Springtime in Carolina by Michelle Major

Author:Michelle Major
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HQN Books
Published: 2022-01-06T21:03:05+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

JOSIE STOOD IN the Sunnyside Bakery kitchen the following morning as Mary Ellen stared at her in disbelief.

“You must have misunderstood him.”

“Stuart is well and truly over me,” Josie lamented, trying not to sound pathetic. “I waited too long. I was too scared or dumb to realize I had a wonderful man right in front of me. I took him for granted. I took advantage of his friendship, and now I have to move.”

“Move?” Mary Ellen dropped the rolling pin she was using to press out dough. “You’re talking nonsense. Stuart is talking nonsense. You should go out with that younger single dad. Make Stuart jealous.”

“I don’t want to play games.” Josie took a deep swig of coffee, her second cup of the morning. “And I’m not wasting time going out with a guy I don’t care about.”

“Maybe you could care a little,” Mary Ellen suggested with a grimace. “At least long enough to break the dry spell. Seven years is a long time, Josie-girl.” She gestured toward Josie’s lower body. “Is everything working okay? They don’t have a little blue pill for us ladies, but there are things—”

“It all works,” Josie said, choking slightly. “My body might not be as tight and toned as it once was, but things work. It’s been a solo job for a while, but that’s okay, right? Like Annie Lennox once said, sisters are doing it for themselves.”

“Did Annie have a man like Stuart available when she sang that?”

“I don’t know. She doesn’t live in Magnolia. That’s not the point of the song.”

“Honey, you might have frightened the poor man.”

“I frightened a man by telling him I want to date him? Horrible thought.”

“Or did you do it on purpose?” Mary Ellen picked up the rolling pin again and pointed it in Josie’s direction.

Josie frowned. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that sometimes when we’re scared, we mess up what would be good for us because it’s easier than taking a chance.”

“You think I’m doing that with Stuart?”

“You don’t want to lose him, but a real relationship is...” She sighed. “It’s a lot harder than the one-sided adoration that’s been going on for too long. You have to be in it. When was the last time you tried that hard?”

Regret rolled through Josie along with a healthy dose of frustration. “It wasn’t as if I expected to end up alone in my late forties. I wanted to get married and have a family. It just never happened. Eventually, I got used to it.”

“Because it was safer,” the older woman suggested.

Josie’s mom had died when she was in her late twenties, and she appreciated Mary Ellen’s sage advice, even if she didn’t always want to hear it.

“In some ways.”

“Safe only gets you so far.”

“But he said no. How is this still my problem when he said no?”

“He carried a torch for a long time. There’s also a certain safety in one-sided love. You both have to take risks. Are you going to give up

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