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room. I waited a minute, then decided I’d better get on with my shopping so Ezra wouldn’t have to come looking for me. He’d made it sound like a joke, but I had a feeling if I was gone long enough he really would come searching for me.
    When I turned, I almost ran into a woman standing behind me. I murmured an apology and she smiled warmly. “Don’t mind Hank,” she told me quietly. “His bark is worse than his bite. He’s kind of wary of strangers, which doesn’t do him any good in a town that thrives on its tourist industry. He’s a bit gruff, but he’s really an old sweetheart under that surly exterior.” She said all this in a conversational tone, as if she were talking about the weather.
    “Good to know,” I said with a small smile, hoping she wasn’t one of those people who liked to strike up long conversations with strangers in the middle of the grocery store.
    She gave me a nod and another kind smile, then carried on toward the pharmacy. I grabbed a shopping basket and headed off down the first aisle. When my basket was nearly full, I figured I shouldn’t get anything else or I wouldn’t be able to carry it on the bike. I’d found everything I needed to make fettuccine with homemade alfredo, and garden salad. I’d grabbed a few extra things that I hoped would last the next few days until either Dad or Ezra could bring me back to do a proper shopping.
    Hank was at the counter when I made my way up. He rang my purchases through in silence, bagging them as he went. “Probably not the selection you’re used to,” he commented. “If there’s anything you want and don’t see, I can special order it, so long as it’s not something fancy or hard to find.”
    I couldn’t help the smile that tugged at the corners of my lips. “I think you’ll have pretty much everything I need.” He glanced up, looking almost surprised. “Thanks, though. There might be something else I need eventually.”
    He nodded and told me my total. I paid him and reached for my bags, but he scooped them up and headed around the corner and out the front door. I hurried after him and found him outside settling the bags carefully into the basket on my bike.
    He turned to me and avoided my gaze, clearing his throat again before saying, “Lilah mostly takes care of the property up there, but…well, if she’s not around and there’s something you need…well…you just let me know.”
    The woman inside had told me Hank was wary of strangers. Did he see my mother in me—the girl he had known all those years ago—and decide I wasn’t so bad? Regardless, I had a feeling Hank was a big teddy bear deep down.
    “I will,” I assured him. “Thanks.”
    His lips twitched slightly, and I assumed that was as much of a smile as most people got from Hank. Without another word, he walked past me and into the store.
    When I got back to the house, Ezra was just packing up his tools. “You made good time,” he called as I parked the bike and took off the helmet.
    “I’d have hated for you to have to send a search party after me.” I swung the bags from the basket and carried them toward the house.
    “What’s for dinner?” He fell in step beside me, trying to peer into the bags.
    I told him, and his face lit up. “ Homemade alfredo? I’ve only ever had it out of a jar.”
    “You’ll never want the jarred stuff again after you’ve tried mine,” I promised.
    “I don’t doubt that.” We looked at each other for a long minute, and it might have been my imagination but I could have sworn something passed between us. A spark? Some sort of recognition? I wasn’t sure, but from the look on his face, I thought he must have sensed it too.
    “I’m just going to go home and get cleaned up,” he said. “I’ll be back over in a few, okay?” I nodded and watched him start to walk away, but he stopped and turned back. “Charlotte?”
    “Yeah?”
    His smile was boyish now, almost shy. “Don’t start that alfredo until I come