she chimed in with her usual optimism. “Papa would understand if things don’t work out. He loved the shop, but he wanted us to be happy more than anything.”
“Maybe you’re right. But Papa trusted me to run the shop the way he would. I know I can do this. I have to do this.”
Aunt Lily clucked her tongue. “Now, girl, you worry too much about that old shop of your pa’s. Your life can be much more than just running that place, my dear.” Coralee started to argue, but Lily shushed her and went on. “I think I see what the problem is here. It seems you don’t think you’re meant for anything more than that shop. But I’m here to tell you that’s altogether wrong, child. God has great things for you, happy things. Maybe this is just one small part of your story, not the whole thing.”
Cat and Cecilia nodded along with Lily’s words, but Coralee couldn’t accept that. God had placed her in the position of running Papa’s shop, carrying on his legacy. She had accepted that His will for her didn’t include her own family, so the shop had to be her sole purpose now. It had to be enough.
Coralee went to bed early, just to have some time away from her family’s prying eyes. But no matter how much she tossed and turned, she couldn’t sleep. Jake’s presence in town had stirred up feelings she had hoped were long buried, disappointments she had tried so hard to force away in the years since Alan’s death.
Frustrated by the emotions rising in her, Coralee left her room. She tiptoed through the house, hoping she wouldn’t wake anyone. It only took a few minutes over the stove before she settled in a chair at the kitchen table with a china cup full of steaming tea. She had just started trying to formulate some kind of words of prayer when a voice startled her.
“Mind if I join you?” Aunt Lily stood in the doorway, a thin blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Without waiting for an answer, the older woman crossed the room to the teakettle, fixed herself a cup and settled at the opposite end of the table.
Coralee examined her dear aunt, the woman who had been such a mainstay in her life. Sitting there in her nightdress with a loose braid pulled over her shoulder, Lily Holbrook looked older than Coralee had noticed before. Maybe even a little frail. All the more reason she had to get the shop back on track. Cat depended on it for her livelihood and soon enough Aunt Lily would, too. She was a strong woman, but she couldn’t run the café forever.
“Well, my dear, something must be bothering you. After the week you’ve had, you ought to be sleeping like a baby.”
Coralee considered brushing her aunt’s concern aside. She wanted to. But she was humble enough to admit when she needed wisdom. “It’s been years since I’ve spent so much time around Jake. I’m...having a hard time understanding my own feelings about him right now.” The words came out more faltering than she’d intended, but they were out, all the same.
Understanding filled Aunt Lily’s face. “You have so much history with him, dear girl. Not all good, though, I’d guess. I never did understand why he took off and you started spending your time with Alan.”
Coralee twisted a lock of long hair between her fingers. “The last night we talked before he left... Aunt Lily, he never even told me he was applying to medical school. Never bothered to ask my opinion. I thought...” Her voice broke, raw emotion rising to the surface. “I thought he was going to tell me he loved me that night. I was so sure he felt the same way I did.”
“But, instead, he told you he was leaving.”
Coralee stared into her tea, focusing on the tiny bits of herbs settling in the bottom so she wouldn’t lose her composure. “He was so excited. Of course, I knew he’d planned to become a doctor. But he had already applied and been accepted in St. Louis, without ever considering what would happen to me.”
Lily sipped her tea thoughtfully. “You were both young and impulsive, dearest. Are you sure he meant to leave you out of it? Could it be that he didn’t realize how his actions would seem to you?”
“If he was in love with me—planned to spend his life with me—how could he make such an important decision and not want to include me? His medical training took him away for seven years, Aunt Lily. If he had professed his love, that choice would have affected my life, too. It wasn’t a priority for him to include me.”
The older woman shrugged, unconvinced. “I’ve known Jake Hadley just as long as you have. He’s always been an honest, kind man. I can’t imagine that he meant to hurt you.”
“Well, he did hurt me.” Coralee was getting a bit tired of the way Aunt Lily kept defending Jake. Shouldn’t she be taking her niece’s side? “If he loved me, why did he just leave? Yes, we had a misunderstanding. But after that night, he didn’t try to clear things up with me, didn’t even say goodbye. He just left.” Tears were threatening to overflow. Coralee tried to blink them away but they spilled down her cheeks anyway. “He abandoned me. Just like Papa. Just like Alan. They all left.” She rested her head on her arms as a sob escaped.
She felt Lily’s arms come around her and turned into the older woman’s shoulder. Since Mama had died when Coralee was four, Aunt Lily had been a mother figure in all the girls’ lives. Now her comforting embrace broke open the floodgates. Coralee let all her frustration with Jake and the situation at the shop flow out with her sobs.
Eventually the tears slowed and Aunt Lily pulled away to look into her eyes. “Dear girl, I’m so sorry. You’ve had your share of loss already at such a young age. Now, it may be hard to swallow, but losing people is part of life for all of us. Don’t sell Jake short because of past mistakes or the chance of losing him in the future. All you have is today. Try to be open to what the good Lord is telling you.”
Aunt Lily patted Coralee’s back gently as she headed for the door. “I’m going to try to get some sleep. I’ll offer up a few extra prayers for you and Jake.”
The late-night talk didn’t calm any of the worries in Coralee’s mind. The next day she was more determined than ever to make the shop profitable again. A few hours into the work, she was stopping every few minutes to stretch her aching back and rest her strained eyes. She wanted to push through Papa’s list as fast as she could, but she kept mixing up the measurements and grabbing the wrong herbs. Her conclusions would never be accurate with mistakes in the process. A break was in order.
She stepped out of the workroom and joined Cat at the counter. Coralee had always loved mixing remedies at the shop’s counter. The recipes were so ingrained in her mind that she could relax while her hands did the repetitive work. No customers were waiting, so the sisters set to work putting together some of the basic restoratives that were always in demand.
Sometime later, the bell above the shop door jingled as an elderly woman in stained calico and a worn sunbonnet shuffled in. Coralee couldn’t contain her grin. “Good afternoon, Mrs. Bernard. I’m glad to see you’re able to make it to town again.”
The old woman’s thin lips stretched in a smile, revealing several missing teeth. “This fine weather is giving me back my strength. I told that son of mine that he was bringing me along to town and that’s final. Good boy still listens to his old ma, most of the time.”
Coralee felt her tension melting away as she spoke with one of her favorite customers. She enjoyed visiting with the people who frequented the shop, building trust with each of them. “He must be a smart man. All due to good parenting, I’m sure.”
Mrs. Bernard’s leathery skin wrinkled even more as she cackled in response.
Her
