Page 27 of Unlocking Melodies

She spread the ledgers out, updating me on regular customers and upcoming events. The whole diner seemed to operate around our table like we were the center of some complex social orbit - Sarah appearing with fresh coffee before we could ask, patrons stopping by with quick greetings, even the group of teenagers in the corner showing unexpected respect.

“Marcus finally proposed to Kelly,” Nina was saying. “You called that one months ago. And the Thomson twins want to have their graduation party at the bar, which you usually handle but I told them-“

Movement outside the window caught my eye. Ethan walked past, his perfect suit at odds with the casual small-town scene. Our eyes met through the glass, and something in my chest did that weird flippy thing again. We both looked away quickly, but not before I caught the flash of something in his expression.

Nina and Liam did that silent communication thing they were so good at - a whole conversation in glances that I couldn't begin to interpret.

“The twins can wait,” Nina said smoothly, but her eyes were still on me. “No rush on any decisions.”

“Right,” I muttered, still feeling the phantom weight of green eyes. “No rush on anything.”

“Though speaking of decisions,” Sarah appeared with pie we definitely hadn't ordered, “you might want to decide if you're ready to hear about The Incident.”

“What incident?”

“THE Incident,” everyone at the table said in unison.

“With the bass guitar,” Sarah added.

“And the pickle-flavored vodka,” Nina nodded.

“And the mechanical bull,” Liam grinned.

I looked between them, trying to figure out if they were messing with me. “Are you all just making stuff up now?”

“You wish we were,” Nina patted my hand. “You wish we were.”

The diner hummed with lunchtime energy, stories and lives intersecting in ways I was only beginning to understand. Past Jimmy had been part of this tapestry - hosting events, solving problems, apparently creating chaos with musical instruments and questionable alcohol choices.

And somehow, in the middle of it all, there was Ethan, who kept looking at me like I was a puzzle he couldn't solve. Which was ironic, considering I couldn't even solve the puzzle of myself.

“You've got that look,” Liam observed.

“What look?”

“The 'trying to remember everything at once' look.” He stole a bite of my pie. “Stop pushing so hard. Memory's like music - you can't force it. You have to let it flow.”

“That's very zen of you,” I said dryly.

“I learned it from you, actually.” He grinned at my surprise. “See? Some things stick around, even when you can't remember teaching them.”

Evening at the ranch painted everything in soft gold, the kind of light that made even feed bins look Instagram-worthy. I'd just finished attempting to make sense of my chicken-scratch notes from the morning's bookkeeping when Caleb knocked on the guest house door.

“Delivery,” he announced, hefting a sleek box with the Cole Innovations logo. “Though maybe 'gift' is more accurate.”

Inside was state-of-the-art accounting software, the kind that probably cost more than my theoretical car. A simple note accompanied it: “To help with the bookkeeping. -E.C.”

The gesture should have felt presumptuous - who just sends thousand-dollar software to someone they barely know? But instead, it felt...

“Familiar,” Liam said from behind me, making me jump. He was looking at the note with an expression I couldn't read. “You know, before... everything, you used to say that sometimes the universe has a weird way of giving people second chances.”

“Did I also say cryptic things about the universe often?”

His laugh was soft but held something heavy. “Only when it mattered.”

Chapter 6

Culture Shock

---