“It does?” Diana asked, flipping her phone back to face her. And sure enough there was a tiny, green icon that saidonline.
“Wait, wait, wait, wait,” Cadence said, flapping her hands almost frantically. “We have to pick out the right thing to say to him.”
“We?”Diana asked teasingly, although privately she was glad to have the emotional support.
“I’ve never done the online dating thing,” Eleanor said, nibbling at her lip. “Are you supposed to be casual, like if you were approaching them at a bar or something?”
“I think you want to do a mix of,oh, we’re just strangers meeting, andoh, I read your profile,”June said.
Diana scrolled through Kendrick’s page. “He’s a lawyer,” she said, “and, oh wait, it says he likes running on the beach. Maybe I can ask him if he’s run at Magnolia Shore?”
“Nice,” Cadence said approvingly. “It’s something that links you two.”
“As long as he doesn’t think I’m going running at sunrise with him,” Diana said, earning a laugh.
Even so, she typed a message accordingly.
DIANA: Hi! I saw we matched, and I see that you like beach runs. I’m not a runner, but I live in Magnolia Shore, and there’s a great beach here for joggers. Have you ever been?
“I like it,” Miriam said when Diana showed the message. “Casual, but interested. And it gives an avenue for conversation.”
“And sets the non-runner expectation,” June said dryly, looking pointedly down at the high heels Diana was wearing for fashion, not function. Diana elbowed her friend playfully.
Eleanor was glancing over the message when she let out a little squeak.
“Oh!” she exclaimed, thrusting the phone back at Diana. “He’s responding!”
And sure enough, at the bottom of their chat, there were three little dancing dots to let her know he was typing. A surge of nervous excitement coursed through Diana.
KENDRICK: Hey, Diana! I’m so glad you messaged me. I do like beach runs. But will you judge me if I say I don’t run very much when it’s cold? I’m not as devoted as some others are, I admit.
KENDRICK: I haven’t gone running in Magnolia Shore, though! I live about half an hour away, so I should give it a try. If I made the trip out, what else do you think I should see?
“Ooh, do you think he means he should seeyou?” June asked, clearly thrilled. “This whole flirting thing is complicated. When Keith and I started dating, he just asked me if he could carry my books to math class.”
June and her late husband had been together since high school, so their romance was a bit different than what Diana expected to find in her late thirties.
Over the course of the dinner, Diana and Kendrick messaged back and forth. Diana worried that she was being rude by being on her phone so much during a meal with her friends, but they assured her that they were having fun.
“We’re living vicariously,” Eleanor teased her. “Don’t take this away from us, huh?”
By the end of the meal, Diana and Kendrick had a date planned for later in the week. They were going to grab a casual meal at Anchor Bistro after work one evening.
“You excited?” June asked quietly as the women paid the bill and got ready to head home.
Diana considered this. She had definitely found playing with the dating app more fun when she had her friends’ excitement and support to bolster her. But itwasfun. And Kendrick seemed nice, even if she wasn’t sure yet if he was her forever person.
Still, it was a start. A good, fresh start.
“Yeah,” she said, slinging an arm around her friend’s shoulders. “I think I actually am excited.”
June stuck out her tongue. “Told you so,” she bragged, then darted away to join Miriam before Diana could respond.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
On Friday morning, Eleanor was delighted to see an automated email telling her that her order was ready at Nut and Bolts. The more she’d planned and prepped, the more excited she had grown about the picture window that would make a gorgeous front piece to visitors approaching her bookstore. And finally, finally it had arrived!
She double-checked that the window casing had been prepped according to the directions she’d read online, then hurried over to the hardware store. Her excitement, she reminded herself, wasonlyabout the window, andnot at allabout the store’s proprietor.
