The Pumpkin Spice Café

Logan makes a point of doing his deliveries before dawn so he doesn’t have to talk to any of the townsfolk whom he views as nosey. Yet, he finds himself unable to escape Jeanie, nor—to his surprise—does he want to. Jeanie tells Logan about getting the café re-opened and more about the sounds she’s been hearing while she makes his coffee. Logan nearly chokes on his coffee when she suggests the café might be haunted. Though Logan does not believe in ghosts or spirits, he feels bad for Jeanie when she mentions she has no friends in town. He suggests she attend the upcoming bi-monthly town meeting, something Logan usually tries to avoid at all costs. When Jeanie asks if he will be there, he tells her he will be.

As she waits at the town meeting, Jeanie wonders how to bring up her problem with the haunting and, even more so, how she will make a good impression on the close-knit community. She waits anxiously for Logan to arrive, feeling like an outsider in Dream Harbor. Jeanie thinks about her former job working as the executive assistant of the CEO of a financial firm who recently had a heart attack and died at his desk. Jeanie had been the one to find him, and she quit shortly after learning that the heart attack was stress-induced, worrying that she would suffer the same fate if she stayed. A few weeks later, her Aunt Dot told Jeanie about her plan to let Jeanie take over the café, and Jeanie jumped at the chance to start a new life. Jeanie feels relieved when Logan finally arrives but finds it a little hard to speak to him given her growing feelings of attraction. Logan points out key figures in town, such as the members of the book club—Nancy, Kaori, Isabel, and Jacob—whom he believes run the town through gossip. He introduces Jeanie to his friend Hazel, who happens to run the bookstore beside The Pumpkin Spice Café, and Annie, the owner of the local bakery.

Logan feels miserable sandwiched between the woman he has recently developed a crush on and two of his best friends, who immediately wonder whether there is something going on between him and Jeanie. As Annie points other key members of the town out to Jeanie, Hazel teases Logan about his crush. Logan insists to both Hazel and himself that he doesn’t want to date Jeanie. He thinks back on his last failed relationship in which he fell in love with a woman from out of town who rejected him and Dream Harbor when he proposed to her in front of the whole town. 

As Mayor Pete Kelly, Hazel’s father, begins the meeting, citizens of the town immediately start asking questions about when their favorite coffee shop in town will re-open. Jeanie introduces herself and announces that the café will re-open on Saturday but brings up the issue of the strange sounds she’s been hearing. The townsfolk shout out suggestions about what it might be, yet everyone pauses when Logan’s friend Noah suggests it might be ghosts. Pete says that, regardless of what it is, Logan should be the one to help Jeanie figure it out. After every member of the raucous crowd gives their opinions at the same time, Logan begrudgingly agrees to help Jeanie.

The day before the café is set to open, Annie and Hazel bring Jeanie boxes of pastries for the opening day rush they expect. Jeanie tells them she has been struggling to get things done in time, but has had a lot of help from Norman, the café’s long-time employee whom she thinks dislikes her. Annie brings up Logan, hinting that she wants him and Jeanie to get together. Jeanie says they plan to stake out the café soon to get to the bottom of the strange nighttime sounds. Though Annie is rooting for the two of them, she cautions Jeanie that Logan tends to fall in love quickly. Jeanie tries to deny that there’s anything romantic between them. Hazel tells her that Logan is like family since he was orphaned as a child, and Jeanie promises his two best friends that she won’t hurt him.

Jeanie worries about what will happen when she opens the café the next day, questioning whether she’s even cut out to run a café at all. When Aunt Dot first gave her the café, Jeanie considered selling it and the apartment. She even had a realtor named Barb who was interested in helping her, but Jeanie changed her mind at the last minute when she pictured her old boss, Marvin, slumped over his desk. Jeanie opens her door to find Logan with earplugs and a new lock, which he says should help her sleep better at night. Logan promises to come back in the morning for coffee, and Jeanie worries about her growing feelings for him and what his friends will think.

Logan comes for coffee the first few mornings the café is open, happy to see Jeanie looking very much in her element behind the counter and talking to customers. A few days later, Logan’s grandmother stops him as he’s leaving the house, questioning him as to why he’s leaving so late and suspecting he’s doing something more lascivious than the ghost stakeout. As Logan stops to feed the chickens he loves on his way out, he’s reminded of Lucy, the woman who broke his heart and humiliated him nearly a year ago. He thinks about his flashy proposal to her at the town’s Christmas tree lighting, and how she was never meant for small-town life on a farm, but he loved her anyway. After Lucy moved back to Boston, Logan promised himself not to date flight risks and to keep his romantic life to himself. Even so, once he gets in his car to go to the café, he can’t help but feel excited to see Jeanie.

Though Jeanie is ecstatic about how the first few days of running the café have gone, she is still perturbed about the noises she continues to hear outside. Norman tells her that the café has a history with ghosts and though Dot made peace with them, they must not like that the coffeeshop is under new ownership. When Logan arrives for the stakeout, they talk about his complex relationship with the people of the town and how, though they care about him, he often feels they meddle too much in his life.

Though Logan still thinks that ghosts aren’t real, he goes through with all of Jeanie’s ideas for the stakeout. As they talk, Logan learns that the town isn’t what Jeanie expected. Again, he’s reminded of Lucy and his rules about dating. Jeanie tells him about Marvin and why she left her prestigious job in Boston. She says she never intended to get stuck at her assistant job for seven years, and what scared her the most about Marvin’s death was that no one was worried when he didn’t come home that night, because he was known to work long hours. Jeanie also tells him about how she got the flu two years ago and there was no one there to take care of her. Logan comforts her when she begins sobbing, promising he will be there for her. He nearly leans in to kiss her, but just then Logan and Jeanie hear a noise outside the café.

Jeanie thanks the ghost outside her café for stopping her before she could kiss Logan, knowing that would’ve be a bad idea. Jeanie follows Logan to the door and jumps up on him when she feels something move against her leg. When Jeanie looks down, she doesn’t see the ghost she expected but a small white cat weaving between her legs. Jeanie begins spiraling when she realizes she’s made such a big deal out of a stray cat. Logan assures her it’s fine and reaffirms that he’s there for her if she needs help. Jeanie still feels stupid, but she quickly starts to warm up to the cat as Logan gets him some food. Jeanie thanks Logan again as he gets ready to leave, and he says, “I think maybe you’re not used to being treated right, Jeanie” (64). As she considers his words, she begins to recognize how lonely she has been the past few years.