Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
Eleanor packed her cooler bag with the casserole dish full of enchiladas she’d made for Miriam, then added a bowl of fruit salad atop it. She assessed the balance of the bag, then decided that, yes, she could add the homemade guacamole without making the whole thing too heavy to carry.
She fretted that the food would spill during the entire short drive to Miriam’s and felt more than pleased with herself when she arrived without incident.
Eleanor was not nearly as pleased as Miriam, however, who met her at the door with a beaming grin.
“Oh, Eleanor,” she said, her voice sounding, to Eleanor’s relief, much stronger than it had a few days ago when Eleanor had last stopped by. “You are too sweet. You have to stop bringing me food, though. Between you and the rest of the book club, I haven’t set foot in my kitchen in weeks!”
“That’s the point,” Eleanor said, pressing a kiss to her friend’s cheek, which also felt less heated and papery than it had during their previous meeting. “We want you to rest.”
When Miriam had first come down with a cough a few weeks prior, the older woman had insisted that it was just the usual kind of winter sniffles that everyone got as February dragged into March and people grew so weary of the cold that their immune systems just gave up for a week or so.
Miriam’s friends had argued that this was not an actual medical diagnosis and that she, for all her talents, was not an actual medical doctor, and had nagged her until she’d made an appointment.
Which was for the best, because Miriam had been suffering from pneumonia.
Her cough got worse before it got better, but fortunately the older lady hadn’t needed to go to the hospital at any point. Her friends had cared diligently for her, which Miriam had grudgingly accepted.
She’d reminded everyone incessantly, however, that this didn’t mean that she was old. Or feeble.
Nobody would dare question that, but that didn’t mean they weren’t concerned.
“I have already rested,” Miriam complained, although she did dutifully report to the armchair where she’d spent most of her time as she recuperated, accompanied by the stack of books that Eleanor made sure to keep replenished. “If I rest any more, I’m going to ossify.”
“At least nobody can criticize your vocabulary,” Eleanor said with a wink.
“And nobody ever better try,” Miriam retorted, shaking her fist. She was smiling, though.
Eleanor tucked the food into the fridge, which still had some leftovers that Eleanor recognized as coming from Diana. The book club group had made a meal train plan for Miriam, since they knew that, given the slightest provocation, she would start overexerting herself.
“You seem like your mood is kicking up,” Eleanor teased as she came back into the living room with a couple of fresh mugs of tea. “Last time I was here, I worried you were going to bonk me over the head and steal my car for a getaway.”
“I thought about it,” Miriam joked, “but you’re lucky that I love you so much. Also, I suspect it would cause friction in the book club if I took out its founding member, and I do miss coming to book club so very much. Too bad it’s full of a bunch of tyrants that care about my health.”
“Oh, yes, we’re just terrible,” Eleanor said with a wink.
“The worst,” Miriam agreed, laughing.
Eleanor blew her a kiss.
“I have had some good news lately,” Miriam admitted. “My granddaughter, Hope, is coming to visit me.”
Eleanor lit up at this news. She hadn’t met Hope, but Miriam talked about her endlessly, as well as her other granddaughter, Felicity.
Besides, Eleanor knew how exciting it was to get a visit from one of your young family members; she had recently enjoyed a visit from her son, Jeremy, while he was on a break from college, and she’d been walking on clouds for weeks over it.
“That’s wonderful,” Eleanor said, meaning it.
Miriam’s smile lit her up.
“It is,” she agreed. “I mean, the poor dear did find out that the restaurant where she works is closing down, and she did love that job, so it’s not all good news for her. But she’s going to come here while she works out her next steps.”
“That sounds like it’s good for both of you,” Eleanor observed.
“It is, even if it’s very clearly a ploy to come take care of me,” Miriam said.
She frowned like she didn’t approve of this in the least, but there was something pleased in her expression.
Eleanor pretended she didn’t notice. It was always lovely to have proof that someone you cared for cared in return, even if you were as stubborn as Miriam Landers could be when it came to proving her independence.
“Wow, it sounds like Hope is just as terrible as us book club girls, huh?” she joked.
Miriam gave up the front of disapproval and beamed again.
“Yes, I am just cursed to be surrounded by kind, loving, wonderful people.”
“It’s a burden,” Eleanor said with a laugh.
