Hearing it provoked the painful twinge in her chest that she’d anticipated. Best to change the subject.
“So does Gretchen still live here?” she asked.
Manny shook his head. “No. She and Theo fell head over heels in love within her first five minutes on the job. The twoof them live together in one of the cabins on Stormy Weather Farm.”
Well…
That hadn’t broken her way.
Mercifully, she was distracted from thoughts of the farm and those cabins by a new voice.
“Ella Decker. As I live and breathe!” Edith called out from the large wraparound front porch of her gorgeous Victorian-style home.
“Mrs. Millholland,” Ella said, as she climbed the stairs.
As her nephew predicted, the older woman corrected her, the hands on her hips letting Ella knew she meant business when she said, “My name isEdith.”
She and Manny shared an amused look as Ella nodded.
“Edith,” she said, stepping into the woman’s outstretched arms, sinking into a shockingly strong hug for an eighty-two-year-old.
“Manny took good care of you?” Edith asked. “Got there on time?”
Manny scoffed, though he didn’t look as annoyed over his aunt checking up on his behavior as he pretended.
“Of course. He’s been perfectly wonderful.”
“Good.” Edith looked over her shoulder at Manny. “She’ll be staying in the green room. Carry her bag up for her?”
Manny followed them into the house, climbing the stairs as Edith led Ella to the kitchen. “I’ve just put the kettle on to make us some tea. How was your flight?”
“Uneventful,” Ella replied. “Just the way I like them.”
“Me too,” Edith agreed. “I can’t tell you how happy I am that you agreed to this visit. Gretchen and the girls were beside themselves when I told them Grace Decker would be attending our next book club meeting. We’ve been passing your novelsaround for two months solid. None of us can get enough of them.”
“I still can’t believe you found my books…or me,” she added, trying not to blush when she thought about the older woman reading all the open-bedroom-door, extremely racy scenes in her stories.
“When I find something I like, I have a tendency to go all in. Gretchen turned me on to romance books, so I headed to the library to check out their selection. Beverly Pauley—you remember her, right?”
“Absolutely.”
“Well, she had no less than a dozen of your titles on the shelves, though I suspect she didn’t realize you were the author. If she’d known, she would have told me and everyone else in town. Just between you and me, she was quite the gossipy goose. It’s why the two of us were such good friends. God, I miss that old bat more than I can say.”
Ella was touched to learn that, despite not realizing, Ms. Pauley had done what she’d said she would all those years ago. She’d put Ella’s books in her library.
Edith made them both a cup of tea once the kettle boiled, pouring a third when Manny came downstairs and joined them. They chatted amicably for an hour as Edith picked up where Manny had left off on the refresher of “where are they now,” Gracemont style.
The Storms featured quite heavily in the updates, as it appeared Edith was very close to the family. Hell, it sounded like half of Edith’s book club members were Storms. Something that had Ella reconsidering this trip across country.
When she’d agreed to come, she’d only been concerned about Maverick, but now it occurred to her that she was going to reconnect with lots of people from her past who might not behappy to see her…depending on how much Maverick had shared with them, following her family’s hasty departure from town.
She rubbed her forehead tiredly. She’d slept like shit last night, anticipating the trip, and then she’d had to get up at four a.m. this morning to drive to the airport.
“You look tired, dear,” Edith said astutely. “Why don’t you go lie down for a little while? You can unwind and unpack, and I’ll call you when dinner is ready. I’ve made meat loaf.”
Manny perked up. “You serving it with mashed potatoes and those tiny peas?”
Ella grinned, aware it probably wasn’t just thecoq au vinthat was causing the man to pack on weight.