Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Anthony paused outside the door to Diana’s shop, took a deep breath, and gathered his courage before walking through the door to the boutique.
He was not at all certain that he ought to have come here, but he couldn’t handle it any longer.
He needed to at least offer an apology, although it was up to Diana if she accepted it.
He put on a false confidence as he strode up to the counter…
Only to find Diana asleep, her head pillowed on her arms, dark hair spilling over the glass countertop of her counter. Anthony’s feet stuttered to a stop in surprise.
He… really was not at all sure what to do from here. Should he wake her up? That seemed rude, but also it seemed possible that Diana didn’t want to be asleep at her desk at work. Maybe it wasn’t even safe? After all, anyone could walk in.
But also, wasn’t the fact that she was asleep on her desk in the middle of the day a clear sign that she really needed the rest? She really looked so peaceful resting there. But what if she got a crick in her neck?
These questions, he decided, were a good sign that he hadn’t overcome his nerves as much as he might have hoped.
He had just resolved to close the window shades, maybe flip the store’s sign to closed, just to make sure she was safe, when Diana startled awake, saw him standing there, and promptly let out a little shriek of surprise.
Equally startled, Anthony jumped back, holding a hand out in front of him like he was trying to physically hold her alarm at bay.
“Oh gosh,” he said. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Oh man.”
Diana’s words overlapped with his.
“Oh no, I fell asleep. Oh goodness, you scared me. Oh, I’m so sorry.”
They both stopped talking at the same time, stared at one another for a moment, and then burst into laughter.
“I’m sorry for scaring you,” Anthony said through his laughter.
Diana pressed a hand to her forehead, then brushed her sleep-mussed hair back from her face.
“No, I’m sorry,” she said. “Obviously I should not be sleeping at work. I am just beat, because last night, my book club friends and I were up all night putting together this monstrosity of a bookshelf for Eleanor, since the opening is tomorrow. And the shelf is gorgeous, honestly, but it is a monster to me, because I am way too old to be doing all-nighters anymore. I am seriously so tired, I feel like I can taste colors. It is not good, for real.”
She said all this while she was still laughing, and Anthony found himself noticing, not for the first time, how pretty she was.
Too bad he’d totally blown it on their date.
Which brought him to his point for coming in.
“Well, I’m sorry for disturbing you, but I just wanted to pop in to say…
” He had to start over again with summoning his courage.
“I wanted to say sorry for the way things went on our date. I was so, so awkward, and I’m really, really sorry about it.
” Was he repeating himself too much? Probably.
“I just… I feel really terrible about it, and I wanted to just…” Gosh, he was hesitating too much too.
“I didn’t want to leave things where we left them. ”
When he finally dared to look back at Diana, she was smiling at him so crookedly that it gave him a little flutter in his belly.
“Me neither,” she admitted. The flutter grew.
She didn’t seem annoyed with him, which was what he’d feared the most. He knew the rough date meant that he and Diana might not be destined for something romantic, and thought that was disappointing on its own, but he felt that he could get through that let down if they could maintain their fledgling friendship.
He felt his shoulders unclench for the first time in days.
“I was hoping we could have… well, not a do-over, since it’s pretty clear I’m out of practice with doing anything romantic,” he said with a self-deprecating grimace, something that made her smile grow a little broader. Emboldened, he went on. “But maybe we could do something more casual?”
“Yeah, that would be—” Her words cut off as she yawned widely.
Right. His amends plan would have to wait.
“Diana,” he said, feeling the caretaker side of him, honed by years of being a single dad. “You can’t run the store like this. You’re dead on your feet. Go home!”
She was already shaking her head.
“I can’t,” she said. “Trust me, I have already been down that mental road a few times. But I have a few people set to come by to pick up special orders, so I have to be here.”
She barely made it through the words before she, once again, let out an enormous yawn.
Anthony felt his mind racing. Okay, he could work with this. She had to be here, but she was exhausted. It was an equation. He could figure it out. He was an accountant. Math was his thing.
And then, like solving an elaborate word problem, it clicked into place.
“Stay here,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”
“Uh, okay,” Diana said with the telltale blink of somebody who was too tired to put up much of a fight. “I mean, yeah, I just said I had to stay here, but sure.”
She sounded so cutely sleepy that Anthony couldn’t help another smile as he hurried out the door and back to his office, moving so quickly that he was practically jogging.
He unlocked his door, then opened the coat closet inside the little vestibule area.
He hadn’t moved any coats in there yet, since it was still summer, but he had tucked a big plastic bin on the top shelf, full of pillows and blankets for Eloise in case he ever had to work really late.
It happened only rarely, and usually even then only during tax season, but he had lugged the supplies here anyway, since his daughter sometimes liked to cuddle up with a book while he worked.
He grabbed a pillow, a blanket, and a fresh pillowcase. Yes. Perfect.