Over tea, Eleanor caught Miriam up on the latest discussion at the weekly book club meetings, and promised to come back in a few days with another meal and some time to chat.
“I’m hoping I should be back at another meeting or two,” Miriam said. “I’ve got another checkup this week and I really am feeling much better.”
“Fingers crossed!” Eleanor called as she waved her farewell.
As Eleanor headed back to her car, she encountered Jared Novak heading down the street.
She didn’t know the man all that well, aside from the way that she knew most of the people who lived in town at this point, but she offered him a friendly, neighborly wave and a hello, thinking happily about how much she loved living in Magnolia Shore.
She had lived in Indianapolis for decades, and there, she hadn’t been able to walk down any random street and run into at least a few people she knew. Here, it was guaranteed.
“Jared, hi!” she said.
He blinked, apparently lost in thought, then smiled his greeting.
“Eleanor. Nice to see you. How have you been?”
“Oh, can’t complain,” she said. “We missed you at the last SBOA meeting, though!”
The Small Business Owners’ Association, or SBOA to its members, was an informal group of local business owners who went out for coffee or drinks about once a month to share tips and tricks, to seek advice from one another, and to complain about the strange struggles that often came with operating a small business.
Eleanor found the group to be a wonderful resource, particularly as she was still in her first year of owning Magnolia Shore’s very first independent bookstore.
It was astonishing to think how much her life had changed in just over a year.
Before she’d come to Magnolia Shore, she’d been in a marriage in decline…
but she had failed to recognize the signs.
Although she didn’t necessarily thank her ex-husband for the way he’d broken the news about wanting a divorce, which he’d done on their twentieth anniversary, she was nevertheless grateful for the fact that he’d had the courage and wisdom to see what she hadn’t.
Because, as shocking as that divorce had been, her life was ever so much better now.
She’d moved to Magnolia Shore on a whim only to realize that the house she’d purchased with her divorce settlement was much too large for one woman living alone. The excess space, combined with her lifelong love of books, had sparked her desire to open a bookstore.
She never would have managed to make that dream into a reality without the help of her new friends, which had come together over a book club, and the local hardware store owner, Garrett Wilder.
They’d had a rough start, she and Garrett, but the sparks of their rivalry had kindled into a flame of attraction, and now they were dating and very happily in love.
“Oh, yeah,” Jared said, twisting his mouth to the side ruefully. “I was at the restaurant that night, as ever.” He chuckled slightly. “Which is where I’m also headed now.”
Eleanor gave him a nod of commiseration. She knew how easily busy periods in business could take over, and she had a sense that bookstores were rather less chaotic than restaurants.
“We would all starve without you,” she said fondly, “but you also need to take time for yourself!”
This was a common refrain at their SBOA meetings, and they all took turns either giving or ignoring the advice.
Apparently, today was Jared’s day to be on team ignore.
“Ah, I’m not complaining,” he said with a laugh. “The hours I work here are actually a great deal more reasonable than the ones I used to work in city kitchens.”
“That… is a very distressing thought, Jared!” Eleanor told him chidingly. The chef was perhaps only a decade younger than her, but she spoke with a maternal sort of tone.
He shrugged again, looking unbothered.
“At least here, I’m part of a community,” he said. “And that’s something that is completely worth building, in my opinion.”
“Well, I’m not going to argue with you about that,” Eleanor agreed. “But just consider taking that break, will you?”
“I’ll take it under advisement,” he promised.
Jared waved as he continued walking toward Riverstone Kitchen, and Eleanor returned to her car and the demands of her own small business.
When she got back to the bookstore, she found her brother, Shane Ridley, and his girlfriend, Winnie Burnett, browsing the shelves. Shane was holding a stack of books in his arms.
“Hey, you two,” Eleanor greeted. “Shane, that’s an awful lot of reading for you.”
Although her brother was plenty clever, particularly when it came to anything having to do with computers and tech, Shane had never been much of a reader, especially not when compared to his book-loving older sister.
He’d gotten sucked into a few series when he had come to visit Eleanor after dealing with some burnout thanks to his fast-paced career in San Francisco’s tech hub, but Eleanor hadn’t managed to convert him to being a full book person yet.
She had, however, managed to convince him to stay in Magnolia Shore full time.