Page 64 of The Pumpkin Spice Cafe
‘Uh...’ Jeanie fidgeted under Annie’s stare. ‘We ... well ... I think maybe he just held my hand in front of Isabel, so probably everyone will hear about that soon, and I really like him.’ She swallowed hard. ‘And he likes me. I’m pretty sure. And now I’m freaking out a little bit because I don’t think I’m very good at this.’
‘At what?’ Hazel asked, while Annie’s narrowed eyes did nothing to ease the tension in Jeanie’s gut.
‘At everything? Life, I think. Definitely dating. And you guys warned me, I know, and I just don’t want to mess things up and I don’t want the town to hate me if I do.’
She bit down on her lip and waited for their judgment or anger or support. She still wasn’t sure which way it would go.
‘No one’s going to hate you, Jeanie,’ Hazel said.
Jeanie glanced at Annie, whose mouth was set in a grim line. Not super convincing.
‘And besides, everyone is bad at life in one way or another,’ Hazel added.
Jeanie sighed. ‘It just used to feel like maybe I was good at it. I had my job, and I did it well and I just ... I don’t know, I did what I was supposed to do. And now, here ... it’s not as clear.’
‘There’s no ‘supposed to do’ Jeanie,’ Hazel said, her eyes earnest behind her glasses.
‘I know. That’s the problem, I guess. I feel a little lost.’
‘Look,’ Annie said, finally breaking her silence. ‘All you can do is the best you can do.’
Jeanie nodded slowly, trying to take that in. ‘Okaaay . . .’
Annie huffed. ‘Stop trying to do it exactly right. You and Logan are both adults. If you want to be together, then you should be.’
‘Really?’
‘Of course.’
‘You’re not, like, mad at me or something?’
Hazel glanced at Annie’s still rigid posture. ‘You are kinda giving that impression.’
Annie shook out her arms. ‘Sorry. It’s just, there’s a lot of history there. And when you first got here, we really didn’t know if you’d stick around, and Lucy treated Logan like he was a stop on her little self-exploration journey. I don’t want to see that happen again.’
‘Right.’ Jeanie swallowed hard, thinking about the stack of real-estate papers currently sitting on her table, and the fact that at least one of her employees was working on some kind of quiet vendetta. And how she had no idea what to do about any of it.
‘Anyway.’ Annie shrugged. ‘You should go for it. With Logan. It’ll work out or it won’t, but lucky for you the town can’t live without its caffeine, so people will have to forgive you pretty quickly.’ A smile finally crossed her face and Jeanie relaxed. A little bit.
Maybe they were right. She was overthinking this whole thing. And overthinking was not her style anymore. She blew out a long sigh. Right, time to go soak in all the fall goodness. She would figure out who was sabotaging her business tomorrow. Not today. Not on Fall Festival day!
Not when she had a sweet, sexy man waiting for her to judge some adorable Halloween costumes. Duty called.
‘Okay, thanks.’ She finished her donut. ‘I’m off to judge the costume contest.’
‘Oh, God, I forgot you got roped into that.’ Hazel’s face paled.
Annie grimaced. ‘Yeah, good luck.’
ChapterTwenty-Five
Jeanie had worked in the sometimes cut-throat, always intense, high-stakes finance world for seven years of her life, but nothing had prepared her for Dream Harbor’s Fall Festival costume contest.
Logan sat beside her at the judging table, his face set in an expression of grim determination.
She nudged his leg with hers. ‘Isn’t this supposed to be fun?’ she whispered. Although, at this point even she was beginning to doubt it.
‘According to who?’
