by Meg Easton
And, of course, that’s when Broden Smith walked in— a local two years older than Eli who had always been a fan of trying to make Eli feel worthless. Great.
Eli took a deep breath before walking up to the man. “Hello, Broden. Long time no see.”
“Eli! I heard you were back in town.” Broden clapped him on the back. “It’s good to see you, buddy. Hey, listen. It’s my five year anniversary on Friday, and I really want to take my wife out on the lake. Can you hook me up with a paddle boat?”
“I can’t. We’re booked solid on Friday.”
Broden let out a low growl. “Fine. How about a canoe then?”
“They’re gone, too. It’s one of the last good weekends on the lake before the end of the season, and we’ve got tons of extra tourists in town for Fall Market. There’s not much of anything left.”
Broden narrowed his eyes at Eli. “Are you just saying you won’t rent to me to get even for all the times I razzed you in high school? I mean grow up, Eli! Act like a man, and not like a high school drama queen.”
Heat rushed to Eli’s face and his hands clenched at his sides. He stepped up close to Broden and said slowly, so Broden couldn’t miss anything, “I’m saying I won’t rent to you because I have nothing to rent.”
“Come on, Eli. Figure something out! Find me something.”
“What are you expecting? That I’ll just let a tourist who booked a paddle boat months ago know that sorry, they can’t have their reservation any longer, and give it to you instead?”
“That would be awesome. Thanks.”
Eli ground his teeth as he reached for a reserve of patience— anything at all— but came up empty. His heart pounded, heat flushing through his body. “I am not going to jerk one of our customers around just because you didn’t think to get a reservation for your anniversary until two days before.”
Broden’s nostrils flared. He widened his stance and threw an arm out to the side, gesturing to the equipment in the room. “Your father would’ve given me the reservation, even if I’d come in the day of. He would’ve figured something out, and would’ve given me the local discount to boot! He wouldn’t have given me some sorry excuse by a sorry. Excuse. Of. A. Man.” Broden punctuated each word with a jab of his finger into Eli’s chest.
“Out.” Eli pointed to the door. “Get out, and I better not see your face in here again.”
Eli’s breathing was ragged as Broden stormed out the door, slamming it behind him. His heart was pounding so hard, he couldn’t focus on anything; he just stared in the general direction of the door, working to calm his breathing.
Until his father came out from behind a display of swim toys. Eli hadn’t even heard him come in. His dad rolled to him, his booted foot hanging off the end of a knee scooter, his expression fuming. “Is this how you treat all of my customers? By yelling at them and throwing them out of my store?”
“I don’t treat all of them like that,” Eli yelled back. “Just the ones who act like entitled jerks!”
His mom walked into the store just then, all smiles, until she saw Eli’s and his dad’s expressions.
“I don’t know how you’ve managed to keep your own business if this is how you deal with problems! I should’ve never trusted you to run things while I recovered. We should’ve never dragged you back.”
“That seems to be the common consensus around here.”
“Oh, honey,” Eli’s mom said. “You don’t mean that. And you, Robert,” she said, turning to his dad, “definitely don’t mean that.”
“No, I do,” his dad said. “I should come back to work right this—” He stepped down from the scooter but then winced in pain, bending over.
His mom put her arm around his dad, talking to him in a calm voice, reminding him about his blood pressure, adjusting his leg back onto the scooter while Eli took a few pacing steps, trying to work out the anger out of his system. Then she turned to Eli. “You’re doing a fine job, honey. Really. Please keep it up.” Then she directed his dad back out the front door.
Eli closed his eyes, taking a few slow breaths, and then glanced up at the clock. Five forty-nine. All the equipment was returned, and it was close enough to six that he didn’t feel the least bit guilty about closing early. He grabbed the keys from behind the counter, and had almost made it to the front door when Evia, an older woman who had even fluffier hair now than she had when he was a kid, walked in. Not his usual type of customer at all.
“Good evening, Evia,” he said, trying to show something that resembled a welcoming smile. Or just a smile in general. It was probably more of a grimace. “How can I help you?”
“Hello, Eli. Good to see you again. I’m actually here about Whitney.”
Despite his exhaustion, Eli stood up straighter in surprise.
“I saw the two of you holding hands on Main Street last night, just like when you were kids.”
He nodded, unsure of where Evia was going with this. Although he had run though the events of last night in his head a million times since then, he still hadn’t quite figured out what to think about Whitney’s reaction to the sculpture of Mr. Annesley, or what she had meant when she told him “I can’t do this.” He was torn between trying to give her space, and wanting to just talk with her to see what was wrong. To find out why reading the tribute out loud had made her so upset. If the day hadn’t been so busy, he knew that talking with her would’ve won out. It had been nearly twenty-four hours since he’d last seen her, and he was aching to be with her again. He wanted to make sure that she was okay. And after a day like today, being with her, knowing that she was okay, sounded like heaven.
“Now I know I’m just someone from town who don’t got no business butting myself into yours, but we love Whitney. You know we all love Whitney, right?”
Eli nodded.
