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“I hear you’re mayor now. You’ve got the power.”

Another grin. “And that power means we’re keeping the name. In fact, this room in the back is going to be Phail Central.”

Jolie grinned. “Phail Central?”

Troy nodded. “Piper is full of brilliant ideas. This is going to be our tourist center. We’re going to showcase our history and the work of local artisans. It’s going to be amazing.”

Right now, the room was mostly bare walls and tools, but she could imagine it as Troy talked them through his ideas. Finally, he shook his head. “But you didn’t come to hear me talk about the amazing town of Phail. Ginny brought the canoe in with her today. She’s got it on her truck out back of the diner. Come on.”

When they exited the store, Troy locked up but left a sign telling anyone who needed something to call him. He didn’t include his phone number, which meant that most everyone in the town already had it.

It was something that would have happened in the small town where they’d lived with Fox. Her grandfather would have liked the name of Phail for a town. She could hear his wry chuckle at the thought.

Troy lead the way down the sidewalk. “Ginny is my cousin. She owns the No Fail Diner and does the baking.”

“She doesn’t mind lending me the canoe for a few days?”

Troy opened the door to the diner. “If she did, she wouldn’t have brought it with her. Come on and you can meet her.”

Jolie stopped short at the sights and scents of the diner. Like most diners, there was a counter with stools. Booths ran along the front window and far side.

Unlike any diner she’d seen, there was a huge Phail crest decorating the wall. Booths and stools were decorated with matching blue and green tartan. While the sights reminded her of Scotland, the scents making her stomach rumble were Mexican. Cumin, peppers, onions. Delicious.

A woman behind the counter grinned at them. Her hair and coloring were similar to Troy’s. This had to be his cousin.

The woman moved closer to shake their hands. “Welcome to the No Fail Diner. I’m Ginny Phail.”

“I’m Jolie Malssum and this is Ford Evans. Thank you so much for lending us your canoe.”

Ginny grinned. “No problem. Nimii and I don’t use it as much anymore now that we have the kayaks. Do you need suggestions of places to canoe?”

Jolie laughed. “Not yet. Right now, I’m only going as far as the pond at the back of the apple farm.”

Ginny’s eyebrows rose. “It’s big enough to canoe in?”

“Not really. The pond is stagnant and too deep for me to wade into. Until I get the results from the samples back, I don’t want to dive in. I’m hoping I can get an idea how deep it is by using the canoe. And I’m hoping I can bring up some soil samples from the bottom.”

Ginny nodded. “Better to be sure before you go in. I don’t think there’s as much pollution in Vermont as in many other places, but you want to be sure it’s not toxic.”

“We’ve also got the compost buckets to exchange with you.”

Ginny’s face lit up at that. “I love that we’re helping your farm and keeping things out of the landfill at the same time. We can bring the buckets over to your vehicle with the canoe.”

It didn’t take long before the canoe was strapped into Ford’s truck bed and the compost buckets had been exchanged.

When Knox closed the tailgate, he smiled at her. “How about we buy Troy lunch at the diner for helping us find a canoe?”

That sounded great. And almost like a date.

Soon, they sat in a booth with Troy and a platter of amazing tacos. “I didn’t expect to see such a varied menu in a small town.”

Troy grinned. “There’s so much more to Phail than you see on the surface.”

She was beginning to believe that.

Ford grabbed another taco. “Think we can convince Manuel to move to the farm and cook for us all the time?”

Ginny looked up from where she was pouring coffee for another customer. “Don’t even think about it. You’re not allowed to steal him.”