“What would work best?”
“If I have lunch at about two o’clock, Aimee could have hers at one. That way, we’re both here if the store has a midday rush. Is that too late for you?”
Nate took another piece of fudge out of his bag. “I have a better idea. Why don’t you have an early lunch? I can stay here for an extra hour and help Aimee while you’re gone.”
“What about the things you wanted to do in Bozeman?”
Nate shrugged. “Doing them an hour later won’t make much difference. I know how to use the cash register, and most of the stock is easy to find.”
“Are you sure?” Shona asked.
“Positive.”
With a smile, she turned to Joseph. “It looks as though I’m all yours. How does eleven o’clock sound?”
“It’s perfect. I’ll see you then.” He left the store with an invisible weight partially lifted off his shoulders. Next stop, Sweet Treats. Nate deserved half a dozen bags of fudge for giving up his time so his mom could go out for lunch.
And if it helped Joseph figure out what Shona thought of him, he’d buy him all the fudge he wanted.
* * *
Joseph glancedat the picnic basket sitting on the back seat of his truck. He hadn't been this nervous about having lunch with anyone in years. But this wasn't a typical lunch. He wanted to tell Shona how he felt about her. How much she meant to him.
But he was terrified of telling her the whole truth about his life. It shouldn't matter how much money he had or the number of investment properties he owned. At some point, he’d have to tell her about the loan she’d received from his trust. He didn’t know how she’d react, which was why he wasn't telling her today.
He stopped the truck outside Shona’s store just as she walked out the front door.
Her smile was instant. With a happy wave, she hurried to the passenger door. “Hi, Joseph. That was good timing.”
“I didn't want to be late. Have you been busy?”
She pulled on her seat belt. “It hasn't been too bad. Aimee took some photos of the quilts that were brought in this morning. If she gets a chance, she'll load them onto my website. I've spent the last hour serving customers and answering phone calls. Where are we going?”
“I thought we could drive to Flathead Lake and have a picnic on the grass.”
“That sounds wonderful. I don't know how much longer we’ll be able to eat outside, so it's great to make the most of each day. What did you do after you left the store?”
“I dropped into the old steamboat museum. We had an issue with a tiny home and I wanted to make sure it had been fixed.”
“And had it?”
He nodded and turned right toward the lake. “We have good people building the homes. Some of the volunteers have worked for decades in the construction industry. It makes it easier to fix problems when everyone knows what they're doing.”
“Do you think you'll ever want to do something different than build the tiny homes?”
“Not at the moment. I can't think of any other job where I’d get as much satisfaction from helping other people. Are you happy to stop somewhere along here?”
Shona looked through the windshield at the tall oak and spruce trees. “It's perfect. The trees should give us some shelter if the wind picks up.”
He stopped on the side of the road and turned off the engine. “If you get cold, I brought an extra sweatshirt.”
“You thought of everything.”
“I tried. We don’t spend a lot of time together without Adele or Nate.”
“I guess it's part of being a single parent.”
“Will you be okay after Nate leaves?”
