Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Diana picked at her cranberry orange muffin as she waited for June to arrive at Honey Bee Bakery.
Normally, the seasonal treat was one of her favorites, and she always got excited when it returned to the bakery for the winter.
Now though, she was crumbling her little piece between her fingers more than she was actually eating it.
“Earth to Diana!”
Diana’s head jerked up at the words and she saw her friend standing there, looking teasing and cheerful at Diana’s elbow.
“Hi. Hi!” Diana said, shaking herself out of her funk and standing to embrace her friend. “Sorry. Just lost in thought. How long were you standing there?”
June smiled as she slid into the spot across from Diana with her coffee and pastry bag in hand.
She was practically glowing with happiness, her eyes and smile so bright that Diana didn’t think she’d ever seen her friend looking quite so excited.
That expression made Diana’s own troubles seem very far away, at least for a little while.
“My, my, my, June,” Diana said, propping her hand on her chin. “Did that date of yours go well, maybe?”
June did an adorable little dance in her chair, then pressed her fingers over her blushing cheeks.
“Okay, okay,” she said when she calmed down. “I’m cool.”
“Oh my gosh,” Diana said. “You’re totally smitten!”
June wobbled her head from side to side, although her smile didn’t fade in the least. “I’m not totally smitten… yet,” she added, a touch bashfully. “But it was a really, really nice date. I had a really, really nice time.”
“That’s four ‘really’s,” Diana observed. “That’s a lot for someone who ‘isn’t totally smitten.’”
June sighed, and while it wasn’t a sad sound, it was definitely measured.
“I know,” she said. “I’m trying not to get ahead of myself in all this. I like him a great deal, but he doesn’t know how long he’s going to be staying in town, and my life is already so complicated, and I haven’t dated in forever, and—”
“And,” Diana interrupted gently, “you can talk yourself out of anything, if you try hard enough. Besides, Juney, nobody is telling you to run off and marry the guy. Take a breath! Enjoy this stage of things.”
June rolled her eyes at herself. “For sure,” she agreed, taking a bite of her pumpkin coffee cake.
She chewed and swallowed before speaking again.
“By which I mean that I recognize the wisdom of what you’re saying, but I’ve also spent so much time these past few years focusing on the future, because if I let that image slip away, things started to crumble all around me.
So, living in the moment?” She grimaced. “Not exactly easy.”
Diana nodded in understanding.
“I get that,” she said. “Change isn’t easy. Change is actually the toughest thing ever. But…” She paused meaningfully. “It’s worth it. It’s totally worth it.”
That dreamy smile was back on June’s face. “Yeah,” she said faintly. “I think you might be right about that, my friend.”
June took a happy sip of her coffee, and Diana tried to focus on her friend’s joy, she truly did. But her own concerns were hovering like a dark cloud.
Even with her own life so in flux, however, June noticed Diana’s feelings in only a few moments.
“You,” she said pointing her finger at Diana’s face, then tracing it in a circle as if to encompass Diana’s whole aura. “You are brooding about something. Spill.”
“I’m not brooding,” Diana retorted. “I’m not like the duke in one of those novels that Miriam is always reading!”
“Okay, one, don’t pretend you haven’t read some historical romances in your day, Diana Madsen,” June said with mock sternness. “And two, don’t deflect. What’s going on?”
Diana sighed and rubbed the space between her eyebrows, which was sore from all the furrowing.
“It’s probably nothing,” she said.
June gestured to herself in a “give it here” sort of motion.
Diana sighed again.
“Okay, so before I tell you, please let me tell you that I know I’m being dramatic. But recently, things with Anthony have been… different.”
June’s expression folded into a frown. “What do you mean?” she asked.
Diana explained the phone call the other evening, where she’d offered to meet up with Anthony and Eloise, but the offer had been declined.
“And obviously that really sounds like nothing,” she went on, “but the other day Eloise answered her dad’s phone again, even though she’s really not supposed to do that, and I asked her if she wanted to come by the store one day this week to see the new stock that I just got in.”
“I bet she loved that,” June said with a smile. Eloise, modeling herself after Diana, had decided to be very interested in fashion lately. She and Diana had even done a few kid-friendly sewing projects.
“I thought she would,” Diana said. “But she told me she has homework. Just… all week, a lot of homework. She’s ten! What ten-year-old puts homework ahead of doing something fun?”
“My personal experience only extends to seven-year-olds,” June said ruefully, “but I admit, it doesn’t quite sound… usual to me.”
“Right?” Diana asked. “And, yes, life gets busy. I get that. I do. But, when I keep getting ‘no, I can’t spend time with you today,’ followed by no ‘but what about this day?’ I start to feel like maybe they’re avoiding me. And that feels… not great.”
“I get that,” June said. “By which I mean that it makes sense that you feel that way. I definitely don’t want to discredit your emotions around all this. But… I don’t buy it.”
“What don’t you buy?” Diana asked, hoping that her friend was about to drop some pearl of wisdom that would keep her increasing worries at bay.
“I just don’t buy that Anthony is trying to avoid you, or that he’s trying to let you down easily, or whatever other terrible thing is brewing in that clever little brain of yours. That guy adores you. His daughter adores you.”
“You think so?” Diana asked, hope clear in her tone.
“I do,” June said firmly. “And there is literally nothing that will change my mind.”
“Okay,” Diana said, nodding. Then she repeated herself, this time with a little more confidence. "Yeah. Okay.”
"You’re still going to worry, huh?” June asked sympathetically.
“I am very much still going to worry,” Diana agreed.
June patted her arm.
“Yeah, that’s pretty much how it goes,” she said. “But eat your muffin. You can’t do all that worrying on an empty stomach.”
So Diana ate her muffin. And even if her worries still lingered in the back of her mind, she found that, ultimately, June was right. Eating did make her feel that tiniest bit better.