Enamored with Ellie

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The brutally cold days seemed to be a thing of the past as Ellie Reynold’s stepped out into the sunshine and tilted her head to the sky. The warmth of the early spring day washed over her, and she exhaled. Pretty soon her antique shop would be lined with flowers along with the rest of the small town of Red Maple Falls.

With a final inhale, she popped her eyes open and headed into her shop. She barely had her foot in the door when her cell phone rang, cutting through the tranquilness of the early morning. She fished the phone out of her bag and answered immediately when she saw her brother’s name flash on the screen.

“Hey Ry, what’s going on?” She maneuvered around the counter and placed her bag on top.

“El! I’m so happy I got you.”

Oh no. She knew that tone all too well. He wasn’t calling to chat. He needed money. She braced herself against the counter, giving herself strength to get through the conversation. “What’s going on?”

“Someone broke into my car last night and stole my wallet. I have no money. I don’t know what I’m going to do, Ellie. I’m hungry, and I’ve been sleeping in my car the last three nights.”

She wanted to be sympathetic, but this was just another one of his stories. Last month he lost his wallet, and the time before that the bank had put a hold on his debit card because of suspicious transactions. In the beginning, she’d believed him, but it was getting hard to believe someone could encounter so much misfortune in such a small period of time.

“Where’s the money I gave you last month?” she asked, trying to keep her voice even.

“I told you, they stole my wallet.”

“Why wasn’t the money in the bank? You shouldn’t be leaving that kind of cash in the car.”

“I was scared to put it in the bank because of when they froze my accounts.”

At least his stories were consistent. It was why she always wondered if maybe he was actually telling the truth. But her twin sister, Sophie, assured her he wasn’t. She’d given him plenty of money as well over the years, and it was always some elaborate story that was impossible to prove but also hard not to believe. Ryan was good at manipulating their heart strings.

He wasn’t always like that, though. Drugs changed him. Took their sweet, sensitive brother and turned him into a man Ellie no longer recognized.

“You don’t believe me?” Ryan accused.

“I don’t know what to believe. You either blow through the money or it gets stolen, or lost, or frozen, and then you need more. I’ve already tapped into my savings for you, and you still haven’t paid me back from the last two times like you promised.”

Sophie had told her it was time to cut him off, and she knew her sister was right. She held strong to her resolve.

“What happened to always having my back?”

She pinched the bridge of her nose, suppressing the frustration. “I do.”

“Really? Because right now I’m homeless and have no way of eating.” Tears cut through his words. “I don’t know what I’m going to do, El. I just need a little money to get by. Maybe get a hotel room for a night so I can shower.”

By giving him money, was she helping him or enabling him? She didn’t know what to do. But the thought of him sleeping in his car… “How much do you need?”

Ellie ended the call, and exhaustion flooded through her. Once upon a time, talking with Ryan was a highlight of her day, and now it drained every ounce of energy she had. She threw herself into the boxes of new inventory she had bought from a weekend of yard sale hunting throughout the state. She’d managed to find a few great pieces, including a gas station sign from the fifties and a couple of metal toolboxes.

The day moved at a snail’s pace, which was not usual. She loved being in her shop, surrounded by so many items that held their own history, and greeting her customers, but Ryan’s phone call had put her on edge. It didn’t help that he’d texted her every hour on the hour asking if she sent the money yet.

She hadn’t. After a call with Sophie, she was questioning if he’d use the money for what he said or if he would use it to buy drugs, especially since, according to Sophie, their parents had just sent him money Ellie hadn’t known about—the same amount he was asking from her now.

Uncertainty tugged at her gut. She didn’t want Ryan sleeping in his car… but was that a lie? By giving him money, would she be no better than the dealer who gave him the drugs?

Other than her parents, she’d already given him a few grand over the course of the winter, tapping into her emergency fund and leaving her vulnerable if some unexpected expenses were to occur.

Tension tightened her muscles, and pain edged along her shoulder blades and up the back of her neck. She missed the boy who would run through the brook with her and race down the street on their bikes. The boy who would get an ice cream mustache every time she took him for a cone. But he was long gone, lost to a time that seemed almost as if she dreamed it instead of lived it.

A bell above the door chimed, and she turned to see Old Man Simpson strolling in. He flashed her a new teeth filled grin.

“What can I do for you, Bert?”

“I wanted to let you know that my batch of apple moonshine is available at Calhoun’s.” The man, once the town drunk, was now a successful business owner, making and distributing his homemade moonshine.

“I’ll make sure to stop by after I close up and give it a taste.”

The pure joy that radiated across Bert’s weathered skin helped to soothe Ellie’s unease. “Make sure to tell all your friends.”

“I will.”

“All right, I’ll see you tomorrow. I expect a good review.”

“You can count on it.” Ellie gave a wave and finally felt the tension in her neck loosen when her phone rang, and Ryan’s name flashed on the screen.