Read Online See Jane Fall by Katy Regnery - Free Book Online

quick walk to find
warm milk, and anyway, besides Lars, it’s not like she knew anyone
in town.
    She hadn’t seen a Starbucks during her
sightseeing tour of Gardiner, but she was fairly certain she had
noticed another coffee shop, and if she wasn’t mistaken, it was
just down the road from her motel. She slipped her feet into her
flip-flops and locked the door behind her.
    At the front desk, she was told that yes,
there was a bookstore and coffee shop about a tenth of a mile walk
from the motel called the Prairie Dawn Café & Book Shop. Jane
hoped a short walk, resulting in a warm cup of milk, would be all
she needed to fall back into bed and sleep until morning.
    The streets of Gardiner weren’t buzzing with
activity, but they weren’t dead either. Jane saw a few people who
looked like tourists out and about, presumably having dinner or
getting the supplies they needed for their outdoor adventures in
the morning. She saw a little boy and his father walking along with
new fishing rods resting on their shoulders, and a group of four
women in bikini tops, short shorts and hiking boots headed for a
local bar.
    It didn’t take long to get to the Prairie
Dawn, and when Jane opened the door, she gasped lightly in
pleasure, her lips turning up as she stood in the doorway with
delight, taking in the quirky little bookstore-cum-café.
    It was one large open space, with wooden
columns scattered throughout the room at intervals and brightly
covered throw rugs covering parts of the wooden floor. Bookcases
and windows lined the walls from floor to ceiling to her right, and
there were jauntily upholstered couches and chairs, mismatched,
waiting for a reader to find a book and get comfortable. Small,
ceramic tiled bistro tables, each with two or three chairs, were
scattered in cheerful bunches, and a shiny copper coffee bar with
six stools took up most of the wall to her left.
    Several of the tables and couches were
occupied, as people of all ages sipped tea or coffee and flipped
through newspapers, magazines and books. Soft music was piped in
too, and Jane recognized the mellow voice of James Taylor singing
about sweet baby James, which Jane’s mother had always changed to Rockabye, sweet baby Jane.
    Walking into the Prairie Dawn felt like an
embrace, like walking into a dream, like connecting with the
past…and Jane breathed in deeply, smelling the books and the coffee
beans, profoundly content with her decision to get out of bed and
go on a quest for warm milk.
    A petite, redheaded barista stood behind the
bar with her elbows on the counter, deep in conversation with a
blond man sitting on a stool at the end of the counter. They were
practically head to head, and Jane didn’t wish to disturb their
conversation, so she pulled out a stool two down from where he
sat.
    The redhead looked over at Jane and
smiled.
    “We have a visitor, Paul.”
    The blond man looked over at Jane and smiled
too.
    “From Boston, no less.”
    Jane raised her eyebrows.
    The woman pointed to her t-shirt and the man
pointed to her cap at the same time.
    “Originally San Francisco. Then Boston,”
Jane admitted. “Now New York.”
    The woman moved to stand in front of Jane
and offered her hand. “Maggie Campbell.”
    “Jane. Jane Mays.” She shook Maggie’s hand
and turned to Paul, who gestured to the stool beside Jane. She
nodded, and he moved over to sit next to her.
    “Paul Johansson.”
    “Heya,” Jane offered, smiling at each of
them in turn.
    “Heya!” Paul looked at Maggie and smiled.
“Only one family in Gardiner greets everyone with ‘Heya.’ Which of
the Lindstroms were you hanging out with today?”
    “Lars.”
    “You’re the assistant on the magazine
shoot,” said Paul.
    “What am I thinking right now?” Jane asked
in a rush, eyes twinkling.
    Paul look confused.
    “Well, you must be clairvoyant!”
    Paul chuckled. “Nothing so glamorous. Best
friend to Lars.”
    “Ahhhh. Just-Lars’s best friend.”
    “So you work with