Chapter 13 Dalton #2
“Well, I think those people are dead wrong,” Dalton said. “You can never have too much Christmas.”
It hit him suddenly that she knew his history, and that all his childhood Christmases hadn’t been magical.
“The meaning,” he told her quietly. “And the peace. It’s not all about the presents and stuff.”
“Of course not,” she told him. “We didn’t always have the best presents either. The farm had some rough years when we were little. But Mom and Dad always did their best, and there was always food on the table.”
“That sounds like heaven to me,” Dalton said. “Christmas with the people you love, and food on the table.”
She didn’t reply, but when he glanced over again, she was nodding, a serious expression on her face.
Stop making her feel sorry for you, you idiot, he chided himself.
“My favorite Christmas was actually the first one I spent with your brother,” he told her.
“Really?” she asked, looking surprised.
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “I’ll tell you about it when we get to dinner. Is this our turn?”
“Yes,” she told him. “South on Ambler, just like you’re going to the village, but it’s on your right before you hit Cornell.”
“Got it,” he said, signaling. “So, what are the chances that we get snow before Christmas here?”
“It could happen,” Ella said thoughtfully. “We’ve had snow early two years in a row now.”
“I’d love to see it,” Dalton said. “I’ve seen it in the city, of course. But I’ll bet it looks just like a Christmas card out here.”
“It does,” Ella said fondly, her eyes on the little town outside the window.
The big stone houses on the north end of Ambler melted into the community college campus, and at last they reached the sign for The Village Green.
“Looks good,” Dalton said, trying not to feel nervous as he pulled in. It was only a restaurant. No matter how nice it was, at the end of the day they were just putting food on tables.
What he should be worried about was making sure Ella enjoyed herself on this night out. He knew it was rare for her.
He parked the truck and felt grateful when she stayed in long enough for him to get out and open the door for her.
They stepped into The Village Green together and onto the plush carpet of the lobby. Beautiful artwork hung from the walls and a baby grand piano gleamed in the subtle lighting. Dalton suddenly felt a whole lot better about that extra pay in his pocket.
“Welcome,” a hostess said. “Mr. Tyler?”
“Yes,” he said, impressed.
“I’m from Trinity Falls,” she told him with a smile. “You’re a new face, so I assumed you were also the new name. This is your first time dining with us?”
“Yes,” he said. “But maybe Ella has been here before?”
“Oh, no,” Ella said, with a smile. “I’ve never been.”
“Well, I know you’ll love it,” the hostess said. “Come on in.”
Ella glanced up at Dalton and he could see that she was a little nervous too.
The situation settled in his mind a bit then. Maybe he was a scrappy kid from the city, but Ella was a farm girl born and raised, and she probably didn’t feel any more comfortable than he did around grand pianos and fancily lit artwork.
He gave her a warm smile and winked.
Ella’s cheeks flushed pink and she wrenched her eyes away from his, but not before he caught her smiling back.
They followed the hostess past a beautiful mahogany bar area to a large dining room with windows overlooking the little town on one wall and the college campus on another.
“Your server, Geno, will be right with you,” she told them as she indicated a table by the campus windows with a small candle inside a miniature evergreen wreath as a centerpiece.
Dalton pulled out Ella’s chair, and snuck another look around.
While the space was elegant, the diners chatted quietly, looking relaxed. And while most were wearing what Dalton would have called church clothes, others sported jeans and sweaters.
The whole place smelled amazing, and the food on the plates looked like, well, real food, nothing too weird, and not those tiny portions at the expensive restaurants in the movies either.
“This is really nice,” Ella said softly as he took his seat opposite her.
“Thank you for deciding to come,” he said.
“Welcome to The Village Green,” a young man said as he approached. “I’m Geno and I’d like to tell you about our specials.”
“Of course,” Ella said. “Thank you.”
Geno burst into a well-rehearsed description of a ribeye with a salad, and then a honey-glazed salmon with garlic mashed potatoes.
“My favorite though is the vegetarian option,” he said. “We have a collection of cheeses and homemade bread, accompanied by our special sweet potato bake. The sweet potatoes are from a local farm, sliced paper thin and bathed in rosemary and olive oil.”
“Local sweet potatoes,” Dalton echoed.
Across the table, Ella smiled and nodded to him. Then she shook her head and rolled her eyes, as if to say, we can’t get away from the farm.
Holding in his laughter made Dalton instantly feel more at ease.
