THE JOB THAT MADE ETHAN COLE PART OF GREYHAVEN
Chapter 14
At 5:58, Ethan entered the hotel kitchen.
Claire was already there.
She looked at the clock.
“Two minutes early.”
“Thought you’d appreciate it.”
“I don’t.”
Ethan smiled.
She handed him the coffee.
“You’re getting predictable.”
“That’s the plan.”
He looked through the window.
Outside, Greyhaven was waking up.
A fisherman crossed the street.
A delivery truck stopped outside the diner.
The bakery lights came on.
A woman walked her dog.
A school bus appeared at the end of the road.
Nothing dramatic.
Nothing dangerous.
Nothing worth writing about.
And Ethan loved it.
Because after everything he’d lived through, ordinary had become extraordinary.
He cracked the first egg.
Claire leaned against the counter.
“So.”
“So?”
“You staying?”
Ethan looked at her.
Then toward the window.
The ocean.
The harbor.
The town.
His town.
“Yeah.”
Claire nodded.
“Good.”
The first guests entered the dining room.
Coffee began pouring.
Plates began moving.
The morning started.
And somewhere beneath the noise of Greyhaven, Ethan Cole finally understood something he’d spent most of his life missing.
A person doesn’t always find home.
Sometimes—
home finds them.
And sometimes it happens quietly.
With a job.
A broken bicycle.
A cup of coffee.
A porch facing the ocean.
And people who start expecting you to be there tomorrow.
Ethan had once arrived in Greyhaven carrying two bags and a past he couldn’t escape.
Now he carried a toolbox in one hand…
and a life in the other.
For the first time—
he wasn’t looking for the next road.
He was looking forward to the next morning.
