Chapter 31
While Beth was getting ready, Dave called ahead and booked a table at the café.
Kathleen had saved the booth beside the window for them. It was the best table in the room, with a great view of the lake.
On their way across the room, Dave looked at the people who were here. Even though it was only a few minutes past five-thirty, the café was already half full. And most of the people were having exactly what he’d brought Beth to enjoy.
He nodded to a couple of people he knew from the Finley Point construction site, and a roofing contractor he’d been speaking to that afternoon.
Beth seemed to know everyone else in the room. She stopped to say hello to a table of six people. He recognized Percy from the historical society, and Mabel from the general store.
By tomorrow morning, Hank would probably know what they’d ordered.
He helped Beth with her jacket, then placed it on the back of an extra chair. “Everything smells delicious.”
Beth sent him a warm smile. “I thought the same thing when we walked inside. This was a great idea.”
When Kathleen came over, Beth ordered first. “The bison burger, please.”
Kathleen scribbled on her pad. “Swiss cheese and mushrooms?”
Beth nodded. “All of it.”
Dave smiled. “I’ll have the same.”
“And two pieces of huckleberry pie afterward,” Beth added.
Kathleen looked at Dave. “Are you okay with that?”
“I’ve learned not to argue with Beth.”
Kathleen walked away smiling and Dave sat back and looked across the table. This should have felt strange. He hadn’t been on a first date in more than forty years. He’d forgotten what the rules were, assuming he’d ever known them.
But sitting across from Beth felt remarkably like the lunch they’d had on the way home from Cedar Ridge. Only better, because neither of them was pretending it was about work.
Beth folded her hands on the table. “When was the last time you went on a date?”
Dave groaned. “You had to ask that?”
“I think it’s a reasonable question.”
He thought back over the decades and smiled. “Carol and I used to go out for dinner.”
Beth shook her head. “That doesn’t count.”
“Why not?”
“Because once you’ve been married for more than twenty years, going out for dinner is different.”
Dave supposed it was, but thinking about his last date before Carol was making him realize just how old he was. “Then I suppose it was sometime in the early eighties.”
Beth’s eyes widened. “You haven’t been on a date since the 1980s?”
“No.”
“Dave.” She stared at him in disbelief.
“What?”
“I was nervous before we came here. Now I feel like we’re as hopeless as each other.”
He laughed. “Glad I could help.”
Thankfully, their burgers arrived before Beth could ask him any more questions about his dating life.
When Dave bit into his burger, he understood why it was so popular. The bison was smoky from the grill, the Swiss cheese melted across the top, and the mushrooms had been cooked with enough butter to undo any benefit from choosing lean meat.
Across from him, Beth had closed her eyes after her first bite.
“Is it that good?” he asked.
She opened her eyes. “It’s delicious.”
Dave laughed and reached for a fry. He watched Beth take another bite and felt something inside him settle. There was no guilt. That surprised him.
He’d expected Carol to be here somewhere. Not literally, but in the memories that had followed him into every new thing he’d done since she’d died. Instead, he felt something much simpler.
He wished she could know he was happy. The thought tightened his throat for a second, but it didn’t hurt.
Beth put down her burger and looked at him more closely. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” Dave reached for another fry, buying himself a second. “I was thinking about Carol.”
Beth didn’t flinch from the name. “Good memories?”
“The best.” He looked around the café, at the friendship and sense of community they were part of. “I think she would have liked this.”
Beth’s expression softened. “Jessie would have told me to order two pieces of pie and take one home.”
“We can do that.”
She smiled. “Maybe we should.”
They talked about everything and nothing. Dave told Beth about the renovations he was planning for his house, the steamboat trip across Flathead Lake that he was taking his son on for his birthday, and what was happening at Finley Point.
Beth talked about Kayla’s wedding, the melt-in-your-mouth slice she’d made at Susan’s baking class last week, and the TikTok posts Rachel was making about the arts center.
By the time they’d finished their burgers, both of them weren’t sure they could squeeze in a slice of pie, but they were willing to try.
The two plates of huckleberry pie arrived warm, with vanilla ice cream melting against the crusts.
Dave took one bite of his and sighed. “We definitely need another two pieces to take home.”
Beth grinned. “I knew I liked you.”
He lowered his fork and looked across the table. “Only for the pie?”
Beth held his gaze. “No,” she said softly. “Not only for the pie.”
Something warm moved through his chest. Dave had spent the last week wondering what came next. Whether they were ready. Whether wanting someone new meant leaving too much of the past behind.
Sitting across from Beth, he finally understood that he didn’t need to know where this was going. Tonight, she was here.
So was he.
He hesitated for only a second before reaching across the table and resting his hand over hers.
Beth looked down at their hands, then back at him.
For one terrible second, Dave wondered if he’d misread everything. Then her fingers shifted beneath his, turning until her palm rested against his. She curled her fingers around his hand and gave it a small squeeze.
The simple gesture sent a rush of warmth through him.
Beth’s smile was a little shy, and that did something unexpected to his heart. Knowing she might be as nervous about this as he was made him want to move closer, not pull away.
“I’m glad you stopped by tonight,” she said.
“So am I.”
Her thumb moved across the side of his hand.
Dave forgot about the pie. He forgot about Kathleen moving between the tables and the conversations around them. For a few seconds, the café seemed to shrink until there was only Beth sitting across from him, her hand warm in his.
He wanted to kiss her.
The thought arrived so clearly that it almost made him laugh. He was a sixty-five-year-old man sitting in the middle of a crowded café, holding hands with a woman he’d only known for a couple of months, and suddenly he felt like a teenager.
Beth’s eyes flicked briefly to his mouth before returning to his face.
Maybe he wasn’t the only one thinking about it. His heart gave one hard thump.
Beth glanced toward their nearly empty plates. “We should probably finish our pie.”
“Probably.”
Neither of them reached for their forks.
Her smile widened.
Dave tightened his fingers around hers. “Or we could sit here for another minute.”
Beth smiled. “I’d like that.”
So would he. More than he could remember liking anything in a very long time.
And when Beth’s foot settled gently against his beneath the table, Dave decided there was no hurry at all.