Chapter 7
Seven
G ita lifted her head. Was that a knock on her door? Who could be stopping in to visit at this time of morning?
She would have to answer the door herself, since she had given Grace the grocery list, and Grace was making a quick run to the store, while Jill and Stacy had left early that morning after breakfast.
Gita had promised Grace that she would not get up out of her chair the entire time she was gone. There was a grocery store down in Blueberry Beach, and it would be at least two hours until Grace got back.
But she couldn’t not open the door.
“I don’t think it’s locked. Come on in.” She used the loudest voice she could. Hopefully whoever had knocked had heard her and would let themselves in. Grace might have locked the door, but Gita never did. After all, it was Raspberry Ridge. Who was she locking the door against?
“Did you say to come in?” a gruff male voice said as the door squeaked. She assumed he must have pushed it open far enough for him to get his head in so he could ask.
“I did. I’m sorry I can’t get up. Well, I can, but I promised my daughter I wouldn’t. ”
“It’s funny how the rules change as we get older, and the kids start calling the shots,” the man said as the door squeaked again. She assumed he was opening it and walking in.
“Yeah. But especially now since I just had a hip replacement and my daughters are taking care of me. Well, daughter, now that my other two girls left. Come on in,” she said again as she waited for a body to fill the doorway. The voice sounded familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it.
Then, as the man appeared, she recognized him.
“Don. What are you doing here?” she asked, and then she realized it wasn’t a very welcoming statement. “I mean, come on in. Sit down. I’d offer you some refreshments or food, but like I said, I just had a hip replacement and I’m not allowed up.”
Gita didn’t know Don super well, but she saw him at church occasionally.
He’d gone a lot more since his wife left, but sometimes she went to church down in Blueberry Beach so she could see Stacy, and other times she went to church with Jill, just so that they could see each other.
So now she supposed that she was the one who seemed to be not faithful to the Lord’s house.
“I don’t have a lot of time, but I had something I wanted to run by you that is going to seem very…odd and perhaps outside of your comfort zone.”
“All right. I’m intrigued,” she said. Things that were outside of her comfort zone were right up her alley at this stage of her life.
He grinned at her, enjoying her sense of humor, she supposed, or else enjoying the thought of whatever it was that he wanted to run by her.
He finished coming into the room and sat down on the edge of the chair beside her so they could look at each other. He didn’t slide back, or look comfortable, but rather propped his forearms on his knees and steepled his hands together.
“I can’t believe I’m here, thinking about this. I think I’ve watched too many sappy movies since my wife left.”
“There are a lot of sappy movies on TV. But there’s other stuff on TV too. You could probably turn the channel.”
He grinned a bit. “Maybe I gave you the impression that I didn’t like sappy movies. That was incorrect. ”
“Oh,” she said, realizing that he hadn’t been saying what she thought he’d been saying at all. She chuckled. “I like it. Go on.”
“I have to be fast. So I’m just going to jump into it. My son Trevor dated your daughter back in the day.”
“He was her one true love, I think. She ended up getting married to someone else, but I don’t think that person ever measured up to the standard that Trevor set.” Perhaps that wasn’t her info to share, but Don wasn’t the kind of man who got news then ran all over town with it.
“That’s interesting. I mentioned it because my son ran into your daughter yesterday, and he asked me about her.
I didn’t realize she was back in town, and I couldn’t give him any information on her, which, in hindsight, is probably good.
But I love my son, and I can tell that he’s still interested.
I was wondering if you might be interested in playing matchmaker with me. That is if your daughter is available?”
“I found out yesterday she is divorced. It’s final, but it’s been over a year since the inciting incident, I guess you could call it. So, yes, that was a long, roundabout way of saying that yes, she is available.”
“Nice.”
“How would we play matchmaker?” She’d never even considered doing something like this before. Ever. But she wasn’t too old to try new things. The thought made a spark of excitement go through her.
“Well, here’s where things get a little dicey for you and me.
