy shrugged.
“You mean because he was so intimidated to find out his pen pal is a hottie?” Taylor wiggled her eyebrows at Lucy.
Lucy frowned. “No. You know that’s not what I meant.”
“Stop it. You’re beautiful. I can’t believe he just left you sitting there all alone.”
“Well”—Lucy paused—“I wasn’t exactly alone. Logan walked by while I was sitting there.”
Taylor groaned. “I still can’t believe what he did to poor Mildred and Marty.” Taylor had missed the community forum because she was doing hair and makeup for a bride-to-be with an evening engagement photo shoot.
“He actually cleared that up. Turns out Mildred was the one keeping it from Marty. It wasn’t really Logan’s fault.”
“I see.” Taylor raised an eyebrow. “So now we’re Team Logan again?”
Taylor still hadn’t met Logan, so her opinions of him were informed entirely by what Lucy had told her, which included both his generosity in helping her buy the building, but also the way he seemed to be trying to manipulate everyone into doing things his way.
“No, we were never Team Logan.” Lucy shook her head, trying to dislodge the voice reminding her how kind he’d been the night before and what he’d shared about his past. “We just need to get along until we come up with a viable plan for the waterfront, and then we can wave goodbye and let him go mess with some other town.”
“Are you going to let him finish helping you with the building?”
“I don’t know. I jumped to conclusions about the whole Waterway Café thing. I shouldn’t pretend to know more about what Mildred and Marty need than they do. I’m just going to stay out of the way unless they ask me for help. So I’d probably need to apologize to Logan if I’m going to ask him to keep helping me. And, man, I hate that because I know how much he’ll love it.”
“I would say Jack could help you, but he’s so busy with the renovation at the hotel I barely even get to see him. Our hiking trip was supposed to be a little quality time together in the midst of all the chaos, but we didn’t even get that.”
Lucy bit her lip. “Do you think he’ll get a new assignment once the renovation is over?” It was something she’d been too scared to ask because she was afraid she wouldn’t like the answer.
Taylor sighed, settling back farther into her chair. “Probably. His regional manager has been going on and on about what a great job he’s done reimagining the place while staying true to its character. He already asked him to go to Nashville to look at one of their other properties and give his thoughts on what they might be able to do there.”
“Would you go with him? If he asked?” Lucy stared at the floor, focusing on a swirling knot in the wood. What would she do if her closest friend and confidante left her here all alone? Sure, she had Pete and Pam and the others, but they were more like stand-in parents than the kind of best friend you share secrets with over wine and sappy Hallmark movies.
“I don’t know. Maybe?” Taylor shrugged. “I already told him we’d have to at least be engaged. I’m not uprooting my life for a boyfriend.”
Lucy could feel the hot tears stinging her eyes. Even her best friend was going to leave her. What would she do without Taylor on Heron Isle?
Taylor reached a hand toward her, opening and closing it to indicate she wanted to hold Lucy’s hand.
“Hey, don’t get upset. We’re talking hypotheticals here. We haven’t gone ring shopping or anything. And who knows when it would even happen. He’s still in the middle of the renovation here. And even if I did move, we’ve got texting, emails, phone calls, even airplanes to take us back and forth to see each other. You’ll always be my best friend, no matter my address.”
Lucy half-heartedly squeezed Taylor’s hand. She couldn’t help feeling that, eventually, everyone left her. A part of her was glad now that Gatsby’s Ghost hadn’t shown up. One less person who could leave.
After children’s story time, the bookstore quietened down for the morning. Lucy fished her notebook from her purse, opening it on the counter next to the computer so she could begin typing the synopsis of her new novel to send Leona. As she read through her outline, however, she felt something was missing. Sure, the two main characters were falling in love via the notes they were leaving in the Little Free Library, but there was no conflict. No real stakes.
She flipped to a blank page and let herself do a brain dump. Maybe she finds out he came to town to open a competing bookstore? No. She didn’t want it to be just like You’ve Got Mail. He could be a developer though. They were always coming in to ruin small towns, a fact she knew all too well. She wrote down a few more ideas, crossing out each one as she tested it against her current storyline.
