Chapter 15
MAE
The Christmas carols had started up again as Jonah and I wandered back towards the market. Before the ceremony, we’d only sampled the food and drink, but I was keen to peruse the other side of it – the little market stalls.
I’d found the ceremony quite touching, and was glad that I’d taken a chance and let Jonah bring me here.
My first week on the job had been both interesting and terrifying.
I’d worked at the hospital in Chicago for so long that I’d forgotten just how daunting starting a new job could be.
When the other staff all knew each other, and you were the outsider.
They were friendly enough, but it was hard to fit in when they spent the time before our morning meetings laughing and reminiscing about evenings and events you hadn’t been present at.
I missed the friendships and camaraderie I had back in Chicago.
Knowing I had people to vent to when I’d had a rough day.
I could still call Holly, of course. But it wasn’t the same as debriefing over a drink when our shifts had finished.
I was lonely, and having doubts about the move.
I missed Holly and the rest of my friends and family back in the city like crazy.
So when Jonah first messaged, I’d been tempted to ignore him, planning on finishing my shift, grabbing a takeout and eating it in bed at the cottage, followed by doomscrolling or watching something mindless on the TV.
Anything to distract me from worrying that I’d made the biggest mistake of my life moving here.
But what had been a mistake, I now realized, was letting myself get into my own head.
How could I make friends if I never left the house apart from to go to work?
There had been hundreds of job adverts for hundreds of jobs in hundreds of other small towns all over the country.
But something had drawn me to this one, and after googling the town and researching it by the tag on social media, I’d felt something.
Some kind of connection. A gut instinct that this would be the place for me.
Now that I was here, I had to give it a chance.
‘Thanks for dragging me out of the house,’ I told Jonah as we headed back down the pier, walking shoulder to shoulder, occasionally bumping into each other lightly.
It took a long time. He knew a lot of people, and they all seemed to want to talk to him.
Most of them had heard about Gray’s stoke and wanted to check in on him.
Normally his parents would have been here at the ceremony, I worked out from listening in on the conversations.
They were big benefactors towards the light upkeep trust. His father had even been the one to turn and switch the light on a couple of times.
‘You didn’t take much dragging,’ he replied, smiling. ‘But you’re welcome. It’s been fun. And hey, you haven’t punched me this time, so that’s got to be a good sign.’
‘The night’s still young,’ I teased, and he laughed.
The music grew livelier, the hum of conversation and laughter all around us got louder.
It soaked into my soul like a salve. This, I realized.
This was what I didn’t even know I needed.
But my heart did. It led me here. Here, to where people connected.
People cared. The small-town, cozy vibe was more magical than these people, many of whom had maybe never even left the harbor for any great period of time, could realize.
Here, I didn’t feel lost. In the city, sometimes I felt like an ant in a giant’s world.
So many buildings, so many people. So many stories playing all around me behind closed doors. It was, at times, overwhelming.
My nose caught the scent of something and I stopped in my tracks, sniffing the air. ‘What is that smell?’
Jonah sniffed the air. ‘Oh that? That’s fry bread.’
I couldn’t hide my disappointment. ‘Fried bread? Doesn’t sound as good as it smells.’
‘Trust me…’ he put his hand on my elbow and led me towards a stall ‘…it’s better. Can I get a fry bread please, Willow,’ he said to the woman behind the stall.
‘You want it sweet or proper?’
‘Just butter and sea salt please.’
‘Here you go.’ She passed one over to Jonah, who took it and tore it in half, passing one half over to me. Steam curled up into the cold night air.
‘Careful, guys,’ she warned. ‘It’s just come out of the fryer so it’ll be hot.’
‘You always say that, but I’ve burned my tongue on your fry bread more times in my life than I can count,’ Jonah retorted. ‘And it’s been worth it every time.’
Willow shrugged. ‘You’ve never been one for listening to warnings, have you, Jonah.’
He winked at her. ‘And I have the scars to prove it.’
We moved out of the way, allowing the next lot of eager customers to get served. Jonah led the way to a large upright barrel with a tall standing heater beside it.
‘Go on,’ Jonah urged, his face eager like a child on Christmas morning watching their parent open the gift they’ve lovingly chosen for them. ‘Try it.’
‘You do realize you’ve built it into something big now, right?’
‘I have faith that it will live up to your expectations.’
‘I have zero expectations for a piece of fried bread.’
‘Then the only way is up, isn’t it. Taste it, taste it, taste it,’ he chanted.
‘Alright, calm down. Here goes nothing.’
I took a bite and chewed slowly, savoring the taste, keeping my expression neutral. It was crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside. The butter added an oily sweetness, cut through by the tanginess of the sea salt.
