Page 5 of Windward Hearts

No granddaughter of Miriam Landers would ever be caught dead saying that books didn’t help in almost any situation, so she reluctantly took the self-help volume and flipped through it, although she still felt too frazzled to actually take in anything on the pages.

“I haven’t exactly thought that far yet,” she admitted. And then, before her sister could say more, she added, “Not because I’m sulking. I’m just still in my pajamas because I work nights.”

“I bet you know what you don’t want, though,” Felicity said in a sing-song voice.

Ugh. Sisters. Always thinking they knew everything. And it was even more annoying when they were right.

“Okay, fine,” Hope admitted, because, really, what was the point of arguing with Felicity? “I do know that I don’t want to just jump mindlessly into another restaurant job. I loved working at Sharp’s, but it wasn’t just because of the work. I had a whole community there. I had people. And…”

Hope trailed off. Felicity waited patiently while Hope thought through her words.

“I liked feeling like what I did mattered,” she concluded. “People don’t usually think about waiting tables in that kind of way, but I liked being a part of people’s best evenings, you know? I was there for their anniversaries, their birthdays. Heck, we got a proposal in there at least once a month. And I wasn’t important to those nights, not really, but I did get to help make sure everything went right. And so I got to go home every day feeling like I had done something good.”

“I get that,” Felicity said. “You’ve always been good at that, at being the ‘behind the scenes’ person who gets stuff done. And it never seemed to bother you that, when you do your job well, people don’t notice all the hard work you put in.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Hope said, “but it makes me feel like a magical little elf from a fairy tale, which I think we can all admit is awesome.”

“It’s not a bad thing at all,” Felicity protested. “I just don’t want your desire to help people stop you from taking the time that you need to figure out what you want. Maybe that’s what I’m saying with the book. I’m not rushing you. It’s actually the opposite. I want you to slow down and take a minute to really think it through.”

“Did you try to lull me into a false sense of complacency with muffins to make me listen to your sisterly advice?” Hope asked.

“Yes,” Felicity said.

Hope took a large bite. “It’s a fair trade,” she said after she chewed and swallowed. “You got anything else for me?”

Felicity beamed. “I do, actually.” She gave Hope a serious look. “I think you should go stay with Miriam.”

For the second time in as many days, Hope found herself blinking across the table at someone in mute miscomprehension.

“What?” she asked.

“Well, I called her the other day, just to say hi, and did you know that she just had pneumonia?”

Hope nearly choked on the sip of coffee she’d just taken.

“What?” she sputtered.

Felicity nodded grimly. “Yeah, she’s fine, she’s recovering, and I guess she didn’t tell us because she didn’t want us to worry.”

Hope rubbed her forehead. That was an absolutely classic Miriam Landers move. She was fiercely independent, and she often feared her family viewing her as feeble. This was absurd, in Hope’s opinion, as nobody could ever look at Miriam and take away that she was anything but robust and vigorous.

Hope’s dad did tend to get a little… twitchy whenever somebody in the family was sick though. Last winter, Hope’s mom had suffered from an extremely mild case of the flu, and it had been all Hope and Felicity could do to talk their father down from wanting to take his wife to the emergency room. He would not have reacted well to the news that his mother had caught pneumonia, even if it was a mild case.

“Okay, well, that’s frustrating,” Hope said. “I’m glad she’s okay, though.”

“Yeah, she’s the same unstoppable Mimi,” Felicity said fondly. “But I was thinking that, since you need a minute to regroup, and she could use a little bit of help at the moment…”

Felicity held her hands up to either side, and then brought them together.

“Match made in heaven and all that,” she concluded.

For a moment, Hope’s sleep-deprived brain didn’t put together what her sister was suggesting. Then she realized.

“Oh!” she said, more shocked than put off. “You think I should… move to Magnolia Shore?”

“It doesn’t have to be a permanent move,” Felicity corrected hastily. “I just know that you’re like me, which means that you’re worrying about her all alone in her house while she’s recovering.”

“Very true,” Hope admitted.