After staring at her messy brainstorm for a few minutes, she ripped the page from the notebook and crumpled it before tossing it in the waste basket. She couldn’t send this to Leona. It wasn’t good enough.
She looked around the store, and Debra Brannon’s Hydrangeas on Hill Street caught her eye. She walked across the creaking floorboards and grabbed a copy of the book. When she returned to the counter, she propped it up next to her for motivation. Debra was right. Lucy had been standing in her own way.
Authors often mined their lives for ideas, so she thought about the people she’d dated over the years and why they hadn’t worked out. There’d been a smattering of dates here and there with a few boys in high school, but nothing memorable. In college, she’d dated two different guys for about a year each, and although she’d said “I love you” to both of them, the relationships hadn’t been exceptional or unique, and she wasn’t sure she’d really known what love was. They’d been “safe,” as Taylor had called them.
There’d been dates in Ocala when she worked in the library there, but no one who stuck around for more than a few dinners. Then she moved back to Heron Isle and met Carter. She’d thought he was the great love story of her life. He’d made her feel beautiful and interesting, but in the end he’d loved his career more than her.
There had been no one since then. The original idea for the story had come from her relationship—or whatever it was—she’d been forming with Gatsby’s Ghost. Except she didn’t want her book to end with the heroine getting stood up.
She was still brainstorming when she heard the front door open and looked up to see Logan entering. His now familiar scent wafted in with him and when he smiled she couldn’t help but smile back. Although her smile was more from embarrassment as she remembered the night before. Hopefully he wasn’t there to check on her, as if she were some wounded animal in need of tending.
He nodded. “Afternoon.”
“Afternoon to you too.” She put her pen down on the counter.
“Working on your business plan?” He pointed to the notebook.
Flustered, she closed it. “Oh, no. Just a little personal project.”
He raised an eyebrow but didn’t pry. “I was just on my way down to the coffee shop and thought I’d stop in. I know we’ve had our differences lately, but I’d still like to help you, if you’ll let me.”
She shifted from one foot to the other, avoiding his eyes. After taking a deep breath, she said the words she’d been dreading but knew she had to say to him. “I’m sorry about the whole Marty and Mildred thing and for misjudging your intentions. That wasn’t fair of me.”
Lucy expected him to gloat, but he shrugged. “I understand. Water under the bridge. Now, let’s get down to business. I found some good charts on my phone earlier for creating a maintenance timeline for a building like this. May I?” He pointed at the computer on the desk.
“Sure. Go for it. You said you were headed to the coffee shop. Want some? I don’t have anything fancy. Just plain old coffee.”
“Caffeine is caffeine. I’ll take it.”
He moved to the end of the counter and waited for her to step out. Their arms brushed as he stepped to go behind the counter a beat too soon, and she felt the same electric shock she’d felt when they’d first touched travel through her body. The tingling stayed in her chest all the way into the back room. It really had been too long since she’d been on a date if Logan was making her insides stir.
His professional ambitions aside, though, there was no denying he was heartbreakingly handsome. If a woman was into chiseled jawlines and dazzling green eyes, of course. Taking deep breaths, she busied herself with getting the coffee started, then poured the cats more water and reorganized a shelf while the coffee maker did its work—anything to keep her hormones from overtaking her brain. Logan Lancaster was off limits.
As she walked back to the front counter with two steaming mugs, Logan turned to look at her with a slight smile playing on his lips, his eyes squinting ever so slightly as if he was trying to figure something out.
“What? You’re amazed I have the technology to make a cup of coffee?”
Logan pointed at the screen. “Are you writing a book?”
She was so surprised she nearly dropped the coffees as she tripped on the toe of her shoe. She’d completely forgotten she’d left her email to Leona on the screen. First, he’d been witness to her being stood up. Now he was going to discover her previous failures as an author. She tried to recover as she set both mugs on the counter.
“No, it’s nothing. I thought you were finding me a business plan or something.”
“I was, but this was up on the screen. Just natural curiosity. Are you working on your first book or have you been writing—what is it my sister calls them—bodice-rippers under a pen name no one knows about?” He was grinning ear-to-ear like a Cheshire cat.
“This would be my first.” It was the truth. It could be her first to actually be published. No need to tell him she’d already written two that had tanked.
