Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Diana paused with her hand on the light switch of her clothing shop, Magnolia Boutique, and ran through her mental list of closing tasks before she clicked off the light.
Turning off the computer? Check. Preparing the deposit to drop in the bank’s late-night slot on her walk home?
Check. Sending in the order that was due to a distributor today? Check and check.
With a satisfied smile, she finally clicked off the light and exited the store, hunching slightly against the winter’s chill. It might only be five in the evening, but in January, that meant that it was all but fully dark outside.
It wasn’t quite the time of year where she started feverishly counting down the days until spring arrived, but it wasn’t that far from it either.
After checking to make sure the lock mechanism was secure and the shop was closed up tight for the night, Diana tucked her scarf a little more tightly around her and took the short walk over to drop off her envelope of cash at the bank.
Once her hands were free, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed her boyfriend, Anthony.
While the phone rang, she reflected on how happy she was to have Anthony and his daughter Eloise in her life.
Diana had spent so many years focusing on her business, and she didn’t regret that time, not when she loved her shop so much.
But about a year ago, it had occurred to her that she’d spent so much time focusing on her career that she had neglected everything else in her life.
She’d started online dating, which had been enlightening but hadn’t given her the kind of relationship she truly desired, the kind that lasted with a man who wanted to build a life together.
Just when she had been worrying that she would never have the fulfilling personal life she so desired, with a husband and children of her own, Anthony and Eloise had come into her life.
Anthony had moved to Magnolia Shore seeking a new start several years after the loss of his wife.
He had set up a local accounting business, which had led him to connect with Diana professionally.
Their connection had soon turned personal, and these past few months together had been among the happiest times that Diana could ever recall.
“Daddy’s phone, this is Eloise!”
Diana’s face broke into a smile at Eloise’s response… something she could only do because Eloise wasn’t there to see it.
“I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to be picking up your dad’s phone,” Diana said gently, even though in reality she was a thousand percent sure that Eloise was not supposed to be doing this.
She’d seen Anthony explain to his daughter more than once that it could be a client calling, and that he needed to be professional.
“I saw it was you though,” Eloise protested. “And I wanted to say hi. So, hi!”
“Hi, honey,” Diana said, just barely managing to hide the laughter in her voice. “Can you get your dad for me?”
“Sure, Diana,” Eloise said cheerfully.
Diana had to pull her phone away from her ear as Eloise shouted, apparently directly into the phone, “Daddy! Diana is calling!”
Diana kept walking briskly to keep the cold at bay as she listened to the other line, where Anthony’s voice came into focus from the distance.
“—I’ve told you a thousand times, honey, okay? I get you saw Diana’s name, but you still have to listen to rules. Yes, I—just ask next time, okay?”
Diana was pressing a hand over her mouth to keep her laughter from spilling out by the time Anthony picked up the line. Eloise was a total sweetheart, and she was sharp as a tack, but she also sought loopholes in rules like she was an experienced lawyer.
“Hey, Diana,” Anthony’s voice came more clearly on the line as he evidently lifted the phone to his ear. He sounded slightly weary, but one of Eloise’s debates could do that to a person. “What’s up?”
“Just calling to say hi,” she said, something inside her thrilling that she had a boyfriend whom she could call just because she wanted to.
And not just any boyfriend, but Anthony, who was someone so wonderful that she could no longer imagine her life without him.
Nor without Eloise, who made Diana laugh every day.
“Hi,” he said, his voice softening fondly. “You headed home from work?”
“Yeah,” she answered. “Just for a few minutes though, and then I’m heading back out to book club. I wanted to let you know that I’ll be free after, if you guys were up for me stopping by before El’s bedtime.”
This was something that she’d done before on book club nights. The club ended too late for the three of them to have dinner together, at least not without interrupting Eloise’s bedtime routine… something that would make Anthony’s evening far, far more hectic.
But a quick stop by was not at all an unusual part of their routine, so Diana was surprised when Anthony hesitated notably.
“Oh, uh, that’s a nice idea, honey, but we’re pretty busy this evening.”
Diana blinked. “Oh. Oh, right, of course,” she stammered when she realized, a bit belatedly, that he wasn’t about to say more.
“Another time?” he said.
“Oh, yes, of course,” she said.
