Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Macarons from Honey Bee Bakery were, in Diana’s opinion, one of the wonders of the world.
They were the greatest treat in the world, light and airy and brightly colored.
The shop too, was a treat, always fragrant with whatever was warming in the ovens, filled with high top tables and tall chairs that invited you to sit and take a load off.
Frankly, the owner, Tate, was also pleasant to look at… though, much to Diana’s disappointment, there was no spark of attraction between them.
The reminder of her bleak dating prospects felt particularly stark today.
Diana had gone to the Honey Bee Bakery after receiving an excited phone call from her older sister, Astrid.
Diana had gotten the call as she was walking home from work.
She’d assumed that her sister was calling to discuss the wedding dress shopping trip that Kylie had texted her about earlier in the week.
“Hey, Astrid, what’s up?” she’d said.
“Hey, Diana,” her sister greeted. Astrid worked in finance, and she had the brisk, no-nonsense personality to go with it. When Astrid wanted something, she made a list, executed the list, and reached her goals. No fuss.
Today, however, she sounded uncharacteristically nervous.
“Is everything okay?” Diana asked, instantly on edge.
Astrid let out a breathy laugh. “Yes, yes, everything’s fine. Everything’s good, actually. I’m… expecting again!”
“Oh!” Diana felt a bolt of excitement, the tiniest flicker of jealousness, and then a great crashing wave of confusion. “Wait, that’s good, right? You and Justin wanted another, didn’t you?”
As far as Diana knew, her sister and brother-in-law had been looking forward to having a few kids, not just the one they already had. Although goodness knew that Diana’s nephew, Devlin, was perfection.
“Yes, definitely!” Astrid said without hesitation. “It’s just… you don’t think Kylie is going to think I’m trying to upstage her, do you?”
Diana’s heart melted a little for her older sister.
“No, you goof,” she reassured Astrid. “I think Kylie is going to be happy for you, just like I am.”
“Okay,” Astrid said. “Yes, okay. My logical brain knew that but my hormone brain…”
“Ooh,” Diana teased. “Your hormone brain was whacky last time, wasn’t it?”
“Oh, shut up,” Astrid said with a laugh. “Anyway, thanks for talking me back down to earth. You’re actually the first person we told. Although if Mom asks, we told her first, obviously.”
“Obviously,” Diana agreed. “How far along are you? How are you feeling?”
As Astrid shared her symptoms and the progress of her pregnancy, Diana found her feet rerouting her toward Honey Bee Bakery.
It wasn’t that she wasn’t happy for her older sister. She was! She really was. She just… wished she had some of that same happiness for herself.
And when the ultrasound photo arrived in Diana’s text messages, the classic shot with the sweet little curve of a baby’s forehead, nose, and chin, Diana was glad she’d paused for the treats.
Her life was good. She didn’t dispute that.
She’d worked hard to make her business a success and had been fortunate enough to see that hard work pay off.
And she hated to admit that she felt lonely, not when she had so many wonderful friends and was part of such a special community here in Magnolia Shore.
But she was lonely. She felt it when she came home to an empty house at the end of the day, when she climbed alone into bed at night.
She wanted to share her life with someone, wanted to complain about the bad times and celebrate the good ones.
She wanted to make dinners with them and quibble over whose turn it was to wash the dishes.
She wanted sleepless nights with a baby and the joyous milestone of seeing that first, bright gummy smile.
She wanted a family. And she hadn’t been able to figure out how to make that happen for herself.
And sometimes, on days like today, that ached.
“Hey there, stranger.”
Diana had been lost in her thoughts, but now she looked up to see June standing at the base of her porch steps, holding a mason jar full of tea in her hands.
“Hey yourself! What’s up?”
June held up the tea. “Benjamin is at a play date, and I don’t have to work for once, so I thought I’d pop over and see if you wanted to share. Mind if I join you?”
“Not at all!” Diana was sitting on the bench swing she’d installed herself—although she’d had to ask Garrett from the hardware store come over and re-install it after she realized she’d done it wrong.
She shimmied over to make space for June and then opened the side of her blanket like a wing, so that June could tuck inside its warmth too.
Spring had truly sprung, but with the breeze coming off the water, it could still be chilly in the evenings.
June took the offered spot, and snuggling up close to her friend did help keep some of Diana’s loneliness at bay, even if she still longed for a relationship that was more than just platonic.
“It’s herbal,” June explained, pulling two shatterproof cups from inside the bag she had slung over her shoulder. “I swear, like the exact day of my thirtieth birthday, my body decided that if I even smelled caffeine after three in the afternoon, I wouldn’t sleep for a month.”
“Call me when you’re over thirty-five,” teased Diana, who was thirty-eight. “Then we can really talk about your body putting its foot down about certain things.”
