Chapter 19 #2
“Okay. Could you slide my plate and drink over here?”
“You don’t have to sit so close.” Her hip rested against his, their thighs a perfect seam.
“I want to.”
“Ana.”
“Dennis.” She matched his tone, and something in him lifted.
“I’m never going to get away with having walls with you, am I?”
“If we do this right, you’ll never need them.”
A blindingly beautiful smile from her made him reach forward a few inches and kiss her cheek with a sweetness that nearly burst his heart.
“See why I was whining about only having five weeks left?” he said as they continued to eat. Sitting next to her was weird, but it worked.
The flashback faded.
“Did it occur to you that I might feel the same way?”
“Good. Then when is our next date?”
“I chose this one, and it’s not even over yet. You choose the next one.”
“Fair enough. Your place. Overnight. I’ll bring a bag. I’ll leave Magic at home with Harriet.”
“Magic?”
“My pet. I’m a foster dad to it.”
“Dog?”
“Sugar glider.”
“What on earth is a sugar glider?”
Oh, boy. Explaining this was going to get complicated. Fast.
“DENNIS!”
The bellowing man was none other than Jake Forsythe, aka Slicer, the guy Colleen dated exactly three times, and who nearly cut off his dick with a hedge trimmer.
And blamed Colleen’s old, stupid curse for it.
“Hey, Slicer.” At the mention of his nickname, Jake turned red and scowled, while Ana’s eyebrows rose.
“Slicer?”
“I’ll explain later.”
“This the woman you knocked up on purpose and left? Sorry, ma’am,” Jake added, lifting his pink Love You Cupids hat in a sign of half-way respect. “But you don’t have to stay with him. Guy who does what he did to you isn’t worth it.”
Davi appeared at the hostess stand with a big brown bag filled with takeout, her head pinging back and forth between Jake and Dennis.
“Don’t make a scene in my restaurant, Slicer. Please,” she murmured.
“It’s Jake,” he said loudly.
Normally an even-keeled guy, Jake had a deep sense of injustice and a mouth that went along with it. The type to shoot first and read the instructions later, his heart was in the right place, but Dennis’s temper was rising again.
Shouting in the middle of the dining room at Love You India wasn’t helping matters.
“Can you just ignore him?” Ana asked, taking a bite and acting like nothing was happening.
“Nah. If he thinks what Nadine thought, he’s right to be pissed at me. Better to correct the record.”
“Then go! While you’re fixing your maligned reputation, I’ll hit the buffet again and get more samosa.”
“I love how you have my best interests at heart.” On purpose, knowing he had an audience, he gave Ana a quick peck on the lips.
She tasted like cardamom and mint.
The stroll to the hostess stand gave Dennis a chance to take some deep breaths. Still dysregulated from the flashback, he could hear a child crying, though calming down, in the back of the restaurant. Slicer’s timing was awful.
“Hey, Jake,” he said. “You don’t know the whole story.”
“Guys who treat women like shit always say that.”
“And people who make wild assumptions look like the idiots they are.”
“You calling me an idiot?”
“Maybe when you had that hedge trimmer accident you shaved off some brain cells along with part of your sac.”
“I–”
“Dennis!” The last person he expected to chirp in his ear was his sister, Colleen. Formerly nicknamed Third Date Colleen, she’d lived under a curse in Luview for years: Every guy she dated ended up in the emergency room where she worked as a nurse.
Right after the third date.
But Jake Forsythe was unique. Claiming the curse was b.s., he’d gone on a third date with her. Shortly thereafter, he fell off a ladder while trimming hedges and nearly trimmed off his own…
Tallywhacker.
“What are you doing here?” Jake snarled at Colleen.
“Getting Indian food. Just like you.” Colleen smiled at Davi as she reappeared with a second bag, handing it over to Colleen. “I overheard Dennis talking to our mom about eating here and had a hankering.”
“Hmph.”
“Jake here was just insulting me for impregnating Ana against her will, then leaving her.”