“And we want what’s best for her. Now I’m not saying that you’re not what’s best for her. All I’m sayin’ is that last time you left without so much as a how-ya-doin’ phone call after, you might as well have reached in, pulled her heart out, threw it on the ground and stomped on it for all the harm it did that girl.”
A lump formed in Eli’s throat and heat prickled up his neck and on his face. If how badly he felt when he’d left before was any indication at all, he had a pretty good idea of how Whitney had felt. What was he doing, falling for her and hoping she felt the same all over again, when he had no intention of staying? What kind of person did that make him?
She reached out and held his hand in one of hers, patting his hand with her other hand. “I can see in your eyes you care about her and wouldn’t want nothin’ bad to happen when you left again. So I thought you should know what happened last time.”
“Thanks for letting me know,” he muttered, and sunk down with his back against the counter as Evia walked out the door.
Luckily, no one else walked through the door while Eli sat there, feeling every bit of everyone’s frustrations, fury, and worry pressing down on him. Eventually, he got up, locked the front door, grabbed the sandwich out of the employee fridge that he had hoped to eat six hours ago, and took a big bite out of it as he was heading out the back door to his car. The books could wait until tomorrow.
His phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket, saw that it was Ben, and answered before he even finished chewing. “Hey.” He swallowed. “Man, you don’t know how good it is to hear the voice of someone who doesn’t want to run me out of town.”
“Going that well, huh?”
Eli made a grunting, mumbled sound that probably couldn’t have been interpreted as actual words as he took another bite of the sandwich.
“Well, how about I share some good news then?”
“I’m listening,” Eli said through a mouthful, knowing that Ben wouldn’t judge him for letting his stomach take precedence on a day like today.
“Smithfield Corporate called.”
Eli swallowed and stopped walking, unable to do anything other than listen. “Smithfield? Pl
ease tell me you’re not joking right now.”
“Scout’s honor, I’m telling the absolute truth. How many months have we been schmoozing them, and then after we finally give up, they call us.”
“And? You’re killing me here, Ben.”
“And they want to meet to talk about sending us all twenty-five hundred employees from their corporate office, over a total of six weeks.”
“Wow. Wow! This is incredible.”
“If things go well, they may want to talk about us training the people at their district offices, too.”
Eli couldn’t believe this. He and Ben had been working so hard to grow their business. They’d made great progress, but they both knew they needed a big break— like training a Fortune 500 company. A success like that could mean they wouldn’t have to go to businesses and convince them to use TeamUp; the businesses would come to them. “Why do I feel like there’s a ‘but’ waiting in the wings?”
“Because they won’t meet with only me. They want us as a team, in their offices, this Friday.”
Eli ran his hand through his hair and leaned against his car. “I can’t. My dad won’t be cleared by the doctor to head back to work for at least two weeks— maybe quite a few more, and I’m kind of co-in charge of a thing on Saturday. Can they move it at all? Even next week would be better.”
“No can do. Their Chief Operations officer wants to get things rolling before he leaves for Africa for a month late Friday night. Is there any way to make it work? It could be a quick trip. You fly home Thursday night, we go to the meeting Friday morning, and you can hop back on a plane by Friday afternoon. And besides, it sounds like you could really use a break from Nestled Hollow.”
Eli paused. There had to be a way he could make this could work. “My dad’s so full of pent up energy and worry about how I’m running his company into the ground, by two days from now, he’d probably jump at the chance to take over. And even if my mom wouldn’t let him, I’m sure he’s at the point where he doesn’t need her to be there constantly. She ran the shop with him; she could probably run the place on her own even if he couldn’t. The assistant manager here is quite capable, too.”
“Great! One thing down. I’m getting on the website to buy you plane tickets as we speak. Now what about this thing you’re in charge of?”
“It’s the decorations for an event here called Fall Market. It’s kind of a big deal.”
“And can your ‘co-in charge’ person handle it without you?”
Eli thought about all the planning they’d done, and how much he wanted to put all of it together with Whitney. And how disappointed she would be if he said he had to leave. How disappointed he would be if he had to leave. But if he could get an early enough flight back on Friday, she wouldn’t have to do too much of it on her own. And she already said she could get practically the whole town to help.
“She could definitely handle it on her own.” He was pretty sure she could marshal enough people at the snap of her fingers to accomplish pretty much anything.
“I feel a ‘but’ waiting in the wings.” Eli heard a big clap sound come from the other end of the phone. “It’s her! It’s the girl you told me about, isn’t it. What was her name?”
“Whitney.”
“Oh, wow. I didn’t think you’d actually take me up on the ‘Come home broken hearted’ thing. This is big. Like Smithfield big.”
“Don’t get so excited. I don’t think it’s going to work out.” He pushed himself upright and turned and unlocked his car door, then opened it and tossed his half-eaten, wrapped sandwich on the passenger’s seat.
“Ahh. I see. You’ve hit the two week mark with her. She’s just like every other girl.”
“She’s not even in the same ballpark.”
“I can’t wait to hear all about her. If you can get things worked out for the fall decoration thing and with your parents, there’s an empty seat on a Delta flight out of Denver Thursday at seven twenty. That work?”
