Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Diana was not a habitual napper, and she was reminded of the reason for this when she woke in the dressing room of her boutique and found herself uncertain if she had been asleep for a few minutes, a few hours, or, say, a hundred years, à la Rip Van Winkle.
She glanced around for her phone, planning to check the time, when her gaze landed on the small side table that normally lived out in the hallway area that connected the dressing room to the main part of the store.
Atop the table sat a Honey Bee Bakery bag, its top neatly folded over, and an iced coffee, also from Honey Bee, sitting next to it.
This, at least, gave her a little sense of time; the ice in the coffee had melted, leaving a small pool of condensation around the sides of the plastic cup.
She’d had quite the nap, then, it seemed.
She sat up, stretching. Her back groaned a little at her.
She was inching ever closer to forty, which meant she really oughtn’t be sleeping on hard benches that were barely covered any longer.
She definitely felt better than she had while she was fighting exhaustion, however, and felt better still when she saw the little bouquet of sunflowers that Anthony had gotten for her.
They had been placed in a spare reusable water bottle that she kept beneath the counter for days when she forgot to bring a drink with her.
For some reason, she found that detail unbelievably charming.
She could just imagine Anthony buying the flowers, then grimacing at himself when he realized he didn’t have a vase to put them in.
She let herself enjoy a little flutter of warmth as she thought about the kindness that Anthony had shown her today. Not only had he let her get some much-needed rest, but he’d bought her little pick-me-ups to help her get through the day. And he’d come by to apologize for their awkward date.
There weren’t many men who would do such a thing. Diana knew that all too well, as her experience on the apps showed her. Most men would just completely ignore her after that kind of uncomfortable evening.
But not Anthony. No, he was not at all like the kind of men that Diana had been dating recently. And she liked that.
Suddenly, she blinked. Anthony! Here she was, woolgathering after hours of sleeping, and poor Anthony was still minding her shop!
She scrambled to her feet and did a cursory shake of her sundress, trying to get the worst of the wrinkles out, then giving the whole thing up as a lost cause.
She was still wearing her sandals; apparently, she’d been so tired that she’d fallen asleep with her shoes still on.
She felt horrible when she saw, from the small window directly outside the dressing room, that the sun was well on its way to setting, the sky painted in stripes of orange and pink. This time of year, that meant it had to be, what, seven or eight at night? She had slept for four hours.
She burst into the main area of the store, an apology and thank you already rising to her lips, then froze.
Her store was lit up with candlelight.
As the owner of a clothing boutique, fire was one of the very last things that Diana ever wanted to see in her shop.
But it took less than a millisecond for her to realize that these weren’t real candles; they were the tiny, flickering, battery operated kind.
The kind that threw a romantic cozy glow around the room without risking sending her entire livelihood up in flames.
And, Diana realized a moment later, when Eloise leapt to her feet and knocked over several of the little bulbs, the kind that were safe from the exuberance of a ten-year-old.
“Oh, yay!” Eloise exclaimed. “You’re finally here!”
“I am,” Diana said as she pushed her hair back behind her shoulders. She could hardly understand was she was seeing, even though it was plain as day right in front of her. “Did you guys… did you guys make me a picnic?”
From his spot on the blanket laid out on the floor, Anthony turned and smiled at her. He looked bashful and pleased with himself, and Diana was reminded of Eleanor teasing her by calling him “the handsome accountant.” He was handsome, though. So very, very handsome.
Eloise was the one to answer Diana’s question, even though Diana’s eyes remained locked on the girl’s father.
“Yeah! I wanted to do a picnic how I imagined it at Orchard House in Little Women,” she said proudly.
“We couldn’t get pickled limes, and Dad said he doesn’t even know what they are, so maybe they don’t make them anymore.
But that just means we’re like poor Amy.
And Jo makes gingerbread, but it’s not Christmas, so we couldn’t find that either.
But the bakery did have apple cake, so we have that, and there are plums, even though we couldn’t get plum pudding, which Dad also said is old-fashioned.
And then he said that we had to get more than just fruits and sweets, even if it wasn’t in the book, because you might be hungry, so we got sandwiches too.
And I guess that’s okay, because everyone likes sandwiches, so the March sisters probably did too, even if they don’t say it in the book. What do you think? Do you like it?”
Eloise gave this whole monologue with the kind of breathless excitement that only a child can give. And Diana did listen, her chest growing warm with fondness for the girl with every word.
Her eyes, however, were locked on Anthony’s.
It was only when Eloise fell silent that Diana tore her gaze away. She gave Eloise a beaming smile.
“I love it,” she said.
Eloise clapped her hands together and did an excited little dance, which made Diana laugh.
“You guys really shouldn’t have done all this, though,” she said, making sure her tone conveyed that this was due to her excess of gratitude, not because she wanted to censure them. “After watching the store all afternoon to boot? It’s really too much.”
“It is not,” Anthony said firmly. “I say this with kindness, but you were completely dead to the world. I didn’t have the heart to wake you up.
So I had Eloise’s friend’s mother drop her off here after her playdate.
And it didn’t totally surprise me to learn that Country Corner Market doesn’t normally deliver, but when I called them up and explained my situation, Kelly, who works over there, sent her son over with bags of stuff that they were able to ring up remotely.
The kid tried to refuse any payment for the delivery, but I slipped him a twenty just for being a good sport about it. ”
Anthony shrugged, as if to say that all this was really no big deal at all, while Diana gaped at him, completely bowled over by his generosity.
