Maybe it's because I'm writing about it at the moment, but I'm just thinking about Shane and the little town near his cottage.
It only has one of everything. There's a butchery and a bakery and the tiniest supermarket you could possibly imagine – basically a slightly expanded convenience store. There's a florist and a curio shop.
There's one mechanic who ends up servicing more snow plows in a year than cars. The cinema only seats about 50 per theater, only has two theaters, and only gets the latest movies at least a month or two after the rest of the world does.
There's a goodwill and a hardware store and a sporting goods store that only sells the entry-level stuff or the high-end stuff because those are the only two groups of people who shop there. There's a cheap motel and a luxury bed and breakfast. There's a diner whose menu hasn't changed in fifty years.
There's a church that only a fraction of the town attends, but whose hall everyone uses for every possible event you could imagine: support groups, dances, birthday parties, weddings, anniversary celebrations, wakes, preschool concerts.
Shane knows everyone in this town. These people have watched Shane grow up, and adore him. Even though he only spends a few weeks there every year, and they don't have any real claim to him, when he goes pro it feels like one of their own makes it big. When it's rumoured that the new big lakeside mansion that's going up is Shane's, the town is buzzing with it. They hope it means he'll be back more.
And he is. He can only spend summers there most of the time, but wherever there's a gap in his calendar, he likes to escape to his 'cottage' for a few days. Shane knows when he goes back and people are excited to see him, it's not because he's Shane Hollander, MLH Star – it's because he's little Shane, David and Yuna's boy, now all grown up.
When rumours start spreading that for the past few summers he's been spotted bringing someone to the cottage with him, and that that someone looks a lot like Ilya Rozanov, a whole town meeting is called where it's collectively decided that no one is to breathe a word of this to anyone. This is Shane's town and they refuse to betray him. If there's even a hint that someone might start spreading rumours, they get blacklisted from every shop in town. They take this shit deathly seriously.
When it all comes out, they're not surprised when Shane shows up to escape. But this time he has a surprisingly polite and friendly Russian hockey player in tow, who looks absolutely thrilled to be hugged and fussed over as he's introduced as Shane's fiancé. Shane tells them that they've come to their cottage for a few days to escape the media circus and regroup, and Shane thought it was about time Ilya got to meet the people of his favourite place in the world.
When Shane and Ilya are invited to the line dancing night they've organised in the church hall that night, Ilya's surprised when Shane agrees enthusiastically. And as he and Shane fumble their way through the first few dances, collapsing into each other in a fit of laughter as they try to catch their breath, Ilya just looks at Shane and brushes a strand of hair out of his face.
"It was never just the cottage, was it?"
"No," says Shane. "This town has always been home."
"Then I'm glad I finally got to see it."
A few years later, there's a bigger buzz than ever as whispers fly that Shane and Ilya have been spotted pushing a baby buggy around town. Shane feels an indescribable warmth as people excitedly talk about Shane and Ilya's baby girl.
"Iris," he smiles, introducing his daughter to his favourite town in the world, knowing that these wonderful people will help raise her the way they helped raise him.
