Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Shane hadn’t brought much in the way of fancy clothes to Magnolia Shore.
When he’d packed, he had done so almost mindlessly, feeling too eager to get out of San Francisco to think through any of his choices.
Now, he was feeling a bit regretful about that fact, as the best thing he had to wear to dinner out with Winnie was a light blue button-down and some chinos.
It wasn’t a bad outfit, per se. It was something he would wear to work, if he didn’t have some kind of client meeting or presentation that day.
But he didn’t have a tie. And he didn’t have a jacket. And his shoes were only somewhat nice.
Basically, it was not what he would wear for your average first date…
If this even was a first date, that is. He wasn’t certain. He could admit to himself that he hoped that it was a date. He liked Winnie. He thought she was pretty, interesting, and clever. He had been touched by her openness about her family background and her insecurities. And she made him laugh.
On the other hand though, he knew that now probably wasn’t the best time to be getting involved in a romance.
His future was still very up in the air.
He had no idea how long he would be staying in Magnolia Shore or what he wanted to do when he left here.
And Winnie was a local history expert. This was quite literally the only place she could do her job…
not that it wasn’t getting miles ahead of himself to even think about the possibility of her being somewhere else because of him.
So, no. It wasn’t a smart idea for this to be a date. But that didn’t stop him from wanting it to be a date, alas. He found that idea extremely appealing.
He quickly checked his hair in the rearview mirror before he got out of the car, something that was more a nervous tic than anything.
His sandy locks weren’t long and naturally laid with a light tousle, meaning that it wasn’t easy for it to look ‘messed up.’ But he wanted to look his best, because he liked Winnie, more than he’d liked anyone in a good, long while.
He knocked on her door and was pleased that she answered quickly, as he hoped this meant that she was as eager for their evening together as he was.
“Wow, Winnie,” he breathed as he took her in. “You look beau—amazing.” He changed his wording at the last moment, just in case she didn’t want this to be a date. He didn’t want to come on too strong.
But she was wearing a decidedly date-like outfit.
This was gratifying too. She had her hair pinned back in an elegant updo, and she was wearing a simple blue dress in a color that brought out the brightness of her eyes.
Her jewelry was simple too, just a matching silver chain necklace and bracelet, with some small silver hoops in her ears.
The overall effect was extremely elegant.
“Thanks,” she said, flushing and looking a little shy at the compliment. “You look really nice too.”
He grimaced. “I didn’t pack enough fancy clothes,” he admitted. “And I am only thinking right this minute that I should have gone to Diana’s store and bought something new, but, whoops, too late.”
“Absolutely not,” she said, lifting her chin stubbornly, but in a playful sort of way. “I think you look wonderful, and I won’t be argued with, sir.”
Her eyes glimmered with mirth and Shane wondered how anyone in this town had ever thought Winnie was an ice queen.
She might take a minute to open up to people, sure.
He’d seen that tendency in her. But beneath the reserved surface was just so much lively feeling that he couldn’t imagine thinking her cold.
“No arguments,” he agreed, miming locking his lips and throwing away the key. She laughed, and he noticed that she looked at least twice as pretty when she laughed.
“Shall we?” he offered, holding out his arm. She accepted, and he led her down to the car. “I made a reservation at Captain’s Crest. I know everyone in this town has eaten everywhere, so you’ve probably been there before, but I figured it was out of the usual pattern of daily haunts, at least.”
“I love Captain’s Crest,” she reassured him. “And while I have been there before, it’s been an age. So I’m very excited to go again.”
“I’ll take that,” he said cheerfully.
The drive was short and felt even shorter, as it was filled with the easy, cheerful chatter that he and Winnie always seemed to fall into so easily.
He found a parking spot easily enough, another perk of Magnolia Shore that would have been a fantasy beyond his wildest dreams in San Francisco.
There was something new to enjoy about this little town every day, and that was even before he counted the wonderful woman currently sitting beside him.
“Oh, dear,” Winnie said, a little furrow appearing between her brows. “What’s going on here?”
Shane followed her gaze over to Captain’s Crest, where several people were exiting the front door. He looked a little closer and realized that they were all wearing the uniforms that marked them as waitstaff.