A set of out-of-town diners behind them came up short, obviously eavesdropping.
“But we all know that’s not true,” Colleen said fiercely to Jake. “Are you spreading that old lie?”
“Old? It happened yesterday.”
“In gossip terms, yesterday is like 2003. Didn’t Lucinda call you guys?”
“Why would Lucinda call us?”
“She’s calling everyone in town to correct the story,” Colleen said impatiently. “Did you slice off part of your brain when you fell?”
“Don’t you dare make fun of me for that accident. That was your fault!”
“See? Spreading more misinformation.”
Underneath it all, Jake was a good guy, so Dennis had to give him more of what Ana had called the “gray” in this mess.
“Jake, I am not the baby’s father.”
“You’re not?”
“He’s not!” Ana called out from across the restaurant, turning more heads.
“Then why are you on a date with him?” Jake called back.
Apparently, they were doing this with shouting.
“Because I really like him!”
A collective awwwwwww sounded through the dining room.
“And you’re not suffering from that–what’s it called? Oslo Syndrome?”
“Stockholm Syndrome?” Ana called back.
“Yeah.”
“Did you know that Stockholm Syndrome is actually not what most people think it is?” Ana said, lumbering out of the booth, carrying a piece of naan bread she munched on calmly.
“People think it means you fall in love with your captors in a hostage situation because you over-identify with them. But in fact, in the bank robbery that the term is based on, one of the women–”
“Ah, geez,” Jake groaned, looking at his phone. “Look at the time! I’m late. Gotta run. Glad you’re all–whatever you are.”
“Stay weird, Slicer!” Colleen called out. She shrugged, picked up her bag, and left quickly.
“What was all that about?” Davi asked, watching them climb into their respective cars on opposite sides of the parking lot.
“Do you really want to know?” Dennis grunted.
“No.”
Ana and Dennis made their way back to the table, where they looked at their food, then each other.
“Does this happen a lot? Your siblings serially save you from people maligning your reputation?”
“No.”
“Then I’m special.”
“Of course you are.”
“What do you have planned next for us?”
“A bookstore trip, then the hot springs.”
Meera appeared with more water. “Mo closed early tonight, Dennis. Off to some Grateful Dead tribute concert in southern New Hampshire.”
“Damn. Hot springs is next, then, I guess.”
“Are you going to ask me to touch the water at the same time as you?”
“Of course.”
“That means true love. We’re magically meant for each other.”
What he wanted to say was, I don’t need to touch the water to know that, but as direct and open as they were with each other, some part of him held back.
He had to save something for the second date.
Her plate was full again, or perhaps this was a new plate. The two of them were silent as they ate, simply enjoying themselves, taking time as it came to them.
“I think I’m full,” Ana finally declared after a huge bowl of rice pudding.
“We can stay as long as you need to be sated.”
“I’ve discovered that if I have enough time, I can just keep eating. It’s remarkable. Everything that I thought I knew about biology or my own body’s lived experience has become ancient history. Little Bean is in charge now. If he wants cumin, he gets cumin.”
Dennis waved for the check.
“Excellent.”
“I do need a long walk. My poor calves feel like cinder blocks.”
“Piggyback ride?”
“I’m not sure where I’d put my belly.”
Davi appeared with the check and Ana reached for it, but Dennis had better reflexes.
“You cannot keep buying me stuff,” she protested. “Candy, flowers, now dinner? Let me treat you.”
“You can cover it when I come to Newburyport.”
“So you were serious earlier–wait, don’t even answer that. I need to stop using those qualifiers.”
“Yes. You do. When do you go to New York and D.C. with your mom?”
“We leave next Friday.”
“How about I come to see you Thursday?”
“Can’t. I have patients.”
“Then I’ll have to wait until you’re back from your trip,” he said, their fate sealed.
“We come back on a Thursday. How about that Friday? Spend the night?”
“You can show me all the sights in Newburyport.”
“I can show you the ocean, my condo, and Brie’s family’s cheese shop.”
