Twenty-Six
Valerie was sleeping when Nico slipped out of bed to confirm Mother Nature had done her job with the weather. She had, and it was going to be a perfect day for Valerie’s thirtieth birthday.
He left a note for Valerie to meet him at the dock when she was ready and went to triple-check his schedule. He paused, looking at what he had planned to cap off the day. Was it a good idea? Roger thought so. He’d been thrilled to help, but Nico knew Penny might not be pleased.
Whatever. Let them all know how he felt about Valerie. He was probably doing a poor job of hiding it anyway. As Valerie said, it was hard to disguise when feelings were involved. He’d found himself trying to shoehorn her name into conversations more than once.
Ever since Valerie had mentioned her birthday, Nico had made it his mission to plan the best day possible for her.
He fidgeted with the flowers and the thermos of coffee.
Would she like it? What if he judged it all wrong and she, like him, preferred to spend her birthday alone?
Caught in a sudden agony of indecision, he called Kimmy.
“Do you like it when people make a fuss over your birthday?” he demanded.
She yawned. “Did you wake me up for this? I had the day off.”
“Do you?”
“You’ve known me for over thirty years. Shouldn’t you know?”
“Kimmy.”
“Oh.” She sounded more alert. “Hold on. You’re asking for a reason.”
Shit, he was caught. “Let me rephrase. If someone planned a nice surprise for your birthday, would you like it?”
“Nico, women aren’t a monolith. I might. She might not.” She paused. “Who’s the new girlfriend?”
“I don’t have a girlfriend.” This was true but he made the tactical error of hesitating.
“You’re lying.” Kimmy sounded bored in her victory. “Who?”
“She’s not my girlfriend.”
“You want her to be. You can’t hide from me, Nico.”
He gave in, partly to get Kimmy off his back, but mostly to have the pleasure of talking about Valerie. “Her name is Valerie and she’s staying with the Badgertons this summer.”
“A summer romance.” Kimmy sighed. “This is exactly what you need to get out of your rut. I approve.”
“I wasn’t looking for your approval,” he pointed out.
“You’re happy to have it though, aren’t you?”
“Don’t tell Stefanie.” He thought. “Or Mom.” His dad wouldn’t care, or at least wouldn’t care in the loudly emphatic way the others would.
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Kimmy laughed. “Remember the time I brought Sean home from university and at dinner Mom told him she felt they weren’t connecting? He dumped me the next week. What’s your Valerie like?”
What was she like? “Sweet,” he said finally. “She likes to help people. She’s funny. Up for anything.”
“Pretty?”
“I don’t judge people on their looks,” he reminded her. “You told me it was shallow.”
“I lied. What does she look like?”
“She’s half Chinese. Her hair is dyed burgundy, and it comes down to her shoulders,” he said, gesturing although Kimmy couldn’t see him.
“Her eyes are brown and really nice and she doesn’t have any freckles.
Her earrings match her outfits and she looks good in hats.
She’s about your height and—” He stopped because Kimmy’s snickers were getting louder. “What?”
“You got it bad, son.”
He didn’t deny it. “You’d like her.”
“I bet we would.”
We. He paused. “I talked to Stefanie. We had a fight.”
The ice came right through the phone. “I know and I cannot deal with either of you. You both want to ruin this anniversary because you’re petty, so go ahead. I’m sick of trying.”
She hung up. She was right. This wasn’t fair to her or their parents. He was going to have to do something about it.
After today, though, because Valerie was skipping down from the bunkie and waving at him. “I got your note!” She flung her arms around him.
“Happy birthday.” He spoke into her hair.
“You remembered!”
“I did.” He felt it unnecessary to mention that she told him two days ago and his memory wasn’t that bad. He untangled himself and grabbed the box he’d wrapped yesterday after she’d gone to sleep. “Here.”
“A present!” She ripped it open to reveal the floppy straw hat with a wide pink ribbon that he’d seen her eyeing in one of the Mariposa Village boutiques. “I love it. How did you know I wanted this?”
Because you went back twice to look at it and I love watching you. He didn’t say it, but pointed at the canoe. “I have a day planned,” he said. “If you want to go on an adventure.”
“You know I do.”
“Our first stop is to visit a beaver dam on the other side of the lake,” he said. “Are you in?”
She kissed him, then grabbed him with that steely grip to keep him in place while she kissed him deeper. “Yes.”