“Don’t give me that look, Diana Madsen,” he said, teasingly scolding. “Do you know how many casseroles I’ve been given by the people of this town? Sit down, eat, and let me pay it forward in peace.”
Well, when he put it like that…
“Very well,” she said primly. “Thank you both, very much.”
Eloise darted forward and wrapped Diana in a swift, tight hug. Diana hugged her back, feeling a pleased smile cross her face as she did so. Then, both of them lowered themselves down to the picnic blanket, Eloise in a quick, fluid drop, Diana a little more gingerly.
And if she sat a teeny, tiny bit close to Anthony, who could blame her, right? Anthony certainly didn’t seem to, based on the way he shot her a shy sort of look.
This is already way better than our date, Diana thought, then chided herself for comparing the two. This wasn’t a date, was it? It was just a friendly picnic. The romantic candlelight was probably… to save on her electric bill. That had to be it.
“Dad!” Eloise’s voice cut in, alerting Diana to the fact that she had been staring kind of dopily at Anthony. “Can we eat? Please?”
Anthony cleared his throat rapidly, like he realized he’d been caught doing something. Luckily, Eloise was too busy staring at apple cake as though she hoped to telekinetically get it to transport directly to her mouth to notice anything going on between the two adults in the room.
“Right,” he said gruffly. “So we’ve got some salami and cubed ham, some cheeses. I think it’s gouda and… something. I forget. But it looks good. Fruit, vegetables, are over here. Your standard charcuterie board fare.”
“And spinach dip,” Eloise said conspiratorially. “It’s better than regular spinach, because it tastes like cheese, but you still get your vitamins.”
Diana fought back against the chuckle that threatened to bubble out of her. “That’s very important.”
“It helps you grow,” Eloise said with a shrug that really challenged Diana’s composure.
With this sage advice spurring her on, Diana did accept some spinach dip, as well as an assortment of meats, cheeses, fruits, and vegetables.
A little dish of pita chips made perfect accompaniment for the dip, and there was some red pepper hummus, as well.
Eloise liberated a toothpick that was holding one of the sandwiches together and made herself little fruit kebabs, spearing a grape, a blueberry, a wedge of plum, and a piece of pineapple together.
She explained somberly to the adults that this was the best collection of fruits, for reasons that she implied were both obvious and highly mysterious.
It was fun. Diana kept trying to convince herself that this wasn’t a date, since most dates didn’t happen with a ten-year-old in tow, but that was what it felt like.
A really good date. And it just felt right that Eloise was there with them.
They snacked on the myriad of treats that Anthony had gathered, laughing and goofing around.
Diana and Eloise talked about Little Women for so long that Anthony’s eyes began to glaze over, although he bore it all with good humor.
Eloise pointed out her favorite things in the shop, and Diana filed this information away, thinking that there had to be some kind of present-giving situation in the future where she could gift the girl with one of her coveted trinkets.
They sat there for at least two hours, and still, Diana could have easily stayed there for another few hours.
Eventually, Eloise got distracted by using the sandwich toothpicks to try to build a little pyramid, grapes serving as the anchor points to connected the different sticks.
Diana noticed that she and Anthony had scooted gradually closer to one another until they were seated close enough that her pinky brushed the outside of his hand where they were both bracing their palms against the picnic blanket.
She felt a little spark of electricity jump between that barely-there point of contact.
Part of her felt a like a giddy teenager again, trembling with excitement when she nudged her crush in the hallway at school.
“This was amazing,” she said quietly to him as Eloise muttered to herself about toothpick physics. “Like, seriously amazing. I don’t know how to thank you enough.”
He began shaking his head before she was even done speaking.
“No thanks necessary. I told you, I want to spend more time with you.” He paused, glancing over to where Eloise was eyeing her tower critically. “I didn’t exactly plan for my daughter to be present when that happened but…”
“But Eloise is precious and wonderful and it feels right, having her here,” Diana said, which made Anthony beam with parental pride. “Besides, you’re not as good at talking about books as she is.”
He laughed. “No, that is true enough. Still, I had also thought that I would, you know, ask you before our next encounter.”
She looked out over her store, lit up with little lights, full of the remnants of a delicious meal, and full of people she was beginning to care about a great deal.
“No,” she said quietly, half to herself. “This was perfect.” Then she gave him a look. “I mean, next time, ask me. But for tonight, this was perfect.”
A bright, hopeful look crossed his features. “Next time?”
She nodded. “This date was about a million times better than any of the ones I’ve gone on after meeting somebody on a dating app… and it wasn’t just because of the venue or the picnic, as wonderful as both things were.” She felt herself blushing as she admitted, “It was because of the company.”
His answering smile made her feel practically giddy.
“Diana,” he said seriously, “I would really like to kiss you now.”
“I would really like that too.”
They had to be quick, as by unspoken agreement, neither of them wished to grab Eloise’s attention. But she was still distracted, so they dared a brush of their lips against one another, just a brief press of mouths that, for all its brevity and chaste nature, still sent a thrill through Diana.
The lighting in the room was dim, but she thought she saw a blush on Anthony’s cheeks. Maybe he too, felt the thrill.
They turned back to Eloise, offering praise when she presented her toothpick geometry with pride. And if their hands inched a little closer together, so that they were touching, their pinkies hooked together, well… Eloise didn’t notice, and that was good enough for Diana.