Geno took their drink orders, placed a pair of leather-bound menus on the table, and then headed off.
“How wild is that?” Ella said when he was gone.
“I guess I can take the girl off the farm, but…” Dalton teased.
“You can’t stop the farm from following,” she finished for him, making him chuckle.
“I guess not,” he said with a smile.
“Will you judge me if I order it?” Ella asked.
“Of course not,” he said. “But you’re not a vegetarian.”
He’d seen her put away second helpings on meatloaf night, so he knew that much was true.
“No,” she told him. “It just sounded so good.”
She laughed a little at herself, but something about the whole thing made his heart tug. Here was the girl he cared for, going to the nicest restaurant in town and ordering a dish she could eat for free at home.
She knows who she is. She knows what she wants.
Ella was so quiet most of the time that it would have been easy to mistake her calm for timidity.
But her feet were firmly planted on the ground and her sense of herself was so absolute, it often left him feeling in awe of the young woman, whose world kept collapsing under her without taking her down with it.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he told her. “I just like that you want what you want.”
Geno came back with two hot apple ciders and two glasses of ice water and they ordered their meals. Ella ordered the cheese plate and sweet potatoes and Dalton decided on the ribeye.
“Sorry if I seem impatient,” Ella said. “But I’d love to hear the story of your Christmas with Andy, if you don’t mind sharing it.”
“Of course,” Dalton told her, pleased that she had remembered. “It’s kind of a silly one, I’ll just warn you.”
“The sillier the better,” she said, leaning forward and cupping her hot cider in both hands. The steam rose to caress her sweet face, and Dalton wished he could do the same.
“Well, we were in basic training,” he told her. “And your parents sent him a care package.”
“Of course,” Ella said, nodding.
“Well, a lot of guys got care packages,” he said. “Mostly it was just store-bought cookies and stuff like that. But your mom sent homemade cranberry bread and gingerbread loaf.”
“Those were some of Andy’s favorites,” Ella said.
“Well, he shared,” Dalton said, shaking his head in amazement at his new friend’s generosity the year they met. “So now they’re my favorites too.”
“We’ll make them this year,” Ella said. “We can teach you how.”
“That sounds great,” he told her, meaning it. “So, Andy had his treats, but there was something else wrapped up in there—a Christmas present, he figured. He decided to save it for the actual day.”
“Okay,” Ella said, nodding, but narrowing her eyes.
“Well, that night I couldn’t sleep and I woke up to see Andy in his bunk, opening up that other package even though it was still a couple of days before Christmas,” Dalton said, already smiling at what came next.
“Oh, that sounds just like him,” Ella laughed. “He used to shake all the gifts under the tree and write down his guesses. He always loved presents.”
“He had the biggest smile on his face,” Dalton remembered. “So that checks out.
Ella smiled at that, and he felt another tug at his heartstrings.
“Anyway,” Dalton said. “He caught me watching him and gestured for me to come on over and see. So I climbed out of bed as quietly as I could. You weren’t allowed to be up in the wee hours during basic training—no bathroom breaks, no food in the barracks, things were very regimented.
But poor Andy just couldn’t wait to see his present. ”
“Oh, Andy,” Ella murmured.
“He got another package the next day,” Dalton said. “And he had a pretty good haul in there. Two brand new paperbacks, and a blue-striped sweater that someone had knit for him. That was his favorite.”
Ella smiled sadly and nodded.
“That was you, wasn’t it?” Dalton asked.
“Yes,” she said. “I can still see the pattern in my mind. It took forever to make. I’m so glad he really liked it.”
“Oh, yeah,” Dalton said. “He loved it. Well, like I said, all that stuff came the next day. When he went to open this package though, it was just in cardboard with packing tape all around it.”
“Oh dear,” Ella murmured, in a way that made Dalton think she had probably guessed what happened next.
“Well, Andy’s trying to unroll that tape quietly, and the more he gets off, the more there seems to be,” Dalton said. “Finally, after about a thousand years, he gets it all off and he opens the cardboard, and his mouth just drops open.”
Ella put a hand over her mouth, but her eyes were dancing. Yup, she knew.
“It was a dozen frosted sugar cookies,” Dalton said. “I guess you guys wrapped them up super carefully so the frosting wouldn’t be ruined. But here he is with a lap full of contraband, and immediately we hear footsteps outside.”
“No,” Ella breathed, leaning further forward.