It took him fifteen minutes to paddle to the dam, and when they arrived, Valerie passed back a cup of coffee from the picnic basket he’d tucked in the canoe.
“Beavers are most active from dusk until dawn, so we might not see them,” he warned. Valerie was looking from side to side, her new hat tilted jauntily on her head.
“Is that the lodge?” She pointed at what looked like a messy pile of wood.
“It is.”
She ate the fruit and muffins he’d brought, listening closely.
“There!” Valerie pointed to a small splash in the distance. “A beaver!”
At the sound of her glee, Nico decided he’d take the beaver a gift to thank it for showing up. Would it like trees to gnaw? Valerie turned and he glimpsed her wide eyes. Yeah, that beaver deserved a forest.
* * *
“A market?” asked Valerie as they pulled up to the long, low building. They’d spent part of the drive debating what life was like in a beaver lodge and if the beavers got muddy. He’d suggested simply checking online for the answer, but Valerie insisted the fun of it was to debate nonsensically.
It had been pretty fun.
“They call it Odds and Ends, but it’s part crafts, part antiques, and part thrift store.”
“Sounds up my alley.” She grabbed his hand as they went through the double doors.
The market was set up in an old stable, with the vendors in the various stalls and lines down the center.
There appeared to be no rhyme or reason to the setup, and Nico automatically began to mentally sort the vendors by product type to make the experience more efficient.
That way shoppers could go in, instantly find what they wanted, make their purchase, and get on with the day, like in a grocery store.
He was expanding the concept to create a plan for all markets that could be applied regardless of location when he realized that, like Valerie, most people’s goal was not to make a quick and targeted purchase.
They were there to browse, which was not something he was used to.
Why spend all that time looking at stuff you weren’t going to buy?
When Nico had to buy something, he searched online for what best suited his needs, found the lowest price, and pulled out his wallet.
He’d never gone shopping with another person as an adult, not even Madison.
Valerie was poking around a rack of old dresses, rubbing fabric between her fingers and murmuring about darts or something before moving on.
The pleasure seemed to be in the experience. He could tell by the way she bounced from vendor to vendor, looking at terrariums made of crystal to dangly earrings that she held by her face. “Chandeliers. Too heavy, though.” She clung to his arm and smiled up into his face. “This is perfect.”
If Valerie was happy, that’s what mattered.
He followed her into another stall and began to thumb through pages of old books before turning to a wooden crate filled with old jazz vinyls and then a long case of belt buckles.
Could he be a funky buckle guy? Maybe. Perhaps that’s what the shoppers were really hunting—new selves and interests, not simply things to buy.
He looked at Valerie laughing with the vendor as he pointed out a feathered fan simply to share its beauty, and supposed some things were more important than efficiency.
Only some things, though. Office workflows were still pretty neat.
* * *
Valerie had left her phone on the table when she went to wash her hands before lunch. The screen lit up with a message from her mother.
Almost forgot but better late than never. Happy birthday from Erica, Justin, Paul, and your mother.
It was wrong of him to read her private message, but he checked it again to make sure he’d seen it properly.
Her own mother almost forgot. On his birthday, his family blew up his phone, and not even Stefanie would neglect to call with an off-tune rendition of “Happy Birthday.” He’d tended to roll his eyes at how over the top they could be, but now he understood how lucky he was.
To see how unappreciated Valerie was made him furious on her behalf. Anger was better than the ache he felt lingering under it.
When she came back to the table, she glanced at her phone and bit her cheek before simply dropping it in her bag.
She said nothing, and he decided to give her space.
The server brought their tea: pink-lemonade rose hibiscus for Valerie and a more sedate Darjeeling for him.
They were in a garden and Nico had to admit this was the perfect venue for Valerie.
The orange umbrella shading the table made her glow, and she’d arranged her new hat on its own chair.
She looked around with approval at the tiny animal statues and garden gnomes that lay hidden under flowers and by trees.
“I should have brought Odile to hang out with her stone brethren,” she said. “I haven’t had a birthday like this in ages.”
“What do you usually do?” This could be a good way to get her talking about her family.
“I suppose I work. You?”
“I take the day off and go for a long walk to take stock of my life,” Nico said.
The tea tray arrived, a tiered plate so high Valerie had to look around the scones to see him. “I wasn’t expecting that.”