13. Dulcie
DULCIE
D ulcie had a wonderful day in town. After the café, they wandered around a bit, watching the snowball fight from the fringes and then stopping by the ice cream shop.
When West reminded Elizabeth that they had to go home for a nap and then come back later for the tree lighting, Elizabeth was instantly in tears. Charlotte’s mother insisted that Elizabeth come upstairs to her apartment over the shop to take her nap.
“I’ll read to her and sit with her,” Mimi Kendrick said firmly. “The two of you should go have fun.”
If that wasn’t clearly implying that they were seeing each other, Dulcie wasn’t sure what would qualify. But West merely arched a brow at her in question.
And when she nodded, Elizabeth cheered, and then headed up to have a special over-the-ice-cream-shop nap with Mimi.
“What should we do?” West asked Dulcie as he pulled his jacket back on .
“Have you finished your shopping for Elizabeth?” Dulcie asked quietly.
“Good thinking,” West said. “Want to go to the toy store?”
“I thought you’d never ask,” Dulcie said.
She couldn’t help but notice Tripp and Charlotte exchanging a look as they headed out. But West either didn’t see it, or didn’t mind.
Don’t think about it, she told herself. You’re just friends having a nice day together.
The toy store was predictably crowded, but completely magical. Dulcie helped West choose some art supplies. She paused at the castle display in the window on the way to the register, not sure if it was inappropriate for her to suggest such an expensive gift.
“I already bought one,” West said quietly. “I hid it at the office. I know maybe she’s a little spoiled, but with only one parent around, I figure a few extra toys won’t do her any harm.”
“Especially toys that encourage her to use her imagination,” Dulcie agreed.
She really never would have thought of Elizabeth as spoiled. The little girl took good care of her things for a four-year-old and didn’t beg to do anything but look when they passed the shop windows.
“Bookstore?” West asked once they had checked out.
“Oh, yes, please,” Dulcie told him, feeling a little shiver of excitement.
They continued up Bear Avenue and crossed the street to the corner of Red Oak Street to the town bookstore .
The sign outside said Clever Fox Books. Peering in the big bay window, Dulcie thought that it looked like something out of a dream, with tall, wooden shelves, each hung with twinkle lights and practically overflowing with books.
West pushed open the robin’s egg-blue door and they stepped inside, where Dulcie noticed cozy-looking plush chairs tucked into every nook and cranny. This was a paradise where a reader could easily get lost.
Delphine would spend all day in here.
“Oh, she loves these,” West said, heading over to a spinning display of Mo Willems books.
Dulcie grabbed one and started reading. After a moment, she was laughing out loud.
They picked out one Elizabeth didn’t have, and kept moving through the store. It wasn’t as enormous as the big franchises out in the city, but Dulcie couldn’t help noticing the personal recommendations.
“Oh, wow,” she said, stopping at an aisle cap to look at the cover of a romance novel. It showed a couple and two children outdoors in a snowy small town. “It looks like Sugarville Grove.”
“Do you like books like that?” West asked.
She felt a little wave of embarrassment, but she had promised never to lie to him, so she nodded. West nodded in approval and grabbed the book, adding it to the one he had chosen for Elizabeth.
“You don’t have to buy me books,” Dulcie said quickly.
“I know,” he told her. “But I like buying books.”
“Let me guess, you have to help out the flatlander owner of this place too?” she teased him.
“Actually, this place is owned and run by folks who have been in Sugarville Grove practically forever,” West told her.
“Oh,” Dulcie said.
“So obviously I want to support them,” West said, winking at her.
She was so surprised at the playful gesture that a giggle escaped her lips, and she looked around, worried that she wasn’t supposed to make a lot of noise in a quiet place like a bookshop.
But the other patrons only smiled at her, and she turned back to West feeling happy.
Honestly, he seemed so much more relaxed and fun today than he had since she’d arrived. It was really great to see him enjoying himself.
By the time they made their purchases and explored a few other shops in town, the sun was just showing signs of setting.
Dulcie stopped to take a photo for Delphine and send it along with a few words.
sunset over paradise
“Elizabeth is up,” West said, glancing at his phone. “It’s perfect timing if you’re up for sticking around for the tree lighting. ”
“Yes,” Dulcie said right away. “I can’t wait.”
By the time they had retrieved Elizabeth and a big reusable shopping bag from West’s truck, the park was filling up with people.
A small platform had been set up beside the giant Christmas tree, and people gathered around it, forming a semi-circle. The church choir stood in the pavilion and Dulcie smiled at the sound of them warming up.