‘Well?’ Jonah asked impatiently.
I nodded slowly. ‘It’s good.’
It was his turn to look disappointed. ‘Just good?’
I couldn’t keep a straight face, dissolving into a look of ecstasy. ‘OK fine, it’s absolutely delicious. Happy?’
‘Very.’ He beamed and took a bite of his own piece, closing his eyes and moaning loudly, not seeming to care that we were in public. People nearby flicked amused glances our way.
‘Should I give you two some privacy?’ I asked.
He finished off the last of the bread. ‘It’s been my favorite thing to eat since I was a kid.’
‘I’m surprised you’re not the size of a house in that case,’ I remarked, licking butter off my fingers.
He laughed. ‘Not every day, obviously. Only on special occasions like this. Willow runs a little animal sanctuary outside of town, but the fry bread stall is her side hustle. In summer there’s a farmers’ market every Sunday morning.’
‘I can’t wait,’ I said, feeling excited for my future here for the first time in days. ‘I love the idea of buying fresh produce and having the time to actually cook instead of relying on microwave meals or vending machine fare.’
‘What do you like to cook?’
‘That’s what I’m looking forward to finding out,’ I admitted. ‘I know what I like to eat, so I’ll just start there and figure it out.’
‘You didn’t get a lot of time to cook back in the city, I take it.’
‘Not really. My mother is an excellent cook, who loves nothing more than feeding her family, so we weren’t the kind of teenagers who were encouraged to learn how to cook for ourselves, unfortunately.’
‘We?’
‘I have an older sister, Casey. She’s married to a nice guy named Alastair and they have a couple of boys, Logan and Blair.
Alastair owns a construction company. He’s done really well for himself.
My sister has been a stay-at-home mom for the past ten years, but she recently took on an administrator job and seems to be enjoying it.
She’s good at managing people and bossing them around, so it’s perfect for her. ’
‘Can she cook?’
‘Yeah. I guess being a mom she had no choice but to learn. Whereas I bounced from student flats to nursing school to shift work and never really had the need. Don’t get me wrong, I can cook some things.
My steak and fried potatoes, for example, can’t be beat.
I just don’t know how to cook anything creative.
Anything that has more than six ingredients.
I want to learn how to cook curries and chowders.
How to balance flavors. Do you know what I mean? ’
‘Sorry? Oh, I stopped listening after steak and fried potatoes. As far as I’m concerned you’ve got two out of three of the most important things nailed.’
‘What’s the third?’
He held up his hands. ‘Lobster, of course.’
‘Of course. How stupid of me.’
‘It’s OK. I can teach you how to cook lobster. And a killer Balinese chicken curry, if you like.’
I was pleasantly surprised. ‘You know how to cook a Balinese curry?’
‘I do. An ex-girlfriend and I holidayed there once.’ He pulled a face. ‘Well, she was more into lying around a pool and visiting the beauty spa, but I managed to explore the island and take a cooking class from a very small lady named Ni Luh.’
The idea of this large lobsterman from Pine Harbor, Maine, taking a cooking class halfway across the world from a tiny Indonesian lady made me smile.
‘Maybe I could cook it for you sometime,’ he said. ‘Then you can decide if it’s something you’d like to learn how to cook yourself.’
‘Maybe.’
He suddenly pushed off the barrel. ‘Dance?’
‘Sorry?’
‘Dance. It’s when people move their bodies in time to music.’ He demonstrated.
I rolled my eyes. ‘Yes, I know what dance is.’
He held out his hand. ‘Good, then you can keep me company while I tear up the dance floor.’
‘I’d prefer to watch.’
‘Where’s the fun in that?’
I stared over his shoulder at people dancing on the wooden boardwalk behind him, the snow piled up around the edges, the fairy lights strung overhead.
There were all sorts of people dancing. The elderly, young couples, teenagers, small children.
One guy had a walking stick but he was doing a pretty decent job of following the beat.
There was one thing they all had in common, and that was that they all looked like they were having the time of their lives.
Isn’t this the sort of thing you moved here for?
I reminded myself. This scene was exactly like something from one of the movies I loved.
And it was real. People actually did this in real life.
‘OK, go on then,’ I told Jonah, putting my hand in his.
‘Steady on with the enthusiasm.’ He grinned, closing his fingers around mine and twirling me out on to the makeshift dance space. I squealed when he spun me out, then spun me back in, landing against his chest, encircled within his arms.
Holy crap, I thought, coming up against the solid rock that was his body. He grinned down at me, his eyes sparkling and mischievous.