Page 7 of Big Package

Her expression tightened just enough for me to notice.

“Partly.”

I’d heard the rest. Everybody had. Her engagement had ended. Emmy came back to town to take over her mom’s gift shop and her parents retired to Florida. Big Wood wasn’t good at secrets. People didn’t mean harm most of the time. They talked because there wasn’t much else to do.

I wasn’t going to make her explain something she hadn’t offered.

She watched me for a second. “You can say it.”

“Say what?”

“That you heard about Kevin.”

“Hard not to.”

She snorted and picked up her coffee again. For the first time since she’d walked in, she went quiet. With both hands around her mug, she turned her gaze to the kitchen window, where the ice had started sliding down the glass in uneven lines.

“I thought I’d be gone by now,” she said.

I waited, sensing she was going to open up whether I wanted her to or not.

She let out a slow breath. “The shop was supposed to be something to keep me busy while I figured out what came next. Then somewhere between ordering Christmas inventory and arguing with suppliers about freight charges, I realized I actually like it.”

“Is that a problem?”

“Depends on the day.”

“Then stay.” It came out before I thought about it.

Her eyebrows lifted. “You really think it’s as simple as that?”

“Could be.”

“No, it couldn’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because six months ago I had a wedding date, deposits, a whole plan. Now I own a gift shop in the town I was convinced I’d outgrow when I was eighteen.”

I looked at her. “Maybe you were wrong at eighteen.”

She stared into her coffee, then shook her head. “You make everything sound so easy.”

“It usually is.”

“You live alone in the woods and avoid human interaction. I’m not sure you qualify as an expert on complicated.”

I looked around the room. It was quiet, peaceful, and mine. The business, the house, the land, and my routine made most days go exactly how I wanted. That had been the point.

“It works for me,” I said.

A gust hit the house hard enough to shake the branches outside. Ice scraped across the windows, louder now.

Emmy turned toward the sound. “How bad is this going to get?”

“The road drops hard past the bend and gets shade all day. Once it freezes, it stays that way.”

“And tomorrow?”