Darla’s laugh rang out. Although Summer didn’t think that she had said anything funny.
“So I think Darla’s going to get a muffin, and then my mother volunteered to show her anything else in town that she wanted to see. I was hoping that you’d be free to grab a Christmas tree. It’ll be nice to be able to have it up so we can decorate it the day after Thanksgiving.”
“Sure,” she said before she could think about it and decline. She appreciated the fact that he must have called his mom to rescue him, and maybe she couldn’t make it until just now, or maybe he felt like he needed to do a little bit of his duty before he had his mom take over. Still, whatever it was, it was obvious he was trying, and despite the little pain in her heart, she needed to meet him halfway.
Or maybe more. It felt like more, but regardless, she wasn’t going to be unkind just because she hurt.
“You’re going to decorate a tree together? Do you…live together?” Darla said. The question held surprise. Or maybe it was Darla’s way of acting like she wasn’t prying.
“I bought Summer’s farm, and I asked Summer to move back in. She does her horse therapy business from the stables, and my children love her, and…so do I.”
He had hesitated, but then he had admitted, in front of Darla, that he loved her. Maybe he just meant as a friend. It could definitely be construed that way, but at least he was defending her.
“Interesting. Well, small-town values are the same as values in DC.” She lifted her shoulder, as though there was something wrong with them, and then walked back over to the cash register.
“Our muffins are ready.” Her words were short and clipped where they weren’tbefore.
“Sorry,” she mouthed softly, knowing that Gilbert being nice to her had made Darla upset.
He shook his head. “You are the most important.”
She gave a wan smile, because she appreciated the sentiment, and he had been kind to her, allowing Darla to be offended, but…it still hurt a little.
He walked away, and she turned back to the bunch of containers she was only half done stacking.
She acted like a junior high girl who didn’t yet know how to get around in society. She wished she could go back and do it better.
I’m sorry, Lord. I flunked that test.
She felt like maybe God was not upset with her. That sometimes people just had to do things a couple of times before they got it right, and she could have done a lot worse.
Gilbert and Darla left the store, with Gilbert looking behind him once at her. She could see his reflection in the glass behind the counter that separated the counter area from the office.
She didn’t turn around, but she liked the fact that he was looking anyway.
Not too long after that, his mom pulled up to the bench where they had sat back down, eating their muffins and drinking their coffee, and the three of them talked for a bit before Darla got in his mom’s car and rode away.
By that time, Summer was finished stacking the containers, and she was just killing time until Darla left.
She needed to apologize to Gilbert.
Chapter Twenty-Three
His mother couldn’t drive away with Darla soon enough for him, Gilbert thought as her car slowly pulled out and he threw up a hand to wave before hurrying across the street.
He saw Summer standing in the doorway of Sunny’s shop, and she didn’t seem to be extremely angry, which made his heart slow down just a little bit. He had been afraid that she was furious with him, and he couldn’t blame her. If he had looked out the window and seen some other man with his hand on her knee, he would have been hard-pressed not to go out and break the hand off.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t very nice when you were in here just a few minutes ago,” Summer said before he had even stopped in front of her.
“No. It’s me. I’m sorry I continued to do what Mrs. Tucker asked me to do, even though I didn’t want to. Then Darla was touching me, and I didn’t know how to pick up her hand and throw it off me without being obvious about it. That’s why I finally stood up and came over. I…had her sitting outside of the shop, just because I wanted to be close to you.”
She closed her eyes for a moment and then smiled, shaking her head.
Finally she opened her eyes back up. “I wondered why you sat there. I wondered if you were just trying to rub it in that you are with someone else, and I knew that couldn’t possibly be right, but it felt like that little bit.”
“No way. Absolutely not. I… I showed her the town, as quickly as I could, but that kind of backfired on me, because then I didn’t know what to do with her.”
“Oh, that’s terrible.”