I was thinking if you and I pretend to be interested in each other and start spending time together…
or we could have a fake relationship. Or whatever it is.
It happens all the time in sappy movies.
Anyway, in the movies, two people play matchmaker by faking a relationship, then their kids are forced to spend time together and they end up falling in love. ”
“I see. Maybe you have been watching too many of them. That’s probably the clue, when you start to think it will work in real life.
” She chuckled. And then she said, “It appears that I’ve watched too many of the same movies, because I am totally on board with this.
Let’s pretend to have a relationship so that our kids will have to spend time together.
Because my daughter is here taking care of me, and she’s a captive audience. ”
“And my son just informed me that he quit his job and he wanted to move in with me. So he is a captive audience as well.”
They stared at each other, then they each cracked a smile, and Gita had to admit that she was glad he had shown up. He had made her somewhat boring life all of a sudden a lot more interesting.
“All right. I think I better give you my phone number. And we can start texting. That’s what all the kids do nowadays, isn’t it?”
“Maybe I don’t want to be a modern woman. Maybe I am old-fashioned and I want you to write letters and send them by snail mail. And I want flowers and candy and serenades out by my porch.”
“Wow. I’d forgotten how much work courting really was. No wonder the kids are doing it differently nowadays. At least from the male perspective, I can say I understand.”
“I was kidding,” Gita said, although she really did love the old-fashioned courting much better than she liked the newfangled stuff of modern life. It was all about hookups and quick fixes and easy and fast. She kind of thought that maybe the older generation had it right.
Don looked at her like he was maybe thinking about what she said. “I suppose if I’m getting the lady to agree with me about being in a fake relationship, I ought to be willing to put some effort into it.”
“No. There’s no need for that at all. If you were in a real relationship, maybe.
” She batted her eyes at him. And then she grew serious immediately.
“But we should know a little bit about each other. I mean, we can learn as we spend more time together, that would be the way it would happen in a normal relationship. But we have to know enough that we know we like each other and want to court.”
“Good point. First thing we should know is our phone numbers.” He got up from his chair and came over. She grabbed her phone and rattled off her number. He punched it in and then sent her a text.
“All right. Step one is taken care of. I suppose step two is figuring out how we met.”
“At church? That’s the truth. We just didn’t hit it off like maybe someone might assume we did, since we’re now courting.”
She giggled a little. This was too fun and too funny. “All right. I think the truth is always better than a lie. So we’ll just tell the truth. And we’ll let people infer whatever they want to, even if it’s wrong. ”
Their eyes twinkled at each other. She got the feeling that Don was having just as much fun as she was.
“My wife left five years ago, and I wasn’t really interested in dating anyone until you came along. In church,” he added with a wink.
“My husband passed away more than a decade ago, and I wasn’t interested in anyone until you came along. In church.” She winked back at him.
They giggled, almost like teenagers. She hadn’t had this much fun in ages.
“I’ll text you some of my hobbies. You can send me yours and any other info I should know, and I’ll start writing you a letter to send via snail mail. I’m not much for serenading, but I do have a guitar, and back in the day, I used to play. Maybe I can brush up on a love song.”
“Oh goodness. I wouldn’t want you to go out of your way like that for me.”
“I want to. Fake dating or no, I’m going to do right by the lady.”
“All right then. My favorite music is hymns. Maybe that’ll make it a little easier for you. You don’t have to sing me some kind of sappy rock ‘n’ roll garbage.”
“Hey, watch what you’re calling garbage,” he said, but she knew he was kidding because he was smiling.
“If you want to impress the lady, make it a hymn.” She blinked her eyes at him and tried to simper. She’d never been a simperer, and she had a feeling she failed miserably. But maybe he seemed to be a little bit affected by it, because his eyes dropped to her lips.
Maybe he was doing that on purpose. Maybe that was part of courting, even if they were doing it in a fake way.
Maybe she should admire his muscles. But he had a button-down on over a white T-shirt, and a vest over the top of that. She really couldn’t see any muscles.
But he did have nice facial hair.
