The Secret to Happiness by Suzanne Woods Fisher

Author:Suzanne Woods Fisher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary Romance;FIC042040;FIC027020;FIC027270
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2023-03-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter

SIXTEEN

A balanced diet is a popsicle in both hands.

—Unknown

Wednesday, February 16

Three days in a row the weather in Chatham was picture perfect. Sunny, brisk, chilly but not too cold. Callie rose early, walked down to the beach, and stood on the shore to watch the sunrise, and each time something quickened within her, a little spark. An awareness of the immensity of the world and her own smallness in it, and somehow, that feeling felt good. Really, really good. It seemed odd that she could experience such a good feeling, especially knowing it wouldn’t last. Still, she couldn’t get enough of it. It lingered like steam from a shower. She was addicted to it. But when it faded, as she could guarantee it would, it took her energy and mood along with it.

Twice, Bruno Bianco found her on the beach. She worried he thought she was stalking him—she wasn’t! Not long after she arrived for the sunrise, he would appear and plop down beside her on the beach, uninvited. With a normal person, there might have been the start of some kind of conversation, but not with Bruno. Every attempt at talking fizzled out like a spark going dark. He would just let it die. She’d say, on the whole, he seemed about as excited to talk to her as she felt talking to Mrs. Nickerson-Eldredge.

She should’ve just left it alone like a normal person would’ve. But she’d never been good at silence with others, especially ones she didn’t know very well. She had to try to stir up a conversation—whether they wanted to or not.

This morning, she tried, “Have you written other books?” though she knew this one was his first. She’d googled.

“No.”

“Do you plan to write more books?”

“Only if I have something to say that’s worth reading.”

She waited for more. Was there more? Nope.

Nothing.

Uncomfortable pause.

“Hobbies? Things you do for fun?”

Another pause so long she thought he wasn’t going to even answer at all. This was conversationally agonizing. Finally, he said, “I read a lot.”

“Comic books or cookbooks?”

When that didn’t get a response, she peeked around at the side of his face to see if he was stifling a smile. He was! So, there was a smile in there.

But then, like other times, he had to go and ruin everything. “Callie, it’s okay to be still, you know. Focused and present. Fully in the moment.” And off he went to his holy moment.

That man! He had an amazing ability to pop her good feeling like a dart aimed at a balloon.

He made her very uncomfortable. No, that wasn’t accurate. It was his stillness. His utterly calm countenance. That’s what made her so very uncomfortable. Mainly, because she wanted to be more like him, rather than her typical inner feeling of trying to lasso a tornado.

The good feeling returned whenever Cowboy Leo popped into the Creamery before school for a visit. Once Leo had become familiar with Callie, it was questions all the time.

“Did you know that cows have four

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