“It’s a date.”
Bill settled, they made their way out. Davi’s little boy, fully recovered now, was carefully re-arranging packs of matches in a big fishbowl by the register. Dennis tried to say good-bye to Davi and Meera, but neither were visible.
The little boy waved to him and Ana.
“Over there,” Dennis said, pointing to the small building where the entrance to the Love You Hot Springs was located. “Let’s go where the shore’s nice and easy.”
“Maybe I’ll wade in and soak my feet,” she said as they walked along, holding hands. The sun was just starting to set, that lazy light making him slow down, breathe easier, the world aligned perfectly.
“Sounds good.”
“Want to talk about it?”
“Talk about what?”
“What happened back there?”
“Slicer? Oh–it’s a long story involving my sister and her curse.”
“Um, that’s not what I meant, but put a pin in that, because eventually I have to hear how your sister is cursed. I meant your flashback.”
“I do not want to talk about it.”
“No problem.”
Walking in silence across the road, they let the uneasiness of that interaction loosen in the air. When they reached the entrance to the hot springs, Dennis stopped, took both her hands in his, and said, “I will. Sometime. But thank you.”
“Any time.”
“Hate to say it, but there will definitely be another time.”
She squeezed his hands. “I hope I’m there.”
Thankfully, the people at the shoreline weren’t folks he recognized, a rare moment living in his hometown.
Tourists loved the springs, and the weekend crowd right now was all out-of-towners.
As promised, Ana slipped off her sandals and marched right into the water, gasping as the heat reached her ankles.
“Oh! This feels so good.”
He wanted to make her feel good, too. Preferably in a bed, away from prying eyes.
Instead, he sat down, took off his shoes and socks, rolled up his pants, and joined her, neatly setting his shoes next to hers under the bench.
She was right. Warm and enveloping, the water hit just so, transporting him out of his head and into his body. They held hands and she looked up at him.
“Is the legend true? The one your great-great–how many greats?”
“A lot.”
“Great-something-grandfather started? When two people touch the water at the same time, magic happens?”
“Actually, he said you’d find love,” Dennis corrected her, pulling her into his arms, the kiss all he needed right now. Not air. Not water. Not light.
Nothing but her.
Their kiss sealed a deal, unspoken yet felt, one that said this was it. They’d completed the journey. Found their person.
They could rest now.
What others thought didn’t matter. Other people’s expectations were of no consequence. Ana was warm and sweet in his arms but tough as nails, perceptive, her life in the gray areas one that gave him shades of existence, too.
His tongue parted her lips ever so slightly, their kiss more modest than he wanted but they were in public, and even he had some semblance of decency left in him.
Not for much longer, though.
“Oh!” she breathed, pulling away. “We really should be a little more discreet.”
He made a grudging sound of agreement.
“Dennis, I want to make something clear.”
“Uh oh.” He kept his hands on her hips, enjoying the feel.
“I can’t sleep with you tonight.”
He tensed up. “I wasn’t expecting that.”
“Wasn’t expecting to be told it’s off the table, or wasn’t expecting to sleep with me?”
“Not sure anymore.”
Her laugh made him feel like he’d lifted the world with his pinkie finger. “It’s just… I’m at Auntie’s house. And she made a comment about not sullying my reputation.”
“She did not.”
“She did! And your place sounds very full.”
“I have my own house, Ana.”
“And it’s very public.”
He couldn’t argue with that.
“If you can understand, I need to focus more on Auntie and Brie this weekend. I want to spend more time with you, but this is all… a lot.”
“Of course.”
“And when you come to Newburyport, we will absolutely, positively sleep together.”
“I don’t need a detailed plan.”
She smiled and said, “It’s a promise.”
“You’re amazing.”
“So are you.”
“I’m so glad we found each other yesterday, even if I did yell at you.”
A deep amusement, old and friendly, infiltrated her laugh. “I’m glad we found each other in January.”
“I’m never letting you go, you know.”
“Good.”