Practice Makes Perfect

Annie is doing her weekly grocery shopping when Will appears with an empty basket. Annie has the afternoon off work to visit her grandmother, Silvie, who has Alzheimer’s. Though she believes hearing about her life will bore him, Will appears interested. He even admits that he has read the steamy historical romance book she gave him at the flower shop. She attempts to get him to admit to revealing a steamy scene as his favorite part, but when he jokingly calls her Angel Annie, she shuts down. She admits she doesn’t appreciate the nicknames everyone uses for her, which imply that she’s too nice to have any substance. He promises not to do so again.

They discuss guidelines for Will’s coaching: that there will be nothing more than platonic friendship between them and that their agreement will remain a secret, even from Annie’s judgmental sisters. They plan to begin lessons that night, in his room at Mabel’s Inn. He leaves without buying any groceries after jokingly slipping a box of condoms into Annie’s basket.

Annie and Will develop a plan to sneak her into Mabel’s Inn without anyone finding out and spreading gossip throughout the town. Will plans to show Mabel a piece of bad siding on her inn to draw her away from the front desk long enough for Annie to slip in undetected, but Noah, Emily, and Harriet—an elderly busybody who has a rivalry with Mabel—show up unannounced, complicating the plan.