Julie laughed. “We have plenty of rooms. Our busy season is starting to pick up, but we don’t have nearly as many reservations as we probably should. Once the spring festival is over, that’s when we expect to get a rush of tourists in town.”

“Spring festival? What’s that all about?”

“It actually starts this weekend. We have all kinds of vendors who set up tables, like my mom who owns the local bakery. Of course we have live music, food, games for the kids. It’s just a really great time for the town to get together and welcome in spring.”

“That sounds really fun.”

“Oh, it is! I hope that you get some time to join us. I’d love to introduce you to some of my friends. I mean, I know you’re only here on business, but we like to welcome our guests.”

“I will definitely try to be there. By the way, don’t you have a book to read tonight?”

Julie rolled her eyes. “I’ve been procrastinating on that. It’s not that I don’t want to read it, although it wasn’t super interesting to me the first time around.”

“Didn’t you say you only read part of the first page?”

Julie giggled. “I just get very distracted when I’m reading books. Maybe I should try the audiobook?”

“I don’t know. For me, there’s just something about the process of reading. I don’t do so well with audiobooks.”

“I guess I should get on it so I don’t fall asleep like I did last night. Is there anything else that you need from me before I head upstairs?”

“No, thank you. I think I’m going to sit out on the porch for a while, maybe make a couple of phone calls. Then I’m going to be heading to bed myself. I’ve got an early morning meeting tomorrow.”

“Yeah, same here. In fact, it’s this author that’s coming tomorrow for a book signing. I better try to read this thing so I know what I’m talking about,” she said with a chuckle.

Colleen leaned against her fluffy pillows and stared at her computer screen. Maybe she did have an actual addiction. She just couldn’t stop watching true crime documentaries. It seemed like the streaming services had one after another, and each one seemed more interesting and suspenseful than the last.

“You need to go to bed,” Tucker said, his voice booming through the speaker on her phone and startling her.

“Geez, tell me when you’re going to say something because you scared the crap out of me!”

They often did this at night where Tucker was at his apartment and she was at the cottage with her Aunt Janine, but they stayed in touch on their phones because they couldn’t stand to be apart. Hours would pass while they each watched TV or did household chores, sometimes not saying anything for long stretches of time.

Colleen couldn’t wait for the day when they got married and could live in the same house all the time. Of course, they could do that now, but she just wanted some time on her own before settling down with a man again. The whole thing with her former fiancé, Peter, had made her long for a little bit of independence before she started her own family.