Page 57 of The Pumpkin Spice Cafe
Noah’s smile grew. ‘Well, I’ve liked her since she kicked our butts at trivia. She’s fun. Seems game for anything.’
Memories of Jeanie running through the rain with him, of Jeanie’s mouth on his, of Jeanie quizzing him about snacks one minute and ready to catch a ghost the next, played through his mind. He thought of her chatting with every neighbor at the town meetings, of her becoming friends with his best friends. Had Lucy ever seemed settled here?
Would he ever stop comparing them?
He took another drink.
‘Look, man, if you’re worried about Jeanie ditching you, I don’t see it happening any time soon. And as someone who has made a habit of only dating women who are here for the summer, that is my expert opinion.’
Noah finished off his beer. ‘Anyway, this heart-to-heart has been fun! We should do it more often.’ He grinned at Logan.
‘Don’t count on it.’
Noah clapped him on the shoulder. ‘We’ll see.’
Logan sighed, and his friend’s laughter echoed down the hall as he showed himself out. ‘See you around,’ Noah yelled from the front door.
‘See ya.’
Logan stayed leaning against the counter thinking about their conversation long enough to watch the sun begin to dip in the sky. The sounds of the farm quieted; the distant hum of the tractor, the voices of his workers heading home, the bleating of disgruntled goats. He should get some dinner going so Nana wouldn’t have to cook after her class. His grandfather was probably still out in the field, always the last to head in. He liked the quiet after a long day.
By the time Logan moved, he’d come to only one conclusion. He had no idea what the hell he was doing, but he was pretty sure Jeanie was worth it.
He just hoped he hadn’t screwed things up completely.
ChapterTwenty-Two
Jeanie leafed through the papers that Barb Sanders, licensed realtor, had dropped off in person this morning. It was a list of comps for what other buildings in the area had sold for recently. Jeanie had thanked her and served her a large hazelnut latte with soy milk while insisting she really wasn’t interested in selling.
Barb had smiled her bright-white saleswoman smile and told Jeanie to just think about it.
So now Jeanie was here at her little kitchen table, which doubled as her desk, in her apartment above the café in question, thinking about it.
If she was being honest, the amount of money she could sell this building for, café plus upstairs apartment, was staggering. She could easily pay off the last of her student loans and buy herself a cute little house somewhere.Imagine that.
She was definitely imagining that.
But is that what she wanted? She still didn’t know. Plus, Aunt Dot had trusted her with the café. She couldn’t just up and sell it, could she? She couldn’t. Although, she had a feeling that if she told Dot she needed to sell so she could follow her bliss somewhere else, her aunt would have been all for it. Dot was very big on bliss-following. It was how she’d ended up with this café in the first place and why she was now cliff diving in the Caribbean.
It had been nearly a month since Jeanie had arrived in Dream Harbor, a bundle of nerves, running from her brush with mortality. Did she feel any different now? Had she become the calm café owner she wanted to be?
Casper jumped up onto the table and plopped down on the pile of papers, like it was a little bed laid out just for him.
‘I was looking at those,’ Jeanie told him. He stared at her with big round eyes. She scratched between his ears, savoring his contended purrs. ‘It’s okay. I’m not going to sell, anyway.’ And somehow just saying it out loud to her cat made it true.
She wasn’t going to sell. She didn’t want that. Shelikedrunning the café. Even though she still hadn’t solved the mystery of who was messing with her. And even though running her own business was just as stressful, if not more so, than being Marvin’s assistant. At least now all her hard work was for her. For her dream. For her life. She wasn’t ready to give up on that yet.
Whether or not it had made her a whole new person, she wasn’t sure. But she did know that she’d made more friends this month than she had for the past seven years in her old life. She’d started reading again, she’d committed to more trivia nights –and she’d even signed up for Annie’s beginner baker’s class. She had alife.
Never mind her very life-affirming if not totally confusing feelings for the local sexy farmer. That was something she’d been trying and failing to untangle all week.
Her phone buzzed on the table, and she swiped to answer her brother’s call.
‘Are you already in your pajamas?’ he asked, his face filling the screen. A dog howled somewhere in the background.
‘I had a long day.’ Jeanie glanced out the window. Already dark even though it was barely six o’clock. The wind whipped the nearly bare branches of the tree out front against her window. It was hibernating season. Pajamas were perfectly appropriate. Maybe she should have waited until spring to start over. Fall was a strange time for a reinvention. Fall was better for ... snuggling and eating food covered in gravy.
‘Did you solve the mystery yet?’