She reached across him to grab the mouse so she could close the email. He made no effort to move, and as her arm bumped up against him she could feel his strong chest, immediately starting to picture him with his shirt off.
After successfully closing the email, she stepped away to create some distance so he wouldn’t hear her heart pounding.
“I didn’t know you were a writer,” he said.
“I’m not. Really, it’s nothing.”
“What’s it about?”
“I’m still working on it.” Her voice was quiet now. “I’m supposed to be sending my agent a synopsis, but it’s not ready yet.”
“You have a literary agent?” Logan’s voice rose an octave, excitement permeating his features. “Lucy, that’s incredible. I’ve heard getting an agent is difficult. You must be a good writer then.”
For the first time in a long time when it came to her writing, she felt a sense of pride welling in her chest. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to tell him.
“I had a book deal once. Almost got published.” It was the first time she’d told anyone other than the author in the store recently about her agent or her publishing deal in nearly two years. Carter had known, but he’d never encouraged her writing. If she was being honest, he’d always been a little more interested in where his career might take them than where hers might.
“What do you mean you ‘almost got published’? If you don’t mind me asking.”
Just a few days ago, Lucy would have immediately put up walls if someone had asked her that question, Logan being top of the list. But just like with Debra, the story started to spill out. She told him how excited she’d been when she landed her deal, how her friends at the library had taken her out to celebrate, how they’d picked out exactly where on the shelf her book would live, and then about the pitying looks and whispers when her publisher had gone bankrupt and her deal had died. She even told him about the second book and how Leona had shopped it around to no avail.
“I’m sorry, Lucy. That must have been really hard. I think it’s incredibly brave that you’re writing again.”
“Brave? Or stupid? Most days I think it’s the latter. I haven’t written anything in a long time. It wasn’t until this author”—she picked up the book she’d left propped on the counter—“came in the store last week that I started writing again.” She told Logan about her conversation with Debra and how Debra had told her she was her own worst enemy.
“This Debra woman sounds like a smart lady. I think there are a lot of things you could do if you just believed in yourself as much as the rest of us do. Like buy this building.” He swept an arm around the room.
Lucy’s heart fluttered like the wings of the hummingbirds that stopped by the feeders off her back deck. Did Logan just say he believed in her? He barely knew her, and yet he was going out of his way to help her buy this building, even after the terrible things she’d said to him.
A little voice in her head asked if maybe Debra and Logan only believed in her because they didn’t really know her, didn’t know how often she’d failed or how many people had left her behind. Then she did something she’d never done before when that little voice appeared in her head. She pictured it as one of the tiny crabs that ran across the shoreline, and then she pictured a seagull swooping down to eat it in a single, swift bite.
“You know what,” Lucy said, feeling her chest visibly puff out with newfound pride. “Let’s do it. Let’s whip up a plan so I can buy this building.”
“That’s the spirit,” Logan said, raising a fist in the air to signal his victory over her protests. “Grab a piece of paper, and I’ll walk you through this timeline and what I have in mind for your reserve goals.”
Lucy opened the drawer to her right and pulled out a blue legal pad. When she turned back toward Logan and the computer monitor, his face had gone white, his brow creased.
“Are you okay? You look like you just saw a ghost.”
He cleared his throat, replacing the surprised look on his face with a tight smile. “I’ve just never seen a blue legal pad before.”
She shrugged. “The yellow ones always remind me of lawyers.” She crinkled her nose, thinking of the estate attorney she’d had to deal with after both Annie’s and her father’s passing.
“Hey, do you mind if I come back on Monday to help you with this?” He looked at his watch. “I forgot my sister and her kids will be here this afternoon, and I have to go grab them from the airport.” He was already moving past her and around the counter toward the door.
“So you did invite them? That’s great. Let me know if you need any suggestions on things to do while they’re here.”
“Yep, will do,” he said, already halfway out the door. “Have a good weekend, Lucy.”
She smiled, shaking her head as he hustled out. Maybe she’d had an impact on Logan Lancaster. Mr. Nothing But Business was going to try being a family man this weekend. Maybe Heron Isle could work its magic on him after all.