“But not in front of Miriam,” June shot back, “unless we want to really get an earful.”
They both laughed. Diana held out the bag of macarons. It was, she admitted, probably for the best that June had come along. Diana might have purchased a few more of the treats than was reasonable for one person to eat.
“Ooh,” June said. “I would have walked faster if I’d known you had these at the ready.”
The two women laughed, and, for a moment, they ate in silence.
“So,” June said after she’d sampled a macaron. “You can’t pull one over on me. I know this is your ‘I’m feeding my feelings’ treat. What’s up?”
Having friends who knew you so well, Diana mused, had its pros and cons.
“I was talking to my sister,” she said. June knew about Astrid, of course, but Diana didn’t want to spread news of Astrid’s pregnancy before she was ready, so she kept her comment vague. “And her family and all that. And it just… reminded me that I still haven’t met the right person.”
And it’s starting to feel like I never will, she didn’t need to add.
Diana had expected June to look softly sympathetic, or something along those lines. To her surprise, however, her friend’s eyes lit up with delight.
“Do you know what we have to do?” she asked.
“Uh, no? I mean, if I did, I probably would have done it already…”
She trailed off as June lunged for Diana’s phone, holding it up to Diana’s surprised face to bypass the password.
“We,” she said, “need to get you signed up for some dating apps. One of the women I work with at the diner sometimes said she found her boyfriend that way.”
Diana reached for the phone, but June held it out of reach, scrolling through the screen until she found the app store icon.
“Is this person like nineteen, June? Because I am not going to date like ‘the kids do it these days.’ I’m too old for that stuff.”
June shot her a triumphant look. “She’s fifty-four, thank you very much.
And she and her boyfriend, who is fifty-eight, I think she said, have been dating for over a year.
Give me some credit. I’m not going to find you one of those apps where crazy young things are looking for a wild night out.
This app she recommended is all about chatting and getting to know someone before you meet up, so that you feel comfortable when you do. ”
Okay, Diana could admit that didn’t sound too bad, but…
“No way,” she said, shaking her head. “Apps like those are full of crazy people, aren’t they?”
June was still holding Diana’s phone protectively, but she wasn’t typing any longer.
“Listen,” she said, pinning Diana with a look.
“I’m obviously not going to make you do anything you’re uncomfortable with.
But online dating, or even using apps, isn’t like it used to be.
It’s not something that only weird people who are trying to trick you use.
And we both know you’re savvy enough to be safe.
You’re not going to fall for some scam.”
Diana narrowed her eyes. Darn that June for using compliments and logic against her.
“Besides,” June said, cajoling. “What do you have to lose?”
Diana huffed a laugh. “My self-respect?”
June pursed her lips. “Okay, if that’s how you really feel…”
“It is,” Diana said, with a bit more confidence than what she truly felt.
“Well, fine, June said, handing back the phone. “Here you go. But the app is there if you change your mind. That way you’ll at least know you have an app that’s reputable, not something where you’re likely to encounter a bunch of unsavory characters.”
“Unsavory characters?” Diana echoed, arching an eyebrow. “Have you been reading a bunch of romance again?”
June laughed. “Guilty as charged. You know I just want things that distract me from my real life. I’ve been reading a whole series about this group of brothers in the 1950s…”
And then they were off, chatting about books, the matter of Diana’s love life forgotten for now. Soon enough June had to go pick up Benjamin from his playdate.
“Mom duties never end,” she said, although the fond look on her face said that she didn’t mind being there for her son even the tiniest bit.
“Thanks for the tea, babe,” Diana said. “Kiss Benjamin for me.”
“Will do. Thanks for the treats.”
June blew a kiss as she walked down the street, heading back the way she’d come.
Diana tidied up her porch and headed inside. Macarons were delicious, but they weren’t exactly a balanced dinner, so she needed to cook something before her stomach rebelled against too much sugar and not enough of anything else.
She threw together a quick pot of soup that used up leftover vegetables from meals she’d made earlier in the week. She loved the versatility of a vegetable soup, but likely wouldn’t have many more opportunities to eat it before the heat of summer swept fully in and made such an idea appealing.
After her aromatics had cooked down in butter and she’d added her stock and the lighter vegetables to simmer, Diana found her eyes wandering once more to her phone. She’d been adamant when June had been here, but maybe her friend had a point…
Before she knew it, Diana had filled out the quick profile section on the app that June had downloaded for her.
She chose as her profile picture a snap that one of her friends, perhaps Miriam, had taken the summer before when the group had gone out for a picnic on the beach.
In it, Diana looked carefree and happy. It was the way she wanted to feel in a relationship, so she hoped choosing this photo would help manifest those kinds of connections.
As her timer went off, she tossed down her phone. Maybe this was a mistake and maybe not.
But either way, it was done. Now she just had to wait and see what happened next.