Kira pulled up in front of the tiny florist shop on Main Street at half-past seven the next night. She’d left Bennett cozied up on her couch with the dogs and it had felt strange breaking the seal on the little world they’d created over the past week, but it felt important. If she was going to live here, it was about time she started to actually live here and not exclusively on her own property. Other than the evening Iris had dragged her out skating, she hadn’t left the farm for anything fun.
She was in the process of taking a deep breath because, for whatever reason, she was nervous – probably something to do with the fact that she’d never had to try and make friends before – when Jeanie tapped on her window and scared the ever-loving shit out of her.
‘Jesus,’ she gasped, grabbing her chest. She gave Jeanie a weak smile and a wave.
Jeanie waved back, all smiles, but there was something so genuine about her that Kira found herself smiling too.
‘Hi, Jeanie,’ she said, climbing out of her car into the cold night air.
‘You came!’
‘Of course. I invited you.’
Jeanie shrugged. ‘And it was such a nice invite, but I was planning to come anyway. You, though, you’re a bit of a wild card, so I’m glad you showed up.’ She smiled and took Kira’s arm, steering her toward the shop.
‘Iris is leading the class, you know that, of course. And Hazel’s coming, and I told the book club about it so hopefully some of them will come too, oh, do you read romance?’
‘I … uh…’ Did Edwin’s smutty letters count?
Jeanie waved away her hesitation. ‘You should join anyway. It’s fun and totally helped me when I moved to town.’
‘Why did you move here?’
‘We used to visit when we were kids. Bennett didn’t tell you?’
‘No, he didn’t mention that.’
‘Oh. Well, yeah, our aunt lives here, and I moved last year to run the café. But we always loved visiting her. I thought maybe the memories of being back here might convince Ben to stick around but…’ She trailed off with a shrug and pushed open the door to the shop, leaving the thought of Ben sticking around in Dream Harbor lingering in the air.
‘There they are!’ Iris beamed from behind a long rectangular table that was covered in pine boughs and ribbons.
‘Hi, Iris,’ Kira said, taking in the room. It was small, with a counter at the back for the register. A refrigerator in the corner was filled with roses and the room was lined with red and white poinsettias. The middle of the room had two long trestle tables for the class. Most of the chairs were already filled with people, some she recognized, some were new faces.
‘Come take a seat. We’ll get started soon.’ Iris gestured to a couple of empty chairs, but Jeanie was too busy saying hello to everyone to sit right away.
‘Kira, you remember Hazel,’ she said.
‘Of course. I never forget the people that saved my ass. Hi, Hazel.’
Hazel smiled. ‘That was a fun day. For us, anyway. I hope you’ve found some more reliable help.’
‘Well, my brother’s been spending an awful lot of time up at the farm since that snowstorm,’ Jeanie put in suggestively.
‘Oh?’ Hazel asked, her eyes lighting up. ‘Has Bennett been … helpful?’
God, this town loved gossip.
‘He’s … we’re just…’ Kira really needed to find a better way to say they were just having lots of amazing sex before Bennett had to return to his real life, but she hadn’t come up with anything yet, so she just stammered her way through it. ‘He’s really … great.’
Hazel smiled. ‘He seems really great.’
Jeanie and Hazel stared at her, waiting for her to go on, to explain what the hell was going on between her and Ben, but she had nothing more to say about that. How do you tell someone that their brother is a gentleman on the streets and a beast between the sheets? She was pretty confident there was no polite way to do it.
Finally, they relented and went back to introductions.
‘Anyway, this is my mom, Maureen,’ Hazel gestured to the woman next to her who was deep in conversation with another woman about the environmental sustainability of vegan meat substitutes.
‘Mom, this is Kira.’ Hazel tapped her mother on the shoulder. ‘The new Christmas-tree farm owner.’
Maureen tore herself away from the discussion of tofurky to say hello.
‘Nice to meet you, Kira.’ As she turned to her, Kira was subjected to the full glory of the Christmas sweater Maureen was wearing.
‘Are those your dogs?’ she asked.
Maureen glanced down like she had forgotten what she was wearing. ‘Oh, yes, those are my babies, Frieda and Diego.’ She beamed.
‘They are so cute!’
Hazel rolled her eyes and Maureen nudged her. ‘Don’t get jealous, Haze. You’re cute, too.’
‘You’re insane,’ Hazel said.
‘You made me the shirt!’ her mother protested, and Kira couldn’t help laughing. But it was okay, because Hazel was laughing now, too.
‘It was supposed to be a joke. I didn’t think you’d actually wear a sweater with your dogs’ faces on it.’