“Thursday at seven twenty on Delta. Gotcha.” Eli got into his car, shut the door, and turned the ignition. “I’ll go talk with my parents right now, and then I’ll talk with Whitney.”
“I picked a nice center seat for you. I’m pretty sure it’s right between a crying baby and a man who hasn’t showered in three weeks. Should be a grand time.”
Eli laughed, and after a day like today, it felt good. But it only lasted for a moment before his thoughts went back to Whitney. “And Ben? She is not like every other girl. She’s far too amazing for the likes of me.”
Chapter Seventeen
During the hours Whitney was at work by herself this morning, she got the sum total of zero things done. Now that Kara and Scott were there, each with articles for her to edit and questions for her to answer, and random people stopped in with stories of things that happened in town to report, her mind actually got moments to focus on things other than Eli and the look that was on his face when she’d run away from him last night.
But now, Scott and Kara were busy writing articles, and Whitney was staring at the layout on her computer screen once again, unable to make any decisions on what to put where, because her mind kept wandering.
Her phone rang, and she slid to answer the call. “Hi, Mom. Is everything okay?”
“Just because I don’t usually call you on a Tuesday afternoon doesn’t mean anything’s wrong.”
“Oh, then hi. How are you doing?”
“But it doesn’t mean that I didn’t call because I have news.”
“Oh, great! I could use some good news today.”
“Then you’ll be happy to hear that our local newspaper, the Willow Grove Weekly, is looking for someone to run the paper. I know the owners and after I chatted with them— lovely couple— we’ve decided that you’re perfect for the job.”
“Mom.”
“Now honey, listen. Every time you come visit, you say how much you love Willow Grove, and the town really needs someone like you to really bring the community together, and I know if you were running the paper, that’s exactly what would happen.”
“Mom.”
“You wouldn’t have to give up ownership of the Nestled Hollow Gazette. The Weekly wouldn’t need you here for a full two months, which is plenty of time for you to train someone to run the Gazette for you. Then you could just check on them every day via email, and fly back to Nestled Hollow once a month or so and see how it’s doing in person. Would you like me to set up an interview with the owners for you?”
“I love you, Mom.”
“Is that a yes?”
“It’s a ‘thanks for looking out for me.’ Come on, Mom, you know it’s a no. Nestled Hollow has my heart; it always has.” She loved her mom and Jackie and Jackie’s husband and her niece and nephew. She wished they never moved away. Nestled Hollow felt exactly like family, but she always wished she had actual blood family here, too.
Her mom sighed. “Well, it didn’t hurt to ask. Let me know if you change your mind.”
“I will,” she said, and after they told each other goodbye, she hung up the phone.
She reached out and picked up the swan that Eli had made her from the paper napkin at Keetch’s and turned it over and over. Last night had been rough. If Eli and she hadn’t just gone out for ice cream, it definitely would’ve been a curl-up-on-the-couch-with-Ben-and-Jerry’s night. Not that she had any ice cream in her freezer. Or food in her house in general, other than some breakfast bars, microwave popcorn, and half a quart of milk that was probably expired. She definitely needed to keep more food in her house. Maybe even spend more than thirty minutes of awake time there each day.
She had hoped that after a good night’s sleep, her emotions would’ve calmed down. That she wouldn’t be so freaked out about everything. But the truth was, she was pretty darn experienced at having people that she loved leave her. She knew exactly how it went, and definitely knew better than to get involved with Eli in the first place.
But at the same time, it w
as Eli. Could she really have expected herself not to see him at all? After twelve years of wanting to see him? She needed to find out where he was at and what his plans were. Because if his plans were to just stay here for the next two to four weeks then leave this town in the dust, she needed to wean her heart off him now, so it wouldn’t be so painful when he left. She knew exactly how much damage he could do to her heart, and she needed to do everything she could to protect herself now. What had she been thinking, opening her heart again when all signs pointed to things ending badly?
She looked at the clock in the corner of her computer screen. Five fifty-five. Treanor’s would be closing in just five minutes— now might be the perfect time to go to. She could slip in right at closing, and then they could chat afterward.
“Scott and Kara?” Both staff writers looked up as she grabbed her blazer and slipped her arms into the sleeves. “I’ve got to run an errand. If I don’t make it back before it’s time for you to leave, just email me your articles.”
They both nodded, and she walked out the door and headed down Main Street toward Treanor’s. When she got to the shop, though, the doors were already locked, and the lights were off. She headed down the alley between Treanor’s and the bakery, to see if Eli’s car was in the parking lot still. As she neared the end of the alley, though, she heard his voice, then a pause, then his voice again. He must be on the phone. She almost stepped out into the parking lot, but paused, deciding that he’d probably feel like he had to end his phone call if he saw her. She wasn’t in a hurry— she’d give him just a moment.
“My dad’s so full of pent up energy and worry about how I’m running his company into the ground, by two days from now, he’d probably jump at the chance to take over. And even if my mom wouldn’t let him, I’m sure he’s at the point where he doesn’t need her to be there constantly. She ran the shop with him; she could probably run the place on her own even if he couldn’t. The assistant manager here is quite capable, too.”