It was silly to feel surprised, she told herself. Life was busy. Her life got busy, and she wasn’t even a single parent! But there was something about his tone that struck her as… not quite right.
But she pushed those thoughts back. They were doubtless the product of a long day, in both parts, frankly. She’d had her own long day, and if Eloise’s impromptu debate on the legality of answering her father’s phone was any indication, Anthony’s long day was ongoing.
Besides, she reasoned to herself, already starting to feel better at this logical explanation, she saw them all the time. She would see them again soon enough.
“Right, I’ll let you go then,” she said, shaking off her strange mood.
“Have fun at book club,” Anthony said, a smile in his voice. He sounded more normal too, right?
“Love you, bye!” Diana said, then clicked the end button on her phone.
She’d just lifted her finger off the red icon when her words registered in her own mind.
She’d just… told Anthony that she loved him.
For the very first time.
And then she had hung up on him.
She stared at her phone in horror, wondering if it was going to ring. She didn’t know whether it would be worse if he called her back and didn’t tell her that he loved her in return, or if he didn’t call back at all.
Her screen dimmed and then went dark.
Well, that was… an answer. She wasn’t certain which answer it was, but it was an answer.
Feeling lost somewhere between hope and panic, Diana slipped her phone back into her pocket and decided to skip stopping at home. This kind of moment was what friends were made for, and she knew that her book club would not let her down.
* * *
“Oh, you can’t trust men to express their feelings in a timely manner,” Miriam reassured Diana, waving a hand casually.
“There was this one time, after Harold and I had been dating for a while, where he invited me to dinner. He was so somber and serious about it that I thought he was going to tell me he met someone else. Then, he proposed. I was so shocked! He’d never even told me that he loved me.
He looked down at the ring in his hand and said, ‘Well, honey, what do you think the ring is saying?’”
Everyone laughed, even Diana, but Eleanor was a little lost in her own thoughts.
“So what you’re saying is ‘don’t freak out?’” Diana clarified.
“Don’t freak out,” Miriam confirmed.
“The first time I told Keith I loved him, I cried,” June confessed with a smile. “I mean, I was fifteen, so there was a lot of hormones involved, but it totally freaked him out. He panicked, then took me for ice cream, and then, like two hours later, said, ‘Oh, by the way, I love you too.’”
Another chorus of laughter.
Diana’s personal crisis had meant that they had given up on the book extremely quickly, but there were still snacks and wine and good company, so it was still a successful book club, all told.
“How about you, Ellie?” Cadence asked from Eleanor’s left. “Any disastrous—”
“Oh my gosh, don’t say ‘disastrous’!” Diana interjected.
“—confessions of love?”
“Hm?” Eleanor turned at the sound of her name, then gave her friends a sheepish grin. “Sorry. I was woolgathering.”
“Oh, perfect,” Diana said. “Tell me you’ve got something going on that can distract from my romantic trials. Even I’m getting sick of talking about my problems.”
Eleanor bobbled her head from side to side noncommittally.
“It’s not a problem, really,” she clarified. “It’s just that Jeremy is coming to visit.”
Cadence and June let out twin sounds of delight, while Miriam raised a finger imperiously.
“Point of order,” she said, “but that sounds like it’s not a problem at all. It sounds like it’s a very good thing.”
“It is,” Eleanor said fervently.
“And yet,” Miriam observed, “you do not seem happy.”
“I am happy,” Eleanor insisted, then sighed when Miriam shot her a skeptical look. “Yes, I’m happy. Obviously, I’m happy. I understood, but I was also disappointed when he spent Christmas with his father.”
“But?” Diana prompted.
Eleanor held up her fingers in a pinching motion. “I might be the teeniest, tiniest bit worried about Jeremy meeting Garrett. What if they don’t like one another?”
“Oh.” Cadence nodded sagely. “It’s like having your new boyfriend meet your parents, but it’s actually more complicated, because it’s your kid.”
“You know…” Eleanor pointed at Cadence as she thought it through.
“It’s almost exactly like that. It’s been so long since I did the ‘meet the parents’ thing that I didn’t think of it in those terms. Because Jeremy will always be in my life, and I love Garrett and want him to be in my life always too.
And it’s not like if Jeremy was a little kid…
that would be different. But I want them to like one another. Man to man.”