He bundled them up under his arm, then worried that jogging over to his office had made him sweaty, and scrounged around until he found a tote bag to hold his things. That would be better.
He hurried back to the boutique, not bothering to worry about getting even sweatier. In for a penny, in for a pound, as they said.
He nearly breezed right past Honey Bee Bakery when the scent of warm sugar on the air halted his feet.
There were worse things than a quick sugar rush when it came to staying awake after a hectic night with too little sleep.
He’d learned that lesson in many tax seasons, and then again when Eloise was small.
He bought Diana a pecan bun and an enormous coffee.
Then, on one more little burst of inspiration, he ducked into the Country Corner Market for some bright, cheerful sunflowers.
It was the little things, he’d always found, that really helped to make a tough day better.
By the time he got back to the boutique, not more than fifteen minutes after he’d left, poor Diana was asleep again.
This time, he didn’t fumble with surprise.
He quickly went back to the small dressing room in the back of the boutique.
He put the treats on a little table that he dragged in from the area outside the dressing room.
The weather was warm enough that she wouldn’t need a blanket on top of her, so he used the coverlet to create a cushion on the bench.
He propped the pillow strategically, then took a step back to eye his handiwork.
It was, he told himself, pretty good work, given what he’d had to work with.
He went back out to the front, where Diana was still contentedly snoozing away, her face scrunched up against her fist. He reached out really gently and touched her shoulder.
“Diana, honey,” he said, the endearment slipping out before he could stop himself. He wished he could snatch it back, but, fortunately, Diana didn’t seem to notice; she was too busy sleepily blinking herself awake.
“Huh?” she asked, looking up at him blearily. This time, she didn’t startle either. “Hi.”
Their eye contact held for a brief moment. There was no awkwardness in it.
It was nice. It was the kind of nice that made Anthony wish he hadn’t messed up their date. What would it be like to have quiet, tender moments between them whenever they wanted?
But now was not the time for worrying about any of that. He couldn’t change how their date had gone, but he could help Diana out here and now.
“Hi,” he said, giving her a soft smile. “There’s a little bed set up for you back in the dressing room.”
He had never seen joy light up in a woman’s face the way Diana’s did when he said the word bed. Just as quickly, however, her expression fell.
“Oh, that’s so nice, and it sounds so good, but I have to be out here for the order pickups…”
He shook his head. “I’ll stay. I’ll make sure the people get everything they need.”
It was a Saturday, after all, and Eloise was at a play date. He hadn’t even really been certain what to do with himself before he’d come in here. It had been ages since he’d had a free day all to himself.
Diana looked doubtful, but also very tempted.
“Are you sure?” she asked.
He took advantage of this moment of uncertainty in her and ushered her to her feet, urging her toward the back room.
“I am sure,” he said. “It will be like when you have a career shadowing day as a kid, and you get to go in to somebody’s parent’s office and see how they get stuff done.
Besides, it’s definitely not going to make me worse as your accountant to see how your business runs beyond the numbers. It’s basically a win-win.”
“But what if you don’t know how to do something?” she asked. Her resolve was weakening with every step toward the promised rest, Anthony could tell.
“Well,” he reasoned, feeling a bit like the past version of himself that had been forced to negotiate bedtime with his toddler daughter every day, “I will remind you that I did go through all your books, so I can probably figure it out. Plus, I know you’re organized, so I suspect I can keep the ship afloat for one afternoon.
” When her steps toward the back paused, like she was not at all convinced by this argument, he added, “And you’ll be right in the back.
So if something really stumps me, I’ll just come get you. ”
He saw the flicker of acceptance as this point landed.
“You promise?” she asked.
“I promise.”
After that, she went straight to the back of the store, no cajoling needed. A sweet, touched smile crossed her face when she saw the makeshift bed he’d made for her, but she didn’t say anything, so neither did he.
Maybe it was better that way, after all. It just let the nice moment hang there.
“Okay,” she said at last, the word coming out of her in a happy sigh. “Okay. Thank you, Anthony.”
Her understated appreciation made him feel so good.
He loved his daughter, and he loved his job, but the last few years had been hard.
Ever since he’d lost his wife, it had been hard to feel like he wasn’t constantly fighting against a tide of potential mistakes.
He wanted Eloise to be happy and well adjusted, but he didn’t want her to feel like she had to suppress her grief.
He didn’t want to forget Shannon, but he couldn’t live feeling as though he was surrounded by the memories of what he’d lost either.
Moving here had been good. Trying something new had been good.
And this little thing he’d done today, making something easier on a friend going through a hard time?
That was good. And it felt amazing to be able to do that, after so long spent being the friend who needed the help.
It reminded him that he was, slowly but steadily, starting to look forward to a bright future instead of only trying to respond to the actions of the past.
“You’re welcome, Diana. Anytime.”
And he meant it. With all of his heart.