Page 18 of A Future in the Bay

“Well, if you need help moving furniture—or finding furniture—let us know. Moving can be a lot sometimes, I know.”

Gwen smiled at her, touched by this stranger’s consideration. “I have all my own furniture already, and the moving mencarried everything upstairs when they arrived with the van. But thank you—that’s a kind offer.”

“Of course! Got to help a new neighbor settle in. We’re all here for each other in Blueberry Bay. Let me write down my phone number for you—you can call me if you need anything.”

“Thank you,” Gwen murmured, privately thinking that she wouldn’t be calling Olivia for any reason, since she was used to solving all her problems on her own. She watched as Olivia reached into her purse, pulled out a small notebook, and scribbled her number down onto it using a pencil that she’d had tucked into her hair.

“There you are,” Olivia said, handing Gwen the piece of paper. “That’s for emergencies or non-emergencies, like if you want someone to help you navigate the grocery store or help you pick out flower pots. Things like that.” She grinned, and Gwen smiled back. “I should probably get going, and I don’t want to keep you either.”

“Thank you again for the lemon bars. That’s very thoughtful of you.”

“Of course! I look forward to seeing you around town. Have a good day!”

“You as well. Thank you again.”

Olivia waved as she stepped out of Gwen’s office. Gwen stood there for a moment, holding the Tupperware of lemon bars and not quite knowing what to do with herself. She opened the Tupperware and looked down at the bars, lost in thought. She smelled the sweet aroma of the baked goods, but she didn’t eat one yet.

Everyone is so nice here,she thought, biting her lip.But I—I can’t shake the feeling that I don’t belong here.

She closed the Tupperware lid again and set the bars down on the edge of her desk. She picked up her phone, checking fornew notifications, and her stomach flopped in disappointment when she saw that there weren’t any.

She wasn’t sure why she kept looking at her phone so often. She’d been used to getting texts from Ron regularly, but it wasn’t as though she wanted him to be texting her now. She didn’t want him to check in with her or try to find out where she’d gone.

She pressed her lips together, feeling the old familiar knot of frustration rise up in her chest when she thought about Ron. He’d found fault with how dedicated and organized she was—he was always criticizing the orderliness of her life, which was ridiculous. When he’d broken up with her, that was the reason he’d given for why he thought they were go longer going to work out—he’d said that she was too particular, too inflexible.

He benefitted from my hardworking attitude,she thought, looking out the window at the sunny day.

It looked warm outside, but she wondered if the brightness of the sunlight was deceptive, and it was really colder than it had been the day before. Life tended to be like that, she thought. You couldn’t trust appearances a lot of the time.

When she’d first met Ron, she’d fallen for him and thought they would do well together. At first, he’d talked a lot about how much he admired her accomplishments. Then it became clear that he wanted to take advantage of her—he barely ever worked, relying on her significantly higher income to keep him afloat financially. Then, in the end, he’d resented her for how hard she worked.

She shook her head, feeling another twist of frustration even though those problems were now in the past. He was the one who had thrown away a good thing—and in the end, she had to be glad that he’d made that choice, as foolish as it was. She knew they weren’t right for each other, and that it had needed to end when it did. Perhaps it should have ended much sooner than that—she couldn’t remember the last time she’d had any trulyloving feelings toward him. She knew that love was more than feelings, it was hard work and effort—but she was glad she’d escaped a relationship in which the other person wasn’t willing to put in that work.

She shook her head, feeling herself tense up the more she dwelt on the past. She took a deep breath, checking the time and noting that she only had three more minutes to study her next patient’s file before the appointment started.

She went back over to her computer and began to finish reading the file. Her mind moved quickly, and soon she’d managed to shake off the ghosts of the past.

There was no point in looking back, she thought as she stepped out of her office. All she could do was look forward, even though she wasn’t sure where her life was going.

CHAPTER SIX

Isaiah ran his fingers through his hair, taking a deep breath. He’d been out on the Little Clams playground ever since dawn, working steadily away at setting up the new playground equipment. Even though the morning was still cool, he was warm and sweaty from working hard for hours.

He walked over to his water bottle, deciding he’d earned a short break. He sat down on the bench on the edge of the playground, letting the cool breeze ruffle his hair. He gulped down half his water bottle in one go, savoring the refreshingly cold liquid. He sighed, rolling his shoulders back a little and taking another deep breath. He drank the rest of the water bottle more slowly, knowing he’d have to go back inside the school soon to refill it.

It was shaping up to be a beautiful day, he thought, looking up at the sky and smiling. It had been a cloudy dawn, but now the clouds were breaking apart and the sun was shining through. His heart felt light, and he felt tired in a good way. He knew he had many more hours of work left in him, and he was excited to get a lot done that day. So far, he was a little ahead of schedule for the renovations, and he wanted to keep it that way—otherwise, Olivia would get nervous, he thought to himself with a chuckle.

Cars were starting to arrive to Little Clams, and kids were hopping out of them and running toward the school, usually with a parent calling after them to walk instead or to be more careful. The kids were shouting to each other and laughing—they looked like a flock of brightly-colored birds hopping along the ground.

I’m so glad I get to spend the spring here,he thought to himself with a smile.This town is peaceful, but it’s never boring.

He grinned as he watched a group of kids huddled together, staring at the playground and whispering. One of them pointed toward Isaiah, and he waved at them. The kids squeaked and dashed into the school as if Isaiah was a monster who might suddenly bite.

Chuckling, he finished the last gulp of his water. He hadn’t had this much fun on a job in—well, maybe not ever. He generally enjoyed the projects he worked on, and he found his work of building things very fulfilling. In spite of that, in the past year or so, he’d started to feel that he needed a change. He’d begun to feel restless—and it wasn’t the work itself that he’d become disinterested in. It was as if he’d felt the rest of the world calling to him, calling him away from his hometown in North Carolina. He’d always been fond of the place where he grew up, but he’d been wanting to spread his wings a little, so to speak.

He whistled a little to himself as he stood up and started to walk toward the school, with the intention of refilling his water bottle. His mind continued to wander, jumping back and forth from the past to the future like a kid playing hopscotch. He’d always been optimistic about the future, but now he felt especially excited about it. He was in a place where he was open to wherever life might lead him, and he had a feeling that great things were in store.

As he was opening the back door of the school, he thought suddenly and unexpectedly of Gwen. Maybe he’d been unconsciously comparing his own optimistic attitude toward the future to her uptight, stressed demeanor.

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