He and Winnie got out of the car and approached.
“Excuse me,” he said as someone turned to lock the door. “Is everything okay? It’s just, I had a reservation for tonight.”
The man, who wore a nametag that marked him as the manager, gave an apologetic grin.
“Oh, sir, I’m so sorry,” he said sincerely. “Our computer system went down today, so we can’t process any orders. But our reservations were also in the computer, so we couldn’t even access records to let people know. We’re going to be closed down for the evening.”
Shane felt a pang of dismay that was probably not commensurate with the level of inconvenience. He’d just wanted everything to be perfect tonight. That way, if it did turn out to be a date, it would have been a wonderful one.
Silly, perhaps, but there it was.
But the poor manager looked so intensely dismayed that Shane knew it would be desperately unkind to do anything but reassure him.
“I completely understand,” he said kindly. Then he paused. “Actually, I work in tech. If you wanted, I could come by first thing tomorrow morning and look at your system.”
The manager’s eyes went wide. “Oh, would you? This is a family business; my dad is the official owner, but these days I’m the one handling most of the day-to-day. So, I can tell you without a doubt that neither of us is particularly technically minded.”
“Yeah, absolutely!” Shane said, pulling his phone out of his pocket. “Let me just get your information and give you mine…”
He quickly swapped phone numbers with the manager, whose name was MJ.
“For ‘Michael Junior,’” he explained with a rueful chuckle. “Michael Senior is my dad. Perils of being a legacy in a small town.”
Even though his words reflected the kind of thing Shane would have been worried about, growing up in a town like this, his tone was cheerful enough to make it clear that he didn’t much mind.
They arranged a time for the next day, then said their goodbyes, MJ looking considerably less anxious than he had moments before.
“Sorry about that,” he said to Winnie, who had been waiting patiently while Shane made his plans. “I didn’t mean to get sidetracked by work stuff while we’re on a—while we’re out to dinner,” he amended hastily.
She smiled easily, and if she noticed his slip, she didn’t let on.
“No trouble at all,” she said. “Goodness knows that I’ve dragged you into my work things often enough these past few weeks. Although, at this rate, you’re going to be stuck in Magnolia Shore forever. You keep getting new clients!”
Was Shane fooling himself by thinking that she sounded optimistic about the idea?
“You know, I’m enjoying having work,” he said thoughtfully. “I definitely needed some time away from the relentless pace of my old job, but I also learned that too much time away wasn’t the answer either. I wasn’t bored, exactly, but I guess I felt a little restless.”
“That makes sense,” she said. “I like taking time away, but I’m also the kind of person who loves to have a project when I’m on vacation.” She chuckled. “I get possibly very intense about crafts when I take time away from work.”
Shane laughed at the mental image of Winnie doing needlepoint with a furious expression on her face.
“Yeah, I think I’m the same,” Shane said. “I just never realized it until now because… I guess it’s because I never took any time off work.”
He felt pretty uncool, admitting that. He hadn’t exactly been thinking himself as a hip young thing or anything like that.
If nothing else, his years in San Francisco had shown him how far he was from the trendsetters of the world.
But he hadn’t ever thought of himself as a guy who had nothing but work in his life.
But maybe he was.
And yet Winnie wasn’t looking at him like she thought he was a snooze who had nothing exciting going on. She looked understanding.
“Trust me,” she said, “I completely get how easily you can get sucked into something that feels like it doesn’t quite fit right, but that you still don’t know exactly how to get out of it.”
“How do you just get things so easily?”
The words had just popped out of him. Winnie beamed like it was the greatest compliment.
“Nobody thinks about me that way,” she said, but she sounded happy, not dismayed. “We just must be on the same radio frequency or something.”
He liked the sound of that. He grinned at her… then refocused. They were just standing in the street. And he was getting hungry too.
“Right, so I guess our original dinner plan is out,” he said, jerking a thumb at the closed restaurant behind them. “The other place my sister recommended was Riverstone Kitchen. Have you been there?”
“I actually haven’t!” she said.
It was one more quick ride over to Riverstone Kitchen, which had a pleasant view of the shore from out over a hill. Before they went inside, Shane remembered the bag from Magnolia Boutique and snagged it.