“Your facial hair is outstanding,” she said, and then she rolled her eyes. “I think maybe I haven’t watched enough of those sappy movies. That was a pathetically terrible attempt at flirting.”
“I actually thought it was really good. So you admire my beard, huh?”
“Oh, greatly.”
“And I admire your eyes,” he said with just the barest pause before the word “your,” like he was desperately trying to find something on her that he could admire. She almost thought that maybe he was going to say something inappropriate and saved it at the last moment.
But surely not. He was an upstanding, upright man and would not be tempted to ogle anything that he shouldn’t. Right?
Well, she didn’t know men very well, but if she knew them at all, he was probably more than tempted, and he was probably ogling when she wasn’t looking. But she certainly would not lay any blame at his feet, because she was doing a little looking herself. She just would not call it ogling.
“All right. I’m supposed to be at the healing garden, because I told my son it was the five-year anniversary of my wife walking out on me, and so I needed to leave early for Bible study.”
“Oh,” she said, feeling instantly bad. “I’m so sorry.”
“I’m not sure it’s actually today or not. It was a…cloudy time for me. It might be true though. Because she did leave in the spring.”
“Oh. Well, if you ever had trouble remembering her birthday or your anniversary, she probably would be very happy to note that you have trouble remembering the date that she left, too.”
He apparently hadn’t thought of that before, because he guffawed quite loudly.
It made her feel witty, that he was laughing at her attempted joking. Which made her smile even bigger.
“You know, I wasn’t sure this was a good idea when I came to ask you.
I was only thinking that I really wanted to help my son.
He’s been stuck on your daughter since grade school.
And I know what it’s like to be stuck on someone.
Just never want to look anywhere else. But maybe this will be good for me too.
And maybe… Maybe you’ll get some kind of benefit out of it as well.
” He backed away, looking at her like he was thinking, and she really would have loved to know what was going on in his head.
Had she just agreed to…fake date this man? She should be appalled at herself, but she was having trouble wanting to do anything but laugh. Th is was going to be so fun. And who knew? Maybe their children would find each other and be happy, and it would be worth it.
There was a part of her that almost asked the question, but what about you? Where is this going to leave you?
But she felt like she was old enough and wise enough and had been through enough to take a chance like this.
She didn’t know Don very well, but he was a good man, and he wasn’t going to do anything untoward toward her, so she didn’t have to worry about that, and she certainly was going to treat him with respect as well.
“Maybe you can come over for dinner sometime,” she said as he looked like he was getting ready to turn around and leave. “In fact, I’d like it if you would,” she said, kind of pretending to be shy and uncertain but just mostly allowing what she actually felt to come out.
He grinned. “I’ve got some pepper jack cauliflower in the crockpot that I would really love to share with you. Maybe, if you would be interested in getting together later today?”
“I would definitely be interested. Anytime.”
They grinned at each other, and she figured they probably did look like lovesick fools.
“My son lives with me. I would probably have to bring him along. I hope that wouldn’t inconvenience you.”
“Oh, not at all. And my daughter lives with me, so she’ll probably be joining us. I hope that doesn’t upset you?”
She had the strangest urge to giggle at their little pretend drama. Was this a comedy? She wasn’t sure. She supposed it should be a love story, but she was having too much fun. It had to be a romcom. “I’ve always wanted my own romcom. I feel like I’m living it now.”
His eyes twinkled. “I’m happy to be the leading man in your romcom.”
They grinned before he put up a hand and waved, and then walked toward the door.
She was a little bit relieved. She didn’t want Grace to come back before he left.
She was going to have to figure out how to tell Grace that she had a man in her life and had for a while, she wasn’t sure how long, and somehow she managed to not tell her other two daughters, and…
he hadn’t been there to help when she had her hip operation .
It would be okay. She could say they just started dating. That’s how they’d handle that.
Humming to herself, she lifted the book that she’d been reading back up off the coffee table where she set it when he’d knocked on the door, but it was a while before she got back into her story.