“Do you like to sing?” she asked Elizabeth.
“I don’t know,” Elizabeth said, shrugging. “I like dancing.”
“We should have a dance party one day soon,” Dulcie told her. “Maybe we can have one Monday when we spend the day together.”
“Okay,” Elizabeth said, looking a little worried. “Do a lot of people come over?”
“No, no, it’s not that kind of party,” Dulcie explained. “It would just be the two of us. But we can play music and we can dress up in costumes if you have any.”
“I have costumes,” Elizabeth said, her eyes lighting up.
“Perfect,” Dulcie told her. “It’s a date.”
“It’s a date ,” Elizabeth echoed happily, then laughed.
“Are you two ready?” West asked.
“Of course,” Dulcie told him.
He took Elizabeth’s hand, and the three of them headed across the street into the park. But a slight commotion on the sidewalk near Bear Avenue caught their attention before they got there.
“Take Elizabeth,” West said to Dulcie.
“Of course,” she told him, reaching for Elizabeth’s hand.
They watched West run for the corner, where a few people had gathered around someone on the ground. The crowd parted for him, and Dulcie could see that it looked like an older person who had fallen. West crouched down to talk to her.
“Is she okay?” Elizabeth asked softly.
“She will be,” Dulcie told her. “She’s really lucky that your daddy is here. He can help her.”
“He helps everybody,” Elizabeth said lightly. “But a doctor is only a person. They don’t have magic.”
Dulcie nodded slowly.
“That’s why you don’t climb on top of the cow fence,” Elizabeth continued wisely.
“I’ll remember that,” Dulcie promised, smiling at her little charge and feeling relieved that West had told her he didn’t have magic as a warning, not because he’d lost a patient or something.
“Look,” Elizabeth said as her dad helped the lady to her feet.
“Thank goodness,” Dulcie said.
“That’s Mrs. Robertson,” Elizabeth said.
That didn’t mean much to Dulcie, though she wasn’t a bit surprised that the little girl seemed to know just about everyone in town.
“Sorry about that,” West said, jogging back up to them a moment later. “Mrs. Robertson slipped, and she has some issues with her knees, so I wanted to make sure she was okay.”
“Is she?” Dulcie asked.
“Oh, yes,” West said with a smile. “And she was so happy I came to check on her that she said she’d be sending me in one of her famous, homemade, pecan pies with Doc Robertson next week—that’s the eye doctor with the office right on Red Oak.”
“I’m starting to see the appeal of a small town,” Dulcie teased.
“It’s not so bad here,” West said with a smile as they followed the crowd over to the big tree.
The snow had stopped, and the haze of clouds parted to reveal a starry sky over the park. Dulcie couldn’t help gazing up at it in wonder.
I wish you could see this, Delphine…
“Oh, look at that,” West said softly.
She turned to see that his eyes were on a big man with a little girl. A pretty, dark-haired lady was talking with the girl and then with the man, in turn. The little girl was smiling, gazing back and forth between the big tree and the pretty lady, with wonder in her eyes.
“Who are they?” Dulcie asked.
“That’s Max Hayes,” West said. “He owns the country store. The little girl just came here from Italy, he’s taking care of her now. But it looks like there’s something to the rumors around town.”
“What rumors?” Dulcie asked, intrigued.
“The lady with them,” West said. “That’s Charlie. She owns the pizza shop in town, and she’s sort of famously single. She usually doesn’t participate in any of the town Christmas activities even though she’s big on volunteering. Tripp calls her the grinch of Sugarville Grove.”
“She doesn’t look like a grinch,” Dulcie said, watching the lady smile at the girl.
“Well, I heard they’ve been spotted together a lot lately,” West said. “Though maybe she’s just here to translate for Bianca. I guess she speaks Italian.”
Dulcie was pretty sure that the lady wasn’t just there to translate. The way the man was looking at her and the color in her cheeks told a different tale. But Dulcie didn’t really feel like she knew enough about love herself to argue.
“I can’t see the singers, Daddy,” Elizabeth announced. “Hold me up high.”
West lifted her in his arms, and she wrapped her legs around his waist just as the choir began to sing.
The sweet notes of the familiar Christmas carol drifted through the clear night air, and Dulcie was surprised to find that she had a lump in her throat by the time they were finished. She wasn’t usually the sentimental type. But something about the whole scene was speaking to her.
As the cheers for the singers died down, a man with a neatly trimmed, white beard and a bright green knit scarf stepped up to the podium to speak.
“That’s Mayor Fontaine,” West whispered.